Deviant Exercises
Deviant Iconoclasts exercise
The following 5 visionaries are true innovators and iconoclasts who lived the idea of Be Deviant. They pushed their thinking and their companies to the fries of the bell curve and made significant, enduring change.
Now imagine one of them was put in charge or your company, your brand, your life. What who he/she do? What would they never do? How would they deviate from the norm?
Simply fill in the following blanks and answer the following questions for a new, deviant, lens into your current situation.
- Steve Jobs
- Richard Branson
- Elon Musk
- Walt Disney
- Oprah Winfrey
The Deviant I selected was: __________
If ______ was in charge of my ______ (company, brand, life), the first thing he/she would do is _______. He'd stop ______ing and he's never ________ with ______ again.
In his/her first 100 days on the job he/she would start: _______________
He/she would definitely stop: ____________________
He/she would absolutely continue: __________________________
He/She would start an initiative to __________________________________ no matter what it took to make happen.
And he/she would see the opportunity in _______ and change all of our _____ to ______.
Three things he/she would absolutely do:
1.______________________
2. ________________________
3. ________________________
Deviation through cultural fuel
Here are 5 “cultural fuel” truths – trends and convergences that are going on in our society and our markets right now that are effecting the future of our world – how we live, make, share and participate.
Pick one or all of these cultural fuel truths and explain how this trend/ movement/ convergence could effect you, your brand, or your organization and how behaves in the world.
How could this cultural fuel truth effect your life, brand, company?
How could you use this cultural fuel truth to your advantage?
What would you have to break, change or deviate from in order to make this happen?
The blending of cULtures
America has never been more of a melting pot. Cultures, cuisine and customs and blending and melding together and creating new combinations and flavors like never before. So much so that National Geographic conducted a study to see what the typical American will look like in 2020 – we will be multiethnic, multicultural, and multifaceted – creating combinations of attributes and identities never before seen on earth.
Fragmentation
Our country, our communities and most industries have become/are becoming bifurcated, leaving those at the top and those at the bottom, with many in middle gone. This has produced few superpowers, and many struggling to stay alive. It has mandated scale in many circumstances. And it has birthed many regional or targeted players. The polarization of the very top and very bottom at the expense of the middle is an ever-increasing phenomenon seen in culture, business, economics and in many organizations and shows no immediate signs of slowing down.
SHARING
The sharing economy isn’t a pipe dream. It is a reality. From houses and cars, to shovels and lawnmowers, to left-over food and micro-loans – the sharing economy has blossomed into a sharing culture championed primarily by Millennials who see power and safety in numbers. With less people buying and owning and more and more people connecting and sharing – the world will be a very different place in the next 20 years.
SPEED
In the history of the world, the speed – of everything – has never been faster. The speed of service, the speed of innovation, the speed of imitation, have all increased exponentially in the past 25 years. Technology and globalism have redefined the expectation and definition of what it means to be “instantaneous.” In order to compete, or even survive, in this hyper-accelerated environment, companies, brands and individuals must also redefine their sense of speed (and their relationship to it) and expand their own expectation of what they are able to do, and how fast they can possibly do it.
The evolution from Culture
to Movement
Our culture has evolved into a culture of movements – of like-minded people banning together to protest, make change, share services, purchase goods -- and in myriad ways – attempt to live better. Given this “culture in activism” where people are ever increasingly inspired to rise up for an idea or against an idea, organizations, brands and individuals will need to consider how to inspire and unleash the passions people in their core audience, harnessed through a values-based approach to community and behavior. This is the age of the activist in every aspect of culture – organizations, brands and individuals will need to redefine their role in this culture of movements.
