once more, with feeling

Okay. This is the third, and final, post I wrote for my other blog, 365, I’m re-posting here. This time I’m not going to apologize to anyone who may have read it ‘over there’. Because if you’re a writer, or an aspiring writer, this is one message you cannot hear too often. In fact, it should be burned into your brain. It’s definitely burned into mine. Thanks for reading my blogs. It’s much appreciated. Hope to see you here again.

Pete Armetta has a WordPress blog I very much enjoy. He’s a powerful writer of poetry, flash fiction, essays and short stories; and I’m always struck by how few words he needs, to say so much. Which, incidentally, is much easier said than done. His ‘style’ brings to mind a favourite Mark Twain quote:

“I am sorry to have written such a long letter, but I did not have time to write a short one”.

Says it all. Because the true measure of a writer is the ability to self-edit. To be ruthless. Brutal. To choose words carefully. To make every one work hard. And having talent is the least of it. It takes discipline. Love of the craft. The ability to let go. To love ’em, but leave ’em, on the cutting room floor. To know when you’re done.

So really, a writer’s best friend isn’t a computer. Or a dictionary. Or a thesaurus. It’s the eraser.

Luckily, I learned that very early in my career. It was hard. And painful. But the best thing that could ever have happened to a young writer, just starting out. Which is why I wrote a blog post about it.

When I commented on Pete’s poem, and how much I admire his ability to keep only what’s absolutely essential, he responded, simply: “Less is best, I think.” Again, says it all.

And it’s a philosophy that’s not restricted to writers. It’s one reason why I love Italian design. What Giorgio Armani has always done best, is to allow exquisite fabrics and flawless tailoring take centre stage. Italian cars and furniture, same thing. It’s about simplicity. Beautiful design. Perfection. Less is best.

Embellishments are not necessary, because they have no flaws or imperfections to hide.

It’s what I love about Apple. The computers themselves. The web browser, Safari. And the stores. Oh, how I love the stores. But really, everything they do all looks alike. Lots of white space. Everything in its place. A logical place. Easy to find. Easy to use. Efficient. Nice to look at. Sleek. Clean. Unencumbered. No gimmicks. So contemporary. Only what’s necessary. Again, simple and beautifully designed. Highly functional.

Less is best.

There are people who speak that way. I could listen to them for hours. Well organized thoughts. Succinct. Articulate. Focussed. No hesitation. No pausing. No grasping for words. No hemming or hawing. Never repetitive. Smooth transitions from one sentence to the next. No convoluted sentences. The complete opposite of verbose. Short, sweet and to the point. Yet warm. Engaging. Informative. And interesting. They’ve got my attention, that’s for damn sure!

I’m writing a book. My first. Very early on I decided it should come in at between 70 and 80,000 words. I’d read something, somewhere. As each chapter was completed, I’d frantically check my word count. And I’d go back and add more. And more. And more.

Until it was so filled with gratuitous nonsense, the story was lost. It had become incomprehensible. Then I remembered that lesson I’d learned years ago. And how “Tuesdays with Morrie”, one of the most successful books of all time, had less than 200 pages. My book has to be as long as it has to be, to tell the story. Not one word longer. The number of words isn’t the point. And that’s when I went back and started slashing. And slashing. And slashing.

Less is best.

I’m done.

an encore performance

Last time I posted, I mentioned there were a couple more stories from my other blog, 365, that I’d re-post.  Here’s one of them.  With one more to follow soon.  Again if you follow both my blogs, thank you for doing so; and I apologize for the repetition.  Hopefully you feel these few posts are worth reading more than once.

Last time I talked about a lot of ways non-creative people are still creative.  See, it’s not an oxymoron.  But I did confine the conversation to those of us who work in ad agencies, an industry perceived as being ‘creative’ anyway.  And because I think it’s important for you to know I’m a firm believer in the fact that creativity can, and should , and does, exist outside of ‘creative’ businesses, I’m approaching the idea from a different perspective this time.

At its very simplest, it’s called out of the box thinking.  Being willing to turn a problem, or a tough challenge, on its ear, looking at it from a different angle, through a different lens.

Being willing, regardless of what you do for a living, to sweep aside the status quo and embrace new ideas.  Different ideas.  Unconventional ideas for your industry.  Client-centric ideas.  Revolutionary ideas.  Never-before-considered or tried ideas.  Regardless of whether you work in the private or public sectors.  Regardless of whether you are a health care worker, an educator, a politician, a CEO, a sales person, a scientist, a researcher, a lawyer, or an accountant; or even a tinker, tailor, soldier or spy.

What I’m talking about is ‘design thinking’.  Born out of industrial design, design thinking is a very disciplined, systematic, strategic process (yet intensely creative) that is used to solve what most of us would consider unsolvable challenges, like finding an innovative way to deliver clean drinking water in the developing world.  I find it absolutely fascinating.  I’m obsessed with it, in fact.  And I am a rabid fan of a global consultancy based in California, IDEO, who are pioneers in the field, and worked on the drinking water project.  I am also a huge fan of their President and CEO, Tim Brown, who has written a book, that I have read at least two dozen times.  Buy it, you won’t be sorry.

He spoke in Toronto earlier this year, and I went.  Surprise, surprise.  He presented a lot of impressive and varied case studies, but my favourite was a project they did for the Singapore government.  I have actually written it up, here on Fransi Weinstein Et Al.

I follow a lot of very good WordPress blogs.  One of them is called Book Peeps.  And the other day its author posted an interesting and provocative piece on education.  Specifically, what’s wrong with our educational ‘system’, who’s really to blame, what role both parents and teachers can play and what can be done about it.  Her post was inspired by an article (there’s a link to it in the post) she read, about the differences in how eastern and western cultures tackle teaching.

As I read her post, all I could think was:  “Now there’s an ‘opportunity’ that’s just crying out for a team from IDEO.”  And that’s what inspired this post, of men.

Any other issues you can think of that could benefit from some innovative thinking, IDEO style?  In my not so humble opinion, the U.S. ‘fiscal cliff’ issue is a perfect candidate.  If I was President Obama I’d be thinking seriously about bringing them to the table.  I’m certainly in no position to speak for the management of IDEO but I’ll bet they might even consider doing it pro bono.  I sure would.  Talk about a juicy assignment.  And talk about the fame (and fortune) that would follow, if you could wrestle that problem to the ground successfully!

But in all seriousness, that issue is going to take creative thinking to solve.  And from what I’ve seen, at a great distance I admit, I’m not so sure the people involved have what it takes.

For that mater, the Middle East crisis desperately needs some innovative thinking, as well.  But not all the ‘problems’ need to be as grand as these few examples I’ve cited.  Even in our local communities there are many opportunities to look at things differently.  To improve the way they’re done.  Make them more efficient.  Make them easier to use or access.  Make them more end-user friendly.  Make them more relevant.  Make them more cost effective.

The solutions are within all of us.  We just need to climb out of the rut we’re in.  We just need to open our eyes and ears and minds to the possibilities.  We just need to learn how to collaborate, because non of us has the answer on our own.  We just need to embrace change.  And most of all, we just need to want to have the time of our lives, because there’s nothing more stimulating, or fun, energizing and exciting, than solving problems, brilliantly!

President Obama’s campaign theme was ‘Forward’.  I’d like to add something to that:  ‘Forward.  Redefined!’

play it again, Sam

Nope, I’m not veering off course, and suddenly talking about movies.  This post has nothing to do with Humphrey Bogart or Ingrid Bergman.  It’s just my way of letting you know that I’ve written a few blog posts over at 365 that I think are just as appropriate for those of you who follow this, my business blog, as those who follow my I-just-want-to-write-everyday-for-my-own-pleasure blog.  This is the first.  There will be a couple more.  If you follow both of my blogs, I apologize in advance for the repetition.  Although it never hurts to hear what I hope you agree is a good message, again.

There’s a misconception out there.  A myth.  That ‘creativity’ is the exclusive province of creative people.  Writers, artists, actors, directors, fashion designers, make up artists, hairdressers, lighting directors, singers, composers, interior decorators, photographers, musicians and the like.  Wrong.  Wrong. Wrong.

In fact, every human being has the ability and, as far as I’m concerned, the responsibility to think creatively.  Without holding a paintbrush or a pen or a microphone or a camera or any other ‘tool’ those of us who are creative, use.  Here’s a good example of what I mean:

One of the ad agencies I worked for is BBDO.  It is one of those huge, international (289 offices in 80 countries, 15,000 employees), full-service agencies that’s been around for eons.  Since 1891, to be precise.  I have worked for more than my fair share of the top agencies in the world, so I speak from personal experience when I say what I’m about to say:

Of all the agencies I’ve ever worked for, when it comes to creative excellence, delivered consistently, throughout the world, they rise head and shoulders above the rest.  At least when I worked there (not suggesting I had anything to do with it, by the way).  In fact, their tagline is, “The work, the work, the work”.  And they mean it.

And even though I’d had many jobs by the time I landed there, and had enjoyed a very successful career up to that point, it is BBDO where I ‘found’ my voice.  It was like they sprayed ‘creative thinking’ through the air vents.  It was palpable.  You felt it the minute you got off the elevator, and arrived in the reception area.  And it was ‘present’ in every office, on every floor.

Honestly, if you were not capable, or willing to think creatively, if you weren’t passionate about ‘the work’, if you didn’t want to own your own, little piece of it, then you probably didn’t really belong there.  And you would probably never have been hired.  And I’m not referring to those who, like me, worked in the Creative Department.  Those who, like me, created the ads and the commercials and the direct mail campaigns and the websites and the billboards and the loyalty programs and the questionnaires and the contests that consumers see and respond to.

The people I’m talking about are the Suits (the ‘adults in charge’, who run each piece of business and are the client’s partner in the agency), the media department folks, the researchers and traffic people, assistants and even the accounting department and HR.  I’d never seen anything like it before.  On my first day at the agency, the HR department hosted an indoctrination session for all the new employees.  Nothing unusual in that.  Except when I heard the HR Director talking about the work BBDO did, and discussed the reel of some of their most recent commercials she was about to show us.  I had to give my head a shake, because she sounded as enthusiastic and excited as the creative teams who produced that work.  I was blown away as much by her, as I was by the work.

But that wasn’t all she did.  She talked about HR innovations she had championed in the agency.  Paid sabbaticals, flexible working hours, the ability to work some hours each week from home, and that was just part of it.  All this done years ago, before all the dot.com companies came into being and working conditions like these became the norm.  They were way ahead of their time.  Creative thinking.

It didn’t stop there, either.  I was completely blown away by the ‘creativity’ I experienced working with their media planners and buyers.  They came up with some of the most brilliant, most inspiring ideas I’ve ever seen; and they were true partners to those of us in the creative department.  When I wanted a ‘teaser’ on the front page of one of our daily newspapers, that led to the client’s ad, and mentioned which page the ad would be on, they found a way to make that happen.  And then they ‘saw my idea and raised me an idea’.  In those days, we still used floppy disks (feels like the middle ages I know, but it wasn’t that long ago).  They decided that we should put an ‘offer’ on the disk and dip the disk on to the page where the ad was, in a specific spot on the ad.

Do you have any idea how impossibly difficult that was?  Not only to come up with the idea, but to get the newspaper to execute it.  But that was just another day at the agency for this group.  So was the time that they suggested that a client who couldn’t afford TV, but had to make an impact’, buy every single transit shelter poster and every single bus and subway billboard in the ‘footprint’ where their target audience lived and worked.  It was beyond spectacular; and beyond-your-wildest-dreams successful.

Their CFO (Chief Financial Officer) devised new and creative ways for the agency to get compensated, endearing him to clients who were fed up with the same old, same old rigidity they found at most agencies.  I could go on and on, but I think you get my drift.

Now that I think about it, I do have more to say.  Not about BBDO, but about creative thinking, in general.  So stay tuned for part two.