Feeding the Puppy

Planning Is Invisible

In my sleepy-almost-not-working state, I almost reacted to this post here on 'I Am The Client' (HT to Adlandsuit)...

...thankfully, I realised after reading a few more posts that it's a satirical blog.  At least, I'm pretty sure it is...

The post is called 'Planning - I'm getting the fucking hang of it'. 

I should have twigged immediately, in hindsight. 

Here's a sample...

Planners.  Don't.  Exist.

Think about it! Have you ever seen a tangible something that a planner has produced? No! Me neither! I mean, sure, there are things written on paper, and powerpoint slides that look like Jackson Pollock got gang-raped by seven pie-charts and a calculator, but anything actually real? Never!

They aren't real! It all adds up! They aren't fucking real! They're just people who got together and worked out a way of using their very expensive degrees for something nobody can hold them to!

When you sit back and look at it, it's fucking genius! Imagine: your entire professional existence boils down to absolutely nothing because you've made yourself up!

It's sensational! What balls! What absolutely colossal balls! Bravo, planners! Bra-fucking-vo! I'm jealous. I'm jealous because I thought I'd created a job for myself that meant I could do what I wanted, when I wanted to do it and get lots of nice lunches along the way.

Now, good satire is always close to the bone; it works because it's so close to reality that it's not hard to imagine it being true. 

And the whole post is certainly rooted in what you may come across in the worst kind of planning... confusing, bewildering PowerPoint documents that mean nothing at all.  Making the simple complex, rather than vice versa.

But that first point is right; it's hard to identify what planners produce.  But not because planners don't exist. 

It's just that you shouldn't really know that they're there. 

Planners should be invisible. 

 

No, not literally.  But they should provide something that's only noticeable when it isn't there, rather than when it is.

There are various analogies that have been used over the years to help describe this...

Will pointed me to the 'bass player' one from Russell Davies' blog a few years back...

"I'd add something. BE LIKE THE BASS PLAYER. Like Sting on Walking On The Moon. Like McCartney on tons of tracks. Be a backbone, keep it simple but unforgettable."

...which Will himself extended here in his Art Brut inspired 'we formed a band' post...

Planners then. We're quite clearly the bassists of the whole operation. Making sure the work hums along, is in rhythm with what the client and the audience want. Bands/Advertising can work without us (Sony 'Balls' is clearly an extended guitar solo of creativity), and we must never forget that. But with us, we can make the work groove along

But just to confirm to a planner stereotype, here's another analogy, spurred no doubt by the snow in Brighton today.

 

Imagine a lovely fresh Alpine mountain, ripe for snowboarding down... 

...I mention snowboarding because as we've now got an eleven week old son, the chances of us going in the next few years are slight, so I'll live vicariously through my own analogies instead...

 


Planners aren't the snowboarders.  They aren't the people carving and jumping all around the piste.  That's the creatives, or the digital guys, or the direct guys, or the client themselves... anyone who's actually 'making' the visible things you can see.

Planners are invisible.  They come out at night.  They're setting out the poles at the edge of the piste, bashing down the snow, de-icing the lifts.  They're creating the perfect space for everyone else to board down the next day. 

They find new runs across the mountain, and improve the most popular ones... all the time creating space for people to rip down the next day.

They're only noticed when they stop doing it.  Or do it badly.  When the pistes are too boring, bumpy, dangerous or tame.

So if great planning should be invisible like this, we get to two problems.

Firstly, personal recognition and feedback is difficult for the invisible (wo)man. 

Hence, no doubt, the number of planners who write blogs and talk at conferences... in an industry that thrives on recognition, the 'invisible planner' wants to be seen.  Not an insurmountable issue, and not as important as the second one...

Which is this; thinking back to the 'I Am The Client' post, and the satire/truth issue...

...if clients (and in this day and age we're talking procurement folk too, remember) can't see the 'invisible planner', then how do/can we expect them to pay for planning? 

Why would you pay for something that you're told is there, but is impossible to see if done well?  From another perspective, it might all seem a little 'Emperor's New Clothes'...

 

Have some fun with Out-Of-Office

No doubt you're going away for Christmas.  Maybe even today, if you've got some holiday left over.

So, of course, you'll need to leave an out-of-office message. 

"Thanks for your email, I'm currently on annual leave and will returndee-doo-dee-dah-blahBLAHBLAH"

BORING.  People have enough boring emails in their lives. 

So please, when you write yours, make it a bit more fun.  Point people to something interesting.  A game, a Christmas tree webcam, your favourite youtube video from this year.  The new Iron Man 2 trailer.

Or write something yourself. 

Here's mine (which if you're really desperate for something to write you could steal)...

Season's greetings, one and all
I do hope you are well
I'm currently on holiday
As you probably now can tell

While I spend some time at home
Nibbling on a fresh mince pie
You're sitting somewhere at a screen
Awaiting my reply

It'll have to wait to January
In the meantime have no fear
Just pack up soon and head on home
And enjoy some festive cheer

Go on, do something different this holiday...

Bonfire Builders: Jake McKee

I had a thought a couple of weeks ago about the Bonfires & Fireworks analogy...

If, as I believe, it's going to be through cross-disciplinary effort that we build successful, conversational communications between people and companies, we should get all sorts of different perspectives from across the board on the principle of bonfire building.

So, to that end, I decided to start asking a few folk whose opinion and work I think highly of about the principle, and their perspective on it.

First up, I'm delighted to say we've got Jake McKee, of Ant's Eye View, Community Guy and Lego fame...

 


Let’s start with something social… tell us about yourself…

I'm Jake McKee, co-founder and Chief Ant Wrangler at Ant's Eye View (www.antseyeview.com).  I've spent my entire career on and around the Web trying to help businesses use new tech, people, and processes to improve the way that customers interact with the company.

At AEV, our focus is the same: helping clients improve customer experience and drive customer engagement by building strategies that tap into those new technologies, as well as age old improvements in people and process to truly improve the bottom line.
 
Outside of work, I'm an amateur photography, infrequent mountain biker, and a proud dad of an insane smart and funny 3 year old.


How did you get started in bonfire building?
 
I actually went to college for traditional 3D product design.  Even in high school I was fascinated by the idea that people got paid to think about how people used things and to design products accordingly.  I graduated about the time the Web started taking off and brought that product design thinking to Web development.

When I joined the LEGO Company in 2000, I lucked into working for a boss who encouraged me to own the relationship between LEGO and the adult LEGO enthusiasts.  That led to a full-time gig at LEGO doing community work, helping to form the community development team, speaking about community work, and blogging at CommunityGuy.com. 

 



How do you persuade others of the need to build social bonfires alongside setting off advertising fireworks?
 
The answer to this question is a bit different if you’re talking about being an employee of a company working inside the enterprise towards change versus working as a consultant helping those folks see change through to completion.

Looking at the work that needs to be done inside the organization (since that's where the buck stops), I've always talked about the strategy of "Success by 1000 paper cuts".  Start with the smallest element you can effectively do with minimal budget, little managerial approval, and minor legal team approval.

Nothing breeds acceptance like success.  Even tiny successes excite people to see more.  Succeed, expand your efforts a little, succeed again, rinse and repeat. Before you know it, you'll be launching huge programs but with far more support than if you tried to launch a big program straight away.



Where do you see the balance between the bonfires & fireworks at this point in time?
 
Well, there's probably not much of a "balance" at this point!  I think largely we're still seeing a vast majority of the social efforts being funnelled through the traditional marketing/advertising lens.  With a sadly rare exception, most business people are struggling to get past their own training - we're all programmed to believe that protectionism is a huge business value.

That mindset was passed along in school, and backed up by nearly every business dealing we've had in our careers.  Getting past that mental training is going to some time and some serious effort, but it will happen.  With an entire generation being raised to expect a direct connect relationship with the companies they do business with, it's seriously only a matter of time.
 
That said, I don't think we'll ever get away from seeing fireworks.  In fact, I hope we don't.  Fireworks can be a lot of fun, and can do lots of great things... IF they are a component of a larger, social-infused strategy.


Finally, what do you foresee in the future for the bonfires and fireworks?
 
It's not terribly exciting, but I think we're going to continue to see the same progression we've been on for the last few years, just with an increasingly accelerated pace. 

Companies and consultants alike are certainly still struggling to get to a more social-minded place, but the pace at which things are moving is picking up speed. 

Success is leading to success, and we'll be seeing a lot smarter, bigger, more successful campaigns over time...

...success by 1000 paper cuts.


Thanks Jake :)

As Mary Poppins would say, 'The Job's a Game'...

Last year, when I was doing the IPA Excellence Diploma, I wrote an essay on the use of real time data to create daily, game-like interactions.  

You can read it here, if you're off the mind to...

A Spoonful of EasyJet

Ever since writing it, I've been particularly interested in creating work systems that incorporate elements of games.

Because as the principle behind 'spoonful of sugar' would have it, if you add an element of fun to a job, the job becomes a game.  And we'd all like it a lot more if our jobs were a bit more like games, yeah?

So I was very excited to find out about this forthcoming book...

Total Engagement
Using Games and Virtual Worlds to change the Way People Work and Businesses Compete 

 


Of course, I can't tell you owt about it, as I've only just ordered it from Amazon.  But the blurb certainly sells it to me...

"Implementing components of multiplayer computer games in the workplace will address a host of age-old problems. Games can not only stem boredom and decrease turnover, but also enhance collaboration and encourage creative leadership. Games require extraordinary teamwork, elaborate data analysis and strategy, recruitment and retention of top players, and quick decision making.

Recreating some elements of games - such as positioning tasks within stories, creating internal economies, and implementing participant-driven communication systems - can not only boost employee engagement but overall productivity."

Sounds really interesting, doesn't it?  I'm very much looking forward to reading it

(thanks to the tip off from the guys at Natron Baxter, an Applied Gaming outfit over there in that there USofA...)

Anyhoo, I think that it appeals so much because, as kids, my brother and I were big fans of 'God Games' like Civilisation, Populous et al, and like most blokes my age I've lost days to Championship Manager. 

 


If you're not familiar with the principles of such games, they are based upon an absolute mountain of data... with tens, hundreds or thousands of different characters, units and the like all needing your care and attention on a turn by turn basis. 

You've got a set objective at the end, of course, but the only way to win the game is to set that big objective aside, and deal with the game on a turn-by-turn basis.

So whilst your overall big strategy is there, it's actually much more important to continually pay attention to the thousands of smaller tactical decisions. 

The big strategy is as simple as 'win the space race' or 'defeat the other competitors'.  The methods you use to do that constantly change and evolve depending on the circumstances...

Is it possible to do it for companies?  Well, I believe so already... let's see what interesting examples and ideas the book brings when it arrives next week.

Guardian Activate Redux: Werner Vogels (Amazon)

I liveblogged the Guardian Activate Conference in July.  Now that the videos of the speeches are online, it's a good time to revisit some of my favourite things from the day... I'll post up one video every few days or so...

Werner Vogels, Amazon - "Your worst nightmare on the web... you throw a party, and a MILLION people come... how do you cope with that?"

The area of cloud computing is increasingly fascinating... people are creating things around computers that they may need a phenomenal amount of storage space and processing power... but only for a brief period of time.

For instance, the Google Monopoly game which launched over the last week needed a lot more server power than they expected it to... and as such crashed on and off for about a week.  They've just had to restart the whole thing all over again today...

I found Werner's talk huge interesting, because of the comparison he draws between computing nowadays, and electricity in days of yore.

Companies in those days needed electricity to do whatever it is that they made money from.

Werner's example is a brewer in Belgium, but we have our very own relic of this age in the Gym breakout area in our building...

(It's a particularly rare example controlled by table football...)

Think how mad it would be nowadays to run your own generator for a resource that comes out the wall, on tap, whenever you want it.

That's essentially the proposition for 'cloud computing'... computing that becomes a resource to be scaled when needed, and switched off when it's not.

It touches on a previous post about working spaces I wrote a while ago... when computing becomes as free and easy as electricity to access, it'll be interesting to see how we all work together.

Work: a verb, and a noun

This occurred after something Amelia said the other day:

"the irony of having to leave work in order to actually *do* some work is not lost on me"

Sound familiar?  Nowadays, work is a noun and a verb...

...and the two don't always combine to great effect...

...but then, given the way technology is changing the way we work, I find it very interesting to think about what the future of 'work' (the noun) could look like.  And, indeed, when we might get there...