Levi’s, a premium brand—well-respected in Asia, was out of reach for many consumers because of price. An expanding middle class coupled with youth with more disposable income than ever meant a rich opportunity for growth that denim icon Levi’s did not want to pass up. To capture this dynamic growing market, Levi’s pursued an innovative solution that would speak to the minds and wallets of the new young, global generation primarily South Asia, South East Asia and China.

Another challenge of the project is the international nature: How to create a brand that has one identity and one name that can launch in multiple countries. Creating the name, language, and culture around a brand that would be consistent in many places was a critical part but also one of the most difficult as different names take on different connotations and nuances in different places and cultures.

THE PROCESS:

A new clothing and lifestyle brand seemed just the ticket—something to complement but not compete with the established Levi’s brand. As the project focus was to capture Asian market, the brand would launch outside of Levi’s traditional markets in the U.S. and Europe, the first Levi’s brand to do so. It was a big project with a small timeline: they wanted it all done in four weeks.

The tight schedule and ambitious scope meant the project required a special process. Synecticsworld combined parts of the iPower5 process—a methodology designed to uncover consumer needs and create breakthrough marketing innovation—with naming and positioning strategies to produce a tailor-made approach for Levi’s team members to achieve their vision.

To help generate the creative, breakthrough thinking needed to crack the challenge, catalysts—outsiders who can stimulate creative thinking and connections—joined the working team.  Hollywood actors and directors, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, high-end jewelry designers, furniture designers, fashion photographers, lifestyle banking executives, international DJs and trendsetters immersed the team in their worlds, allowing project participants to learn more about the target consumer and the life this person leads.

The team worked simultaneously with consumers, intellectual property lawyers, and advertising agencies. Since the brand was going to be international, the team worked with consumers and catalysts in three countries—China, India, and the U.S.

To create the name, language, and culture around a brand consistent with different connotations and nuances, the Synecticsworld and Levi’s teams operated over a four week period in three countries, often running simultaneous creative exercises to make the most of consumers and catalysts, until the team found a winner.

THE INNOVATION:

In 2010, Levi’s launched dENiZEN™ in China and quickly expanded into India, Korea, Pakistan, and Singapore. dENiZEN is aimed at young adults who want to be in-fashion at affordable prices. The brand speaks to the new global citizens, forward-thinkers who want to make a difference.

As part of the launch, Levi’s assembled a group of ten brand ambassadors to promote the brand. Known as the dENiZEN 10, the group included creative young adults from around East and South Asia and includes writers, artists, travelers, and musicians. The group emphasized the social positioning of the brand, tying into the idea of being an active inhabitant. dENiZEN continues to expand.  Today, the dENiZEN is also available in Target Stores in North American Markets.

Chipp Norcross, Synecticsworld

By Chipp Norcross

The story of the rapid decline of JCPenney under Ron Johnson’s leadership is one of the most shocking business stories of recent years. Bringing in the genius behind Apple’s retail stores seemed like a no-brainer when he first arrived at JCPenney. He came in with a vision and exciting new ideas about how to turn around the struggling retailer. What I’m not sure that he came in with, was a willingness to listen to the smart people around him that had spent their careers at JCPenney.

There seems to be a bias that leaders bring to turn-around jobs like JCPenney, best summarized as the “Outsiders Know Better” bias. It’s understandable why it happens. JCPenney had been struggling for a long time and something needed to change. It’s easy for a new CEO to assume that the people who are working there are not world-class, so the new CEO brings in a lot of people to surround him that he can trust. He’s worked with them before, they share the same experience, and have the same vision. And that’s exactly what Mr. Johnson did at JCPenney.

The problem is, for as much as JCPenney could learn from Mr. Johnson and his experience at Apple, he could have learned just as much about the realities of discount retailing from the people who had spent their careers in JCPenney. Perhaps paying more attention to those realities would have prevented the rapid decline that the company has experienced. I’m certain that there were widespread concerns within JCPenney about how the end of coupons, a staple of their business, would cause a dramatic drop in traffic. But it seems like those kinds of concerns, among others, were never dealt with. I think that highlights a key challenge that new leaders face – understanding the difference between 1) managing the risk that they have picked the right strategy, and 2) managing the risk that the organization will successfully execute it. What many leaders don’t realize is that the best way to manage both risks is by listening to the people in the organization they lead and enrolling them in the strategy conversation.

I often use Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as a reference when talking to leaders about making change happen. All too often, resistance from the organization is seen as a case of people being stuck in their ways and a sign that some people need to be shown the door. Tough questions about the strategy don’t get asked, and possible pitfalls don’t get identified. People keep their heads down and keep their jobs safe. That attitude can create a massive conflict for people. Do I open my mouth and disagree with the strategy? Or do I stay quiet and go home every night worrying about when things are eventually going to fall apart? In either case, I’m operating at a very low level of the hierarchy of needs and I’m probably not very productive.

I believe that ultimately, most people want to believe in the direction their company is headed and do their best to help make it a success. And to do so, they need to be given the opportunity to understand rather than being asked to simply follow. By allowing their teams to ask questions, leaders can understand what is worrying their people about achieving this new future and learn from it themselves. Not only can a leader gain commitment through this course, but they might unearth some unseen land mines in their strategy in the process which they can work together to solve.

The reason that this back-and-forth doesn’t happen is that many leaders don’t have a good understanding of how to design such a two-way conversation in a positive, constructive way. They are concerned that it will open up more issues than it will resolve. Many worry that this would be seen a sign of weakness instead of a sign of leadership, but it certainly doesn’t need to be when handled correctly.

Would following this kind of approach have resulted in a very different JCPenney today? Would a more creative and successful strategy been discovered by taking the best of Apple and the best of JCPenney rather than blowing up the business model altogether? While we will never know for sure, it would have provided a forum for important conversations and possibly identified conflicts between the new strategy and the old JCPenney that needed to be resolved in order to be successful. And as we know real innovation most often happens in resolving conflicts, not by simply applying best-practices learned from another company, even one as successful as Apple.

What have been your experiences with living through changes in company strategy?

Joe Giordano, Synecticsworld

By Joe Giordano

This is the fifth article in this series (see links below), where we examine how the Noble 8-Fold Path of the historical Buddha can help you, your team, and your organization build growth by fostering collaboration and agility.

I hope you are beginning to see the connection in my blog posts…what I feel is the biggest connection is that each of the 8-folds has profound implications on the self, and how we impact what is around us.  In the world of collaboration and more importantly creative collaboration, the impact we have on others affects their ability to collaborate with us, and in turn helps us all focus on the task at hand—whatever that task may be.

The 5th path is Right Livelihood.  According to thebigview.com, Right Livelihood means that one should earn one’s living in a righteous way and that wealth should be gained legally and peacefully.  The Buddha mentions four specific activities that harm other beings and that one should avoid for this reason:

1. Dealing in weapons

2. Dealing in living beings (including raising animals for slaughter as well as slave trade and prostitution)

3. Working in meat production and butchery

4. Selling intoxicants and poisons.

Furthermore, any other occupation that would violate the principles of Right Speech and Right Action should be avoided.  I surmise that Right Livelihood promotes the principle of equality of all living things and respect for all.  There are many parallels between these axioms and the way a strong collaborative meeting is run.

• In a Synectics-based meeting we ask that everyone “check their weapons at the door.”  What we mean by this is no “heat-seeking-missiles” should be launched during a session.  That is, do not say, present, or offer suggestions or ideas that may be construed as derogatory or damaging to others.
• In a Synectics-based meeting we ask that we deal with each other in an open and honest way.  We are there to build a climate of openness and safety for all.
• In a Synectics meeting we ask that our individual goal is not to butcher other’s ideas and offerings to the session.  That we use our thinking to infuse strength and character to what others are thinking and saying.
• In a Synectics meeting we ask that we don’t poison the climate with negativity, brashness or condescending comments.  These can leave a lasting toxicity of climate that will take time to dispel.
• In a Synectics-based meeting, our job, our livelihood, is to contribute to the climate, the thinking and actions taking place in a wholesome, positive manner that will create a lasting impact on those around us.  It is truly about choosing the path of respect over anything else, so that the path of respect will choose us.

There is a saying that we hear a lot in meetings when trying to come up with new ideas or implementing ideas:  “All things being equal…”  my response to this is we need to “Make all things equal.”   If we treat everything as equal (people, ideas, outcomes, etc.), then we can truly set aside judgment and find the inner balance that we need to be highly collaborative.

Practice these guidelines in your next meeting, and see how it changes the human dynamics, removing the gridlock  (so often a part of a meeting of competing ideas), and creating a truly collaborative, productive interaction of minds.

Previously

I spoke in earlier blogs about having Right Actions and Right Intent.  If we approach the 8-fold path as interrelated and interconnected then Right Livelihood impacts both of those and they, in turn, impact how we approach Right Livelihood.

See earlier articles in this series

Do You Have The Right View

Do You Have The Right Intent

Do You Have the Right Speech

Do You Have the Right Action

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Joe Giordano, Synecticsworld

By Joe Giordano

In this article, the fourth in this series (see links below), we examine how Right Action can help you, your team, and your organization foster collaboration and agility.

Right Action is part of the Fourth Path – Ethical Conduct – in the Noble 8-Fold Path of the teachings of the historical Buddha.  Ethical Conduct speaks to taking wholesome actions, because wholesome actions lead to sound states of mind, verses unwholesome actions which lead to unsound states of mind.

When looking at Right Action, we must be aware that our state of mind is controlling our body language.  In the practice of Synectics, we focus early on in learning new behaviors that include communicating for collaboration, and how body language speaks volumes to those around us and has profound implications on how we communicate.

In the language of Synectics, our state of mind is known as our internal climate.  Our internal climate is about where we are putting our mental energy.  If we focus on the unsound, we expend our mental energy on protecting ourselves and keeping ourselves safe.  This is compounded by acting in an unsound way, which has profound effects on those around us.  This negative effect can have a lingering effect if we continue to operate in an unsound (or negative) space.  In a collaborative setting, the maximum amount of everyone’s mental energy needs to be focused on the task at hand, and this requires Right Action.

Our founder, George Prince, early on used Quantum Mechanics to describe climate, what referred to as Field:

In Quantum Mechanics everything happens because of the field.  In the sub-atomic world, matter exists as pure energy.  You know it is there because it has an electromagnetic field, but it is not visible.  When two of these fields come into contact, each one becomes both a particle and a wave.  The wave represents information about the ‘individual’ and the particle is physical matter.

The combination of the two fields generates a third field—I think of this as a relationship.  I believe that each of us is sort of like a giant particle/wave.  The wave aspect of me is information and the particle is my physical presence.  I am surrounded by the field or energy generated by me.  When I operate with you, my behavior is determined by the combination of your field and mine.  The valence of that field—the positive or negative of it—brings out the best, or less than the best in each of us.

We are all governed by the field we, together, generate.

If we all think of positive field generation as a core skill area, and developing positive everyday relationships as our goal, I believe it would clarify the kind of awareness, experimenting and development we need to be doing.  The ability to do this depends upon our becoming emotionally aware.  Source: “Your Life is A Series of Meetings.. Get Good At Life” George M. Prince with Kathleen Logan-Prince.

George also said that Field has memory— Where we leave others, whether in our negative wake or positive wake, is where we will be starting off with those around us the next time.

In the Buddhist sense Right Action means:

1. Abstain from harming sentient beings, especially from taking life (including suicide) and doing harm intentionally or delinquently.
2. Abstain from taking what is not given, which includes stealing, robbery, fraud, deceitfulness, and dishonesty.
3. Take right action means to act kindly and compassionately, to be honest, and to respect the belongings of others.

To evaluate whether you are taking Right Action in business meetings, try the following:

• Too often, in group settings, there are those who like to play the role of devil’s advocate—which is a role that is best left un-played.  Nothing good can come from this behavior.  The idea of the devil’s advocate is to be contrary, to challenge and to ultimately discount others.  This is an intentional action; an intentional action to harm others, no matter how pure the purpose.  Be the angel’s advocate – Turn your heat seeking missiles into supportive structures; turn them into builds and ideas that contribute positively to the purpose of the gathering.

• Actively (and passionately) listen approximately and open-mindedly to make connections.  Many suggestions in meetings may not be a precise fit to the problem.

Exercise your listening skills in 3 steps:

• Step 1: Listen for flaws.

• Step 2: Listen to overcome any flaws.

• Step 3: Listen to get an idea without flaws.

Use the errors you find with other thoughts and ideas as an impetus to offer an idea that you feel has fewer flaws.  Remember, it is easy to find a hundred reasons why an idea will not work. It takes real effort to find one reason why a seemingly erroneous or irrelevant idea will work.  Make that your mission.

• Pay intense attention to yourself and your impulses.

Use your energy in following the thoughts stimulated by the conversation—even when your images and thoughts seem irrelevant to the problem, note them and attempt to connect them.

Relieve yourself of the impulse to jump to conclusions before hearing what is behind an idea that you may not agree with.

If you can follow these recommendations, you will have taken a few of the right actions to ensure that field and climate remain positive.  You will have a lasting impact on those around you, and build the capacity of you, your team, and your organization to fully employ your people as an agile team, with the power create change.

This is the fourth article in this series

Do You Have The Right View

Do You Have The Right Intent

Do You Have the Right Speech

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Joe Giordano, Synecticsworld

Joe Giordano, a principal at Synecticsworld, shares Synectics tools and techniques with a diverse group at the Maine Center for Creativity,  part of a ‘velvet revolution’ that’s energizing the Maine’s economy.  Maine’s ‘creative economy’ is all about innovation and talent – and leveraging them as a vital economic resource for driving industry.

Joe is working with organizations who are seeking breakthroughs by helping individuals and teams collaborate, become more creative and inventive, and develop newness within their organization. Joe works with organizations on developing consumer and customer insights, new product development, branding, positioning and process improvement.

Joe’s specialties include learning and development program design and delivery, competency development and mapping and large meeting design and facilitation for behavioral change. Additionally, Joe designs projects and engagements and facilitates these for strategy and strategic team development, product and service innovation based on consumer and customer insights, organizational change and business process improvement.

Mobile: (978) 590-6731

Office: (617) 868-6530 ex. 258

Fax: (978) 590-6731

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Chipp Norcross, Synecticsworld

By Chipp Norcross

Over the last few years of working at Synecticsworld, I’ve noticed different themes that have appeared in my work.  Over the last couple of months, the theme of “clientship” has come out in a lot of conversations.  For those of you that may be hearing this term for the first time in a Synectics context, clientship means putting the ownership for an outcome in the hands of the person who is ultimately responsible for delivering on it.

The below article is a taken from a chapter of Imagine That!

Imagine That! is a collection of thought pieces, stories, and articles by current and former staff members, clients and other associates that guides readers through 50 years of Synectics, its Body of Knowledge and its impact on clients, organizations, communities and individuals. It was edited by Connie Williams, General Managing Partner and Chief Knowledge Officer of Synecticsworld and Vincent Nolan, retired Chairman of Synectics Europe and author of many other books, including The Innovator’s Handbook (Sphere Books, 1989).

SYNECTICS IN MARKETING

Connie Williams, CMO & General Partner Synecticsworld

The application of Synectics techniques to marketing opportunities is at the heart of Synectics work over its history. Whether it was working with consumer packaged goods with some of the most recognizable names such as Colgate, Unilever, Kimberly Clark, Gillette or Coca Cola, or business to business situations, the skills, approaches and models have been applied extensively to marketing opportunities over the years.

The development of the next generation of the Body of Knowledge around consumer and customer insight has propelled this even farther ahead, with the development of Synectics proprietary iPower5™ Insight Model. Although many companies and researchers talk about the value of insight, Synectics pioneered the creation of a replicable process that can be taught with powerful insights created by and with client teams. Insight is defined as real motivation – what the consumer or customer wants or needs or believes that can be capitalized on for growth, not just good information or data. It is no longer the province of agencies, researchers, outside consultants or a magical process that waits in a dark room for the light bulb to come on.

The creation of this insight model is consistent with our heritage and continuing legacy – making creative work operational through specific approaches, so that it can be accomplished with the application of specific thinking, climate and actions. It builds on academic theories, observation and action research to make insight something that is available and accessible with the appropriate inputs and skills. Furthermore, because it discovers unarticulated motivation, it becomes the focus for invention of all sorts of applications, from new product and service development to brand positioning, organizational change and even business process innovation….  To read the remainder of the article download the full version here

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Hard copies of the beautiful “magazine style” book can be ordered from Synecticsworld for $39.95 by contacting Mandy Fleming or order directly from Publisher’s Graphics, LLC.

Leo Boudreau

Research has shown that people are 5 times more committed to ideas if they had some role in developing them (as opposed to ideas that are forced upon them).  In our experience, a big part of the challenge of new ideas is dealing with this “not invented here” syndrome.

To have any chance of successful implementation, you need people to be committed to the ideas they are taking forward.  They have to believe the idea has a sufficient level of feasibility for them to actually try to do something with it, and this is best done when they have played a role inventing it themselves.

Building Your Creative Team – Everybody can be Creative. Contrary to a popular trend in today’s thinking, our over 50 years of experience tells us you don’t need to find your company’s 7 best thinkers, or your 8 most creative people to successfully develop new ideas.  Ideally, what you need is a good cross-section of people, a diversity of functional skills, backgrounds and personalities, which allows the group to build on each other’s ideas and expertise, and to harness the power that comes with including naïves resources.  If you’re working on a marketing problem, consider involving an engineer or administrative support person.  They are going to ask questions that experienced people would never ask. When they ask those questions, they’re going to force the people with the content expertise to really consider why that’s not possible – further opening up the way of thinking.

We believe that everybody is born creative, but that ability is educated and socialized out of them – We observe people being punished for being “wrong” and this has the effect that you don’t want be a risk taker or overly speculative, so you become a more cautious person – especially in high-risk situations.  The key to creating an innovative organization is overcoming this reality to create a climate where people are going to take chances and be comfortable with speculative thinking and ambiguity.

Have the Creative Team Facilitated:  If a team’s creative potential is to maximized, someone has to facilitate the session.  One of the key roles of a facilitator is to make sure everybody feels safe in the meeting and to create a climate where people feel safe to contribute; people feel safe being open-minded.  A good facilitator doesn’t allow people to shoot down or judge ideas.  The facilitator gives the team the opportunity to open up, to make and break connections, to speculate, increasing the probability that they’ll come up with very different ideas.

From our perspective, the facilitator does not need to be content expert.  When working with a bank, a facilitator does not need understand the intricacies of the banking industry.  You don’t need the facilitator to understand loan portfolios, derivatives, private banking or any of that, the creative team brings that expertise.  When working with a fast food restaurant, you don’t have to know how that business is run, the creative team brings that expertise.  The facilitator is the expert on the process that the creative team will be guided through to breakthrough innovation.

Build a Culture of Ingenuity for Innovation:  Historically, in a lot of organizations, innovation has been a calendar event: “Next Tuesday and Wednesday we’re going to have an innovation session and come up with 100 ideas.”  Then we will go back to our regular jobs.  The pace of change and the demands it puts on us all, means that every day is becoming “Innovation Day”.  The ideal solution is to create a long-lasting culture of ingenuity that leads to innovation.  People need a common language and methodology to use around innovation, to make meetings productive, and a good use of everyone’s valuable time.

Transforming an organization and the individuals within it, requires a long term commitment.  With over fifty years of experience helping leaders create a new culture which allows them to release the ingenuity of their team and develop breakthrough solutions to their most complex challenges, Synecticsworld is uniquely positioned to help your company revolutionize the way people think, work and live.

(For advice on facilitating creative meetings see How to be a Better Meeting Chairman)

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