Be More Than Legible

““Don’t confuse legibility with communication. Just because something is legible doesn’t mean it communicates and, more importantly, doesn’t mean it communicates the right thing.”
David Carson”

I've been meaning to get a picture of this for several weeks. I feared they'd take it down or, worst of all, improve it. Finally, today during my morning run, I was able to capture it.

This sign says so much. I go by it several times each day, and it agitates me each time. What gets me is that I this sign communicates so much, and only a small part of it is concerned with the truth.

If you can't tell, this sign once read:

“Now Enrolling:

Infants & Toddlers

Drop-ins welcome”

As you see, it now reads:

“Now Enrolling:

Toddlers”

What are we to make of the fact that this daycare no longer welcomes infants and no longer accepts drop-ins?

Do I want to drop my toddler at a daycare that once welcomed infants with open arms, but at some point had a change of heart? And what do I make of a business that, instead of presenting a clear, professional sign, jerry-rigs their old sign to suit their needs.

There’s a story here. It’s embedded, but it’s there.

I don’t know the true story, but I've been entertaining these three options:

• The daycare discovered they’re particularly gifted with toddlers and want to focus on that age group.
• The daycare discovered they don’t like working with infants. The work wasn’t worth the wage.
• The government requires some kind of certification for daycares that care for infants.

Everything communicates something, and this sign is no exception. Why not use it to communicate the right message? Spend the $45, or whatever it costs, to buy a new sign that reads something like:

“Your toddler-centered Daycare”

No ambiguity. No question about their specialization. No wondering why they don’t serve infants anymore, refuse to take drop-ins, and jerry-rigged an old sign. ("If they cut corners with their sign, how will they treat my child?") It’s just enough information for parents of toddlers to immediately understand that, "This daycare may be able to help me."

It doesn’t matter whether our message makes sense to us. It has to make sense to the people we’re trying to reach. Just because it's legible, doesn't mean it's good communication.

Brand Storytelling In graphic detail

I recently had the privilege of talking about brand storytelling at the 2017 Built Up Festival in Portland, Oregon. The gist of my message was that brands don’t just have stories, they are a story.

The conference organizers, from their founts of infinite creativity, arranged to have an artist translate my presentation into a visual representation in realtime. This is what she came up with!

There’s a lot here, but I a few things jumped out to me:

1. The upper left it reads, “You Get a Story” three times. I’m struck by the repetition the artist employs. What did she want us to take away from it? Here’s my guess: good stories immerse our senses. We lose ourselves in them. Getting a story actually means the story got us. We got gotten!

2. Two overlapping circles appear on the middle-right of the page. The artist labelled one circle “You” and the other “Them”. She nailed it! Consumers, employees, investors, or whichever audience we’re trying to reach, connect with our brand story because our brand story and their story share key narrative elements. Our struggle is their struggle. Our idea of a hero mirrors their idea of a hero, etc.

3. “The Struggle Bus” runs along the bottom of the image. I talked about how important it is for us to understand the struggles people face, but since I never talked about a Struggle Bus, I have no idea what the artist has in mind. There's even a Captain Struggle Bus. Even though I don't understand the reference, it's got me thinking, which is the whole point.

Seeing it in this form makes me think about these concepts in a fresh way. Special thanks to the artist (I’m sorry I didn’t get your name) and Built Oregon for inviting me.  

If brand storytelling interests you, check out The Narrative Mind, my new pod-class series that I launched this week.

Why YETI ought to be a verb

“Yeti /ˈjeti/ vb to strip away details so that the essence of a thing emerges in such a way that it brings delight to the people who experience it.”

How did I come to see Yeti as a verb? It started last Christmas.I’m not a strong Christmas shopper, but it’s not for lack of effort. I make notes throughout the year in the back of my journal of things I think my wife might like. It’s not that my wife is overly picky, so it shouldn’t be so difficult. Still, Christmas after Christmas I just seem to miss the mark.

Until last year when, for a mere $19.99, I got my wife the 10 ounce Yeti Rambler Lowball. As an enormous fan of magma-hot coffee, she loves that her coffee stays warm.

Here’s the Rambler Lowball, taken from Yeti’s website, in all of its pure mug-ness.

This little company grew from $5 million in sales in 2009 to $450 in 2015, so apparently a number of other people love Yeti and their mugs, ice chests, and other products. 

But maybe you’re not among them. Perhaps you're a Yeti skeptic. Yeti’s popularity, you may think, results from a blizzard of branding and hype. As a friend of mine recently said, “It’s just a mug. There are lots of good travel mugs.”

Good point. There are a number of exceptional travel mugs, some that even outperform Yeti’s thermal capabilities. 

But why does every thrift store feature a shelf of discarded travel mugs, while my wife’s sits in a place of honor in our kitchen?

If you look at the 10 ounce Yeti Rambler Lowball and only see a mug, you need to look closer.

They achieved pure mug-ness by ruthlessly eliminating any qualities of a travel mug that compete with pure mug-ness. That’s what Yeti does with all of their products.

They Yeti. They’re a verb.

But lots of companies Yeti:

Nordstrom Yetied when they recently decided to open a concept store that doesn’t stock clothes.

Starbucks Yetied when they eliminated tips.

Zappos Yetied when they offered free shipping both ways. 

Ken Robinson Yetied by giving one of the most brilliant TED Talks ever without slides.

You get the idea.

We all can and should Yeti. The services, products, and content we create should Yeti. So should our next presentation, campaign, and event.

We all have ideas with value. But it’s not enough for us to see it. Peal back the layers so that others rightly recognize its value. Only then can we truly say that we’ve Yetied.

© Andrew F. Robinson 2017. All rights reserved.

True insights: Look beyond focus groups and surveys

We need to know people, not just know about them. Whether we’re trying to engage people internally, or reach our customers, we need to truly understand what makes them tick. 

So what’s the best way to do that?

Surveys are the most common tool. Surveys can be helpful when we ask simple questions. Net promoter is a good example: How likely is it that you would recommend us to a friend or colleague? 

But no survey can furnish the kinds of insights we truly need to know if we're going to resonate with people.

Focus groups are another common method companies use to better understand their audience. But don’t use focus groups if you’re looking for deep insights. They’re most helpful if you want to gather feedback on something you’ve already created—a logo, name, tagline, etc. 

For example, when Mercedes imported their minivan into the US, they changed the name from Vito, the name they use in Europe, to Metris, when focus groups revealed that their American audiences immediately thought of The Godfather when they heard the original name.  

Use focus groups for this purpose, but don’t try to make them do much more.

Here’s the problem: humans have a well-earned reputation for saying one thing and doing, believing, and perceiving another.

“Even the most analytical thinkers are predictably irrational,” says Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions. That’s why the feedback we collect through surveys, focus groups, and other methods of direct inquiry only takes us so far. 

So how can we access and understand the defining elements that drive human behavior?

Look for desire lines.

An architect had just completed several buildings on a college campus, but couldn’t figure out where to place walking paths.  A colleague offered a simple solution: plant grass and let students make their own trails. The architect could then place permanent trails over the matrix created by the students. 

Professionals in the fields of urban planning and landscape architecture refer to these paths as desire lines. But the applications for desire lines extend well beyond the field of architecture.

Here’s the lesson for all of us:

If we want to truly know the people we seek to reach, we’ll study what they do. 

Study their daily habits, how they prioritize their time, where and how they spend their money, and how and with whom they communicate. These kinds of observations, and others, yield insights no focus group or survey can provide.

"Rather than trying to understand user needs from a focus group, being alert for desire lines will show you users’ actual purpose more directly,”says usability engineer, Carl Myhill.

The answers we seek lay within the people we want to engage. Create the right conditions and these hidden insights emerge into plain sight.

Big Data, surveys, and focus groups can tell us about people. But don’t rely on them if you’re interested in understanding people at a deeper level. For that we have to observe what people do.

Then we can lay down the path.

© Andrew F. Robinson 2017. All rights reserved.

Resources:

http://99percentinvisible.org/article/least-resistance-desire-paths-can-lead-better-design/

Photo by Anna Dziubinska on Unsplash

Kids Using Creativity to Confront Cancer

“Creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value.

Ken Robinson”

Three years ago a University of Oregon football player approached Todd Van Horne, Nike Football’s Creative Director, and asked a question: "What if pediatric cancer survivors designed a uniform for the team?"

Van Horne liked the idea, but knows that designing new uniforms for Oregon presents unique challenges. Most college football teams have just a handful of uniform combinations. Teams like Ohio State, Penn State, and Nebraska may have only two. Compare this to a University of Oregon team that could wear a different uniform combination every game until the year 3344.

But for the three young designers selected for the project, taking on challenges is a part of life. They’ve survived cancer.

Joe MacDonald, Sophia Malinoski, Ethan Frank, three cancer survivors from Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland, met with Nike designers four times and Oregon football players twice in a workshop setting. Together they brainstormed, sketched, and shared ideas. The result was a complete uniform system from helmets to cleats. 

The kids stumped the designers along the way.

“Some of the stuff they brought to the table was like, ‘Wow, I never thought of that before!’” says Paul Sullivan, the University of Oregon Art Director for Nike. 

“Sophia initially wanted a bright blue helmet to represent the sky, but given Oregon's primary colors are green and yellow, we suggested making the helmet chrome to reflect the sky,” remembers Sullivan. “Sophia’s idea encouraged us to push the boundaries here.”

Ethan focussed on the small design elements that appear on the final product, advocating, for example, that the Ducks reintroduce the wings on the helmets.

Among Joe’s suggestions was a camouflage pattern on the compression pants to represent the battle against cancer.

This Saturday Oregon will wear their new uniforms when they square off against Nebraska. Coaches and sideline staff, along with the Oregon fans that fill Autzen Stadium, will also wear apparel that feature designs by Joe, Sophia, and Ethan. Money raised from the project will support a pediatric cancer fund at Oregon Health & Science University’s Doernbecher Children’s Hospital.

The Takeaway

Care drives creativity. If we care, we’ll be curious. And if we’re curious, we’ll be creative.

The story of Nike’s collaboration with Doernbecher Children’s Hospital and the University of Oregon illustrates the inseparable relationship between care, curiosity, and creativity. This project wouldn’t have succeeded without all three.

Care birthed curiosity in the Oregon football player who initially proposed the idea. Nike’s response to the suggestion, this uncommon collaboration, and the unique ideas the patient designers brought to the project, all illustrate how care drives innovation.

Nike didn’t play it safe. It would have been easier to just do the commemorative uniforms themselves. But Van Horne and others who worked on the project demonstrated the humility and courage that’s necessary to create "original ideas that have value."

When we care, our creative mind goes to work knitting together all we’ve gleaned by being curious. We entertain multiple options at the same time, combines ideas, and keep knitting until all the pieces come together. 

All because we care. (Go Ducks!)

© Andrew F. Robinson 2017. All rights reserved.

Photo by Jeff Sheldon on Unsplash  
Photo by Tamarcus Brown on Unsplash

Source:
http://news.nike.com/news/oregon-ducks-doernbecher-cancer-uniform

Ask Stupid Questions. Do Better Work.

"See, when you don’t know, you try desperately to find out. But the minute you think you know, the minute you go – oh, yeah, we’ve been here before, no sense reinventing the wheel – you stop learning, stop questioning, and start believing in your own wisdom, you’re dead. You’re not stupid anymore."
Dan Wieden, Co-Founder, Wieden+Kennedy

Walk in Stupid Every Morning

Mike stepped inside, took off his boots, and shuffled across our wood floor in his wool socks. He walked into our kitchen, set his toolbox on the island, leaned against the counter, and removed his glasses.

Then he turned to my wife and asked, “What’s the problem with the washing machine?”

As my wife described the issue, Mike tipped back his head and closed his eyes. He looked like a sommelier letting the tasting notes of a fine wine wash over him. For several minutes he asked my wife questions and listened.

Pivoting like a marriage counselor, he turned to me and asked, “And what do you notice about the washing machine?”

“This guy is an appliance therapist!” I thought to myself.

He listened to my description with the same curiosity and intention he showed my wife, again closing his eyes and occasionally running his fingers through his grey, bristled hair as he thought.

Then he was done. Mike grabbed his toolbox and disappeared into our laundry room for the better part of two hours, emerging once or twice only to clarify something my wife or I said.

"You can't do sketches enough. Sketch everything and keep your curiosity fresh."
John Singer Sargent

Mike’s brilliant. Having worked on several of our appliances over the years, I now realize that his experience and comprehension of physics and electricity qualify him to teach courses at most any college. 

Which is why the most remarkable thing about Mike is that even though he’s been in countless kitchens and laundry rooms, dealt with the same problems with appliances day after day for more than 40 years, he walks in stupid every time.

Why? Because he genuinely cares — about his craft, about his customers, and about their appliances.

Learning to be Smart

We all used to be like Mike. As children we brimmed with fascination.

But then we got smart. Our knowledge of the world expanded and our curiosity shrank. Our teachers and bosses rewarded us for knowing (or at least pretending to know). We stopped asking stupid questions.

And we watched as our curious mind, along with our careers and the companies we worked for, calcified.

But I want to be like Mike. Don’t you? I want to walk in stupid every time.

And here’s the good news for others who want to be like Mike:

1. We can retrain ourselves to ask stupid questions. 
2. You’re not alone. Curious people find other curious people.
3. There are leaders and entire companies that value people who ask stupid questions. They’re the ones driving innovation: Tesla, LEGO, Pixar, Patagonia, IDEO, and many others.

“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
Walt Disney

Learning to be Stupid (Again)

Retrain yourself to walk in stupid. Ask yourself the following stupid question:

How many uses can you think of for a single paperclip? 

We’ve trained ourselves to think of paperclips fulfilling a single function. This exercise challenges us to view the same object in a fresh light. Keep in mind that children typically outperform adults in this exercise.

Drop me a note with any questions or comments you have: andrew@afrobinson.com. And if you haven’t already, sign up for my mailing list to receive the next entry in your inbox.

© Andrew F. Robinson 2017. All rights reserved.

Photo by Anouk Van Houts on Unsplash

3 Reasons to Care

Care is like the color yellow. You know it when you see it.

You know the people on your team who care. You know if your boss cares. You know which of your employees cares. The client or employer you hope hires you knows if you care. And why do you frequent certain restaurants and coffee shops? Because they care.

Care is the differentiator.

 Then why doesn’t everyone care? 

Care makes us unsettled. (Its meaning stems from terms like agitation, anxiety, and grief.) 

We risk when we care. That project or person we care about can disappoint and even hurt us. 

Caring lacks efficiency. We slow down, listen, and take time to think when we care. 

Caring requires work.

This explains why the sidelines teem with people taking pop shots at those who care.

So why should you care? 

1) Caring creates resonance. 

People connect with us and what we’re doing because they know why we’re doing it.

2) Caring adds substance to our personal and professional life.

We invest ourselves and our resources in the people and projects that matter most to us.

3) Caring makes us feel more alive. 

The person who cares knows the potential risks, discomforts, and heartaches that come from caring. She cares anyway.

We all care about something. The reasons we care makes all the difference in the world. Care for position, profit, and power shrivels our soul. But genuine care for people and for doing good work brings vitality to this life.

What do you care about, and why do you care about these things?

I created the Ask WITI Care Inventory to help you answer this question. Write down the things you care about in the left column. In right column ask WITI (Why is this important?) until you discover why you care. Try this with your team and have everyone share their experience.

Click on the image to download your copy. Or click here.

Drop me a note with any questions or comments you have: andrew@afrobinson.com. And if you haven’t already, sign up for my mailing.

© Andrew F. Robinson 2017. All rights reserved.

Photo by Karl Fredrickson on Unsplash

How Resonance Works

Welcome to Get Gotten. This series explains and explores the ultimate form of engagement—Resonance. Each entry in this series includes an explanation of a key concept that helps you build resonance with the people you seek to engage. I also provide an application for the concept that you can put into practice. If you haven’t already, sign up for my mailing list to have this series delivered directly to your inbox.

You can do more than merely engage people. You can create resonance. That was the message of the last post. 

But how does resonance actually work? There are three things you need to know to answer this question.

Let’s begin with an experiment you can try at your next meeting:

Take a drink of water or whatever beverage you have with you. Notice what happens next. There’s a good chance someone else will take a drink. Why?

The answer lay in a discovery a group neuroscientists made while studying monkeys in the mid-1990s. They noticed that a specific neuron fired when a monkey ate a peanut. This didn’t surprise them. It’s what they expected. 

What surprised them was that the exact same neuron fired in the monkeys who watched another monkey eat a peanut. 

This explains why that co-worker who notices you taking a drink will likely mimic your actions. Whether they take a drink or not, you can know that the “take a drink” neuron fired in their brain.

The scientists named their discovery “mirror neurons”. Mirror neurons comprise the foundation of resonance.

Takeaway #1:
Mirror neurons cause us to mimic the actions of people around us. 

But There’s a bit more that we need to know in order to understand how resonance works.

Not only do we mirror and mimic the actions of others, such as taking a drink of water, checking our phone, or yawning, we also detect and reflect another person’s emotional state.

As Daniel Siegel writes in his book, Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation, “We sense not only what action is coming next, but also the emotional energy that underlies the behavior.”

Neurologists call this tendency we have to transfer our emotions to one another emotional contagion.

This is the second important step to understanding resonance. 

Takeaway #2:
We use our mirroring capabilities to sense another person’s emotional state.

There’s one more layer.

You know that feeling you have when you’re talking with a really good listener? It’s among the most meaningful and memorable experience in life.

What you don’t realize is that in that moment four parts of your brain activate to create this experience. The signals from our mirror neurons travel to your superior temporal cortex, then to the insula cortex, and finally to the middle prefrontal cortex.

Knowing specific regions of the brain isn’t as important as recognizing that this circuit exists. Resonance can’t happen without them.

This is what Daniel Siegel calls our resonance circuits.

“When our resonance circuits are engaged, we can feel another’s feelings and create a cortical imprint that lets us understand what may be going on in the other’s mind,” he writes.

Takeaway #3:
Resonance activates four distinct regions of our brain.

Put this into practice:

You have interactions coming up in your personal and professional life. Pick one.

Ask yourself, "What does this person want me to know?" Pay attention to what they say and how they say it in their tone and body language.

How can you let them know you’ve heard them?

Resonance is a complex, transformative phenomenon that takes place under ideal conditions. Our job is to create those conditions. But how?

In the next three posts I’ll explore the role of Care, Curiosity, and Creativity, and what we can all do to strengthen our ability to foster resonance.

Drop me a note with any questions or comments you have: andrew@afrobinson.com.  And if you haven’t already, sign up for my mailing list to receive the next entry in the Get Gotten series.

© Andrew F. Robinson 2017. All rights reserved.

Photo by Margarida CSilva on Unsplash
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash