When Ideas Become Therapy For An Executive Team
Photo by Emrah Kara on Unsplash
Everyone knows how therapeutic having a idea can be. The thrill, the chills, and just the feeling of accomplishment giving birth to a new (good) idea. What’s not talked about as much is the therapeutic value of ideas to the well-being of a company, particularly a complex organization with different, competing perspectives with the executive level as to what the brand should be about. I’ve found that multiple ideas for the team to bat around, reject, and embrace, can be a form of useful, healthy therapy for the execrative team. Let me explain.
What brands are missing is a giant slab of marble.
Maybe you’ve heard this one. A child approaches a sculptor, who is facing a giant slab of marble, chisel in hand. The child asks, “What are you going to make?” To which, the sculptor says, “A horse.” The child looks wide-eyed at the giant slab of marble and asks the sculptor how on earth he’s going to do that. The sculptor turns to the child and says with a wink and a smile, “I’m simply going to remove all the pieces that aren’t the horse.”
That is the perfect metaphor for a company figuring out its brand. It’s one thing in the abstract, right? Everyone’s got a different view, some think the brand essence is like this, others think it’s like that. And they circulate endlessly debating the strategy.
What they’re missing is a giant slab of marble at which they can chip away.
Ideas can be Your marble.
Ideas make the discussion between disparate executives tangible. The ideas give them something to react to. Is this idea “the horse”? Is that idea “the horse”? The ensuing conversation becomes a form of therapy for the entire group as they chisel away at the marble, debate, defend, discuss, and then see what’s left on the table.
It’s probably the horse. And if it’s not, they certainly have better, more specific direction to give the creative team now that they’ve gone through this exercise.
I’ve seen it. It’s therapy.
Whether it was MP (“Wired for HR”), Ketovie (“Everyday is everything”), or even NHL goalie Robin Lehner (“Battle”), I didn't go in with one or two or three ideas and try to shove a recommendation down their throats. I know what I know, sure, and I’ve been doing this a long time. But only the clients truly know what the horse should look like. I respect that and play into it, not against it.
For example, with MP, an HR company who does payroll and much more, “Wired for HR” was one of eleven ideas I presented to the executive team. But not before I interviewed every one of them separately, reviewed all their sales materials, and scoured their website to understand their products and services. Once armed with their truths, I came up with multiple angles, which eventually turned into even more usable tag lines.
I presented the eleven ideas to the entire team. I didn’t try to sell them, I just wanted to make sure they understood each. I then sat back and let them debate, discuss, and eliminate all the pieces that weren’t the horse. Let the therapy begin, I might have said. The CEO, Jason Maxwell gravitated pretty quickly to “Wired for HR” because it was just so true to the brand and its people, and it had a nod towards their technological superiority (full case study here). By the end of the meeting, we’d corralled our horse into the barn.
The team was elated and excited to get to work rebranding everything. Note the second half of Jason’s quote below (bolded):
CEO Jason Maxwell
“Will’s process and brilliance helped us to shift our brand that helped us transform our business. With his leadership, our new brand helped us to build a more aligned and energetic business that helped internal and external stakeholders realize our shift in direction.”
He talks about being better aligned and energetic and I’m not surprised. That’s what happens when the executive team goes from pontification in the abstract to a therapy session using multiple ideas to galvanize the group around a single, powerful idea.
Contact me if interested in some idea therapy. I’ll help you find your horse. Chisels not included.
Will Burns is the Founder & CEO of Ideasicle X and a Brand Consultant. Follow him on Twitter @WillOBurns.
