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Comment by Deborah Powell on August 1, 2010 at 14:46

Totally agree Kelly. Wasn't it Einstein who asserted, ‘‘we can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them’’. Its tough to do in practice though ...

Personally I'm a big fan of Goffe & Jones. Just love their latest book 'Clever: leading your smartest, most creative people'. G&J go as far as suggesting we build entire corporate cultures that cater to the most creative, imagineers in an organisation! Pretty radical but pretty practical when faced with a stagnant economy which demands creative approaches to inspire productivity. Just think what can be done if the skills of exceptionally gifted workers could be harnessed by creating 'clever teams' and even 'clever corporations'.
Clevers are people like video-game designer Will Wright, iMac creator Jonathan
Ive and Louis Vuitton brand rejuvenator Marc Jacobs. They are the highly
talented individuals (in any organisation) who have the potential to create disproportionate value for the organisation from the resources that are made available to them.Cisco Systems, Nestlé and Google are all really good exmples of what can be done when the Clevers are brought into the mainstream.

What better way of embracing real world change: get the right people
in the right place not just to think things through, but to really think things new.

Comment by Kelly Page on August 1, 2010 at 13:41

Deborah, an interesting article indeed. I'd go a step further and say in any new media landscape it's about even more than 'relevance, resonance and significance' of your brand to audiences (old school marketing thinking with one-way marketing communication channels) ... it's about changing mindsets, in how we think about everything ... audiences, target markets, channels, communication, community, engagement, participation ... and talk about it ... for example "targeted marketing" is based on a military language, and "audiences" on passivity ... but it's the language we know and are used to ... community, conversations, facilitation, sharing ... bring with them very different connotations ...

Alvin Toffler, a famous futurist of the 21st Century, who was born in 1920's once said "To be illiterate in the 21st Century, is not about reading and writing ... it's about being able to learn, unlearn and relearn'. He published a series of writings ... 'The Third Wave' ... and like Marshall McLuhan of the 1960's espoused alot about the transformation of society on a number of key tenants ... that has more relevance today than ever before ... Alvin Toffler also said ... that "change is non-linear and can go backwards, forwards and sideways"...

If we can challenge how we think and how we see the world, esp. in marketing and communications ... than maybe we can change how we do things in the communities within which we and the organisations we work in, and deeply embedded ...

But I agree. Great article in HBR
:-)
Smiles
Kelly