I Think…

Powerful words right there and not used as often as you might think. Most of us have pretty strong opinions about everything from national politics to how LOST ended. nike pegasus But I’ve found that many of our fellow humans don’t really share what they really think about business decisions, especially in corporate environments. And this collective lack of thinking (or expressing same) leads to some awesome decisions like:

• Starbucks deciding to racially profile its customers and engage in casual discussions about race relations in its stores. (um…how about no.)
• Budweiser playing fast and loose with the subject of date rape and taking it’s “up for whatever” campaign into dangerous new territory. (up for dumb marketing ideas?)
• Bill Cosby thinking it might be fun to have social media networks “meme” him. nike internationalist Which of course led to fresh allegations and the consummate destruction of his entire career and legacy. (a classic example of social media gone wild)

And the list goes on and on… nike air presto In my experience, thinking doesn’t always happen. In fact, it rarely does. Most people are afraid to say what they think. Oh, they’ve been taught well from an early age to just shut it and get in line. asics france Those who don’t are punished in various ways. We as a society made up of people and organizations of those people continue to punish those who disagree, those who say the emperor has no clothes when the dude is clearly friggin’ naked. We’ve all been in those meetings. nike air max 1 Hell, you might be in one right this minute. And stop reading your phone during a meeting — it’s just rude! Happy to say that I do actually think and I do express my counsel to my clients on a regular basis in an attempt to help them avoid such massive blunders on my watch. I see thinking and expressing it as a duty to them and I don’t take those two words “I think” lightly. They are important because what comes after is going to be a recommendation from me, their trusted communications adviser. Am I always right? Nope. And no one is. Am I right this time? Probably. (But that only comes from seeing quite a lot and being wrong quite a lot before) More people need to stop and think before they just do marketing-related things. Thinking is powerful. And expressing what we’re thinking to our clients and to the world can be the first step to really changing things for the better.