Strands of Genius: Strategy Sprint: Beyond Boring Briefs, Three Tenets, Aphorisms, How To Stop Doomscrolling
plus our thoughts on what a brief is, or could be
WRITING FROM | Greenville, SC
WORKING ON | a brief sprint for http://schoolofstolengeni.us
LOOKING AHEAD
June 8-12 | Beyond Boring Briefs Sprint on SOSG
June 15 | Out of Office Hours for Apprentices on SOSG
:: WHAT’S NEW & WEEKLY GRATITUDE ::
Hello stranded Stranders. How you doing? Lots of feelings coming up at the moment aren’t there. Hard to know what to worry about most, what do to first, hard to parse all the feelings, hard to think about anything else. Lots of outrage, so much going on, tempers are frayed and everyone is red raw. It feels hard to talk about anything except everything that’s happening. Feeling overwhelmed?
Breathe. Everyone is. We are. It’s OK. That’s normal. I’d be more worried if I wasn’t worried, I think.
But. Breathe. You have permission to take a break. You need to take care of yourself if you want to help anyone else. Lots of small actions make a difference, in your life and to the world.
We need you, so look after you. This week we’ll look at some oblique wisdom that might help you do that.
This week, we’re especially thankful for:
Rachel&Mike&Stella&Chase for hosting us again, some sun, the tireless work of so many people in USA and around the world to maintain the momentum needed to create real change [Minneapolis City Council just passed a veto-proof majority vote to disband their police department and replace it with something fit for purpose], the messages of support, Nadiya Hussain [her show and recipes], and a little bit of Minecraft Dungeon.
THE SCHOOL OF STOLEN GENIUS PRESENTS
WEEK-LONG COURSE/SPRINT: BEYOND BORING BRIEFS
Yesterday we launched a week-long sprint for those looking to put their thoughts into action when it comes to briefs and the briefing process. You’ll be given prompts to guide you, and thought exercises designed to complete each day, with time to reflect before completing the next step. We’ve facilitated workshops about getting to better briefs around the world, with agencies of all shapes and sizes — and these are some of the prompts that have led us to better briefs.
You’re welcome to begin any time, but for those who complete the course this week, you’re invited to join us in a discussion on Friday. We’ll host an #OutofOfficeHours on ZOOM for our Apprentices, and Members have an opportunity to buy a single pass to the discussion for $25. [We’re hoping that if you work for someone else, you might be able to expense this.]
:: THE LINKS ::
THE THREE TENETS
Our friend, the outsider artist and generally awesome dude, Steve Chapman, introduced us to the three tenets of the Zen Peacemakers: Not Knowing, Bearing Witness, Compassionate Action. The idea is to put aside fixed ideas about the world, become comfortable with not knowing because we can never know everything, witness the joy and suffering of life - including your attachments and judgements, and allow those two inform how you act with love and compassions. (Zen Peacemakers)
THE WISDOM OF APHORISMS
Even if you love philosophy, it’s fine to accept that reading the primary texts of many philosophers isn’t fun, or very accessible. Many of the great modern philosophers were attempting to create holistic systems of thought [see Kant] and are rigorously logical. The beauty of aphorism is that they explain philosophy through somewhat ambiguous fragments, that always require interpretation. The work like Zen koans, for the philosophically minded. (AEON PSYCHE)
HOW TO STOP DOOMSCROLLING
The combination of an attention economy, algorithms built to maximize money through engagement, human’s innate negativity bias [to keep us safe from threats we overweight negative attention, the truly insane political situation all over, and ongoing protests, scares, media scandals etc. means that many of us are spending way too much time scrolling through terribleness. It’s bad for you, even as it makes you feel like you are informed. It’s a medical concern - the WHO released this guidance: “The sudden and near-constant stream of news reports about an outbreak can cause anyone to feel worried. Minimise watching, reading or listening to news about Covid-19 that causes you to feel anxious or distressed … Seek information updates at specific times during the day, once or twice.” (The National) [BONUS: We’ve been thinking about this for a while and developed the Media Pyramid to help.]
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:: WHAT WE’RE THINKING ABOUT: WHAT IS A BRIEF ::
For our first strategy spring with the School of Stolen Genius, we are deconstructing and reconstructing briefs. They are often the most contentious strategic artifact in the creative process.
Based on the word itself, we can assume a few things about them: they are short, succinct summaries, that instruct or inform someone thoroughly for a task. Cool, cool.
But the nature of the brief in advertising makes it a flashpoint for different modes of thought, a negotiated treatise between clients, account teams, planners or strategists, and creative folk. That’s already a lot.
A brief is a piece of communication and, like all strategic artifacts, it is designed to make something happen. It has multiple audiences, and it must both frame the right solution space and inspire people who are easily bored. It can be a question to answered and it can be an answer to be articulated. It doesn’t have to be static, but it should provide you guidance.
The big problem with briefs, we think, is that people forget to apply critical thinking, or even strategic thinking to the brief and the briefing process. It’s a shame. We’re trying to push back against that, to help you question what you’re working with, and how it could be better.
:: AND NOW…CAN SCORPIONS SMOKE ART SALE ::
If we can ever be of help to you, even outside of a formal engagement, please don’t hesitate to let us know.
rockON,
faris & rosie & ashley | your friends over at geniussteals.co
@faris is always tweeting
@rosieyakob hangs out on instagram
@ashley also writes for deaf, tattooed & employed
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It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.
Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. Our Director of Operations is nomadic like us, our accounting team is based out of Washington, our company is registered in Tennessee, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.
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