Engaging on the right orientation: Victim or Creator Orientation? American psychiatrist Stephen Karpman has proposed a remarkable model for human interaction - The Drama Triangle. As the name suggests, there are three roles we can play at work, at home and in life: The Victim ("Poor me", "This always happens to me"), The Prosecutor ("It's my team's fault", "It's because of COVID"), and The Rescuer ("My team can't do it without me", "I know better and it's my job to share my views"). People can take one or all three roles at any given time. The dynamic of moving around these three roles can be thought as the Victim Orientation. A much better alternative is to adopt a Creator Orientation - under this mindset, the three roles change: The Victim becomes the The Creator ("What is the opportunity here?", "What the universe is teaching me?"), The Prosecutor becomes The Challenger ("How can I make this situation better? What is my role here?"), and The Rescuer becomes The Coach ("What better alternatives are out there? What my gut is telling me that I might be ignoring?"). This is a super powerful tool to be applied to your personal leadership journey, your team's dynamics, with your spouse and kids, and to any other human interaction. Can you recognise your default orientation? Which role do tend you play the most? What some of the things you can do to adopt a Creator Orientation? There is a wonderful book called "The Power of TED" that in a very simple way, explains how to best leverage the Drama Triangle for good. Click here for details about the book and a small video from the author, David Emerald.
Enduring leadership: There is so much out there on the topic of leadership, on having a vision, be engaging, deliver results, and the list goes on. I want to raise awareness on the other, more enduring side of leadership, the idea of being vulnerable, humble, not afraid of failure. I want to remind us and invite you to reflect on the wonderful manifesto by Theodore Roosevelt, called THE MAN ON THE ARENA
What comes up to you when you read this? What does it mean in practice? When was the last time you dared greatly? How did you feel? Brene Brown often refers to this manifesto when she talks about her best-seller book Daring Greatly I want to leave you with this more light-hearted version of the same point about leadership (click here) and a question to ponder: When is it appropriate to be a follower?
Emotional connections: Many marketers, particularly if you work on a perceived commodity category (e.g. oil, chemicals, paper, insurance, etc..), feel it's hard to add emotions to their customer experiences, their campaigns and the stories they tell. "How can I add emotions when I talk about chemicals? Or my new CASH ISA?" I want to debunk this perception by reminding us all that we are dealing with humans. And there is no human without emotions. And our job is not to settle...not to be satisfied with a superficial customer insight and hide behind the "commodity card". You need to keep digging deeper and focus on trying to really understand that human insight you can tap into. I want to invite you to reflect on these three examples of emotions (some not so happy bit still strong emotions) being applied to "commodity" categories and think: What can you learn and reapply to your own brands, campaigns and the way you tell you stories? Can you try to spot what was the customer insight behind these three examples?
Example 1: Google telling their story
Example 2: Metro Australia connecting through humor, disgust, and despair
Example 3: MetLife uses sadness to connect with the audience
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