Seen in Chroma Inc
Catching up with the enormous RSS backlog, I stumbled upon this video of John Grant talking about Planning's Midlife Crisis. John mentions the crossroads typical of a midlife life crisis stage in which one road leads to stagnation and the other leads to "generativity".
In contrast to stagnation (in which many of the same old ideas and behaviours are repeated, and we get bored and depressed), the path of generativity emerges when we take on bigger issues, or even a higher calling.
In John's case, this has meant applying his skills, energy and focus on sustainability, but it struck me that there a quite a few similar "big questions" that can lead to generativity for planner types. I'm thinking of course of things like education or politics (Obama?), where there are huge opportunities to do really exciting stuff as a result of the seismic changes in media. We're just at the tip of the iceberg with those two as it stands. Lots of exciting opportunities for planners, I imagine. Organizing for positive social change (as Clay Shirky argues) is still in its infancy, so there is lots to do there.
In my case, and I suspect this may be true for a few other
planner/blogging geek types, what makes me tick and probably qualifies
for "generativity" is the belief that planners can help make the world
a slightly better place these days, by helping brands be more generous,
more useful or more interesting. This has nothing to do with
technology, or "digital media". That's putting the cart before the
horse.
The really exciting part is the human, cultural and social shifts that media and technology are making possible, and are making it necessary for brands to adapt to. Not in order so they can reach their target better to deliver a message, but to fundamentally change the ways in which they behave.
Do good, be generous, spread love (shit, that's hippy talk, right?).
Incidentally, the timing for me to catch John's talk couldn't be any better, as I start the new gig this week. For someone that spent the better part of the last couple of decades as a DJ whose job it was to make people feel good, have a great time and spread love, all this talk of "generativity" in a brand new role couldn't be any more perfect.
