Do you subscribe to “The Writer Almanac with Garrison Keillor”? The daily subscription email that appears in my inbox from American Public Media is one of my most reliable sources of inspiration because it gives me a LAMSTAIH lens for the day and beyond. Whichever objective or client project is foremost in my mind somehow is easy to dissect or organize because of the literary jumpstart I get in the morning.
For instance, today The Writer Almanac followed its usual format: a poem and then a string of literary events that are associated with this date in history—an author’s birthday or death, the first publication of an American classic, etc. Today is the birthday of both Carl Jung and George Bernard Shaw. Here are the LAMSTAIH lenses I applied today thanks to one minute investment in an email.
Carl Jung, a psychologist and contemporary of Sigmund Freud, looked to children’s stories and fairy tales as a common source for human behavior. He coined the quintessential characters in these stories as archetypes. This word unlocked for me a way to express what we do when it comes to our work at Play, particularly around creativity and consumer insights. We know the collaborative creative process so well, that what we actually do in creativity training (through mindset and LEAF) is illuminate the creative archetypes, and help clients align with them. It creates freedom and reduces frustration to understand if you are (in Play-speak) a “Courtney or Andy” or a “Patty or Tim.” As we head into a discussion this afternoon with a local company to learn about an opportunity for applying our consumer insights capability, the word “archetype” is just the mental fodder I need to help frame all the work we have done, or to be bolder in describing how we might do it for them. Isn’t that what consumer insights is about? Organizing a demographic or target audience into discernable types for which you can more accurately determine their potential to buy or be attracted to your business?
The word “archetype” is not in itself the idea, but the inspiration. It doesn’t necessarily change any of the content in my head, but it gives me a sense of energy and purpose with which to freshly describe it, and re-believe it genuinely. Considering that word in the context of a subject that was already in my head gives me the feeling of being one step higher—having a little more perspective and a little closer to where I am headed.
Like Jung, playwright and wit, George Bernard Shaw was also born on the date. Shaw is giving me a linguistic lens, a nugget of inspiration, in his saying, “All great truths begin as blasphemies." What a great tool to use in a coaching session! Like “worst idea,” soliciting blasphemies could be extremely liberating and efficient in revealing the transformational end of the business spectrum when are reinventing a brand, product or culture. And I have always found that citing the inspiration with the creative activity helps lend credibility and engage collaboration with group of strangers who are following you blindly down a path.
Flying Buttress.
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