On Hearing the Dog Whistle and Showing Your Hand

Okay. So I'm over the moon about today's inauguration.. One of the most encouraging things I heard President Obama talk about on the campaign trail was his promise to be honest, even when he didn't have all the answers, and to listen, "even when we disagree. " Or even, he said, especially when we disagree.

Listening carefully, and being honest. This is a simple but powerful commitment, don't you think?

I think it's a powerful idea in business, too. In our line of work, dreaming up creative that people connect with is critical, whether you're moving emotion or appealing to intellect, through humor or artistry, persuasive ideas or compelling facts or all of the above. Listening and honesty are the fundamental ingredients to building creative solutions. Seems obvious, right? It's harder than it sounds.

LISTENING can be a challenge when everything in you wants to make the smart point, be the spark plug in the meeting, steer the conversation where you think it needs to go. There's a time and place for that--but not at every meeting. Listening is underrated, if you ask me. Often what's unsaid in a meeting--the dog whistle heard only by those who are watching body language, reading nuances, scanning expressions--- is as enlightening as what's said aloud.

HONESTY can feel risky. It can be especially hard to be candid and opinionated about something you believe in when the prevailing desire, (pressed, let us say for example, on a creative person by an account manager) is to accommodate a client at all costs. Sometimes the right thing to do for the client is respectfully disagree with their point of view. (Press A for "No problem, we'll get right on it." Press B for "No, seriously: that is a BAD idea. What about..." )

It's my great hope that we'll be inspired by the new administration toward a new era of honesty and listening. Some will say it's not possible, not realistic, that the die is cast in the corporate conference rooms and no good will come of crazy ideas and apolitical candor. But I think it's worth a shot. As our new president said this morning, "What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has already shifted beneath them..."