To step off the elevator and hear the receptionist say, “Good morning,” is nice and just fine, but you really haven’t been given anything special. When you read the brief and the brief is clear, that, too, really isn’t a big deal. And when you’ve answered that brief, so what. When you’ve delivered the deliverables, included the mandatories, utilized all the equities, big whoop. When all your decisions were sensible, you covered your ass, covered your client’s ass, did everything you should do and everything your client believes his or her boss thinks should be done, it’s no big deal. Compiling a fat deck of research? Absolutely no big deal. When you’ve been current and fashionable and “on trend,” it’s no biggie. When your client is pleased, when she is impressed that you’ve done so much work, when he compliments the coffee and cookies, it’s not that big a deal. When your meeting began by reviewing the objectives, wrapped up by going over “next steps” and ended on time, it is not worthy of applause. After the meeting, if you can’t, in hindsight, think of anything you could regret, that, too, is not a big deal. When the creative director doesn’t kill the work, the work is merely alive. When you’ve scored just above the ASI norm, what’s the big deal? When the client does all the talking and the agency all the listening, it’s not ideal. When you know exactly, exactly! what it will take to make the client happy, that’s not even a big deal. Where’s the gift in that?
Yes, we often wish that we could be satisfied with meeting expectations. Having done so, usually takes a big load off our mind, but it shouldn’t really warrant the boss’s deepest gratitude or instill the greatest pride in the people who create the work.
The thing is, creativity involves a leap in the dark, fundamentally in search of something new, something unpredictable, something for which there is no precedence. But what kind of culture is wired so you feel something’s wrong when you’re feeling kinda good? What kind of attitude assures that we will find spectacular things when we don’t know what we’re looking for? What if we were wired to always exceed expectations?
What’s a big deal? A big deal is considering important decisions to be only those that cause people to think and respond in ways they hadn’t thought of. It’s knowing that great work may not contain any of the words stated in the RTB. It’s arriving on a Monday morning and the receptionist telling you a dirty joke. When the earth moves, that’s a big deal. So is pushing against the gravitational pull of what has worked in the past. It’s a big deal that play be more important than predictability, when our greatest service is to service serendipity. It’s a big deal when we get to work out the details and fix the mistakes as we go along, when the most motivating thing in the world is, “I wonder what will happen if I do this?” and the greatest reward is hearing, “Holy shit! Where’d that come from?”
When working to meet expectations, we look forward to satisfaction from a predictable process that will produce only what we––and our clients––have the right to claim. Exceeding expectations goes beyond what anyone can claim, or take away from us. That’s why great ideas always feel like a gift or, rather, like you’ve arrived at a destination that is both surprising and wonderful.
So, let’s be thankful for the most amazing and wonderful gifts of all. Why not slip a bonus in the stocking of the account person who got the client to veer off a differentiation map and feel lost, if only for a moment. Let’s toast those amazing ideas that weren’t bought –– because we should never forget how precious they are. Let’s put our thanks and our inspiration where it counts, embolden the creative spirit.
And here’s to keeping the holiday spirit alive throughout 2013.
