Let's Make This More Interesting

What is the value of surprise to us in becoming more interesting? And how does one of today's most stimulating thinkers stay so consistently surprising himself?
In Part 1 of a two part conversation, Adam sits down with Rory Sutherland - Vice Chairman of Ogilvy, behavioural science evangelist, and endlessly fascinating reframer of what we thought we knew - to talk about why surprise matters.
As he points out, sometimes the right thing to be is completely unsurprising: there will always be, after all "a market for "the drearily predictable."
But if you're trying to change behaviour - to challenge, disrupt, or eat the big fish - then surprise becomes essential.
Because the brain isn't built to notice what it expects. It's built to notice what breaks the pattern.

In this first half of the conversation, Rory explores:
What is ‘Just the right amount of weird’?
Why it is that we give disproportionate attention to what find surprising
How all human perception is context-dependent, and why recontexting is so powerful
Why the healthiest creative human activity is to try on as many frames as we can
What it means to bring a Game Theorist’s mindset to everything we do - even the way we take holidays.
And why, in fact, surprise might be the most cost-efficient way to earn attention there is.
__
Let's Make This More Interesting is a podcast from eatbigfish: the strategic consultancy that helps ambitious Challengers to grow.

Follow Adam on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-morgan-3a473a/

Thanks to our editor Ruth and our producer Rachael. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What does it take to make iconic work with iconic founders – when nobody out there cares about you or your product? And why might having ADHD be a gift in helping you think about how to overcome that?

In our Season 3 opener, Adam Morgan sits down with Andy Berndt, former agency leader and the founding force behind Google’s Creative Lab. Andy has worked alongside some of the most uncompromising figures in modern business — from Steve Jobs, Phil Knight and Michael Jordan to Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Sundar Pichai — and has been at the heart of some of the most celebrated and impactful creative work coming out of America in the last 30 years. As account director, copywriter and client. A unique perspective.

Andy reflects on:
Why “nobody out there cares” can – and perhaps should – be the beginning of any great creative work.
The particular talent that Steve Jobs and Phil Knight brought to assessing the work they were presented with
How humour in the room is often the doorway to the breakthrough idea
Whether clients get the creative work they deserve
And how Google’s Creative Lab grew from small stickers to Super Bowl spots

Along the way, he explains how his ADHD became a creative advantage, why briefs are sometimes best answered with a poster instead of a presentation, and how “kids with crayons” built some of the most celebrated work of the digital era, including the now-famous “Parisian Love” film.
__

Let's Make This More Interesting is a podcast from eatbigfish: the strategic consultancy that helps ambitious Challengers to grow.

Follow Adam on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-morgan-3a473a/

Thanks to our editor Ruth and our producer Rachael. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If work takes up so much of our lives, and so much of work’s output is down to discretionary effort, how do we make work more engaging - as leaders of teams, and as workers ourselves?

Bruce Daisley has become a world expert on it. Previously the MD of YouTube in the UK, Bruce was the European Head of Twitter when he started exploring the meaning and future of work in a podcast, Eat Sleep Work Repeat. His first book, The Joy of Work, was a Sunday Times number one business bestseller and an FT Book of the Month. He is also the host of the hugely successful podcast ‘Eat Sleep Work Repeat’.

In this episode Adam and Bruce first discuss how to get rid of the things that suck the joy out of work, and then how to create a positive buzz in our engagement, as an individual and as a team.

They talk about:
What the really big disruption in work has been (and it’s not wfh)
The essential foundations for making any impact whatsoever on engagement in a culture
The two key indicators of real engagement at work
Why idle time is so important
The real enemy of productivity in an organisation
The power of Positive Affect
The surprising importance of laughter

And why, when so much is known about how to drive up engagement at work, so little of that knowledge makes it into the leadership meetings of big organisations.

Listen to Eat Sleep Work Repeat:
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/eat-sleep-work-repeat/id1190000968
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5KUW5Lu36O4nnfIFqIIUh4

Bruce's books:
The Joy of Work: 30 Ways to Fix Your Work Culture and Fall in Love with Your Job
Fortitude: The Myth of Resilience, and the Secrets of Inner Strength

__

Follow Adam on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-morgan-3a473a/

Let's Make This More Interesting is a podcast from eatbigfish. Thanks to our editor Ruth, our producer Travis, and to Tiny Podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’re at an inflection point in how we engage people about the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, Gail Gallie believes: we now need a completely new model – ‘The gloves are off’. Gail left a successful career in advertising and at the BBC to help set up Project Everyone with campaigner and film director Richard Curtis – their aim: to communicate the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals to everyone in the world in one week. 10 years later, she remains a relentless campaigner and innovator around communicating the SDGs, including the podcast she hosts with Loyiso Madinga, ‘An Idiot’s Guide to Saving The World’.

In this week's episode, Gail and Adam discuss:
How the combination of a big ambition and a fierce time constraint drove breakthrough solutions for Project Everyone
The new context: how the whole world has changed, and we need to move on from the old model now
What this new model of impact campaigning should look like
The role of surprise here, and how to get the most value from it
Why the creative campaigning community now has to go for broke
What it means to engage people in the conversation where they care when it comes to the SDGs, and in language they can relate to
And, in Richard Curtis’ words ‘What is the sound of hope we can make against the noise of despair?’
__

Follow Adam on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-morgan-3a473a/

Let's Make This More Interesting is a podcast from eatbigfish. Thanks to our editor Ruth, our producer Travis, and to Tiny Podcasts.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is TikTok the most interesting platform in the world? What’s at the heart of its success – and what does it mean to be more interesting in a post TikTok world, when the audience on TikTok is “10x bigger every day than the Super Bowl”?

In this week’s episode, Adam meets Nick Tran, former Global Head of Marketing at TikTok and advisor to a new generation of Challengers, including tech company Nothing. Nick brings his experience as a marketer, advisor and investor to discuss:

How TikTok has changed the playing field for a new generation of brands
How he led ‘Project Cheetah’ to reduce TikTok’s campaign development cycle from 10 weeks to a few days.
The creativity that financial and time constraints force you to develop
Why he always looks for win-win-win partnerships
Learning how to create a ’must-see’ piece of creative work
Why he believes in moving creative in-house to speed up social
The need for a balanced diet of marketing measurement beyond KPIs and ROI
__

Connect with Nick on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholastran/

Follow Adam on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-morgan-3a473a/

Let's Make This More Interesting is a podcast from eatbigfish. Thanks to our editor Ruth, our producer Travis, and to Tiny Podcasts.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.