What I really love doing…

Firstly, I want to thank all those people who took the time to read my last article and send me messages through all manner of different messaging platforms, with a few that clearly must have worn thumbprints down significantly (some of the WhatsApp messages I received had multiple chapters!). All of your thoughts, suggestions and experiences were welcomed, read with interest, and will go into the melting pot. I also appreciate the calls I’ve had since – it’s been rejuvenating to chat to people I haven’t spoken to for years in some cases, and to hear that many of the things I’ve described are shared.

For those reading this in isolation, these previous articles (Recalibration and 4 months in) might help shed some light on what this is all about.

One such message I received came with an offer to undertake some coaching which – long story short – I agreed to do as it ultimately benefitted both parties. No pressure to engage with months long schedules of meetings…just a relaxed Google Hangout chat (TBH, a few other video platforms were attempted with failed comedic results), and an opportunity to share my journey, decisions and current thinking with someone that – other than having read my posts – didn’t know me from Adam. Now I’m not a huge fan of ‘coaching’ per se, but I have to admit that it was a really cathartic and useful exercise, moreso to get me to think somewhat differently about how I might approach any next step.

I’m not planning on divulging the verbal dribbles and mind wanderings that emanated from my mouth and brain during that 2 hour call (safe to say it meandered a little), but one thing that I noted down while we were talking was the question posed to me… “What do you really love doing?”.

It’s an incredibly simple question and one which I should immediately know the answer to, but it struck me that it has become less easy to answer as I’ve become older and more institutionalised to the agency ‘game’.

So, in the spirit of sharing to which I’m becoming accustomed (and which – so far – has been received pretty well) I thought I’d attempt to describe those aspects of what I ‘did’ that I really loved doing and that I’ve had time to consolidate over the past few days. My hope is that it won’t read like a CV, but more a weird set of activities, often disconnected and hopefully reasoned to some degree. For good reason, and something I’m coming to realise, much of the below doesn't necessarily relate to design….although obviously, some still do!

I’ve written these in the order in which they occurred to me, although I could easily re-order them multiple times depending on the mood I’m in. The other thing worth noting is that I don’t dislike many other aspects of what I did, but these are the things I love.

Also, despite my kids describing what I do to people as “Colouring in for a living!” I haven’t included it in the list. I still love the description and wouldn’t change it for the world as it evokes both playfulness and skill, and the envy of any child (and some adults) who hear it, but the reality is that I haven’t actually coloured anything in for quite some time…..hey ho.

Be warned, this is a long one. You might want to grab a coffee or deal with it in chunks!

1.     Digging for the splinter

There’s a point in a meeting, workshop, session…call it what you will (just a cluster of people standing around attempting to figure something out – usually a combination of client and consultants) where somebody suggests something or an idea is mooted and a tiny little flash of lightning goes off in my head. Utterly imperceptible but something in that idea has triggered something that makes me want to keep digging. I was trying to describe it the other day and found that the nearest analogy I could find was to ‘digging for a splinter’ in your finger.

Bear with me.

You notice a small dark spot on your hand and there’s enough reactionary pain when its pressed for you not to ignore it. You explore a bit more and flit between deciding that its nothing to being utterly convinced it’s a small tree buried in your hand. You pick at the surface but the splinter doesn’t budge. So you squeeze around the edges to try and get it to emerge. That never works. Then you ask someone to have a look and reassure you its worth the effort to remove it. Another try at the ineffective squeeze. Various attempts to view it under a multitude of different light sources to see if it miraculously becomes visible. Nope. Then you go for the tools. My tool of choice is a Swann-Morton scalpel (I only note the brand name to reassure people that it’s a craft scalpel and not from a stolen surgeons tray!). I probe with the tip and attempt to open up the ‘mouth’ of the splinter entrance.

Deeper.

It starts to get a little uncomfortable and there may even be a bit of blood, but eventually the works pays off and the splinter tip allows itself to be exposed to a level that permits you to slowly lift it out with a dramatic wince and parade it around for all to admire and acknowledge. It’s a beauty.

That’s what I like doing with ideas. Getting them out of people’s minds and having them realise they were worth pursuing. Worth digging for despite the pain and discomfort.

That.

2.     'Ringer' in the room

In my job, I’m often asked to be the guy at the front or the facilitator in a group. I can do this (and am sufficiently good at it I think – I guess you’ll have to ask others), but I’m happier being the ‘ringer in the room’. By that I mean that I feel I can add significantly more value by suggesting and contributing ideas to a group, rather than being the person expected to extricate ideas from a reluctant and 'post-lunch tired' group of people. I’ve often wondered why it is that the people most trained to come up with ideas are often the ones leading the exercises and therefore not at liberty to suggest discreet ideas for fear of unfairly leading the rest.

I’m not a huge fan of contrived innovation sessions per se as I believe they are often a momentary ‘toe in the water’ of ideas from a disparate group of individuals (who often haven’t met as a assemblage until that very day) which then go on to define (possibly) large strategic shifts in a business. I’m a much bigger fan of proper time and thought, albeit it with the same set of people. Anyway, that’s for another section. I also know certain individuals who will be heaving a frustrated sigh at reading this!

Back to this.

If I am expected to be a part of an innovation workshop or some such thing, I much prefer to be one of the lowly participants who can sit quietly to form a set of connections and then suggest those as ideas to the wider group for build and agreement. I guess it helps that I know what works in sessions like these, so I’m better prepared and more able to suggest ideas that I know will fare better in these circumstances. Either way, being a ‘ringer’ is something I take huge delight in and particularly when there are others in the group who work well as sparring partners or ‘builders’. I do thoroughly enjoy having ideas and seeing those ideas take flight on the wings of others. It’s an incredibly satisfying thing but something I rarely get the opportunity to do.

3.     String free Pinocchios

Nothing has brought me more satisfaction and pride than seeing development, maturity and growth in people that have benefitted from my mentorship – if you can call it that. I don’t wish to over-egg this pudding and suggest that I am someone worth listening to, but I’ve had the great privilege of being in a position to view and spot talent, hire them and nurture this talent and exploratory roots of self-confidence to a point where they become self-standing, self-assured, humble and supremely talented creative individuals. I’ve been particularly proud of a handful who have proved me right in believing in themselves and becoming absolute superstars in everything they do.

From certain individuals who took a punt on me (as much as I took a punt on them) when I ran a small design business with a ridiculous name, to others who I’ve been able to award RSA Student Awards to and subsequently work with, and more seasoned individuals that I’ve hired or have been in my teams….thank you for making me feel incredibly grateful and allowing me to be a part of your development. It’s really important to thank these people as it as much about their desire to listen and permit a hairy, opinionated, middle aged designer like me to help them as it is about them teaching me about how to be a better leader, mentor, designer and all round human being. Mutuality and respect to benefit both parties.

The very best bit, is when those people think that they are still being directed by you, but in reality all you are doing is standing 20 yards back shouting “I’ve still got you!” as they hurtle off on their metaphorical trike, stabilisers off, picking up speed. You can sit back, smile the smile of true contentment and watch as they justifiably stretch those magnificent wings and fly away. By God, it’s an amazing feeling and something I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of.

My only condition is that those same people do the same when they are in a position to do so. I know they will.

4.     Boiling it down

I’m a huge fan of reduction. Not minimalism, but reduction. Reduction (at least in the way I’m referring to it here) is the attempt to remove as much unnecessary detritus and peripheral baggage as possible to ensure that what is left is the core essence of what needs dealing with. This can be applied to the first conversation you have with a client about a potential project brief, the directions you may choose to pursue halfway through a project, or even when you are considering the B surface of an injection moulding.

It’s a principle and something I’ve unwittingly applied to pretty much everything I do, almost sub-consciously. Maybe it’s because my brain can’t process much information at once (highly likely) but my aim in whatever I’m applying myself to, is to attempt to find the central nervous system of a problem and capture the raw building blocks, from which ideas and solutions can be formulated. I love having protracted and lengthy discussions with clients about what led them to formulate a brief, or peeling back the onion skin of company politics to ensure that whatever we are left with is worthy of the time and effort we will all spend finding a potential solution to.

Remove the peeling plaster, the damp render, the old wallpaper, the flaky paint, the persistent woodworm, the crumbling pointing and get back to the original stone wall that holds the building up. Treat the wall with the respect it deserves and build from there*. Only then will you have the confidence to say the solution is genuinely robust and sound. It’s a painful process and often met with significant resistance from those who don’t understand what you are doing, but it’s hellish rewarding. I’ve probably built some of the longest standing and most honest relationships with clients off the back of an attempt to drill down and seek the ‘bones’. Once you’ve done it and been through that pain barrier, everyone 'gets' it and you build trust. Trust that will last you a lifetime. I hold that trust very dear indeed.

*Can you tell I am currently attempting to fix up a 300 year old cottage??

5.     Drawing with a shitty HB pencil

I get bothered by our industry’s constant portrayal of ‘design talent’ as slick visual eye-candy. That’s not to suggest that people who are able to create visual masterpieces are not good designers, but it is the inference that ‘good design = nice sketches’. Wrong. I’ve seen better ideas come out of a cack-handed scribble using a biro on crappy printer paper than there have been brilliant ideas come out of some design-blog-worthy digital sketch pad with a thousand Photoshop layers. Don’t get me wrong, not all cack-handed scribbles are good and not all beautiful digi-sketches are bad, but the important thing is the intention and the thought that went into the creation.

The important thing is to think on paper (or whatever medium you choose). And the important word there is THINK. Everyone’s brains tick over at different speeds and operate in different ways. I am incapable of finishing a proper sketch before my brain is considering something else. As long as I’ve captured enough of the idea using a shitty, nibbled HB pencil on whatever empty sheet of paper based substrate is in front of me at the time, that will be enough for me to make a decision later on as to which ideas to pursue or share. I appreciate that some people need time on a sketch to conclude a thought process, but I’m pretty sure you don’t need hours on each sketch to capture it’s potential. Nobody’s brain works that slowly, and surely focussing too heavily on a single idea for too long must stifle the flow of other stuff fighting to get to the front of the queue in that creative brain of yours?

I apologise…I’ve deviated off into ‘rant zone’ when in fact this exercise is to identify and describe the things I really love doing. So, in summary, I really love scribbling. Sketching, brain dumping, noodling (coined rather well by someone I used to work with), concepting (don’t like that term at all), ideating (one that I think we’ve inherited from the US). Whatever you call it. The quick and dirty process of emptying the front of the mind of ideas in sufficient detail and potential to allow the next in line to prepare themselves and leap onto the page.

Synaptic mind pinball.

With a pencil (that you have to sharpen with a scalpel…it’s the rules!).

6.     Unfolding sceptical arms

This is a somewhat sadistic entry but bear with me.

I love it when you walk into a room to take a brief or pitch for new business and the person receiving you clearly either a) isn’t in the mood, b) is from a discipline that thinks design is pink and flouncy (possibly justifiably so depending on past experience) or c) has decided they don’t like the cut of your gib. Arms folded, closed body language, they’ve made their mind up. I see this as a challenge and one I absolutely relish.

I’m not suggesting that I like being disliked. Far from it…I’m a vain, designer type remember? I’m just a sucker for the ‘turn’. Taking scepticism and transforming it into advocacy. Or at the very least, appreciation. Invariably, those people that sit in apparent judgement have had a prior negative experience of ‘someone like me’ in the past to manifest that disdain or apathy. I know that design is a force for good and if you simply listen and address those concerns, reason, passion emotion will triumph. If you try to bombard that naysayer with sales patter and inappropriate ‘smoke and mirrors’ they will dig their heels in ever further and you won’t make it out alive.

If they genuinely don’t connect with you once you’ve had a chance to ‘re-wire’ the audience, then so be it. Move on. But I’ve probably done my best work and forged the best relationships with clients who – when I first met them – sat back, folded their arms and challenged me to a “What’s all this design mullarky about then?” verbal tennis match.

Game on.

7.     The thinky bit

I know I’ve mentioned it a few times in previous sections, but it’s so darned important I want to dedicate a section to it. I like thinking and I value it in others. Having the confidence to properly think about something, rather than simply crashing on, creating work in an attempt to look productive, is a worthy skill and something that should be applauded more often. So much of what I’ve seen peddled within the design industry is based on perceived volume and visual fidelity rather than the acuity and intellect of the thinking. I would prefer to (and would happily) present 3 creative ideas that have been rationally considered, well thought through and presented cleverly, than 10 ideas that are dynamically sketched, visually polished but shallow and ‘lazy’. It’s something that I believe is being gradually eroded from the design industry in the pursuit of other things, be it profitability, speed of response or so called ‘agility’. Apologies…I digress again...it just happens to be something I feel quite strongly about if you hadn’t already guessed.

For all the visual trickery and magic employed in the design industry, it is still the thinking that delivers the best results. Period.

Without thinking, you are simply turd polishing.

8.     Taking the bullet

Another slightly weird one. If I have a decent bunch of people working for me and they work hard, think stuff through and are diligent, then I will happily take a bullet for them. I obviously mean that in the metaphorical sense, but I feel very strongly that teams should be supported wholeheartedly if they align with what you’ve asked of them. I’m not just talking about senior responsibility from a line management point of view, but the genuine, ethical stance you would take if you felt that someone decent was being unfairly judged.

I know quite a few people who would openly say that they would, but in the reality of the moment, would kick into self-preservation and allow blame to trickle downwards, astutely sidestepping the effluent to keep their shoes shiny. I’m in the ‘lead by example’ camp. If you ask anything of anyone, you should be as prepared, if not more so, to do what has been asked of them yourself and – if necessary – step up and do it. You should also be prepared to do it quietly and maybe let it go unnoticed. It’s not about showing how good you are, its about knowing that you supported people – and showing them specifically – when they needed it.

Unrewarded reward if you will.

I know it’s odd to list this as something ‘I really love doing’ but I feel strongly about it so I’m going to leave it there.

9.     Full steam presentation mode

Like most people, I suffer from sweaty palms and stomach somersaults when expected to stand up and speak to a room full of people – be it prepared or unprepared. I get incredibly nervous but have (through various techniques learned over the years - thanks Shan!) managed to mask the ‘fear’ and appear relatively calm and confident. At least outwardly.

The first few sentences are usually a fuggy mess and invariably I forget half the stuff I intended to say. However, once I get going, there is very little to compare with that feeling. If you have prepared well and know your subject matter, you can enjoy the ride and ensure that you engage with the audience as they engage with your subject and delivery. It’s very definitely a two way street and something I feel passionate about. Nobody likes being talked AT. At least not when it comes to the types of subject matter I would typically talk about.

I was given the opportunity to talk at an annual R&D event at the invitation of a fantastic client a few years ago. The room was filled with 200+ people, all of whom were much cleverer than me, and bi-lingual (which I’m embarrassingly not!). I had a lot to get through and it was one of those talks where I was up on a stage with a head-mounted mic. Utter fear-fest in the minutes leading up to the start of my talk. I could’ve filled a bucket with the sweat coming off my palms. But a few minutes in, the room was mine, I’d figured out what to do with my hands, I was pacing like Obama, the audience were fantastic and I was as happy as a pig in the proverbial. I knew my subject matter, I wasn’t trying to be someone I’m not, I spoke to the audience the way I would talk to them as individuals and it was bloody amazing. The best bit was shortly after I walked off the stage (and naturally headed for the rest room!), a burly, bearded guy, brainier than I can ever aspire to be and looking like a modern day pirate with a bionic leg, bounced up to me, slapped me on the back and boomed “I could have listened to you for another hour!” and bounded off.

Chuffed doesn’t even come close.

10.  One of many synaptic leaps

I like riffing off other people. A bit like a frantic game of ‘pass the parcel’, I enjoy either injecting an idea or having an idea injected by others, and the mental ‘handling’ of that idea by you and those in the room or across the table to ensure that it stay afloat until someone pauses to unwrap it a little and then it’s off again. Like an emotional, ethereal game of ‘keepy–uppy’. I enjoy the collaborative role in helping keep things moving and occasionally making it change direction or morph into something completely different. You are all responsible for making a synaptic leap from the person before and suspending judgement until the synaptic ooze demonstrates that it is becoming ridiculous. Even then, it might be worth parking it and coming back to it later!

If done well, it is liberating, rewarding, genuinely innovate (in the true sense of the word) and can feed your soul.

11.  Inhabiting the CAD zone

A sub-note if you will. There are times when I love 3D CAD. Absolutely love it. It appeals to the nerdy, OCD, obsessive bits of my personality and allows me to indulge my love of 3D form and how stuff goes together. Much like driving, there’s the right way and then there’s ‘your’ way and it can often be a dangerous and aggressive animal to tame. But my goodness it’s satisfying when you do it well and things work properly. You have the ability to create forms in seconds that would take weeks to sculpt, engineer details that only microscopes can see and at the click of a button initiate manufacture in another part of the world. Insanely powerful stuff if you think about it.

Don’t get me wrong, CAD can be dull as hell and the place where creativity goes to die if not handled with care, but it is my guilty pleasure, as all those who know me will attest (particularly Niall!).

12.  Writing like I do

I’ve come to love writing. I used to absolutely loathe it and English was one of my least favourite subjects at school. But as I’ve been allowed to write as I see fit (mainly down to being my own boss for a large chunk of that time) and – to a certain extent – how I talk, I’ve come to find it a really powerful way to express myself and discuss topics that are close to me. I’m sure that there is plenty to criticise in my structure, grammar and punctuation, but I do like putting thoughts down in words and (hopefully) engaging people with what I write about.

I haven’t been given the opportunity to write much (at least not the tone I choose) in the last few years, but these recent articles have been a useful way to get back into it and to talk about subject matter that is personal and emotional, and hopefully in a way that doesn’t sound too schmaltzy and ‘self-help’? I’ve also been massively helped by the positive encouragement from those messaging me in response to my articles on LinkedIn, with suggestions to ’keep writing’. Thank you.

Phew! And breathe...

In retrospect, I’ve noted that everything I’ve identified above are actions (more or less). I’ve clearly avoided very top line generic ambitions like ‘only working on things that change the world for the better’ as statements like this don’t really help me identify my strengths and granularity of ingredients. I do, however, acknowledge that these bigger statements may help me understand the types of business I may wish to work with, and the core values I’m looking for in a future employer or partnership, so it’s certainly something I need to look at next.

I’m also aware that I’ve probably missed a whole bunch of stuff. After I’d written the sections above, I thought of many other aspects that float my boat, from the bit of the design process where a concept needs to grow some feet and anchor itself to planet earth, to the delight at visiting a manufacturing facility and speaking to people who deal with the nitty gritty shitty bits of what I do….and everything else in between. It’s a bit like writing a birthday present wish list at the age of 7. It’s endless and rambling and often makes very little sense.

My hope is that by extracting the things I love doing, I can start to understand where to focus my efforts for my next move. As I suggested at the start of the article, much of what I've discussed is not unique to design consultancy nor even design as a whole. That in itself is slightly unnerving as it potentially opens up channels of exploration that I've never really considered or would know how to approach. Having said that - whilst unnerving - it's also liberating and I look forward to seeing where it takes me next.

If you’ve made it this far, well done? You deserve a gold star.

I’d be really interested to hear from people who have done a similar exercise (thanks to Nick Chubb for already sharing something similar a few weeks back), have specific things they’d like to share along similar lines or simply want to vehemently disagree with anything I’ve said. All are welcome.

Right, off to bake some bread as I've managed to restock the bread flour!

?Russell (aged 7)