The100: Creativity conditions, the culture myth and Norwegians

Best of both(ism)

If you’ve ever been accused of sitting on the fence, here’s your splinter edged comeback: you’re applying bothism. Duh.

Bothisms: The rare capacity to not only see the value of both sides of the story, but actively consider and then co-opt them into any subsequent marketing endeavour in an appropriate mix.

The Great and Powerful Ritson, 2020

The good professor discusses applying Bothism to market research, then proceeding to do the same for comms, positioning, and targeting.

Him being interrupted by his dog also tickled me more than it should have. 2020 in an extra furry nutshell.

Preserving nuance

Noise is often considered a negative influence on judgment. However, The Behavioural Scientist argues that noise still has its benefits and shares examples in support:

Across many contexts, our enthusiasm for clearing out noise sometimes leads us to throw out useful – even vital – information, especially when top-down approaches dominate bottom-up contributions to define what matters.

In assuming that our values and lived experiences are universally shared, we risk insufficiently interrogating how they deviate from those for whom we are designing.

The conditions for creativity

Ethan Bernstein, an associate professor at the Harvard Business School, has been researching the best conditions for creativity and whether that’s individual work or collaboration.

The answer? Intermittent collaboration:

Intermittent collaboration followed by periods of individual focus served as complements, creating a rhythm conducive to breakthroughs.

Bothism? Is that you again, dear friend?

But how to carve out time for periods of such individual focus?

Here’s making time to do our best work… Courtesy of The Do Lectures, the people responsible for the regular re-familiarisation with my knees as I bow to their ingenuity.

The culture myth

Culture is at our cookie dough core here at Watch Me Think. But then we’re only a team of 25.

As Bruce Daisley explains, culture is much more difficult to embed in larger companies, who should instead focus on getting small teams in sync.

What mattered was the team that people were in – who they worked with, rather than the slogans of the firm. There was more variance of experience of work within companies than between companies.

An excellent NYT interview with Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings has a fascinating section (about half way down) on the ‘Netflix Way’ and their culture.

3.2 million Norwegians

Standing steady since 1919 are the 37 possible story frameworks.

Number 12 (possessed of an ambition) perfectly represents the history of TikTok. Whilst the chaotic hive of score settling at Nissan is number 19 (vengeance) to a tee.

Where does Hurtigruten Minute by Minute fit? A live, Norwegian TV broadcast of the entire 134 hour boat journey from Bergen to Kirkenes (here’s it in 36m).

What a thriller.

Yet, out of a population of 5 million, 3.2 million Norwegians tuned in. The producer explains how the fjord they did it in a highly amusing TED Talk. h/t Keerti Nair

Who you gonna call?

Groans galore in this Twitter thread of jokes. Face, meet palm. But you’ve gotta love them.

Finally, for fans of the original Ghostbusters, have a look at the two minute film they created to pitch the movie. I wonder if this still happens?