The Engaging Brand

How do you spend your time?

I am reading all about design thinking in a book by one of my favourite thinkers Roger Martin (can't wait to record The Engaging Podcast about thinking later this week)

He has made me think about how we spend our thinking time and how we should use the outcomes of thinking time to find more thinking time! It is a continual investment program.

Here are my thoughts on thinking!

Thinking time is about freedom, the freedom to think of new ideas and to see how the world could be....

Thinking is then about taking those ideas and turning them from concept to reality.

Thinking is then learning about what the full process has taught us holistically.

Thinking is then realising that the efficiencies and value made from these ideas should now have created more space in your day to reinvest in even more thinking !

If not was the thinking right? Or if the thinking was right was the application right?

Walk the thinking as well as the talk!

I follow quite a few actors on Twitter as I love to see inside their creative  world....not from a celebrity gossip point of view but how they think, feel and create. Where does their power of storytelling come from? How do they connect so emotionally with an audience which they have never met before?

I think there are so many ways we can learn from actors in business and it remains a key aim to get an actor on to The Engaging Brand podcast to talk about their storytelling...one day!

I was fascinated the other day when one actress I follow said about her acting "It was probably unconscious, but you can't play that as an actor, you have to play the verb" (@nalamommy)

It made me think about marketing, about business, about leadership.

How much of what we do

• Stays in our mind rather than being put into action?
• Stays unsaid....and yet we think we said it?
• Is not fully communicated. We think we have communicated it, but thinking we have and actually having done it...well two different things?
• Is unconscious  vs conscious?
• Is about how we interpret rather than seeing how others interpret our thoughts?

Maybe we need to understand we can't lead through unconscious thoughts, we too have to play the verb....we too have to express the verbs we want the world to take action on?

And of course

• People around you will only know you through your actions not your thinking

The ultimate irony is that as a consumer of the acting, the leadership, the marketing

aren't you unconsciously buying into the conscious actions which are laced with unconscious thoughts!!

What is an idea?

During some social media training today I remembered a question I asked Dad when I was about 9...I know I was that irritating child who asked more questions than your brain could cope with! 

I asked "What is an idea?"

Dad didn't give me the answer, he gave me a piece of paper and a pen. He asked me to take some time, thinking about what an idea was...

When I came back I had a diagram like a mindmap, all stemming from the word IDEA. I explained that as much as I thought about it, I came up with all these different words to describe it and couldn't find an answer.

He smiled that wonderful smile and said "You have the answer then, an idea doesn't exist in isolation, an idea is a connection. Too many people look for the idea - the thing, the answer. But an idea is the result of connecting existing concepts

Successful people search for the connections that will lead you down the path of an idea...knowing you don't search for the idea, the idea will appear as the result of your thinking. People who are great at ideas, are great at making connections."

It made me think today

1. Social media is about connections, therefore should be the ideal idea generator.
2. How much time do you spend on the skill of connecting, the skill of connecting different topics, thoughts, sectors? One way I start most training sessions is to give objects, words etc and ask people to find a connection between seemingly diverse subjects.
3. Ideas are everywhere....we just have to be present in the moment and aware of everything we touch, see, feel, smell, hear etc

Why ideas don't flow....

In a discussion with a client today I was reminded of what Dad used to say about ideas. The client was wondering why they did not have enough ideas, why people were not engaged in the idea "process". The process had about 20 stages, it involved backing your idea whilst others pulled it apart (they felt then only robust ideas would get through!) and at the end of all that...the Director took the credit rather than the individual - honestly! :)

Hmmm wonder why ideas weren't flowing....

Dad used to say to me

"Ideas are simple. Inventions are simple. There is a problem and you solve it. The trick is to remove all that surrounds the true issue.....find the pure problem and fix it. You say I am an inventor, I say I am not intelligent enough for that...I just solve problems. Then find the best way to produce that solution. The only barrier to ideas are politics....remove politics with positive enthusiasm and ideas will flow again"

Enthusiasm is contagious, passion for solving is contagious....ideas are contagious. To allow a brand to thrive creative thinking has to be valued - challenged yes, for practicality but never for office politics.

How to arrest 190 offenders at once!

If you want to achieve something there is always a way, the difficulty is finding the route to victory....as that often needs a different, creative way of thinking. Great example...

In Kimberly in Northern Cape the police were trying to catch some serious offenders but were always a step behind....they needed to look at the situation differently, so...

They held a party and invited 190 offenders with the promise of spectacular prizes on offer at the event...you see no one can turn down a free offer!

You guessed it, after chasing them and not succeeding, they invited them to come to them...by giving them an offer they couldn't resist....and then arrested them.

When you are stuck, remember being stuck is not a reality it is a feeling....turn the problem around so that you can see the solution.

Just a thought ...

"Are you thinking or rearranging your own prejudices"

William James

Just a thought....how often do we really allow ourselves to think?

Just a thought....how often do we really listen to every syllable?

Just a thought....how often do we really live each moment?

Just a thought...how often do we expect brilliance compared to accepting mediocrity?

Just a thought....thinking is one of our most undervalued skills

Doing nothing is often the most important action of all?

Dad turned to me one day and said "Come on grab your coat I am going to have a strategy session...want to see how to spend the best hour of your business life?"

As I loved my time with my Dad there was no argument ....so off we trotted down the lane by the side of the house. At the age of 12 I felt very important going on a major strategy session....

At the end of the lane is a wood, just before the wood was a bridge and a stream....Dad promptly sat on the grass looking at the stream and the wood. Mmmmm I thought so asked...."When does the strategy session start?"

Dad looked, smiled and said "Those meetings in offices with paper are not strategy..to develop the business you need to have a meeting with your mind. Your mind has listened to people around you, taken in words from books, felt the wrath of customers, felt the warmth of customers...now let it all digest and let your mind wander....let it think....let it compute.....let it take your on a journey of exploration. You see a mind is a wonderful thing, but the mind never gets the chance to shine because you fill it with meetings, actions, busy-ness on your business!

Your mind needs you to mind about its welfare. You need to find 'mind' time.....that is when the strategy starts to become clearer"

Since being in business I always find time to sit in the open air...looking at nature and just reflecting. People think I am having a break.....but that time is the most important time....doing nothing is often the most important action of all...

Do you create mind time?

Designing the Customer Experience

Research study between 2000-2005 found that Fortune 500 companies which focused on 'customer experience' design, outperformed others by 10:1 in terms of profit margin.

Design for me is not just about the artwork, it is the art of connecting the surreal to the real, the concept to the reality and the desire to the need. It is about the experience that you deliver. Design is not just about seeing it as a product to sell, but seeing it as an emotional gift to the consumer.

I love Yves Behar on design. He said

"Design is how you treat your customer. If you acknowledge their intelligence and treat them well from an environmental, emotional and aesthetic standpoint, you're probably doing good design"

When A Pause is A Great Marketing Step Forward

We live in a fast forward world, when you think about what social media marketing needs to be - I would argue that it needs to a 3 key strategy

1. Recognise how you can help the consumer in their fast moving world. What value can you add, how can you help them simplify their life ? Key is understanding
2. Create content, value that causes the consumer pause in this ever busy world. Think about what would make you pause - something that you just weren't expecting.....or in a way that you weren't expecting....Key is engaging
3. So after you create that dissonance that makes them pause, you then need to start them moving again...towards buying your offer. Key is simplicity of purchase.

Marketing used to be a 30 second spot - in social media you need to capture the problem, capture the consumer, capture their hearts all in 0.30 seconds.....

At first glance that seems scary, yet doesn't that make it exciting - because that is when creativity really comes into play....

The 'What If' Success Principle

Today I was starting to think about potential problems around a project that I am currently doing but fortunately I remembered my wise old Dad's advice

"Anna, people who don't achieve all that they were capable of, allow the 'what if' thought to stop them from achieving their dreams.

The 'what if' thought should help you to define how to prepare for achieving your dreams, it should help you assess risk and plot a success route.

Unfortunately, too many people use the 'what if' thought to stop them from trying to achieve -  just in case they fail.

For me the 'what if' thought should be used positively....."What if I did this and succeeded?, What if I did this and met some hurdles, how can I prepare to ensure that I still succeed?"

Once I remembered what Dad said I didn't look for reason why not, I looked for how to achieve results....suddenly progress was being made!