What is your culture capable of?

The past weekend was a rainy one here in Washington, so we once again found ourselves spending time with The Sunday Times - this time perusing Corner Office which is a great feature opportunity for established and emerging leaders. This time the article shared the observations of venture capitalist Tae Hea Nahm - and again - we gravitated to his observations on culture.

This is a very real challenge especially for the organizations we are working with who are looking to implement change in established and bureaucratic environments. As Nahm notes, "If [the] official proclamation of culture is aligned and consistent with the unofficial culture... you have the best culture. When the two are disconnected, you get chaos."

Too often we have seen and walked away from a potential engagement because the culture wars are in play. If you're encountering this kind of tension, we're happy to talk with you about how to work to help people understand and process change with a focus on ensuring we evolve the culture. We get it - as Wayne's friend Garth once said (and we're dating ourselves here) - "We fear change." But if you find yourself in the midst of a culture war, put your hands out and invite the other perspective in. We can figure it out - and that is a way better path to walk than waiting to ambush each other.

People Matter so Let's Learn to Take Care

We were struck by the op-ed which appeared in the June 21st edition of the New York Times. Christine Porath, an associate professor at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, poses a very important question: Do you want to lift people up or hold them down? We are committed to working with our clients to lifting up their people and working to build a unified team. In doing so, the very obvious first rule is to be nice to each other. Life is way too short for being rude. That's why we're so committed to understanding the nature of our clients workplace and the personalities of the team.

In this article, Ms. Porath makes the business case for valuing civility, with the article featuring a nice tool you can use to take stock of it in your organization. Uncivil and rude behavior is destructive and can sadly work to undermine creative thinking and the most innovative campaign ideas. This article presents a nice opportunity for broaching the subject of civility within the workplace and addressing the personality challenges so many of us face.

Free-Range Thinking

Where do ideas come from? We've been thinking about that a lot lately because we've been coming up with a lot of them as we work with our clients. So it compelled us to wonder why we're having so much fun and such success. And the general agreement is that we're working hand-in-hand together with our clients to examine the challenges we face in an environment that results in unfettered thinking, or what we started to call "free-range thinking."

Free-range thinking is a product of a lot of planning and structure actually, but it's all done to ensure that we create an engagement where we can examine everything and that also fosters an environment where we can all work together to answer one question, "What if we could do anything?" We welcome the opportunity to talk with you about how this works and put you in touch with folks that we believe are excellent shepherds of free-range thinking - they work the meadow where the big ideas can be found.

It's not about the budget it's about the intention

When we first engage a client we often encounter the statement, "We don't have a big budget," or "We're not quite sure what we need to spend." Which is fine - while our economy has turned a corner, the nervous buyer syndrome is still in place. We're all still very much concerned with how our marketing dollars can impact our goals.

But success isn't a function of the size of a budget. It's really a function of your intention and the ability of your organization to deliver on that intention. That's why we sit down with you first and have a conversation about your intention supported by a deep dive centered on whether you can - or the market will allow you to - deliver on that intention. Because if you are not clear on your intention and also wide-eyed about the many external factors that could interfere, no amount of money is going to help you be successful.

What's in a name?

Why the name, "Alluvus?" We're not trying to be cute. But many of us have worked for agencies that bear a couple of last names. Sometimes those folks are still around and connected with the agency, which is great. Other times they have moved on, and while the name remains on the door the spirit of the place may change. Or even worse - something called Doyle, Dane, Bernbach becomes DDB. And then you end up in the land of alphabet soup: TBWA. GMMB. BBDO. (All great agencies by the way!) But it is kind of a bummer for those brave souls who decided to strike out on their own and start it all up. Also kind of awkward. Do they find themselves saying something like, "No - I'm the second B."

For us, the name Alluvus is informed by our collective experience in working with organizations to transform their approach to marketing and communications. We welcome the opportunity to show you how we work and the fun we can have when we work together as a team to help you do what you need to really crank it up. We have found that once we start to work together and roll up our sleeves to solve big problems we do usually find that it does indeed take all of us. 

This is that - Aetna makes a commitment to mindfulness

We were really impressed with the February 27 New York Times article on Aetna's CEO, Mark Bertolini and his commitment to making mindfulness a part of Aetna. We were struck by the fact that his movement toward meditation and mindfulness was informed, in part, by a life-changing event - which is the origin of our move toward mindfulness as well. Let's hope that's not what it takes for the rest of us to consider a topic we frequently talk with clients about which is, "How do we bring Buddha into the workplace?" Mr. Bertolini seems to be doing a nice job of that at Aetna and we applaud the commitment while also ensuring that employee participation is purely voluntary.

That's basically table stakes for whether or not you want to make mindfulness a part of your workplace. If you make mindfulness a part of your work environment, just make sure you leave the choice of whether or not folks participate up to them. It has to be their choice. With that said, we remain deeply committed to ensuring that mindfulness is part of our workplace and world view. But that's our choice. We're committed to mindfulness because we have found that when we take time during the day to pause and think deeply about what we're trying to accomplish, we can really focus on what we can affect - and that moment has the potential to change everything. This is that.

When it comes to planning - channel your inner sailor

And I'm no sailor. But! One of the most effective analogies I have come across that informs how we can think about success metrics is from the book, "Future Ready." This is an excellent book that is all about business forecasting. (It's also a great resource for any marketer that is also thinking about what success can look like.)

The authors make the point that when it comes to forecasting, some (or is it many?) organizations rely upon a traditional budgeting mindset. When they encounter a variance in regard to the original budget someone inevitably shouts to "get back on plan." But a budget - like a marketing plan - is a snapshot in time. It is probably a great record of our thoughts at that time, but what the variance is telling us is that as we move through the budget cycle, things may change.

So, when it comes to managing your marketing effort - think like a sailor. Your marketing plan is more like a map. Use your map to help keep you informed as to where you are and where you want to be. Then identify those success metrics that can serve as important measures that help you understand if you're on or off course. And like the sailor that encounters a change in wind speed, use your success metrics to help you understand what you need to do to change course so that you can arrive at your destination. Just don't worry so much if the journey doesn't happen as planned.