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Be authentic! Be, be authentic!
Lately it seems that everyone’s cheerleading about authenticity. The social media-driven realization that, “Hey! We’re all people after all!” has meant that capital-a Authenticity is, at least for now, a highly desired brand attribute.
But the whole construct of “be authentic” seems oxymoronic to me: You are what you are; you can’t be otherwise. If you have to tell people to be authentic, then you’re telling them to act in way they don’t normally act—to be inauthentic.
I ran across a panel discussion description the other day that posed the question: “Will the new economic reality redefine corporate philanthropy and what it means to be perceived as authentic?” (emphasis mine).
And that, I think, is what the advice is really about: how can institutions—and people—be perceived as authentic? The idea is that changing what we say, or the tools with which we say it (“Hey! I’m a CEO on Twitter! Look at how authentic I am!), can somehow improve our brand image.
If that’s true, does it really make a difference whether the authenticity is “real” or not?
Adrian Chan over at Gravity7 suggests it does, and I agree. Over time, authenticity—real authenticity—shows up, for reasons that are hard to identify. As pattern-driven as we are, there will be times when we’ll act against our better nature, or despite all rational evidence, or just simply because something “feels right” to us. In other words, we’ll be human.
But you can’t act human. You can’t plan for it, either, or brand it. Why? Because once your “authenticity” becomes too planned, too strategic, it loses that indefinable something that makes it real.
We spend so much time focusing on what we want to be that there’s a disconnect with what our customers and constituents experience right now. And with social media, they experience that disconnect—that inauthenticity—a lot faster than they used to.
But what if you want to be bigger? better? faster? If I can’t be otherwise, you say, how can I grow or change?
Because what you are includes what you’re capable of. And what you’re capable of relies on what makes you great—right now.
Yes, it’s hard (and Amber Naslund wrote a great post about why). And scary (because what we are usually isn’t yet what we want to be).
But really, there’s no other choice: you are what you are, you can’t be otherwise. As long as you say your brand is one thing, and your customers experience another, you’re going to be inauthentic.
I say there are only two paths to authenticity: change what you do to match what you say or change what you say to match what you do.
Which one will you do?
Categories: Branding, Strategy and Management
Food for thought
I lovelovelovelove cookies. And you know what I love about coming here every day? Everyone else loves cookies, too! (Apparently I love cookies a little too much, so says my vet….)
Adam, my human office mate, likes to make me work for my cookies, though. I’ve never had much patience when it comes to sweets. Or anything edible, for that matter—but Adam’s helped me improve that. And while I’m not sure I appreciate his approach, the cookies make it all worthwhile.
Truth is, I actually enjoy my cookies more when I have to wait. The more I wait, the more I get to savor them. Rather than wolfing them down without chewing (which does a number on my stomach), I actually CHEW the cookie. And when I take the time to chew on something, I process it much better. Sooooo tasty, sooooo good.
I never used to understand why my owners take their time with dinner. All that talking and chewing and funny faces they make with their scrunched foreheads.
But maybe they’re just chewing on something and letting it process the way it’s supposed to. Maybe, like me, they get more out of it that way. Maybe there’s a reason they sometimes slow down and enjoy things.
Especially cookies.
Categories: Quadrupedal Posts
Why my iPhone makes me miss my Game Boy
Being in charge of an office infrastructure is no easy task. Thankfully it is an office full Apple products: we use everything from Apple laptops, desktops, servers, and monitors, to now a growing population of iPhones.
The iPhone really has revolutionized the way we are able to communicate. Cliche? Absolutely. But it has also changed the way I am able to operate remotely.
Let’s say I am off site at a client meeting discussing a new web project and one of our employees back at the office runs into permissions problems with a directory on our Xserve. What can I do? Pull out my iPhone, VPN into the office, open up my VNC app and bam!, there is our lovely Apple-designed blue desktop background of our 10.5 server OS sitting there in the palm of my hand. Handy? Absolutely.
But there is also this huge push to make the iPhone the next revolutionary gaming device. Yes, I own my fair share of games (you can only check email or text so many times while on a train ride), but I am self-admittedly a video game “masher.” I was/am a button-pounder to the extreme. None of my friends wanted to let me play on their gaming systems because I would always ruin their controllers. So I eventually got my own Game Boy and pounded those A and B buttons until they were no longer. And you know what? I loved it.
So while there have been some great games that use the iPhone in unique ways, none give me the pure satisfaction of mashing away at those buttons, shooting bubbles out of Bub and Bob’s mouths to finally defeat that dragon/bottle-throwing maniac, as I did back in my Game Boy days (extra points if you can name the game…).
I will never be able to part with my iPhone and go back to a normal cell phone, but is the iPhone the gaming platform it is being pushed to be? Absolutely not. I want to mash and pound those buttons like I did while playing those games of the past. Thanks for bringing Myst and Oregon Trail to the iPhone. But seriously? If I want to play video games on a portable device, I want to be that “masher” I once was (and still am).
Sorry iPhone game developers. Keep it up, but just know that there is one man out there who is frightened to pound away on the same smartphone that is also capable of keeping his office infrastructure running smoothly no matter where he is.
Categories: Outside the Square
Face time
At recent visits to both my son’s pediatrician and my own primary care physician, it was clear that a shift in communication has occurred in health care. Both used shiny new laptops to record the visit and both were awkwardly making an attempt at eye contact and conversation while periodically turning away to enter data. The pediatrician even mentioned that the new system limits his ability to read parents’ facial expressions as they speak, an important component in his evaluation of a child’s health.
Designers may also suffer from an impaired ability to communicate when we allow ourselves to fall into techno-centric habits.
Recently, I overheard a colleague ask his team to set aside the laptops and simply discuss the tasks at hand before typing notes or making fixes on the fly. An old-fashioned conversation with eye contact ensured that everyone was listening and comprehending; the few extra minutes resulted in a more streamlined process with less subsequent rehashing of the discussion.
Sometimes delivering a layout to a client via PDF feels like sending a signal to outer space and waiting to hear what bounces back (and likewise, the client may have a similar experience on the receiving end). When there’s any uncertainty, it makes sense to avoid the ensuing flurry of e-mails by picking up the phone after clicking “Send.” Even a brief conversation has the added benefit of opening the door for other questions or concerns that can be resolved preemptively.
Technology affords us unparalleled efficiency and accuracy in design, yet it’s best coupled with face-to-face (or voice-to-voice) interaction to ensure a successful working relationship and to save both time and budget. Like my doctor’s solution of repositioning the visitor chair in front of her laptop, the designer must find ways to keep both ears (and eyes) engaged with the people they work with.
Categories: Design, Outside the Square, Strategy and Management
True Type Crime Beat: Green on green
It may have seemed like a cool, sophisticated idea to use PANTONE 369 green type on that Astrobright Vulcan Green paper when you had this epiphany in your sunny studio.
However, in the dimly amber lit restaurant, I had to excuse myself from the table and bring the menu into the restroom with me in order to order my appetizer. I almost completely lost my appetite.
To report any flagrant violations of type please contact us immediately. Together we can slow and possibly even reverse the proliferation of senseless and profane type choices simply by exposing it for what it is – criminal.
Categories: Design
Don’t talk about the matrix
The first rule of the matrix is: Don’t talk about the matrix.*
Brandon, the manager of our strategy team, jokingly said that in a meeting recently. We were talking through a concept for a workshop that would help clients establish what we call their “lobby speech”—the six-to-10-word description of your organization and why it’s important that determines whether or not someone will even let you in the elevator with them to make your “elevator speech.”
And yes, matrices were involved as a way to organize thoughts. But Brandon’s point, to which we all quickly agreed, was that even if we were actually helping clients fill in a virtual matrix, we should never in the course of the workshop talk about said matrix.
Why not? Because matrices are complicated, and generally, folks want simple.
But no, you say, matrices are designed to make the complicated simple. And you’re right. But you can’t “talk” a matrix. A matrix is only a way to organize information. It’s what’s in the matrix that matters. And it’s not even what fills in the boxes, it’s what those contents mean. And yes, there needs to be a matrix (or its theoretical equivalent) to serve as backup for the brilliant conclusion said matrix has helped you draw.
If you’re in the business of helping people and organizations figure things out, then you likely have a lot of tools you’ve developed along the way to help organize your thinking, explain your processes, and provide input and depth.
Generally, though, people don’t fall in love with the tool (my father-in-law and his woodshop aside), they fall in love with what a tool does.
What should you be giving your customers and constituents? Not form, not content. Effect.
Are you?
*Apologies to Fight Club.
Categories: Strategy and Management
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