After reading a few provocative, smart articles today on job titles and the growth of hybrid roles in all sorts of industries, I’ve been inspired to throw in my two bits-worth. Mr Boches offers up some great thoughts on job titles, as does this great Fast Company article on the rise of the hybrid thinker. Both articles do a great job of articulating some fundamental problems we have in the old business model of linear thinking and A-B-C sequential progression.

When we start in school, we’re all hybrid learners/thinkers–we are expected to do/understand everything (math, science, literature, art, etc). As we develop we are pushed and prodded to become “one thing”. The reality, is the world no longer requires you to BE one thing. Planning is one career path that happens to be intriguing because this hybrid nature should be intrinsic. Not so much about being good at a “single” thing, but about being curious, diverse and open. However, much of the time as an industry we fall back on the simplicity of silos to help organize and at times, monetize the value of our job.

I’ve been lucky enough to encounter a number of “hybrids” in my life. Sometimes they take on a couple of titles (and a couple people’s work load to boot). Other times they find themselves living in departments that you wouldn’t “normally” find them. All times, they are doing phenomenal work that blurs the lines and silos. And yet, it’s always hard for us in an agency setting to acknowledge and embrace the awesomeness that they bring to the table. Why? Because we’re not set up to be multidisciplinary. We’re set up to look at one role. One task. Evaluate. Repeat. Fundamentally flawed.

The world has become more “bendy”. With this bendy world, titles become less meaningful–which is not to say that you’re not working your tuchas off to get to the next skill level (and of course more $)–but they mean less when it comes to what actually gets “done”. The challenge for companies today is to find these chameleon like folks and create spaces that they can thrive in. It’s not the easiest thing to do, but I wholeheartedly believe that it’s just these folks who will push our industry (and many other industries!) forward.

Even if you don’t find yourself an “official” hybrid, that doesn’t mean you can’t play. Today we have wiggly roles that sometimes will roll over into each other. Don’t be afraid to play and push boundaries of what your business card says.  That said, humility is massive in this new world. You don’t know it all. Check the ego at the door and move forward as a team.

My challenge (and sincerest hope) is that agencies come to realize that the days of single department “owning” a part of the process are numbered. We all own the end product if we do our jobs right.

Kumbaya.

I’ve been lucky enough to garner a bunch of new friends thanks to a great friend/mentor’s kind mention at Boulder Digital Works. I’ve also had some awesome interns/students to work with and they often ask how I got into the biz and how I navigate the advert world. I’m hardly a seasoned vet, but I do have a few things that seem to have worked  for me, and hopefully there’s something interesting in here for you.

Pay attention in class: I fell into advertising in grad school. Stumbled on an agency in a text book, followed up with my professor, who had a contact there and next thing I knew I was working there. I realize this isn’t always easy, but there’s something to persistence/perseverance and having a great rapport with peers and professors. No apples needed, however be prepared to work your tuchas off.

Seek out mentors/support group: I found my “groove” in advertising when I found my little tribe. They didn’t necessarily live within my agency’s walls. I found a bunch of people in the course of living in the twitterverse, going to conferences, going on interviews, friends of friends and beyond. Their energy, drive and genuine passion for the work smacked me over the head and I never looked back. Celebrate your successes (whether or not you work together) and be there for each other when things aren’t going to plan.

Meet with your mentors: I was lucky (very, very lucky) to be able to sit down with a lot of people I respect and admire one-on-one. After about the 30 seconds of being awestruck, I quickly saw how easy they were to talk to, and how genuinely excited they were to talk to a genuinely interested person. Always be respectful of their time, ask good questions (go prepared) and be yourself.

Be prepared for the unscripted surprises. I had an incredible interview with a super cool planning director that totally reframed the way I look at my craft. I didn’t get the job (I’ll get to that), but in retrospect those 2 hours chatting away was potentially the most valuable to my career. He made me think hard about what motivates me as a planner and moreover as a person. Asked great questions that made my head spin, but I was in such a warm, friendly space that I could answer openly and honestly. I’ll never forget that interview. Everyday I push myself a little harder, there’s a bit of me that wants to be more like that guy.

Rejection sucks. But you WILL survive. I promise. It doesn’t feel like it at the time, but you do. The amazing interview I cited before ended up in a rejection that left me feeling like my insides were torn out. It sucks. You feel like there will never be another (sound like a nasty break up yet?) But then you realize, there are more. And then a great opportunity comes up and it all works out. You just have to work for it. And not let the rejection crush you. It’s a part of the process.

Net-net. It’s not easy, but it certainly ‘aint impossible. Use your smarts. Let your passion show. Be genuine. Keep your eye on your prize.

Happily ever after…

image via http://gapingvoid.com/ (one of my absolute FAVORITES!)

Well, I’ll first make my little plug for the upcoming planningness conference in Boulder and NYC Sept 30-Oct 1. It’s a can’t miss. I won’t get into everyone who is speaking, but it’s all the awesome folks. Will be amazing. Hard part will be to decide where to go.

So the premise of planningness is to focus us on MAKING stuff and DOING. These are two massively important things to those who work in the strategy/planning arena. We don’t typically “make” stuff that lives in the world. We make (important) documents that build, support and tell you how it will live in the world however, but not necessarily contributing to the tangible endgame in every situation. While this is groovy and a very important step to grounding and reasoning “the work”, it’s critical to be a part (or even BE) the work. Thereby rises the importance of making.

For me, the great example of a shop that’s “doing” is BBH. They’ve taken the “do stuff” model to a new level. They’ve had ZAG for awhile (with awesome by-products like the wildly successful Mrs.O.org blog/book/phenomenon). Planning is still taking on the same strategic problem solving tasks, but additionally are playing in the world of creation. Anomoly has done this as well as many others, experimenting with new models and things within the agency walls. Brilliant! You have smart, creative entities, DO something with them!

Heidi Hackemer over at BBH is a dynamo–the six items or less project was featured in the NYTimes today. Super amazing. Super inspiring. So fabulous. And finds time to speak at Hyper Island. If that doesn’t inspire you to DO something, I don’t know what will. For me, she’s become one of the people to really look up to and learn from in this industry.

OK love fest aside. This social world connects us. We know each other (loosely) enough. If you have a great idea, you have a community who is ready and willing to help/support you. I even saw it in my own little creation this week with my 3six5 post. Now I don’t claim to be a professional writer. I kept a diary as a kid, I blog casually, I write decently well for my job, but not a”writer” by any means. Nor do I have the most expansive “number” of followers. However, I am lucky enough to have a wonderfully supportive, generous and influential group of friends in the space (thank you friends!). It’s hard to believe that little ol’ me got well over 3000 views of that little post as a part of an amazing project with over a million views. The gracious support of people I truly call my friends, anything can happen. An even better example is Bud Caddell who has raised over $14K for his book project from his network of supporters/backers. It’s amazing.

My challenge (to myself and you!) is to DO something in the next couple weeks. Get that personal project/life project started. It’s not just painting the fence or finishing the “honey do” list. It’s making something tangible and throwing it out in the world. If it sticks, great (you may just be a millionaire). If it doesn’t, learn from it and try again in a couple weeks. The important thing is what you’re doing is something that makes your heart a little happier. Having these awesome outlets of creativity can spawn great work/career things as well, but don’t go into it with that intent. Make something that you love just because you love it.

Image via: http://nemoorange.com/newmoon/

OK, everyone and their mother has probably used this as a title in a post.

The new Old Spice work has inevitably all of us chatting about in our agency walls. Good, bad or overhyped, the experiment is advertising gold (or Titanium, whatever). In my mind, there is absolutely no disputing the genius of the original advert (I’m on a horse), but this expression has really taken on a life of it’s own. Within my own “twitter land” it was hard to find a tweet that wasn’t about Old Spice the past two days. Yes. Old Spice. Amongst jaded, angry advertising/marketing professionals. We too are mesmerized by the man in a towel.

What Ian Tait and his brilliant team at W+K have done so beautifully (as described on copious news sites: Fast Company, Read Write Web and many many more) is orchestrate (da-dah-dahhh) an incredible social idea. Take something funny–an incredible television asset (with some one very funny) and make his voice come to life and truly interact with the audience-empower them to step into the proverbial shower with this guy. Giving an idea legs. And a towel. I think it’s left many, many of us wishing we thought of it first.

And the understated smarts of the piece is there is no “microsite” or “hub”  being used. It’s using existing spheres- youtube and twitter– and creating an incredibly agile piece of communication art. I think this is what makes this so awesome. Using the tools at hand–people (user generated content), a very smart influence strategy–answering Ms. Milano and Mrs. Kutcher is a marketing trick, a damn good one.–existing mediums and a great character to make something just a little magical. Sorry cynics, these guys got me.

Well done w+k. Well done.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Like many who have seen his TED talk, I’ve been incredibly inspired by Sir Ken Robinson. He’s shone a bright light on a huge problem we face as a nation: our education system and how it’s failing our next generation. We’ve lost creativity in our current systems. Other nations are leaping over us in creative thinking and expression (as this recent Newsweek article describes). States keep cutting and cutting, slashing programs from second languages to art to music (one of the early casualties), in lieu of a focus on learning how to take standardized tests. Huh?

I have the highest respect for teachers. They are the cornerstone of modern society. They are creating the next generation and the amazing teachers out there aren’t nearly compensated for all the work they do. The system has failed them (the good ones). Like too many things today, it’s become robotic and formulaic, which is in turn sucking the creative juices from our kids. Some argue that technology is pushing us there. That’s simply a cop out. As we’ve learned in Cognitive Surplus (Shirky’s awesome book), modern technology has given way to an excess in time and energy–alluding to MORE time for creation. Instead of focusing on how “silly and trite” LOLCats are (which they aren’t…what would we do without our cyber feline friends?), could we encourage our next gen to play with arduinos and learn how to create the next awesome gizmo instead? Be creatively productive?

Personally, I don’t think I could do what I do now without some awesome opportunities in the arts. I still remember my favorite class in elementary school,”Creative Expression”. It was a class of a brave teachers creation–loosely built on the traditional art class (which I also had) but focusing less on skills and more on making stuff you loved. A little crafty, a lot of freedom for a 10 year old. I undoubtedly believe it contributed to my appreciation for the arts now and helped lead me to my home in the creative industry.

We are so “skill centric” today that sometimes we miss the less overt learning that can occur in exploration and discovery. We all have a responsibility to cast a critical eye on our education system (if you have kids or not!) and support a higher order learning. Selfishly, I want the next generation to have ALL of the creative outlets as possible, if for nothing else, my own gain. Who will entertain? Who will innovate the next technology to save lives? Who will design the most amazingly beautiful structures? If the answer is no one, we’re in a whole lot of trouble…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Robinson’s book, The Element is a must-read for all. It’s not about the industry or even communication systems specifically. It advocates diversity in our education system to make a dynamic, innovative and inspired next generation. It also does an amazing job of demonstrating through sound examples of the GREAT stories of fostering creativity early on.

Image via Behance: http://www.behance.net/gallery/Creative-Truths/263281 Shirley-Ann Dick

Surrounded by boxes in mid-relocation– I have to write a few words to support Bud Caddell and his quest to write the book on the changing world of strategy. Bud has a phenomenal blog which I’ve followed for quite some time and admire his thinking tremendously. He decided to start a project and see how the “network” could help guide and shape the writing of a book. Awesome idea. I’m thrilled to say that he’s reached his first goal of $5K, but that’s just the beginning. I’ll get to the point–support him here to contribute whatever you can to his kickstarter project. You won’t be sorry.

So why am I supporting his project?

1)  I truly respect what Bud has been doing for ALL of us. He asks provocative questions. Invites us (the readers) to become involved, then allows us into his world and way of thinking. I loved the Web Video THUNDERDROME from sxsw he did with Mike Arauz (well, the presentation. I was lame and not at sxsw this year…). He’s given a lot of himself and for that I’m truly grateful. I know how much time, passion and heart this job takes, Bud’s doing this to the nth degree. It’s driving me to be better and want more from my own work. He’s “gifted” us for a long while, it’s time to show support.

2) To put a bit of my money where my mouth (and heart) is. This whole social world we live in has REAL, inherit value. There are still naysayers that still refuse to “get” it. This project and hundreds of projects like it, fly in the face of this. Collaborative creation is our future. Embrace it.

3) Camaraderie. This social world we live in has allowed me to connect and chat with amazing people.  Virtually meeting awesome folks (like minded and not-so like minded), chatting about the ways of the world, sharing struggles and victories in our day-to-day, there is a bit of an unspoken bond.

4) Becoming a little part of something I truly believe in to be awesome. And absolutely necessary.

Support him now. Please and thank you.

Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age is Clay Shirky’s latest and greatest. As I’m sure many of you know, he is one of the most forward thinkers on the internet revolution (if not you may want to check out his very popular TED Talks). His quotes find it into copious presentations, his influence is immense. His new book does not disappoint-my underlined, dog-eared, twice read copy is physical evidence of the awesomeness.

This book is filled with insightful provocations–there would be no way I would be able to touch on all of them in this post. His examples are designed to make you think, but it won’t tell you what we necessarily need to do with the issue at hand. While so many books on social media are filled with best practices and rules, this one takes a well needed step back and looks at the sociocultural context in which the internet revolution lives in. And Shirky (rightly) postulates that there is no magical “master strategy”, rather navigating “what works” in this new space will require several smaller experiments, few of which will be marvelous and successful, most which will be deemed “failures” by many.

The questions that Shirky works to answer are the biggies:

- Why is social media as important as it is to us? The notion of a “cognitive surplus” –a consequence of the postwar boom, the surplus of energy, intellect and time which was once nearly completely consumed by television– is detailed drawing on behavioral/motivation theory to support his thesis. (the cog sci in me was thrilled!) This surplus is now being aggregated in these new mediums at a low cost (both monetary and time).

- Why is there this aversion to accepting it as a new part of communicating? He uses a lovely reoccurring reference “Gutenberg economics” likening the advent of movable type of  as similar to that of social media today. The democratization of the written word is much like the democratization of ideas and the ability to SHARE freely (changing what “publishing” means across the board). His general answer:

- “Professional” versus “amateur” (Zagat vs Yelp, Youtube vs. Studios, etc). While he believes there’s a lot of cognitive surplus that’s not necessarily going to the BEST of use (perhaps those LOLCats could be something slightly more useful), he recognizes that there is an intrinsic motivation when an “amateur” creates something (he/she is doing it for the LOVE of the craft) versus a professional who does it for a living. Additionally, without the “bad” there would be no “good”…

Thank you Mr. Shirky, for giving readers the respect to illuminate issues with your examples/insight and putting the onus back on them to move forward and make decisions that will shape (all) our collective future.

READ IT! You’ll thank me later…

Image via: Cognections Blog

I’ve been lucky enough to have a minute to breathe and let my creative juices be inspired yet again. Thank goodness for this handy dandy thing we call twitter. There’s loads of places to be inspired (real world and otherwise), but the one-stop shop for hearing disparate, interesting voices twitter is still incredibly useful.

If you’re not a “twittter person” there’s something called Follow Friday where you tell your followers to follow others (putting that down in words now seems trite and silly). This is inspired by a post by ed boches on his blog that helped illuminate the “why we follow” which gets a little lost in the 140 characters. What they have in common is a fascination with the world, an ability to think in ways that boggle my mind and truly cool peeps that you’d totally want to have a pint with.

So happy Friday and a genuine “thank-you” to all of you (reading and the “FF”s)

#FF

@bbhlabs: tremendously insightful, they are simply the forefront of progressive strategic thought. Something to aspire to be-their great contributors (@malbonnington and @melex are awesome) make all of us think harder. http://bbh-labs.com/

@edwardboches: while he is the master of all things social creativity/communications/the changing advertising world–there are a lot of awesome posts that reflect his broader curiosity of the world and culture. And he is an awesome conversationalist–what a blog *really* should be about. http://edwardboches.com/

@budcaddell: wonderfully cerebral, one of the strongest strategic thought leaders we have. His blog inspires awesome conversations around topics that all of us strategy folk wrestle with. http://whatconsumesme.com/

@brainpicker: freshest, creative inspired tidbits. Amazing finds and thoughtful commentary. If you don’t read her blog, you’re missing something wonderful. http://www.brainpickings.org/

@uberblond: a truly delightful creative strategist. she’s got some amazing projects on the go that are really inspiring creativity: from the wilhelmine project http://thewilhelmineproject.com/ to her new project six items or less (I’m not brave enough to partake in that one…but it fascinates me!) http://sixitemsorless.wordpress.com/

@cshirky: he doesn’t tweet often, but when he does I listen. And his book is out of this world.

@schwartzie14 adverts breaking? He’s got ‘em all on his blog metal potential. Bookmark and see what’s golden (or titanium colored) at Cannes. Reminds me that this is business can still be about being an art form… http://metalpotential.posterous.com/

@stellawongo the the first to break awesomely fresh, creatively driven tech goodies. She’s wickedly smart and finds some awesome things from around the world. Plus she likes baked goods almost as much as I do, which is a total bonus.

@malbonster he’s incredibly wise in the world of strategy/ emerging tech/social communications and creativity. And he’s freaking hilarious.

@tim_leake always has fun stuff, a positive attitude and a great sense of humor. And yesterday I discovered the toothpick sculpture of SF through him. If that isn’t enough reason, I don’t know what is.

@garethk a true strategy rockstar. If you work in advertising and you haven’t seen his presentation from BDW on the evolving brief, take the time to watch it. It will help bring you into the new world and shape your thinking.

(Image via: Polyvore Tumblr)

Are we born knowing how to play? In fact, yes. Humans are hardwired to “play” in their given environments. This was the gist of my thesis in college (I was a cog sci/child dev person–go figure, I work in advertising now…) and I remember spending copious hours in the lab (well, the sandbox) playing with kids, observing and piecing together the “whys” and “hows” of this thing called play and what it meant to their development into *awesome* adults.

Fast forward a few years to life in behavioural science as it relates to marketing and the topic still fascinates. But now I’m looking at “grown ups”–and our innate INability to play. Need proof? IKEA commissioned the world’s largest play study, PlayReport International some disturbing facts began to emerge out of the poll of 11,000 parents and kids…26% of parents are too stressed to play with their kids, 50% of parents want play to be educational, while the overwhelming majority of kids just want to have fun (big surprise, but hang onto this thought). And many parents say they’ve simply forgotten how to play.

So hold on a second. If we’re hardwired to play then why do we forget how to play by the time we’re grown up? Transactional nature of our lives. Actions require a hard outcome (hence, adults wanting kids ‘play’ to be educational), however what we’re actually wired for is the human interactions garnered through play. That’s the “reward”–learning how to play in the sandbox with others. Understanding the nuances of interaction is massively important and often overlooked, but as a creative person, we must understand each other (who else are we creating for?)  This is also why some of our very “adult” problems surface-not being able to play in that proverbial sandbox, as we’re expecting our “gains” out of every time we play. The reality is, sometimes we just require play to be a time to interact and (gasp) have fun.

As creative professionals, we can never lose that ability to play for playing’s sake. Of course we need to produce. Of course we have deadlines. But we also have to take the time to just interact with our friends, colleagues and creative teams–PLAY and see what happens, no strings attached. Chances are it’ll be something quite amazing.

Image Via: Alex Beltechi