The evil behind the Devil's advocate

You can tell a lot about the first few pages of a book. (And I'm not going all Gladwell's blink here)

The first page of the new book I am reading part of my 52on52, (a self imposed challenge to read 52 books in 52 weeks) is The Ten faces of innovation by Thomas Kelley and Jonathan Littman.

This is a revealing book about innovation as a driver of a company culture and the power behind the implementation of ideas.

We've all been there. The pivotal meeting where you push forward a new idea or proposal you're passionate about. A fast paced discussion leads to an unwelling of support that seems about to reach critical mass. And then, in one disastrous moment, your hopes are dashed when someone weights in with those fateful words: "Let me just play Devil's Advocate for a minute"

Having invoke the awesome protective power of that seemingly innocuous phrase, the speaker now feels entirely free to take potshots at your idea, and does so with complete impunity. Because they are not really your harsher critic. They are essentially saying. "the Devil made me do it." They are removing themselves from the equation and sidestepping individual responsibility for the verbal attack. But before they're done, they have torched your fledgling concept.

In fact the Devil's advocate may be the biggest innovation killer in America today. What makes this negative persona so dangerous is that is such a subtle threat.

Everyday thousands of great new ideas concepts and plans are nipped in the bud by Devil's advocates.

Why is this persona so damming? Because the devil's Advocate encourages idea wreckers to assume the most negative possible perspective, one that sees only the downside, the problems, the disaster in waiting. Once these floodgates open, they can drown a new initiative in negativity.
Innovation is the lifeblood of all organizations and the Devil's Advocate is toxic to your cause.

The Devil's Advocate seldom takes a real stand, preferring to tear down an idea with clever criticism, and often exhibiting the mean-spirited negativity associated with that role.

The Devil's advocate may never go away, but on a good day a true culture of innovation can keep him in his place. Or tell him to go to hell.

I have the feeling that I'll be sharing lots of thoughts from this book.

Inside the creative mind: Garrick Hamm.

A couple of weeks ago I started the series Inside the Creative Mind. A series of interviews from Lurzers Archive with the best and most brilliant creative people from all over the world. The second post is about Garrick Hamm, at the time, D&AD president and founder of Williams Murray Hamm, a design consultancy in London.

Design isn't about talented designers, is about a good, focused brief and how to set out your stall.

If you go into a meeting with ten concepts raging from evolution to revolution, guess what you'll be evolving brands for the rest of your career.

Most clients don't like "different" when its applied to their brand.

We dig around in the dirt like detectives until we discover a brand truth, then we ruthlessly magnify it.

The consumer can only read one message, in the hope of saying everything, nothing gets said. we edit and simplify, that's what we do best.

The formula of rolling out a brand across the globe, in all its fiscal efficiency, has made a lot of big brands even bigger, but very, very dull.

The designers I admire the most: Martin Lambie-Nairm, Saul Bass and Peter Saville.

To do something truly different, you need to look way beyond the genre you're designing in. Most of my ideas come from what surrounds me in life, not design annuals.

The truth is, all awards are a load of wank, until you win one.

I am very curious about Designers and their way of looking at the world, perceiving problems and how they solve them. And I think that he offers an intelligent set of principles to keep in mind. I really hope you enjoyed it.

Ji Lee. Happy creativity.

Since we are talking about happiness and creativity, Ji Lee probably has the best creative job (that requires a title) in the world: Creative Director at Google Labs in NYC. He was a speaker at The 99 percent conference last week and gave us some of the reasons for his creative joy.

He talked about some of his independent guerrilla projects, which evolved from his frustration as a creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi, where his best ideas kept getting killed.

As a creative Ji Lee is an especially prolific idea generator that consistently executes ideas in remarkable ways. Like most creative minds, Lee has tons of ideas. However, when it comes to actualization, Lee actually makes ideas happen. Lee’s fundamental secret, as he describes it, is “an element of fun.”

For the WTC Logo Preservation Project, the ongoing game to find at least one logo every day kept the project alive. People would hear about the project and take part in the personal challenge as a sort of ongoing game. “Games,” Lee explains, “keep things simple and keep people engaged.” It turns out that games and some element of fun have fueled Lee’s loyalty in projects in and out of the office.

Lee uses games to foster learning and motivation. Throughout the day there is an ongoing exchange of links - little findings that stretch the mind in some way - that Lee’s team and students send him. From these, Lee culls certain links that are especially interesting and blasts them out to the whole group.

These are some of the quotes from his conference.

• "Personal & Professional projects compliment each other."
• "Sharing is Rewarding."
• "I cannot depend on others to make things happen."
• “When everything else falls apart in the workplace, I can always fall back on my personal project,”
• “These were campaigns that became viral; I discovered that creating platforms for other artists is powerful!”

Check his portfolio at Please enjoy.

Please do.

Why some decisions are better made without thinking.

I always get excited when I find scientific or psychological explanations to the everyday mysteries of the corporate world.

I enjoyed this article by Jonah Lehrer about choking under pressure. But what I really loved is what this means to us creatives as we try to do our job of generating ideas.

In his post Lehrer uses golf as a frame of reference and it short it goes like this:

When people are first learning how to putt, the activity can seem daunting. There are just so many things to think about.

But the mental exertion pays off, at least at first. The more time a novice golfer spend thinking about the putt, the more likely they are to hit the ball in the hole.

A little experience, however, changes everything. When experienced golfers are forced to think about their putts, they hit significantly worse shots. The part of their brain that monitors their behavior starts to interfere with decisions that are normally made without thinking. They begin second guessing the skills that they've honed through years of diligent practice.

So what should experienced golfers think about when hitting a putt? They should should focus on general aspects of their intended movement.

Or as we like to call it in advertising, "the bigger picture".

I think that this mental process speaks wonders about practicing and trust. When you have put enough time into practicing, you should stop thinking about the mechanics and trust your instincts.

I'm happy that now I have a psychological explanation, if only that meant that we would put it in practice.

It's all about optimism.

I really like the blog by W+K London. Its called Welcome to optimism and it's a refreshing dose of smart writing and creative company culture.

I like this post about advice to creatives showing their book at an agency. I kind of feel like I should have written about this subject. Oh, well... it happens.

Here is the list:

1. Keep it quick. Creatives looking at your book have limited time so make the most of the opportunity. Keep storyboards and radio short and sweet.

2. A balanced book tends to have between 7-9 ad campaigns and a few other creative ideas.

3. Get to the bottom of a brand. Try to find out what makes them different to everyone else and what’s at the heart of their product and their company.

4. Demonstrate different tones of voice. How does this brand talk to people? What’s their personality?

5. Find different ways of talking to people. You don’t always need to conform to the conventional. Logos don’t have to sit in corners. Photos don’t have to be funny. And long copy is not scary.

6. Do more than just press ads. There are many other interesting ways of exploring an idea. What are the appropriate media for your idea? What medium is right for your audience? What will draw people in and surprise them? (TV, press, radio, online, viral, ambient, talking dogs…)

8. Expand at least one of your ideas into a big campaign and prove it’s not just a one off poster or TV ad.

9. We like to find out about you as well as seeing your book. Show us your matchbox collection, the short film that you’re making on the side or your greatest baking success. We see tons of ads, but sometimes it’s these little funny things that sums up who you are.

7. Listen and take notes too. You’d be surprised how many people don’t! Which is annoying to creatives who’ve given up their time to see you.

10. The advertising world is small so don’t piss people off or others might get to hear about it.

11. If you like a particular team, try to go back to them again with more work. Try to build a relationship. This will help you make more contacts, they may recommend you to their advertising friends and colleagues.

As a junior creative, when yuo don't know where you stand yet, and senior creatives give you their professional opinion, remember what they say in Hollywood; at the end of the day nobody knows anything.

The life cycle of a creative idea.

I found an interesting analogy on The Pixar Touch by David A. Price that I think applies to creativity and how is handled by agencies and clients.

The cycle of a film is like that of fruits and vegetables. You try to plan it well in advance and you lay your seeds, put your fertilizer on, you water it, make sure it is nourished and all that. When it is ready to pick, it is ready to pick.

I think its brilliant because the creative process (or any other process for that matter) is this simple and this useful when you follow it.

• Plan it well in advance means understanding that creativity (like fruit and vegetables) follows a process that takes time and doesn't happen overnight.

• Laying the seed is about picking the raw materials with the best quality. This is about the hiring of the right creative minds, building the right team, selecting the type of "fruit" you will be picking up later on. You can't plant a potato and expect an onion.

• Put your fertilizer on. Without nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium the plant simply cannot grow because it cannot make the pieces it needs. The chemicals elements of the creative mind are a defined and simple goal, confidence, freedom to explore and collaboration.

• Water it, make sure it is nourished and all that. In one word: love. Achieving a balance of love is important though. Just like with water, too much or to little could ruin the outcome. It's love given to small ideas and big ones, for ugly ones and cute ones. Love as in providing room for an idea to grow. And believe me, is all about love.

• When it is ready to pick, it is ready to pick. If you have done everything right, the weather helped, the soil was good and you got lucky, you can go and pick the idea up. Its amazing to me how many people inside the business think that creativity is just the action of going to the field and picking up ideas.

Every creative enterprise goes through this cycle. If you respect it and follow it, you'll pick up great fruits and vegetables.

What bacteria can teach the next creative generation

TED is full of wisdom. No matter who talks, about what subject, sharing whatever type of knowledge. One always walks away improved.

Watching this passionate and useful presentation by Bonnie Bassler I thought about creativity and the creative professional.

The market is shaping new roles and new disciplines, and the marketing creative is not inmune to those changes.

Bacteria is kind of a superhero. Powerful and always present, and I think that we can learn a little bit from bacteria when thinking of the super creative of tomorrow.

• Its all about DNA. Anybody can be creative. I believe that to heart. But not everybody can deal with tight deadlines, be creative on demand and be conceptual with restrictions. Is more about who you are and whether or not is in your DNA.
• Bacteria do many things. Mostly good and some bad. Creatives create 30" TV ads, but that's just a small % of your talents. Creative will do many creative things.
• Bacteria turn on group behavior. They talk to each other, are inclusive and cooperate. The creative lone rider is, I think, no longer working.
• Bacteria is Multi-lingual. Creatives need to speak different languages to collaborate with multiple disciplines: Planners, engineers, web designers, art directors, product developers, user experience designers, clients...
• Bacteria develop defenses. I think that adapting is essential for creatives. New clients, new brands, new partners, new boss, new rules, new playground. But same game: generate ideas with value.
• Bacteria do things together because it makes a difference. They have collective behavior and carry out tasks that they could never accomplish if they simply acted as individuals.
• There is chemistry between bacteria. At the end of the day, without chemistry bacteria wouldn't accomplish any of the things its supposed to accomplish.

Perhaps creatives could become the new bacteria of the marketing industry. Wouldn't that be sick!