08 Aug How to tap into your A-game
To thrive in today’s high pressure, high expectations marketing world, you need to be more than a high performance “corporate athlete”. You need to bring another dimension.
You need to bring your A-game. That is, your “Art-game”.
So what is the A-game and how do we bring more art to our work? The A-gamers MO is ‘think like a professional, act like an artist’. The focus is on creativity. And not just creativity in the sense of radical thinking and new ways to view the world. Rather, the ability to take the crucial steps to action/realise that creativity. To take on interesting problems and lead others to do so too.
A-gamers bring their whole selves to the office, not just their work avatars. They recoil at the idea of surviving. They’re only into thriving, regardless of the environment. They fight their battles on the battlefield and evoke old school concepts of grace and boldness back into the corporate theatre.
Here’s a few ways tap into your A-game:
If you’re tackling new and interesting problems, such as a new brand launch, addressing a significant competitive threat, adopting a new technology, or revamping an old brand, approach them like a drawing:
- Frame the subject (in this case, your problem/brief/launch). Frames provide context and focus to problems which sharpens your interpretation and solutions.
- Overlay a grid pattern on the subject to break it into smaller components. Sketching a hand for example is deceptively tough, but put a grid over it and you’ll see it’s much easier. For problem solving, this simply means break big problems to smaller and more manageable ones.
- Take your time. Slow down the pencil and focus on the line you’re creating. In our hyper-digitised, internet-think world, time is something we rarely allow ourselves. Some say “time is money” and they’re right – take more time, earn more money.
When it comes to starting a new project, act like a painter. Painters start their work without the certainty of knowing the final outcome and they can live with this uncertainty. They simply take action. There’s very little effort, very little thinking, they just start with a brush stroke. Everything after that is an evolution.
Sounds contradictory to corporate style project micromanagement right? But anyone who has managed complex projects knows that just getting started and creating momentum is the single biggest contributing factor to success. There is boldness in starting something new.
Once you’ve started a project or commitment, act like a professional writer. Writers sit down, everyday and, well, write. Regardless of how they feel, regardless of writer’s block, regardless of inspiration. They get on with it. Resolutely. Unflinchingly. And yet gracefully.
When you bring your A-game to the workplace, you display grace and boldness in all your actions. While the world around you gets tougher, you might find work becomes more productive and enjoyable. And who doesn’t want that? Game on.