In Bull Durham, one of my favorite movies ever, Kevin Costner, as Crash Davis summed it up best…
Crash Davis: You just got lesson number one: don’t think; it can only hurt the ball club.
Ji Lee, Creative Director at Google and the founder of the Bubble Project, tells a story about when he was hired to do a redesign of the five flavors of Cheerios boxes. Working with his partner, they came up with a wonderful slogan and branding campaign to illustrate the five flavors.
“Only their holes taste the same.”
Succinct. Brilliant. Simple.
The meeting was held. All the right people attended. “Only their holes taste the same” was presented. Everyone loved it. Ji was thrilled, knowing that his clear and clever message was going to be the new slogan for the five flavors of Cheerios.
And then all of a sudden, a discussion started about the difference between ‘flavor’ and ‘taste.’ All the excitement shared in the beginning disappeared, and they were locked into an absurd discussion, forgetting the big picture.
You can probably predict the rest. Dissenters appeared. The ‘flavor vs. taste’ debate dragged on. Consensus was lost. The original, brilliant slogan was scrapped.
Avoid “testing by conference table”. Go with your gut. If an idea feels right, support it vociferously. Drown out the dissenters.
Like Crash taught us…”don’t think. It can only hurt the ballclub.”
