This is a ~13 minute speech I wrote on transformation design. There are slides and videos that accentuate certain points, but the speech stands on its own. I thought y'all would like a read.
For the last ten installments of the Star Trek series, Hollywood pitted the Star Ship Enterprise against renegade Vulcans, violent Klingons and a super enemy named Nemisis. Every trailer featured brooding and intense music. Every trailer featured aggressive dialogue and battle that took place during earth’s darkest hours.
That is until the producers of this year’s Star Trek XI made a different choice.
Filled with the hopeful sound bites from JFK and John Glen, a chest-inflating soundtrack and images of creation that take place on the eve of earth’s greatest adventure, the trailer for Star Trek XI invites us to do what no other trailer did before. Rather than invite us into a battle, it invites us to hope, to dream and to join in the creation of a new future.
Not twenty, not ten, not even five years ago could Hollywood have produced this perspective. Our culture had a much different mindset then.
But now, it’s choosing a new one.
Our culture is changing from a masculine orientation towards life to a feminine orientation.
A masculine orientation values control and stability. Its strategy is logic, force and aggression. It is focused on the individual and can only succeed if it defeats something.
But, a feminine orientation values creation and the dynamic. Its strategy is empathy, collaboration and nurturing. It is focused on the community and wins by helping others.
This choice appears in more than just Hollywood. In all aspects of life, people are choosing the feminine over the masculine.
We find it in politics. The most famous line in the last 20 years of politics is President George Bush’s pugnacious throw down: “You’re either with us or you’re against us.” But today, the most famous line in politics today is Barrack Obama’s collaboration affirmation: “Yes we can.”
We also find it in music. Four years ago, the music industry descended hell upon DJ Dangermouse for releasing his Grey Album – a mash up The Beatles’ White Album and Jay Z’s Black Album. Yet, Nine Inch Nails just released a DVD version of its Ghosts I-IV album containing all the data files of all their recordings. They’ve invited fans to remix and alter the songs as they choose.
We also find it in our learning choices. Once the official authority of information, Encyclopedia Britannica is no longer seen as such. Instead we find greater value in Wikipedia – a co-created wellspring of dynamic and motley information.
We also find it in technology. Fifteen years ago, TV remote controls had buttons - a function restricting our interaction with the TV to an either-or relationship. It dictated on or off, channel 3 or channel 15. Today, remote controls have a direction pad. A function inviting us to explore an environment where we could choose to engage, search, play, participate, explore or buy.
In work and leisure, in the political and the personal, individuals are reaching for the feminine people, the feminine things and the feminine experiences that enable them to shape their world.
In other words, people are reaching for support. In such a reality, Harvard Business School Professor Shoshana Zuboff and former Volvo CEO James Maxmin believe successful companies will not be those that sell to people but those that support people. Their tome, The Support Economy, argues that managerial economics and mass production relegates consumers to an end cog in the production machine. But as product quality dramatically rises across the board and the number of category players expands, people will increasingly demand more from companies than just a product. They will demand deep support in creating their ideal selves. In other words, successful companies will be those with a feminine orientation to their customers. They will be collaborators and nurturers supporting the individual in the creation of his or her desired life.
While it is easy to understand why we would not want to be treated as a cog in the machine, it is less clear why we need to surround ourselves with supportive companies.
It is because our lives are a constant struggle between opposing values. We may yearn to be adventurous, but each time the opportunity arises, we regrettably remain apprehensive. Or we may yearn to regain the optimism of our youth, but, upon surveying our life, find little to be optimistic about. It is these moments – when we find our personal faculties unable to render in our lives the values we desire – that we look outward. We look to the things around us – people, objects, experiences and even companies – that, whether through encouragement or empowerment, move us away from the values we fear and towards those we aspire. And when we find those things, we fill our lives with them.
If we survey the world of business today, we quickly realize the most culturally relevant companies with the most passionate customers have a feminine orientation:
- Facebook supports efforts to share information, develop relationships and develop communities.
- Method supports a desire for clean homes, clean environments, clean minds and clean fun.
- Scion collaborates with customers to create individual expressions of their personalities – whether it is through customized cars, customized graphics or customized music.
- Target helps customers design more beautiful lives.
With culture and business changing to such a large degree, we have to wonder: Is the advertising industry keeping pace?
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