The allure of mediocrity

We come by it honestly: the sticky, comforting, familiar decision to blend in and conform with the spaces around us.

After all, dull sameness has its utility. Commuter rail schedules, tax forms, elections moderation all benefit from uniformity and lack of drama. The clown show works best inside the circus.

Alas, mediocrity subsumes ideas and messages we’d hope might stand apart. Especially if we’re allocating resources to spread those ideas. Just try and imagine reporting on your latest campaign, product, innovation or initiative to the c-suite, noting, “Results aren’t very impressive because the ideas we reviewed and approved were intentionally mediocre.” That would be a truly candid conversation.

Someone much smarter than me (and I wish I could remember who) said something to the effect—our biggest threat, the brand’s enemy, is mediocrity. We just fail to acknowledge it. Probably because we conflate survival instincts with effective marketing. More challenging than inadequate budgets, better resourced competitors or distracted audiences is our pervasive, often well-rewarded effort to carefully craft mediocre ideas and messaging.

My favorite Ira Glass quote: “Everything wants to be mediocre, so what it takes to make anything more than mediocre is such a f*cking act of will.”

What if our livelihood depends on standing apart? What if next quarter’s bonus is predicated on shipping the opposite of a mediocre campaign? How can a team resist the pervasive tractor beam pulling everything and everyone back to homogeneity?

4 ANTIDOTES TO MEDIOCRITY

Have Purpose = We Intend to Provoke

Well of course any advertiser, influencer, or preacher means to elicit reaction. Right? I’m not so sure this is common ground. Witness the vast majority of clutter we confront on our screens, in our lives. Creating and shipping ideas become the very definition of mediocrity if the work itself fails to be remarkable or even noteworthy. This is where we often pull up short. We hesitate. We question. We conflate mere action with results. Spending money isn’t an idea.

Too often this is where folks who specialize in one realm (clearly not marketing, advertising, ideas or creativity) are encouraged to exercise irrelevant authority. The best in-house lawyer I ever worked with simply said, “You’re asking me to weigh in on a topic I’m not qualified to answer. You all need to have the courage to decide without my input.” The ideas we notice, the ideas we share with each other, the ideas that stick and impact behavior are born from potent intention. When we say what must be said, and say it with well crafted conviction, we are leveraging mediocrity-resistant purpose.

Harness Clarity = The Frame vs The Picture

The former Nike CMO and Minneapolis College of Art and Design alum Greg Hoffman just published his book Emotion By Design. Chapter 4 includes the counsel, “Your brand foundation is a stage for the stories you want to tell.” In other words, the logo, the brand system, the fonts, colors and graphic design rules are not the idea by themselves. The frame supports the idea of the moment; the frame enables the idea. The allure of mediocrity suggests the opposite: Focus myopically on the brand’s rules. Cling to rigid interpretations of brand expression as a misguided solve for our own fear of sticking out.

Powerful, persuasive ideas scare us. This is a good sign. It means they will likely have impact. The bad thing, the mediocre thing, is to insist the frame of the idea matters more than the idea itself. The brand rules are not the idea. The brand is the frame for the idea. And the idea ought to provoke.

Embrace Diversity = The Antidote to Mediocrity

It’s much easier to fall into mediocre action among a familiar team. The comfort of similar thoughts should be a warning. Diversity is the antidote to mediocrity. Welcome and embrace new faces, talents and roles to elicit fresh perspective. As example, consider the result of rookie lyricist Stephen Sondheim joining the established duo of composer Leonard Bernstein and and director/choreographer Jerome Robbins. The musical West Side Story is the opposite of mediocre and its (then) diverse team described as “perhaps the most brilliant in Broadway history.” Diversity pays dividends.

Today, idea people are challenged by a chaos of media, technologies, and tribal micro-cultures. No singular message resonates singularly. It behooves us to empathize with a diverse understanding of general themes—insights can be central and universal, but expression benefits from local interpretation. Command and control presumes too much, and is the mediocre approach. We need diverse voices and perspectives shaking our preconceptions, challenging our status quo, if we’re to thrive.

Strengthen Curiosity = The Mediocrity Resisting Muscle 

Mediocre effort lacks insight, and fails to stir imaginations. Its creators appear less than curious about the circumstances of the world their ideas travel in. It’s hard to be curious without leaving the house, metaphorically and realistically. Especially if the team you work in and around is resistant to the new, and rebuffs exploration. I view curiosity as a muscle, one we must strengthen. There are at least three steps:

Intent — When, where and how will you be deliberately curious? Can you acknowledge and make a commitment to the exercise?

Practice — Showing up as intended, challenging your stereotypes, and pushing your boundaries is the work.

Habit — Like weight loss, or marathon training, show us steady commitment.

Curious people are a bit more naturally resistant to mediocre outcomes. Curious people tend to have methodology and process which helps their teams uncover revealing insights and focus on crafting compelling, even surprising outcomes.

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No doubt there are additional ways to consider and parry mediocre thought and deed.

All that’s left is the doing.