The Indiefield Blog

I like doing what I am asked. To some people that means doing only the minimum requirement. But what it really means is becoming engaged in a good cause. Whenever I am asked to do something, I rarely need step by step instructions because I don't just want to do the job, I want to do it right and perfectly. It's all about involving people, asking questions, making recommendations, offering to help, and pitching ideas. Getting things done right means being proactive and not waiting for life to come to you. It means being on the offensive, not the defensive. Being active, not passive. Most of the time it means innovating inside the box not necessarily thinking outside it.

Apparently one of the most important quotes in business management is "if you can't measure it, you can't improve it". Which made me think about what we measure and why. Does something become important because it is measured or do we measure it because it is important? Does counting something make it count?

The thing that makes you popular might be the thing that stops you succeeding. When you were in school there would have been someone who was always messing around and making people laugh. He may have been the popular class clown but that definitely got in the way of his education. It's the same when you first meet someone. You can act a certain way and be fun and happy and if it is a client you might even get a meeting out of it. But will you get the work? There are so many ways to be popular. Or even more popular. But is popular what you are after?

Most people do not believe they have the power or opportunity to act or take charge before others do. At the same time, nearly everyone thinks they can correct, comment on, or in some cases totally pull apart! That's why millions of tweets every day are re-tweets or replies - because it is easier to respond than it is to start. This is not because people do not want to start. It is because most people believe that they are more useful if they help an initiative rather than create one themselves. The world needs more people that will start things.

Don't you just hate it when you are in a long queue in your car and another driver steams past you and at the last moment cuts in at the front? Of course, you could do what they do, and push in. There is no reason for your to patiently wait. Or maybe you are the selfish one, who doesn't think about other drivers. This is completely different from the woman who sees people patiently queuing to enter a building through a single door. She walks past everyone and opens the second door. Now, with two doors open, the queue is finally moving. She definitely earned her place at the front of that queue! Too often, we are led to believe that taking the initiative combined with right minded thinking and trashing the status quo is like queue jumping. Nothing but a selfish act. But sometimes it is opening a second door for everyone to walk through.

1. Write it down.
2. Look at it every day.
3. Come up with a plan.

Envision what you want to accomplish in your mind's eye. Then write it down. This a critical step because it is laying the framework to making your goal real. Once it is written down, put it somewhere easily seen. Make sure your goal is in your line of sight and in your mind every single day. Develop your plan. This is not your complete plan or even your final plan. This is just your beginning plan. Chances are your plan will change, re-route and evolve. That's fine because you will evolve too.

The Journal of Media Psychology found that people watch scary films for three main reasons: tension, relevance, and unrealism. Those who like horror due to its "unrealism" enjoy it because they know for a fact that it is all fake anyway. For them, it is just pure entertainment and fun. In reality enjoyment and fear do not go together. You cannot get "in the zone" and do your best work when you are operating through fear. Everything great that has ever been invented or developed was done so by someone who was really enjoying it. By someone who was fully immersed in a feeling of energised focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. Someone who was in the zone and completely connected. That doesn't happen when you are fearful.

1. Do exactly what your boss tells you.
2. Ask your boss difficult questions.
3. Show your boss why you are the best one for the promotion.
4. Invite your colleagues and boss to ask you difficult questions.
5. Create a brilliant and new way of doing something (something unplanned).
6. Help everyone around you to do the best work they have ever done.
7. Demand that the people around you push you to succeed.

Years ago, when Indiefield started out, all we wanted to do was win huge projects worth millions and be a big hit. Then, a decade later, a strange thing happened. What happened? In short, recommendations. Our clients suggested to their friends in the business and their colleagues in the office that they call Indiefield whenever they need recruitment and fieldwork. People took the suggestion, agreed wholeheartedly, and subsequently recommended their friends and colleagues. More sales, more recommendations, and the positive feedback loop kicked in. And we realised that real success relies on a long tail. It relies on people talking to people and word of mouth and great fieldwork and recruitment for big and broad clients.

(This isn't about my hair!) It is possible to be straight and curly at the same time. Straight is the tough thing to improve once the processes are in place. After all it is hard to get straighter than straight. Good processes keep the business running smoothly, create order that is valued, but improving them gets more difficult as well. Trying to make the organised more organised is a pain in the proverbial. But within your work you can find something liberating - something wild even! You can create productive chaos, you can interrupt, re-create, produce, invent, and redefine. There you go, now everything is bouncy and curly. And you just made the straight ruler even straighter.