Every once in awhile I come across something that just stops me in my tracks. Today, I saw that a guy named Mitch Anthony started following me on Twitter (in the guise of twitter.com/underpaidgenius, where I haven’t tweeted since 2012).
His Twitter bio tantalized:
Idea wrangler. Systems thinker using design & branding processes to help organizations thrive. Principal at strategy firm Clarity
I clicked through to his website and discovered this:
The Clarity Manifesto
- Mission and messaging are inextricable—two strands of the same thread. When you work on a company’s message, you are working on its mission.
- A clear message that is clearly understood by everyone in the company has the catalytic effect of aligning everyone’s intentions and energies toward the same goal. It’s simple cultural physics.
- Most companies separate strategy and storytelling functions. This is a huge waste. The branding and design process is a uniquely powerful strategic development tool.
- The best way to discover a company’s best opportunities is to listen—to each other, to stakeholders, to the marketplace, and to customers. Not coincidentally, listening is the beginning of good design.
- Every element of the design and delivery of a service or product is part of an integrated whole. It’s a system whose parts want to work together. Systems thinking is a tool for making sure they do.
- “The best way to predict the future is to design it.” —Architect, systems theorist, and futurist Buckminster Fuller
- Conventional change management is obsolete. What works is open, honest, and transparent communication between team players, collaborators, and customers.
- Systems thinking can create change very quickly, but it’s a practice, not an event. The system is alive; nothing stands still.
- People are social first. What motivates us best is an understanding of our collective goals, our role in achieving those goals, and how we’re doing.
- It’s not advertising that makes a product or service successful. It’s great design or great service. Take the iPad: marketing is just fuel for the fire.
This guy is now on my ‘people I’d really like to have to dinner’ list.
from Stowe Boyd http://stoweboyd.com/post/141309483647
