Still waters don't always run deep. Sometimes they just stagnate, fill up with algae and smell bad. This same thing can happen to your business model, marketing plan, corporate culture or new product development. Especially in these turbulent times. Sticking with something because it's comfortable isn't always the right way to do things. Cries of "we've always done it this way before!" have killed many a good idea. If you want things to change, you have to embrace something different than what you've been doing.
In this age of Web 2.0 and the transparency the Internet is bringing to all companies, the old in-company silos are breaking down, by necessity. This will make a lot of people in your organization uncomfortable. But, it's necessary. The customer can find you through so many venues these days, you don't know where the crucial touchpoint is going to be. So you need to make sure HR is talking to customer service who is talking to PR who is talking to marketing who is talking to merchandising who is talking to sales… well, you get the point. Your people may not be comfortable interacting with strange people from other departments. But, the interactions may bring about new ideas that are not just radical, but brilliant. The perspective a sales person brings to PR or a customer service person brings to marketing could lead you into great new directions.
Some years ago, when our Barrelhouse Creative division was doing it's first real big job, we were asked to come up with a series of spot using the great Ray Charles for the Powerball lottery. We needed to come up with lyrics that Mr. Charles could record in six different genres. I had my writers and myself working on this. Todd Gentzel, who now runs our corporate culture, branding and strategy practice at Yaffe/Deutser, was interested in working on the project. Most of my fellow executive creative directors would never let someone else in the agency work on creative, let alone a strategy geek. But, I knew Todd was also an amateur musician in his spare time. So, even though it was out of my comfort zone, I had him work on the project. And, when his lyrics were chosen, I didn't feel bad at all – we had the basis for a very good campaign. Without going outside of my comfort zone, that wouldn't have happened. You can see one of the Ray Charles lottery spots in the broadcast portfolio section of yaffe.com.
So, go ahead. Get uncomfortable. Look in new directions. Put unlikely pairings of people within your organization together. Think of things you never would do and then think of how you could make that very idea work for you. You may come up with some surprising results.
Uncomfortably yours,
Mike McClure
