“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to to see that things are hopeless yet be determined to make them otherwise.”  - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Connecting the dots

Are you drowning in the sea of data yet? As the world becomes more and more complex, with more and more information to understand and less and less time to do this, the importance of integrative thinking becomes more and more important. In The Opposable Mind, Roger Martin presents a number of convincing business case studies, including A.G. Lafley at P&G, Jack Welch at GE, Michael Lee-Chin at AIC and Martha Graham (who revolutionised modern dance) of integrative thinking.  The common thread in these examples and others is that all of them demonstrate the ability to see problems from a range of perspectives, think in terms of total systems and not component parts, and simplify complex ideas into straight forward (and often disruptive) solutions to problems. Read more »

Into another world

My favourite film of last year was Inception (you can read about marketing inception here and the psychology of inception here). For those who haven’t seen it yet (and please do if you haven’t), the plot involves the main character played by Leonardo di Caprio entering someone’s dream world with a team of helpers in order to plant an idea in the dreamer’s mind. As with similar ‘Voyage and return’ plots, Leonardo’s character starts the movie with a shadow (his wife’s suicide) hanging over him, restricting his mental world and opening him to the potential of a voyage into the unknown (with the promise of a return to his home). He finally returns home after  a strange and dangerous voyage of discovery, a changed man. Read more »

The evolution of colour

We share eyes which can form images with around 95% of animal species, and colour is an important signal in nature for the safety of food, the detection of predators and the identification of sexual readiness (and Mark Changizi argues also for interpreting the emotions and intentions of others). Colour is caused by the reflection of some types of light and the absorption of others, and all our eyes can tell our brains are which wavelengths (or frequencies) of light are present and which are not. From this information our brain creates the colours which we see all around us, but have these colours always been experienced in the same way and had the same meanings? Read more »

The quest for the original plot

Writers such as Joseph Campbell and Robert McKee have identified the Quest (or variants of it) as the single original plot. The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Odyssey (and the Aeneid) all follow the outline of the Quest plot and are two of the oldest and greatest stories we know. Although only one of the seven plots outlined by Christopher Booker, it is an important one which appears frequently, sometimes combined with other plot structures, and often as a framing device for multiple individual stories which follow other structures. Read more »

“Culture is the collective programming of the mind.”  - Geert Hofstede

A world of symbols

What makes us all so interesting to researchers and marketers is our enquiring mind, and nothing shows this more vividly than the web of beliefs and ideas that we have created to make meaning from the complexity of the world around us. A very important part of this framework is the vocabulary of signs and symbols that help remind us of our link to the world and each other. Read more »

“I’m working on a dream
Though sometimes it feels so far away
I’m working on a dream
And how it will be mine someday”  - Bruce Springsteen

Working on a dream

The American Dream is deeply embedded in the dreams of many, and for a few lucky people has been played out for real. It is the heart of the national ethos of the United States including the promise of the possibility of wealth and success for all, based on their equality at birth and their inalienable right to the ‘pursuit of happiness’ as written into the country’s constitution. This theme comes up in classic American literature of Mark Twain, Hunter S. Thompson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck, Arthur Miller and many more. It’s even written into the title of Barack Obama’s biography, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. Read more »

Gold fingers

The theme of gold is embedded throughout the story of Goldfinger in the naming of characters (Auric Goldfinger), the central plot to irradiate Fort Knox, a golf game with a gold bar at stake and even in the manner of death of Jilly Masterson who is covered in gold paint to suffocate her skin. [Even if Mythbusters say this is not possible, it doesn't spoil the story!] It was also the first Bond film to receive an Oscar (for best sound effects editing).

Even before gold hit its current record price (reflecting its relatively stability of value versus the instability of most man-made currency), gold has been a potent symbol for thousands of years, due to its rarity and also its colour which is similar to that of the sun.  It has been valuable and highly sought-after for coins, jewelry and other arts as long as humans have written and has been a standard basis for monetary systems and policies throughout history too. Alchemists (including Isaac Newton) spent time and money trying to find the secret of converting base metals (eg lead) into gold.

Although gold is really only a coloured shiny metallic material, with a dictionary definition of ‘yellow, non-rusting, malleable, ductile metal element’, it means much more than this.

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Over seven (and more) coming articles we will explore the basic plots outlined in Christopher Booker’s classic book.  The first of these is “Overcoming the monster”.

Dragons and ogres

Every culture has it’s stories of overcoming the monster, such as the English myth of George and the Dragon (perhaps the dragon is usually more fearsome than the one in the picture above). In The Seven Basic Plots, Christopher Booker discusses many examples of this plot including the original story of all which is the Epic of Gilgamesh. Overcoming the monster is the basic plot for Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, Jack and the Beanstalk and other childhood fairy tales, Greek legends such as many episodes from Homer’s poems and of course Perseus and Theseus, as well as Beowulf (based on an old English poem), Dracula and The War of the Worlds as well as the films High Noon, Jurassic Park, The Magnificent Seven and The Three Musketeers (to name a few). Read more »

I have just watched Short Cuts again, one of my favourite films directed by the great Robert Altman (The Player, M.A.S.H., etc).  The movie is based on a series of nine short stories by Raymond Carver (plus a poem) with a total of 22 characters taking part in the the scenes.  While Carver’s original stories are all independent, Altman magically creates a movie which feels whole and complete, with many great performances (who can’t fail to love a movie with Lyle Lovett and Tom Waits in the cast as well as a long list of Hollywood ‘A’ list stars).   Above all he achieves the unity by subtly forging a series of links between the different stories and scenes.  The different scenes provide a vivid representation of the randomness and chance of life and also of the sometimes surprising connections that exist between different people. Read more »

Cross-cultural differences

I’ve written previously about the importance of understanding cultural context to interpret human behaviour and there has been extensive research on cross-cultural differences, especially in the workplace.  Edward Hall was one of the pioneers of such work, and was the first to focus on the context sensitivity of different cultures, comparing high-context cultures such as Japan with low-context cultures such as the US and UK.  In high context cultures, he found that there was often little need for much written or oral information as individuals were heavily socialised and sensitive to contex, whereas individuals in low-context culture require much more background detail in order to interpret information.  Visual communications without verbal information can work very effectively in high-context cultures because of such sensitivity. Read more »