Strands of Genius: Why Can't Life Be Simpler, Argument for Precision, Creating Psychological Safety To Drive Better Creativity

Guest curated by Janene Warsap, Marketing Excellence Director at Associated British Foods (ABF)

May 04, 2023

:: A BIT MORE ABOUT GUEST CURATOR, JANENE WARSAP::

LOCATION: Berkshire, UK

Rosie & Faris came to my rescue at the start of 2022, when I was looking for someone to come and build our capability on comms and creative development. They blew us away with their pitch and bagged the brief. I’m based in the UK and are responsible for building marketing excellence and capability development within ABF (Associated British Foods). ABF is an international food and retail business and I work in the Grocery division UK which covers 7 of our FMCG food businesses and about 100 marketers. We are just wrapping up our year long programme with Genius Steals, which has helped push our thinking and provided us with great tools and stimulus keeping us at the forefront of creative effectiveness. It’s also given us a valid insight into how creative teams work and we've talked a lot about how we inspire great work. I’m excited to see how the teams bring this to life with our brands over the next few years.

Editor’s Note (Genius Steals): We’ve had an absolute blast working with Janene and her team over at ABF, and we’re thrilled to have her as a guest curator this week. She has been the best possible client, a true partner in our approach and thinking, gathering and filtering feedback from her various teams, working with us to adapt and adjust and make everything work better for them, and generally making our lives easier. Thanks Janene! Be sure to check out her interview, which we’ll publish this Friday — It’s full of wisdom as well!

:: THE LINKS ::

WHY CAN’T LIFE BE SIMPLER

I recently toured Vietnam with my family discovering the culture and history, meeting the people and enjoying the food. It struck me through the conversations I had with locals how ‘simple’ they feel life can be, and how they focus on taking value from the important things in life: a home, family, a good education for their kids. It made me reflect on what I value, what I should be grateful for, and how I could simplify my life a little. For me, a simple life is about knowing the things that are important to you and then creating a pathway to having them in your life. Sounds simple right? This Forbes article does a great job of making it so with some self-coaching questions that can help you think through how you can simplify your life. (Forbes)

BE MORE PRECISE!

Richard Shotton has recently released his second book – The Illusion of Choice: 16 ½ psychological influences that influence what we buy. He claims that we are more likely to trust and believe precise figures over approximations or rounded up numbers. He refers to a test ad for a deodorant which claimed either that half the people who used it reduced perspiration by 50%, or by 47% . The group that saw the more precise 47% claim found it to be more believable and trustworthy than the more general 50% claim. He says that over time people learn that specificness implies knowledge and certainty whereas vagueness implies doubt and is less credible. You can check out Richard talking to Jon Evans on the Uncensored CMO podcast to hear about some of the other bias that drive our purchasing behaviour. (Uncensored CMO)

CREATING PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY TO DRIVE BETTER CREATIVITY

“The relationship between psychological safety and performance is stronger in situations where the results or work aren’t prescribed, when you’re doing something creative, novel, or truly collaborative.” So says Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson. As someone who has responsibility to facilitate personal growth and development in the teams I work with, it’s important that I create an environment of psychological safety to make sure people feel they can be open and honest about their needs and areas for development, as well as feeling happy to contribute. How do you ensure psychological safety exists within your teams to ensure better work? (HBR)

Looking for more from Janene Warsap? Coming Friday, look for an interview from her in your inbox!

:: AND NOW… SOME FAST FAVORITES ::

:: Game :: Phase 10 card game

:: City :: New York

:: Book :: Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

:: Podcast :: Uncensored CMO

::PASSION FOR INSPIRATION::

One of our core capabilities for building our marketers is to have a curiosity and a passion for understanding and observing people. Someone we use to bring this to life is Michael McIntyre, an English comedian. His observational comedy is a great place to get inspiration and insight. Working in the food industry this is one of my favourites.......

Stay Curious!
Janene

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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.

Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)

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