Insight OUT

Up and down we go like a yoyo.?

From the top to the bottom of the Need Map and back again.?

Few of us are out-and-out extroverts or in-and-introverts. We move, depending on the context.?

And why that happens, that’s where the gold lies.?

Take any category and you’ll always find some kind of freedom need. A sense of pleasure or joy. Sometimes as far as abandonment.?

But it’s generally more nuanced than that. Wanting to be uninhibited, released.?

That’s because down the diagonal lies some kind of control. To be efficient or organized . To feel disciplined or sensible or restrained or composed.?

And in all those words you can hear it too. Those pesky pests that need controlling.?

It’s the same if you shift a few degrees round the Need Map wheel.?

On the other side at the bottom you’ll always have a need for reassurance or familiarity or security or comfort or contentment. A safe place to stay.

But what if you decide to stay there forever? What then about the desire for adventure or stimulation or empowerment??

And if you decide to head towards to the top, who’ll keep you safe then??

I’ve just seen two posts that illustrate all this perfectly.?

One by Martin Wiegel, the CSO at Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO. He’s just announced his departure to start his own strategic consultancy business. The post was called ‘Because It Was Time’. He writes:?

“It is time to go out into the world as myself, unfiltered and unprotected, and to crawl out from under the corporate air cover that has for so very long supported and shielded me. To try something new.”?

Best of luck, Martin. All I can say is keep your nerve. I’m nearly 20 years up on the high-wire.?

I’ve also had my own freedom-control balancing act to pull off and I’ve had to learn to relax the control and tighten the freedom. Finish early Friday afternoon, less wine Friday evening?

Then the other example came from a recent interview with Bruce Springsteen:?

“Introversion is a funny thing. There’s a yin and a yang to it and on my own I can be very internal. And the other side of me, that I got from my mother, allows me to sing Rosalita and Born To Run and Hungry Heart. I’m Irish-Italian, so I got the blues and I got the joy at the same time.”?

As John Cusack’s character says in High Fidelity, when Springsteen appears in his bedroom to counsel on moving on from past relationships:?

“Thanks, Boss."?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Insights need tension.?

Because without that there’s no reason to run.?

No Boogeyman to keep at bay.?

No demons to control.?

And no shackles to throw off.