I am a big fan of the concept surround yourself with the skills you do not possess.  This can mean seeking out a individual different to yourself, working with someone who extends your thoughts and takes it somewhere new or perhaps engaging a whole team that have strengths you do not possess.

I have recently been working on a design piece and I knew I didn’t like what we had, I just didn’t know why.  As part of the larger brief I decided to engage a marketing agency that could provide some specialist skills in concept and branding.

At one of the firms I visited I was comfortable form the start.  I have followed their work for almost 12 months and have been impressed.  I liked them. From the first meeting there was a connection.  We were speaking the same language and it just seemed to fit.

So I told them that I had walked in with a brief but also a problem.  The problem as I mentioned above was the design element I didn’t like but I didn’t know why.  I gave them the back-story on the company.  We explored the nuances and where opportunity lay.  They wanted a week to think about things and were very clear that they wanted me to come back to look at the ‘draft’ before they presented it to the entire leadership group. Great use of Liking and kicking the relationship off through no-risk cooperation.

With a great deal of anticipation I went back to see them this week.  We did the social thing up front and Liking was certainly at play.  We spoke around all sorts of topics and laughed and after about 15 minutes we got into the presentation.  They presented some background on their methodology and provided an overview on the specifics of what we were about to be shown.  They provided plenty of praise for the brief we had delivered and the specific nature of the deliverables.

I deliberately took a female colleague with me to both meetings because the goal we were seeking to achieve is a corporate brand that appeals to women and she was far more qualified than I to make a call on that.  Seated, anticipation piqued.  The Director of the company stood, walked out of the room and came back with a portfolio.  It was face down and this little piece of Scarcity (i.e. I couldn’t see the design work they had done) was killing me.

They said, what they had developed was just to see if they understood the brief and developed entirely from what I said I wanted.  Great use of Consistency, as they were about to pitch me something in my own words.  They told me if they didn’t get it right they would go back and rethink it – a nice Contrast to some others we had spoken to and as an Authority they were willing to admit upfront if they didn’t get it right but they would go away and fix it.

All the while the director was tapping on the documents, which I still couldn’t see, and this was making me a little distracted with impatience.

Finally, he turned the one and only concept around.  I looked at it and then looked at my colleague.  And we both smiled.

What they presented was there all along.  It was integral to everything we had discussed, yet we were far too close to see it.  This team, with their fresh set of eyes, took what we had told them, and had given it back to us with their own spin.  A clearer and crisper version of what we had said.

So the question is, could we have come up with this on our own?  The answer is no.  We had too much baggage and were too close to it.  Were they any smarter than us?  The answer is again no.  They asked the right questions and listened to what we said in order to understand what we were trying to show but couldn’t.  Did they possess skills we did not possess?  Yes.  The depth and quality of the concept was amazing and this was only possible by listening to what we wanted and more importantly to what we didn’t.

In that moment, we were emotionally connected to the concept, the one we had given them, but the one they had gone to the effort of drafting.  And then they asked, “Are we pitching against anyone else?”  And I said, “As of now.  No!”

Implication for you

Sometimes you can bang around for ages on a persuasive problem.  Thinking about how best to approach your target of influence.  Thinking about the stakeholders involved and their attitude toward your proposal.  But I would always encourage you, that once you have thought about the principles of persuasion that are available to you, always sense check it with someone else to see what you have missed.  Perhaps present it to knowledgeable others long before you get stuck, to ensure you maintain momentum.  If they see something you don’t, it doesn’t mean they are smarter than you, it just means they are not burdened with the same biases and filters you are, having worked on the problem for so long.

Remember:  No one person can know everything.  Therefore surround yourself with the skills you do not possess.   Tell them what you are thinking and let others contribute to your success!

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