When you’re moving at the speed of light it’s easy to think those who don’t keep up just don’t get ‘it.’

• Word processing software is so productive, why do they even make pencils anymore? (We still use about 100 million a year.)
• Email is fabulous, why phone? (Oops, showing my age. Substitute Twitter)
• Online listings are always up to date. Why do 19 billion paper catalogs keep showing up in my mailbox? (At least it feels like my mailbox.)

Innovation Reality Check.

If you are in a dynamic product development environment your eyes might be so focused on the future that you miss opportunities in maturing markets simply because it seems passe’. (Buggy whips anyone?)

I was involved in a project that expected a significant number of senior participants. It was a bit high-tech but seemed well thought through. Usage was dismal.

“They don’t get technology.”
“They’re afraid of computers.”
“They’re set in their ways.”

Excuses, excuses, excuses. Did a bit of research. Asked folks in the target market what they thought. It wasn’t the technology. It was the concept. We were meeting a need they did not yet have.

Ah-ha!

What do your sales-folk think?

Pull you top salespeople in. Ask them for their best sales document. Want to bet it’s a home brew? Great sales-folks have always adapted their pitch. This drives marketing departments nuts. It’s off message. It’s ‘unprofessional.’ It’s cardboard creativity at its best helping meet sales objectives better than the original material. Large organizations have begun to install systems that try to capture this kind of end-user innovation, but most of the time it remains fragmented.

Salespeople usually have to live with what their customers actually want and understand. That often forces them to cut through ‘high concept language’ that was used to sell an idea internally and focus on the things that will actually sell the product. Sometimes cutting edge and sales talk align, sometimes they don’t.

Innovation Matters. But sometimes it would be better to call it Optimization.

Providing a customer something they don’t want is wasteful. Having it ready when they catch-up is brilliant.

• Microsoft Word is a beast of a word-processing program. I no longer use it until final draft. Too cumbersome. To0 heavy.
• Salesforce.com is a beast of a CRM tool. BUT, it can be just as simple or complicated as you want it to be without a lot of up-front planning or investment. Simple to get in, simple to ramp up, simple to get hooked.

Think about where you are in your business. Has innovation caused confusion, or irritation, or simply bloat?   Can you simplify or backtrack and pick up lost sales in a way that doesn’t compromise what you are about?

Do you see potential customers in your rearview mirror?

It comes from places you expect, don’t expect, and come to expect. 

You have to be open to it. Defend it. And, on occasion, abandon it.

Physics has been my muse for thinking about ways creative ideas might be better shepherded through an organization as we try to:

Avoid concept death by committee.

Avoid killing creativity through argument.

Avoid ignoring the game changing idea.

As I explored folks came to my rescue – building on concepts, offering encouragement, arguing kindly (and on occasion providing the needed fix). Very similar to the way discussions surrounding physics were described in Gilder’s Book. The discussion has spurred my thinking – and so this seemed like a good time to review where we are at.

Strategies for Probing and Testing Ideas without Killing Them

Thought experiments were a favorite of Einstein and Bohr in part because they help you to think through the implications of a theory. I started with the idea that formalized thought experiments could form a foundation of ideas to draw from.

Brad Shorr provided a good spin by suggesting we choose the most ridiculous idea possible and working backwards from that. “You might find something that seems impossible at first blush is not impossible at all.” 

LaVonn commented on how the idea could help organizations break out of their ‘linear chain of command.’ “A great organization has many paths for an idea to take for examination and consideration.”

Kay Plantes warned of how playing this game poorly can lead you “over a waterfall where only the lowest cost companies end up floating.”

So thought experiments could be used to break down boundaries between divisions, transfer information, explore the ridiculous as well as the likely – all to form a library of stress tested ideas that can be referenced as conditions on the ground change. 

As Andrew said, “Ideas are powerful but only so if they are acted on.”

Nurturing and Defending Ideas Against the Brick Wall

Ideas seldom come packaged ready to implement. They can be messy, humorous, illogical and unlikely. From my list of strategies for breaking through brick walls discussion quickly turned to how hard it is for a creative spirit to survive within the corporate confines.  

“Once you are “inside,” you are absorbed and then defined by their lack of imagination,” Diana commented 

Creativity itself may be easier to outsource in our technological world, Brad predicts. “Too much pressure on employees to toe the line. Within organizations the pull of conformity is as irresistible as the pull of gravity.” 

No matter if the work is internal or outsourced, a driving need for ‘fresh perspectives’ is essential to improved creativity. As Andrew brought up, “It is too easy for employees of an organization to become accustomed to the ways and systems of the organization, and this may limit their ability to see the potential for new and better ways of accomplishing certain tasks.”

Entanglement As A Tool Rather Than A Theory

I mentioned that I love the word entanglement. It seems ripe with possibility when applied to the idea of relationships. It is what drew me to Louisa Gilder’s book The Age of Entanglement: When Quantum Physics Was Reborn in the first place.

The effect of entanglement is (using the more correct definition courtesy of Salvador), when you measure one entangled particle that simultaneously determines the state of the other.  Applied to marketing I imagine this to mean: Mutual Long Term Influence Even at Long Distance.

While Bill Welter thought the idea was interesting, he did bring up concerns about how ‘noise in the system may overcome the real communication.’ So entanglement must be something more than social media. “Just because we can use social media doesn’t mean we should use it all the time for meaningless broadcasts.” I think of the explosion of corporate sales chatter on Twitter is a pretty clear description of where this can go wrong.

Salvador is the true scientist in this great group and took a shot at further defining what ‘entanglement’ might look like as apposed to a standard network:

“‘Entanglement” was Schroedinger’s word, and he just casually tossed it off, I think he didn’t take it seriously, and it is a fine word for the phenomenon. ….However, the word IS conceivable, it can have meaning. And the ‘force’ at issue, is essentially inconceivable, which is why they say no one can ‘understand’ the quantum physics.

So in your context here, I’d suggest entanglement be “undefinable” as part of its definition. But then it could be described for example by how it is unlike a network, or what things are possible under entanglement, which are not possible in a network, or are there improvements to be applied to a network? Redundant nodes…”

I’ve been really energized by the ideas-from-strange-places that have come about from this series and readers’ comments. 

The power of blogging to explore and record ideas should not be surprising, but it is a relatively underused tool at the corporate level. The community interaction has helped me get my head around concepts that may have some long-term merit. It would be interesting to see companies get past their security concerns, adopt an open attitude and see how their crazy ideas were reacted to, even if it was just with the corporate audience.  

Thanks to all who comment and read. I appreciate your thoughts and encouragement. Now I just need to decide if frogman should be my moniker as Salvador suggests.

Driving the marketing discipline through your organization creates entanglements with customers deep down in the soul. It affects creativity in ways that are profound. Just think what would happen if your customer and prospects became an intimate part of your org chart. Creative chaos or intimate understanding? 

Ah well, since we are in a recession I guess it is a worthy call to arms. Let’s just try avoid departmentalizing marketing once the economy is on a roll again.

The word ‘entangle’ intrigues me. In physics it describes a mysterious connection that exists beyond visible physical contact. Imagine its meaning in marketing: Mutual Long Term Influence Even At Great Distance!

We wish to increase customer entanglement.

We need to be entangled with our co-workers.

We entangle ourselves in the community around us.

This is much more than a simple person-to-person or company-to-person relationship. It is mutual influence, dependence, respect, listening, griping, praising, changing, helping, learning.

Entanglement is the ultimate feedback loop.  In physics – when you measure one entangled particle that somehow determines the state of the other. (Simplified, I know -  if you can say it better please do!) In marketing it is multiple, multiple-way connections. Whether in person, over the net, via tweets, during a sale, review, complaint or fix. Each touchpoint effects both company and customer. 

Entanglement Can Humanize Your Brand. 

I have to admit, I was attracted to Louisa Guilder’s physics history book at first, not because I’m a physics nut but because Entanglement was in the title. The fact that the scientific path surrounding the topic provided inspiration for ways creativity can be increased in an organization was a bonus. 

The arguments around entanglement in physics show wise scientists working in an imperfect system trying to push ideas forward. Folks are stubborn, generious, inquisitive. Blind alleys and wrong arguments are many. But conversations continue and progress is made in part because the system encourages entanglement among the scientists. They review each other’s work, compete, build on it, tear it down, ignore it, all the time influencing the path each other takes.  

So – Marketers Entangle.

We entangle customers with customers, companies with customers, workers with customers, workers with workers, companies with companies… creating a giant invisible web that drives creativity and business in ways no org chart could ever imagine. 

Believers in Social media feel this in their bones, just as physicists sometimes feel a theory is right, just waiting for the math to catch up. Its usefulness grows as companies become more and more comfortable with ‘human conversations’ instead of ‘perfect conversations.’ Early adopters are already benefiting. It is the next generation of entanglement.

Where have you become entangled today?