'Disciplined Creativity' - A Merlin Lecture by Phil Rumbol
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Transcript of 'Disciplined Creativity' - A Merlin Lecture by Phil Rumbol
DISCIPLINED CREATIVITY
The Merlin Lecture - 8th October 2013
Phil Rumbol Founding Partner 101
VT – FLY ME TO THE MOON
“Fly Me To The Moon”
“Fly Me To The Moon”
Poets often use many words To say a simple thing
It takes thought and time and rhyme To make a poem sing
With music & words I've been playing For you I've written a song
The Essence of Marketing Making brands ‘sing’
The Art of Marketing Evoke the brand in a memorable way
“Fly Me To The Moon”
To make sure you know what I'm saying
I'll translate as I go along
Fly me to the moon
And let me play among the stars
Let me see what spring is like
On Jupiter and Mars
In other words
Hold my hand
In other words
Darling kiss me
The Stimulus Evoke the feeling in a memorable way
The Response Get people to ‘hold the brand’s hand’
“In Other Words”
“It takes thought and time and rhyme to to make a poem sing”
Creativity
THE MOST VALUABLE COMPANIES IN THE WORLD
Creatively and innovation-led companies
Everyone wants it, but most people don’t get it
Creativity
A bit about me
Creativity
How we think
Habits
VT - The sort of work I’ve bought
Cadbury ‘Eyebrows’ ad
Stella Artois ‘Ice Skating Priests’ ad The Natural Confectionery Co. ‘Trumpets’ ad
Flake ‘ Dress’ ad
‘Reassuringly Expensive’
+16% CAGR over 10 years
The Power of Creativity
‘Gorilla’, Wispa etc
-3% to +10%
“I come from a family of engineers” “That makes sense. You like to know how things work”
“I come from a family of engineers”
“That makes sense. You like to know how things work”
MY JOURNEY
Creativity
Analytical
Favourite ‘O’ Level
Art A Levels
Geog History Maths Degree
BA (Maths) Brand Manager
Analytical
Marketing Director Power of creativity
Founding Partner Creative company
“Imaginative processes with outcomes that are original and of value”
Sir Ken Robinson
WHAT IS CREATIVITY?
WHAT IS CREATIVITY?
”We want artists to take the mundane materials of our lives , run it through their
imaginations and surprise us.”
Twyla Tharp Choreographer
You remember a lot more than you think you do
Eg. Muscle memory
Sensual memory
MEMORY
THE MAYA PRINCIPLE Most Advanced, Yet Acceptable
Taking things we know (often subconsciously) and making surprising
connections to create something original and valuable
CREATIVITY
CREATIVITY IS A FRAGILE THING
WE’RE HARD WIRED TO THINK IN A CERTAIN WAY
WESTERN PHILOSOPHY
EDUCATION SYSTEM
BUSINESS THINKING
SCIENCE
“We reject all knowledge which is merely probable and judge only those things should be believed which are perfectly known and
about which there can be no doubts”
Rene Descartes
CARTESIAN THINKING
RATIONALISM Reason and logic
EMPIRICISIM
Evidence
REDUCTIONISM
Break down to understand
THE FOUNDATIONS OF WESTERN THINKING
“That’s right”
“It’s critical”
MASS EDUCATION
PREPARE A WORKFORCE
LOCK DOWN CERTAINTY. CREATE EFFICIENCY
OUR EDUCATION SYSTYEM
MASS INDUSTRIALISATION
“Our education system was and still is primarily concerned with proving to us that we are efficient:
Learn it, remember it, demonstrate it”
Richard Gerver Ex Head Teacher and Author
“We go to school and we’re taught to paint pictures and write songs, and then we leave
school and no one wants to look at the pictures or listen to the songs”
Dr Mike Lynch Founder of Autonomy
“A company is birthed through a creative act.
It then hones and refines… through increasingly pervasive analytical thinking and enters a long phase in which the administration of the business dominates.”
Roger Martin – The Design of Business
THE EVOLUTION OF BUSINESS
TTHE RISE OF THE CORPORATION AND ‘BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION’
Exploration Exploitation
Organisational Focus The invention of business The administration of business
Overriding Goal Dynamically moving from the current knowledge stage to the next
Systematically honing and refining within the current knowledge stage
Driving Forces Intuition, feeling, hypotheses about the future, originality
Analysis, reasoning, data from the past, mastery
Future Orientation Long-term Short-term
Risk and Reward High risk, uncertain, but potentially high reward
Minimal risk, predictable but smaller returns
WESTERN
PHILOSOPHY
Logic Evidence
Reduction
EDUCATION
Learn Remember
Demonstrate
BUSINESS
Administration Refine and hone through analysis
WE’RE HARD WIRED TO BE ‘CRITICAL EVALUATION MACHINES’
CREATIVE BAD HABITS
EXCESSIVE RELIANCE ON SYSTEMS
Micromanagement
MICROMANAGEMENT
TOO MUCH DISPASSIONATE LOGIC
Crea.ve Bad Habit No.4
Too much reduc.on and
‘extreme close up’
TOO MUCH REDUCTION AND E.C.U.
THE ESSENCE OF MARKETING
Making brand’s more interesting and relevant
Make them ‘sing’
THE ART OF MARKETING
Words, music etc that evoke the brand in a memorable way
“We need to be more creative”
EXCESSIVE RELIANCE ON SYSTEMS
MICROMANAGEMENT
TOO MUCH DISPASSIONATE LOGIC
TOO MUCH REDUCTION AND EXTREME CLOSE UP
So what do we need to do differently?
A ‘New’ Paradigm for Knowledge
”In contrast to the mechanistic Cartesian view of the world, the world view emerging from
modern physics can be characterised by words like organic, holistic and ecological.”
Fritjof Capra – 1982
A ‘New’ Paradigm for Knowledge
“””The universe is no longer seen as a machine, made up of a multitude of objects, but has to be
pictured as one indivisible, dynamic whole whose parts are essentially interrelated.”
Fritjof Capra - 1982
There’s a long list of things that Cartesian Thinking can’t fully explain
Physics Economics
Ecology Sociology
Psychology Etc
A ‘New’ Paradigm for Scientific Thinking
From only… • Machine-like systems
• Mechanistic • Reason and logic
• Predictive
• Deductive
Plus… • Living Organism • Holistic
• Instinct and intuition • Deterministic
• Abductive
So What? Things aren’t as ‘certain’ as we think they are
Logic, reduction, deduction and proof aren’t the
only way to understand something
…but we’ve been ‘hard wired’ to think they are.
“The 21st Century is the era when the pace of change has finally overtaken our ability to control it.”
Richard Gerver
A change in our business thinking…
From
Seeking full understanding and
certainty in a static or slowly evolving world
To
Endless curiosity, exploration and
experimentation in an ever changing world
Signposts to re-wire our thinking
The Current Paradigm
Cartesian Thinking Efficiency driven Education
Business Administration
‘Bad habits’ for
creativity
A ‘New’ Paradigm
Holistic Thinking Exploration driven Education
Business Invention
‘Good habits’ for creativity
Intuition
The art of knowing without reasoning
“Everything we need to ‘make something out of nothing’ already resides within us in our experience, memories, taste, judgment,
critical demeanour, humanity, purpose and humour.”
Twyla Tharp
1. More Biography,
less Zoology
Recognise Your Creative DNA
2. Recognise Your Creative DNA
Recognise Your Creative DNA
MY CREATIVE DNA
Bruce Springsteen ‘Storytellers’ VT
3. Listen to the song before you
read the lyrics
3. Listen to the song before you read the lyrics
Engage your imagination
Generosity and Joy
Advertising that’s as enjoyable to consume as the chocolate
THE BRIEF
How many of you would have bought it?
What do you think you would have said to the agency?
VT – Cadbury ‘Gorilla’ ad
4. Explore before judging
“Vague but interesting”
5. Make a leap
“I often wonder whether we all have luck; it is just a question of being able to
recognise the moment and then having the courage or vision to seize it.”
Richard Gerver
Luck
“Did you know the Gorilla ad was presented to someone else
before you saw it?”
Challenging your hard wiring
1. More Biography less Zoology
2. Recognise and feed your Creative DNA
3. Listen to the song before you read the lyrics 4. Explore before judging
5. Make a leap
“Yeah, but what about the rest of the organisation?”
BUILD A CREATIVE ECOSYSTEM
1. People not
systems
1. Focus
2. Preparedness
3. Conviction
4. Perseverance
5. Creativity
Sybervision - Learning Technology Company 10 Traits of Great People
6. Curiosity
7. Resilience
8. Risk Taking
9. Independence
10. A sense of higher purpose
2. Transformational Leadership
2. Transformational Leadership
Transactional Leadership • Rewards effort & recognises
accomplishments
• Watches and searches for deviations & takes corrective action
• Intervenes only if standards are not met
• Abdicates responsibilities, avoids making decisions
A Different Leadership Model
Transactional Leadership • Rewards effort & recognises
accomplishments
• Watches and searches for deviations & takes corrective action
• Intervenes only if standards are not met
• Abdicates responsibilities, avoids making decisions
A Different Leadership Model
Transformational Leadership • Provides vision and a sense of mission,
instills pride, gains respect and trust
• Communicates high expectations, uses symbols to focus efforts
• Promotes intelligence and careful problem solving
• Gives personal attention, treats each employee individually, coaches, advises.
NO COMMITTEES!
3. Soul
”…the ones that work out what they uniquely can
give to the world – not just growth or money, but their excellence, their respect for others, or their ability to
to make people happy. Some call those things a soul.”
Charles Handy
The companies that survive the longest…
4. Invention not Administration
“The most successful businesses of years to come will balance
analytical mastery and intuitive originality in a dynamic
interplay called design thinking”
5. An ‘A’ in Failure
5. An ‘A’ in Failure
“They say that the great entrepreneurs fail and fail again , but never give up, and always learn. …they’re not waiting for someone else to come
along and provide the answers. They realised the course of their lives would be created by their
own decisions, and actions.”
Richard Gerver
An ‘A’ in Failure
My biggest mistake
VT – The Flake ad that never was….
5. An ‘A’ in Failure
5. An ‘A’ in Failure
People not systems Transformational Leadership
Soul Invention An ‘A’ in Failure
People not systems Transformational Leadership
Soul Invention An ‘A’ in Failure
More Biography less Zoology
Your Creative DNA
Listen to the song
Explore before judging Make a leap
Disciplined Creativity
Everyone wants it, but most don’t get it
Fighting against years of Cartesian ‘hard wiring’
Creative bad habits
A new, more holistic, way of thinking
Creative good habits
People not systems Transformational Leadership
Soul Invention An ‘A’ in Failure
More Biography less Zoology
Your Creative DNA
Listen to the song
Explore before judging Make a leap
WE’RE HARD WIRED TO THINK IN A CERTAIN WAY
WESTERN PHILOSOPHY
EDUCATION SYSTEM
!BUSINESS THINKING
SCIENCE
!!
Disciplined Creativity
More ‘Fly Me To The Moon’
(and less ‘In Other Words’)
Thank You
References ‘The Turning Point’ – Fritjof Capra http://www.amazon.co.uk/Turning-Point-Science-Society-Culture/dp/0553345729/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1381308328&sr=1-1&keywords=the+turning+point,+fritjof+capra
‘Change’ – Richard Gerver http://www.amazon.co.uk/Change-Learn-Love-Lead/dp/067092234X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1381308455&sr=1-1&keywords=change,+richard+gerver
‘The Creative Habit’ – Twyla Tharp http://www.amazon.co.uk/Creative-Habit-Learn-Use-Life/dp/0743235274/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1381308517&sr=1-1&keywords=The+creative+habit,+twyla+tharp
‘The Design of Business’ – Roger Martin http://www.amazon.co.uk/Design-Business-Thinking-Competitive-Advantage/dp/1422177807/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1381308578&sr=1-1&keywords=The+design+of+business,+roger+martin