What The Apprentice taught me about perspective
Yes I still watch The Apprentice.
My wife and I still religiously watch The Apprentice. It may have lost some of its lustre in recent years - we’re halfway through the latest series, and I still feel most of the candidates haven’t got a hope in hell - but it’s still appointment viewing in our house.
One of the most common phrases the contestants use is "I'd buy something like that" or “Well, I like the terrible brand I just invented, even if the focus group hated it”. No matter the product or idea, whether a box on wheels or a poorly printed t-shirt, the would-be apprentices and business partners claim they'd part with their cash for their product or brand.
Laughing at Apprentice contestants is admittedly easy pickings, like laughing at the AI hustlers on LinkedIn. But it points to a more profound psychological point anyone working in comms also faces - escaping our egocentricity.
It's hard to look at a topic from someone else's POV. As Tim Harford says in an old FT column, "We can't help but see things from our own perspective". Harford cites a couple of academic studies which show how overconfident participants were in getting their points across; we know what we mean, so of course, our audience will understand.
They might understand, but not unless you ask them and make sure. Not unless you get some feedback and are prepared to listen to that feedback. In fact, my other favourite trope of Apprentice episodes past is when a hapless sub-team does "market research".
Market research on The Apprentice is generally a Sisyphean task; team leaders ALWAYS completely ignore said market research, no matter how much consumers hate the product/idea. Again, it's ego and innate human nature that are to blame. We don't want to see the flaws in our creations. We don't want to have to start all over again. Starting over is HARD. But of course, as anyone who has seen a beautifully constructed creative idea fall apart in front of their eyes can testify, it's often for the best.
We need that feedback, and we need that fresh perspective to break ourselves out of our pre-existing singular viewpoint. Multiple perspectives and different points of view are generally always valuable when planning campaigns or coming up with ideas. They provide richness and additional layers to our thinking.
It's also worth reiterating that gathering feedback and getting different points of view doesn't mean succumbing to groupthink and including everyone's builds - no one wants to end up with a hideous Frankenstein's monster of an idea.
That means it's crucial to be judicious about whose perspective you seek. Speak to your target audience, those with subject matter expertise, and those people whose opinions you trust.
Avoiding groupthink relies, to a certain extent, on having a diversity of views. Ideally, you want someone in your network you trust for their candour. Maybe also someone who loves to get into the detail of an idea - who asks, "How is this ACTUALLY going to work?".
If you don't know people like this, you could also approach your idea from that perspective. Untools is a fantastic resource for "better thinking" - it includes an approach called Six Thinking Hats. It gives you ideas of ways to add a new perspective to your plans. There's also a fascinating psychotherapy approach called "chairwork", where participants use physical chairs to have imagined conversations with different audiences. Now, chairwork might be a little too deep for that last-minute Christmas brief you're working on, but the principle of putting yourself in someone else's shoes, moving beyond "I'd buy something like that", is never a bad idea.
It's so easy to get wrapped up in your ideas, to be hindered by the "curse of knowledge". A fresh perspective, particularly relevant, informed perspective, will only ever enhance your ideas. And it will hopefully mean you avoid ending up with the comms equivalent of the Tidey-Sidey or the Book-eeze.
A slightly shorter post from the archive this week, as I am on holiday.