And but

I have noticed a major change at the agency these days. It's a cultural thing I'm sure and relates to the use of two three letter words "and" and "but". A lot of "but's" have been substituted by "and" in the discussions and brainstorms we are seeing now and it truly adds to the creativity and spirit in the work relations. And now I wonder why we have made this small change in the Agency vocabularium.

I can easily envision myself eager to meet a creative idea or just a suggestion for let's say new chairs in one of our workspaces with a but. And I think it's no necessarily because I disagree, it's rather a safety measure I establish, so that I don't commit too much. And a way of avoiding mistakes and looking for the perfect. Deep down I also see it as a kind of intellectual exercise - looking at the solution, idea or problem from different angles, which is nice and relevant. At the right time in the proces of course.

BUT

I see a lot of our clients meet our work with a "but". It's almost as if you are waiting for this little word and it indicates anything from minor things to another way of saying, the idea sucks. And again it's a natural reaction because we very often present our work as a take it or leave it, not leaving enough room for the client to take ownership to the solution and maybe even build on it. Therefore a "but" opens a backdoor if you as a client are not completely sure if the solution is the best. The challenge is, that the "but" is just demotivating by nature and can turn a great meeting into a frustrating one.

AND

The change at Advance has come because we somehow have experienced that there isn't (or shouldn't be) a monopoly on ideas. They can come from anywhere and anyone. And the more we are able to push ideas further the better they get. And to get people motivated to throw in ideas on projects we need to be openminded and skip the but in the brainstorms and conceptualization.

Also keep in mind that the project owner often has a deep understanding and knowledge about the business and market - a powerful tool that can kill any idea used wrongly. And I have seen this happen even with the best of intensions. Used right a "but" can be used as a tool to predict reactions or shortfalls in the ideas after the ideation. Not to kill ideas, just to make them survive.

I realize that saying "and" to everything may seem a bit happy go lucky, From the experience lately and the positive reactions to the new processes and tools we are trying out I believe we don't need to return to a "but" culture. And at least I will keep trying. Just writing this text with-out a normal "but" was hard and nice at the same time.