Brand Experience Agency - Groove 11 - GrooveLab

Groove sharing

Everyone is talking about “social media” as if the media is anything more than an enabler. It’s not. The media, and channels, are only as good as the people leveraging them to "share." Sharing requires two things: being a good listener and developing openness regarding your value. In business terms, it’s accepting the other person’s IP, offering your own, and sharing an experience. It’s a brave new world. Remember the generation of trade secrets. I remember clearly in the late 1990s when the National Football League was trying to get their trademarks off fan sites.

The sharing world seems to be made up of six kinds of people (according to Forrester): creators, critics, collectors, joiners, spectators, and opt-outs. Within these groups there seem to be two personas: 1) those folks who get compensated (financially, spiritually or emotionally) to blog, tweet, re-tweet, comment, and critique all day, every day, even as they sleep, and; 2) those folks who have day jobs.

My organization, Groove 11, is full of the latter persona. We are busy – really busy some weeks – and often feel understaffed and underappreciated. It’s the nature of a services business. We are not publishers, by trade, and have never run a press room. Like most agencies we produce whitepapers and do speaking engagements, but this brave new world requires a much deeper commitment to sharing than we have experienced in our careers. So how, then, do we migrate ourselves and our clients into a mode of “sharing?” How do we build, or participate in, community? How do we infuse the new paradigm into our way of being? How do we view it as pleasurable and rewarding? How do we translate what we learn to our clients' businesses? How indeed.

Groove 11 is embarking on an experiment in sharing. I am going to capture the results here. Hopefully we’ll learn together how change management, passion, and discipline come together to help a culture adopt a "sharing way of being." It is a brave new world and many people with day jobs are having difficulty navigating it. We're going to walk the talk to help those folks along.

On Learning to See

Sunday afternoon, and in my ongoing quest for deeper inspiration I've just spent some juicy time with my new favorite book, Sparks of Genius, The 13 Thinking Tools of the World's Most Creative People, by Robert and Michele Root-Bernstein. This book is a thought provoking investigation of the practices of creative thinkers as shared by scientists, artists, writers and musicians alike. From my perspective the book is also further proof that what I once worried was my own predilection toward ADD (attention deficit disorder, or in other words wide-ranging, seemingly unrelated interests) is really a practice shared by many successful creative people across diverse disciplines. This week's quote comes from the painter Georgia O'Keeffe, famous for her stunning abstractions filtered through her keen observations of plants, objects and landscapes. O'Keeffe makes her appearance in the chapter on "observing," and reminds us how hard it is to really see outside the lens of our preconceived expectations, but more importantly how rich the rewards of truly seeing are. So here's to waking up and seeing the everyday with fresh eyes.

An All-Encompassing Lecture

 

Recently, a gaggle of Groovers attended the AIGA lecture given by president Debbie Millman. (l to r: Rod Espinoza, Rainey Straus, Brian Leonard, Mike McGinty)

The subject was Why We Brand, and her exploration of an answer led her into some surprising areas, including history, sociology, biology, evolution, religion, economics, and of course, design.

I found the part about the limbic area of the brain to be especially fascinating. Another eye-opening part was her review of how, throughout human history, we have always come together in groups, seeking connection. Today's social media is just another form of that, enhanced by the technology we've developed. The means is quite different, but the basic human need to do it never really changes. I think she's right.

It's why I sort of shudder every time I hear someone say that B2B advertising is fundamentally different from B2C. It isn't. All the B's and all the C's are people. Can't get more fundamental than that.

My favorite part of the entire night was the fashionable and oh-so-sleek nametags we all got to wear. Mine said "Hello, my name is Overkill."

People MATTER

Tim Sanders, one of my favorites authors and motivational speakers says it best. Here's his blog post from March 1, 2010

In my first book (Love Is the Killer App) I answered the question: What is the next big trend/wave?

People. They are, have always been, and will always be the #1 wave you need to catch to be successful in life or business. Your customers do business with your people as much (if not more) than they do with your products or processes. Why do you spend such a small amount of time on the people part, yet play so deeply in product and process?

For those in the information technology or media business, if you want to become what author John McKeen calls "an information master," you'll need to invest in people, culture, and leadership – not just technology and services. From McKean's book Information Masters, look at this slide: 

               
For others, the point is still true. Develop people, spend time on the human side of business, and watch your bottom line grow exponentially. Here are a few ways to think about giving power to the people: 

1. Invest in people skills: Start with yourself. If you don't have good connection and communication skills, you can't create or maintain vital relationships inside or outside of your company. Make this a priority for your employees. Invest 10-15% of their annual salary in personal development.

2. Put people at the center of your business. For customers, measure the emotional experience and seek to improve it constantly. For employees and partners, take responsibility for their growth year over year.

3. Leverage the power of one person. This is where people are still more important than technology. One person can change the world if he/she feels empowered by leaders, and has the tools to ignite a movement that leads to action. When you get wind of an individual catalyst for good, give them encouragement and direct them to form a group of kindred spirits. Then get out of the way and let your people take over. If you see a leader emerge, setting the right example, fall in and become part of the wave that changes the world. 

Example: CIBC Bank Employees (elevation)

Example: Timberland (falling in)