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You Should Verb Your Job Title
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Hey friends,
Spring is almost upon us. It's still light outside when we leave the office! Plants are once again reborn, as are my seasonal allergies.
Over the course of our lives, we non-photosynthesizing folk go through our own personal incarnations. Sometimes, we over-listen to Green Day. Sometimes, we paint the walls of our room bright red. Apologies etc., mom.
Professionally, we fluctuate, too. We land a cushy job! We get a sick title! It rules, until it doesn't. Until we get laid off. Then we lose not only our job, but our stability. With the loss of our title goes the sense of identity wrapped up in it.
So how do we spring back? How can we be reborn? The answer isn't "get a new job" and "identify with a new title". That way lies madness.
Instead: we have to separate our sense of self from our professionally designated nouns. We have to embrace the action of our life, not the stasis. We have to understand ourselves as verbs.
The latest: How to verb your job title
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What we're working on this week ~ Mike is working on a marketing workshop for a client ~ Dani is working on a logo for a new client ~ Matthew is organizing our new office (we move soon!) ~ Article Group is a oneiric creative marketing agency and this is our weekly missive about navigating uncertainty, seeking the most interesting challenges, and making better creative decisions in marketing and beyond ~ sharing is how we grow, please forward to people you love ~ reply to this email, we’d love to hear from you!
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The first mistake a lot of managers make is trying to create a team culture where everyone is shiny happy people. That’s great if you’re Michael Stipe, but the truth is, not everyone’s going to be totally content all the time. Conflict happens. Sometimes you're R.E.M., sometimes you're The Replacements. The second mistake? Encouraging employees to take their grievances offline or sweep issues under the rug. That creates “conflict debt”, i.e., the sum of all your team’s unresolved conflicts. This exercise from the Harvard Business Review is a creative way to normalize the idea of “productive conflict” among teams. Fair warning: it involves drawing circles. And feelings. Lots of feelings.
☝️Related: On Social Media at Work, Even Friends Can Be Enemies (NY Times)
Cooperation is critical to success in any sort of social interaction, whether it’s waiting in line at 7-11 or collaborating on a Google Doc. So what’s the proverbial glue that holds people together? Researchers at Oxford University in the UK collected “ethnographic accounts of ethics from 60 societies, across over 600 sources” to come up with 7 “universal rules of morality.” Some are more obvious than others, but they’re a good reminder of how we should treat those around us at work and beyond.
☝️Related: Cooperation Is Key to an Agile Workplace (Gallup)
☝️Related: Why liberals and conservatives look so strange to each other (Medium)
Open floor plans sound great on paper but are literal hell for people who actually use them. If you love your coworkers but need a minute to just, like, be alone and focus, there are some tiny adjustments you can make to be infinitely more concentrated. The biggest misconception about office productivity is you have to sequester yourself from your colleagues to achieve maximum focus. While this might work for some (*raises hand*), it’s better to schedule short periods of time throughout the day where you can focus on chillin’ with your colleagues. Schedule time to talk about movies with your coworkers or go online shopping. Look at memes. Sounds weird to schedule social interaction but I swear it works. (Fast Company)
☝️Related: Memes as a love language
☝️Related: How to Sell an Idea as an Introvert
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You have questions. We don't have answers. But ... we do have keyboards. Welcome to Office Hours, a weekly advice column in which we gamely attempt to answer your tweeted queries about marketing, the meaning of life, and everything. Follow us on twitter to play along. This week's question comes from @gabrielabarkho, tech reporter at The Observer. For her bemused exasperation at the absurdity of the attention economy, she will receive a plastic trophy in the mail. 🏆 This week's answer comes from creative director, copywriter, and friend to small creatures Mike Spiegel.
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Well look at you, Gabriela Barkho, just sauntering into the room all casual with The Big Question. No time for icebreakers like “would you rather fly or be invisible?” or “Nicki or Cardi B?” As Robert Allen Zimmerman once said, and famously: You got a lotta nerve asking us a question like that!
Look, this question is a toughie, and it’s likely that only poetry can approach The Big Answer.
So we take you now to our 154-year-old poetry correspondent, William Butler Yeats, reporting from The Masked Singer craft services table: “Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold, all the vegan jerky is gone.”
We’re paraphrasing.
What is a house of cards but a tenuously self-sustaining structure that holds its center only until it is knocked over by, say, a cat doing yoga?
Or maybe you prefer your meltdown metaphor à la Jenga, à la The Big Short. Is there a credit default swap for influencer culture and the attention economy? Probably!
Our best guess, Gabriela, is that the house of cards economy will be replaced by another house of cards economy in approximately the same house of cards location. Like a new Rome built over the old Rome. Or a Starbucks replacing the previous Starbucks.
The scary-interesting part (for poetry, business, life), is the time in between. Which is to say, this time right now. Our time, Gabi. Green New Deal or sea city? Nicky or Cardi B?
I for one welcome our new yoga cat overlords.
***
Have a burning question? Need the ointment of an answer? Tweet us.
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Are you a human? Are you doing great things? Send me an e-mail about your great humanly endeavors so I can include it: rpaoletta@thearticlegroup.com
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Article is a 100% organic, free-range, desktop-to-inbox newsletter published once per week by Article Group, a delightful creative consulting agency of talented problem solvers. Article covers the essentials of brand innovation — brand strategy and messaging, creative systems, and content — that affect your organization, your creativity, and your career. We also recommend the products, books, and recordings that we love. It’s work and play for innovators, leaders, agencies, and brands. We deliver 6pm ET every Sunday. Article Group is for hire.
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