My job title was student brand manager and my role was to make connections on my college campus with people and groups who were "on brand" with the Red Bull identity.
It spoke to many of my strengths as an enthusiastic extrovert who loved making connections with people, was optimistic and found great joy seeking fun in the outdoors.
Among my responsibilities I was also supposed to "seed" Red Bull to people at the exact right moment when it would have a positive impact on them (at the gym, in the library, heading to a campus job, etc.)
Oh, and once a year I would attend a retreat for all the other American Red Bull SBMs. At these retreats we would do many activities, but one of the most memorable was when we were asked to watch potential commercials for Red Bull. The commercials were all over the place. Some were funny. Some weren't. Some were offensive. Others were crazy.
And the purpose? Red Bull wanted to see where their guardrails were. They wanted us to say "Hey, commercial A is way too offensive, but commercial F is right on the border between funny and going too far."
We were their focus group and the experience of sharing hundreds of ideas with a group of people without concern for the terrible ideas was just incredible. It was Brainstorming in a way I'd never brainstormed before, and I imagine Red Bull ended up with the best ads that straddled the self-mocking, fun-loving, risk-taking nature of their brand.
Weirdly, I was reminded of this annual retreat today during my time with my students.
We have been learning about Japanese culture and today I had the chance to share some insights about the Japanese verb ikigai. I've written about it before, but it literally is made up of two Japanese words: iki (life), and gai (purpose). It is, in essence, the reason you get up in the morning...the thing you were meant to do.
As we talked about this I wrote some verbs that Tim Tamashiro uses when he discusses ikigai.
To Serve
To Create
To Delight
To Nourish
To Provide
To Teach
To Heal
To Connect
To Build
I asked students to write the verb to which they feel the greatest sense of connection...the one they feel like they instinctively do when they want to do good.
Then, on the other side of the card I had them write some element of our shared experience here at school that they saw as an opportunity to serve/create/delight/nourish/provide/teach/heal/connect/build.
And the result was amazing. They were so brilliant and so thoughtful and they care so much.
They truly are servers and creators and delighters and nourishers and providers and teachers and healers and connectors and builders.
All I did was gave them permission to (A) affirm their own strengths and gifts in an area of human connection, and (b) asked them to identify opportunities to use those gifts.
Then, we shared all the ideas. And we discussed the idea of "low-hanging fruit" and the small ways that cultural shifts can begin. And they all got so excited to be 9th grade leaders next year, or--for the students who will be heading elsewhere for their first year of high school--they became so excited about imagining what their classmates will do next year.
It felt a little like those Red Bull sessions when we'd ask, "Who does Red Bull want to be?" and "Where are the guardrails of what works and what is possible and effective?" "What are we capable of?"
This is how we impact culture, right? We find ways to empower people to use their energy, their gifts, to dig into transforming relationships slowly...one at a time...until a movement happens. Perhaps our life purpose--our ikigai--is actually a collective purpose toward which humanity is always moving. It requires each of us to use our strengths to impact the world around us.
Only my students are better than Red Bull because they're not selling anything...they are trying to make tomorrow better than today. You can't put a pricetag on that. And you certainly can't serve it up in a can.
🙂Thanks Will.
ReplyDelete