Expertly Done
Prepare for a butchering of this quote: “An expert is someone who knows more and more about less and less. ” Or something.
Here’s the current bug up my *&^: To be creative, is it important to be an expert in the subject matter? We just got out of a great new biz pitch. The team was great, the deck was solid, and we were good in the room – rapport, engagement… the whole schpeil.
The problem is this: we are most definitely NOT experts in their field. We’re have some people in the network who had a serious personal interest in the client – but no real work experience. Should the client hire us? Does this make us more or less creative? I concede that in order to apply smart strategic thinking, you need to understand the landscape. The audiences. The marketplace and its trends. But do you need to be an expert? I’d suggest not.
I’ve said it before; never let the ghosts of past success out-vote original thinking. But I’ll take that a step further: don’t let the ghosts of past failures determine what you can or can’t do. When you know a category inside and out, upside down and backwards and forwards, you know what works and what doesn’t, right?
Wrong.
You know what you’ve done in the past. A million variables and a million decisions influenced success and failure. It’s a challenge to view the world with a fresh perspective. New eyes. The naivety of the inexperienced. I don’t want to know the mountains that haven’t been climbed. Not interested in the crashing and burning of the past. I want no idea of how things are stacked against me. I wanna dive into the pool head first. I can worry about whether or not it’s filled with water later the water later.
The next time you get an assignments, bring people together who have no idea about your product, industry or client. See what they can bring to the table. Sure, the might have ideas that have been tried and failed a million times before. But the fresh perspective will inspire. Invigorate. It’ll free you. And in terms of execution?
I’ll leave that to the experts.
xoxo
marc