Relative Creativity

Take a look at the promotional posted for the 2009 movie 'The Men Who Stare at Goats' :

I didn't see it eitherNot a bad looking promotional effort most would say - edgy, creative kind of typeface, clever use of the actual goat in the series of profile images, stars of the film staring out wisfully into the middle distance.

Some big time names in the form of George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Ewan McGregor, and Kevin Spacey also help the piece achieve a little bit more wow factor.

I am pretty sure the movie was not what you'd call a smash hit, or even a 'hit', (the IMDB page for the movie indicates about a $32M gross on an estimated $25M budget). But surely any disappointment in the eventual box office receipts for the movie would not be attributed to the poster that you see on the left, after all, while perhaps not being incredibly artistic and memorable, it certainly is a solid, 'B' kind of effort.

But take another look at the 'Men Who Stare at Goats' poster, this time in a larger context of very similar looking pieces, (courtesy of the Daily Inspiration site):

Look closely at the 'collage' image on the right - the 'Goats' poster is in there, (second row, third from the left). Keep looking

Weird how alike so many movie posters seem to be in terms of design, layout, color schemes, etc. If you take a longer look at the Daily Inspiration piece you'll see more examples of how similar movie genres, (Action, Romance, etc.), have consistently spawned similar looking promotional posters.

What might be interpreted as interesting, attractive, and well-executed when approached individually, (like the 'Goats' poster), takes on a slightly different tone and feeling when viewed through this lens. When thrown together dozens of other pieces informed with the same mindset and sensibility, the 'Goats' poster simply vanishes into the sea of sameness, (and safety, I suppose).

The point to all this? Not much of one admittedly, I saw the Daily Inspiration piece and it simply seemed interesting to me. I guess if there MUST be a point, (I think the Blogging for Dummies Book I read five years ago mentioned something about each post having some kind of point), it's that understanding context, and the ability of your audiences to compare the work we produce, the systems we design, and the strategies we devise and deploy with what else is being created, designed, and deployed is an important, and sometimes overlooked component of our success.  

It can be really easy to spring something out to our internal customers with the mindset that they are a kind of captive audience, without the ability to make free choices from competing alternatives. Kind of like a movie-goer whose multiplex has the same film running on all 12 screens. And for many workplace systems or policies that is indeed true. Employees can't choose their own HRIS if they don't like the one the company has deployed, and they can't create and elect their own medical or dental plan coverage if yours are not to their liking. 

But what they can do, and what has become increasingly easier in the age of social networking and open communication is have a much, much better understanding of competing alternatives and what is possible outside of your own organization. It has never been easier to compare almost everything about one organization's operations with others that are potential competitor's for a good employee's services. 

The 'Goats' poster is fine. There is nothing wrong with it. It just looks like every other one you've ever seen. Whether or not that is good enough is really the question.

The Most Interesting Corporate Career Site in the World?

It just might be this one, from stealth start-up Scopely. Scopely is clearly after talent that will match up well not only with the skills and experience that their opportunities require, but that will fit with its, let's say, out of the ordinary culture. When your CTO takes front and center on the company career site, complete with martini and a series of irreverent pitch lines like 'Did GOD use your wireframes to CREATE the HIMALAYAS?', candidates certainly get the impression that Scopely, at least taken at face value, is not looking for 'average' talent.Are you sure you want a job here?

And beyond the CTO as the Dos Equis man picture, and the pithy come on lines, Scopely sweetens the pot with an aggressive and creative sign-on/referral program. Newly hired engineers, (or their friends that make a successful referral), are eligible to receive a package that includes some of today's 'must-have' tech wizard items like a speargun, a 'fancy tuxedo', a year's supply of the aforementioned Dos Equis beer, and oh yeah - $11,000 in cash. Face it, no matter how cool your employee or alumni referral program is, unless you can find some 'sex panther cologne' or have some Cuban cigars laying around in the supply room, our clever friends at Scopely have you topped.

What does Scopely even do you might be wondering? Who knows, exactly? And the careers site, for all its fun and wackiness, doesn't make it easy at all to figure out. But perhaps that is part of the point. While the 'Dos Equis Man' takeoff, and the promise of beard oil and bacon wrapped cash, (did I forget to mention the $11K bonus comes wrapped in bacon?), are mostly designed to grab attention in a really competitive market for start-up software development talent, there is also just a hint of expectation that prospects, (or referrers), would have to do some digging to really learn about the organization and the potential opportunities. Sort of the same way most of us expect candidates for our organizations to do.Your referral bonus

And one more point about Scopely, their sort of insane careers page, and the most bizarre referral package I've seen in ages. No matter what you think of it all, and you're probably thinking it's either stupid, or just amusing, and NOT AT ALL what would be appropriate for your company, they have done all of us a favor of sorts. By setting a new kind of ceiling for recruiting fun and surprise, they in a way have given any of us a type of permission to get more creative and fun ourselves.

No matter how offbeat, unusual, unexpected, and crazy by your standards idea you have seems, the kind of idea that the suits and the bigwigs would NEVER approve, there is almost no chance it would top Scopely in those departments. So you have a kind of out, an excuse, a way to play the 'Look, I know this idea seems wild, but it really isn't all that crazy, just look at what these idiots at Scopely are doing. See, my plan is actually kind of conservative.' 

Maybe the comparison won't get your idea approved after all. But even if it doesn't, you'll at least get to have a few laughs with the boss while you Google 'Sex Panther Cologne'.

Notes From the Road - #2 - Lower Manhattan

I was able to spend a few days in lower Manhattan this week, attending and co-presenting at The Conference Board's Senior HR Executive Conference, which was held in lower Manhattan, extremely close to Ground Zero, the site of the fallen World Trade Center towers, and now, the recently opened 9/11 Memorial site. When I realized the proximity of the event to the Memorial, I made plans to visit on Tuesday evening, after the conference activities were complete for the day.View of South reflecting pool

The Memorial is as expected - sad, striking, contemplative; and in my view, a must-visit for anyone making a trip to New York City. The Memorial does require a reservation and a ticket to attend, (they are free), and there is a visible and attentive police and security presence throughout. Which makes perfect sense as when touring the Memorial grounds one gets the sense that the uniformed staff were guarding and protecting their own.

I had previously written about one of the heroes of 9/11, FDNY Firefighter Thomas J. Hetzel, as a part of a blog tribute called Project 2,996. And while I did not personally know any of the heroes and victims of September 11, 2001, Firefighter Hetzel for me, has become almost the face of the tragedy. Brave, selfless, a true hero. And taken from his family and friends far too soon. At the site I located Firefighter Hetzel's name inscribed on the Memorial, almost as if searching for the name of a friend. While I never knew him, I think he represents well the idea that the brave souls lost that day are still a part of all of us, and their loss and sacrifices should never be forgotten.

While the 9/11 Memorial forces us to look back and to reflect, there are obvious and apparent signs that allow us to look forward as well. The sounds and machinery of new construction fills the space, and the rising Freedom Tower looms large and spectacular over the scene. When the final touches are placed on the new Tower, and on all the other projects in the space, they, combined with the Memorial will be even a more fantastic and meaningful site.Freedom Tower - click image for a larger view

Whether or not the process and debate as to what to do with the former World Trade Center site took far too long or was too political, does not not seem to matter much when you look down and see the Memorial or you look up and see the gleaming towers rise to the sky.

I hope everyone that gets a chance to visit New York City in the coming days and months does take the time to head down to lower Manhattan and see the Memorial for themselves, and to pause and reflect on sacrifice, bravery, loss, and rebirth.

Have a great weekend!

Senior HR Executive Conference - Social Technology and Innovation

This afternoon at the Conference Board's Senior HR Executive Conference Trish McFarlane and I presented a talk titled 'How Social Tools Can Empower a Global Organization'. The slides from the session are can be found here, and are also embedded below, (email and RSS subscribers may need to click through).

How Social Tools Can Empower a Global Organization

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Mainly, what Trish and I tried to share are some examples, both well-known and a few lesser-known, of how organizations have and can use social media, social networking, new tools for innovation and collaboration, and probably most importantly how looking at business challenges with an eye towards how social and collaboration can help meet these challenges.

These types of short presentations are really meant to be a kind of starting point to thinking about social in different organizational contexts, and for leaders and organizations that have already begun projects and programs, perhaps offering some awareness or insight to new opportunities they have yet to explore.

The feedback to the session was great, (thanks attendees for your time and attention), and many thanks to Trish and to the Conference Board for allowing us to present today.

I'd love your comments and feedback on the presentation as well!

Senior HR Executive Conference - How much failure can we really embrace?

Today and tomorrow I am attending the Conference Board Senior HR Executive Conference in New York City. I plan on sharing as many interesting ideas and concepts as I can from the sessions and conversations over the next few days.

One of the common themes that has emerged early on Day One is the pressing need for organizations to continue to innovate, often faster than ever before, more effectively than the competition, and in a manner than can be sustainable and repeatable. A tall order for sure, particularly when faced with flat or declining resources, an increasingly stressed and maxed-out workforce, and for large public companies, the need to be aware of and to meet extremely short-term financial objectives. In the opening keynote from Steve Fussel from Abbott as well as in a later panel discussion with HR executives from Nike, Cisco, and AMD the various leaders talked about the need to accept, embrace, and most importantly learn from failures as a key component of the innovation process or life cycle. It was generally stated that failure is and must be a part of game, a kind of table stakes for sitting down at the innovation table.

But what was not really discussed was just how much failure was acceptable and would actually be tolerated as a by-product of a commitment to an innovation program or culture. While 'failure' and learning from those failures as a concept sounds great, and is sort of easy to talk about as a core component of the company innovation approach, each failure eventually has to get ascribed to either an individual, team, region, something more discrete and tangible than the more amorphous 'culture'. When the discussion turned to just how much risk, and theoretically how much potential for failure should be tolerated, one comment was 'it's ok to risk your own job, just don't risk the entire company.'

Which gets us to the main challenge I think about risk, failure, opportunity, and innovation. We want, no check that, we need to get faster, more creative, more innovative, and frankly better than before. But at the same time, with margins razor-thin, an unforgiving economic climate, and many employees happy to avoid the kinds of risk that might jeopardize their jobs, balancing innovation, risk, and consequences of failure could be the greatest challenge for leaders tasked with finding the next billion dollar idea.

What do you think - is there a 'right' amount of failure? How much is too much?