In this presentation, we take a look at how Big Spaceship organizes itself for new behaviors, how our approach focuses on behavior, and how behavior has affected work like Skittles, Star Wars, Google, and The Most Awesomest Thing Ever. It originally appeared here http://spcshp.it/eatstrategy and then at eat:strategy - a strategy conference in Toronto in July 2012. For more on Big Spaceship: http://www.bigspaceship.com

1. Out on Good Behavior
Mark Pollard, VP Brand Strategy - @markpollard
Modified with subtitles for Slideshare.
Read with an Australian accent.
JULY 18, 2012

2. Last Saturday, I was playing frisbee with my six-year-old son at Coney Island beach when
Frankie, a local eight year old, joined in. After a few minutes of play, I asked Frankie why
he had a black eye. He said that a kid had cursed him at school so he hit the kid in his
stomach but got headbutted in return.

3. A few other boys joined in and we switched to volleyball with a soccer ball. About ten
minutes in, I turned to pick the ball up only to return to the kids racially slurring each
other and threatening to beat each other up. Frankie’s teenage brother was coaching him
to stand his ground against three other wild kids saying: “It’s a cold world out there.”

4. Sometimes,
the ideas that
help you survive
trap you
These kids are trapped in a cycle. Their ideas will keep them in fights that sometimes they
will win; and sometimes they won’t. It made me realize how ideas that help you survive
can also trap you.

5. Subtitle Here
Title Here
Like in advertising: the politics, the competing, the infighting, the sex, the beheadings.
Advertising is engorged with people who have survived with ideas that are trapping
them.

6. Ideas
compel
behavior
Why are they trapped? Well, their ideas compel their behavior.

7. There is so much research about this. This classic business book shows how good
management necessarily leads to worse performance unless you can create a new culture
and an approach to innovation outside the everyday approach to business.

8. New behaviors
compel
new ideas
The only way to get to unexpected new ideas is to encourage new behaviors because
new behaviors beget new ideas. And it’s this focus on new behaviors that I want to
discuss with you today.

9. What happens after
advertising?
Which brings us to this question: What happens after advertising? It’s important to me
for two reasons. First, a lot of great people I know pose this question to themselves
every day because they’re tired of the toxicity and bad behaviors of the industry.
Second, this question shapes our behavior at Big Spaceship.

10. I.
How we behave
e culture and structure of Big Spaceship

11. 1. There’s no
creative
department
Less politics leads to less noise and
more focus on issues at hand.
Creative Commons: Darwin Bell http://www.flickr.com/photos/darwinbell

12. 2. There’s no
production
department
Teams bleed into each other’s realms and
everyone expects to contribute to the
making of a project - through whatever
skills one has at hand.

13. Cross Disciplinary Teams
This is how we sit. And each
team has its own name.

14. Creative Commons: T Krueger http://www.flickr.com/photos/55249741@N06/
3. Culture is
critical to the
CEO
There are 2 types of CEO: one who fixates
on money almost at the cost of culture,
and the other who creates a culture in
which great work happens.

15. Creative Commons: Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons
4. Values
trump process
Much of Big Spaceship is a self-organizing
organism. Tools and systems exist but
each team works the way it wants to.

16. Four Principles
Collaborate.
Produce exceptional work.
Take care of each other.
Partner with your client.
e rest is up to you.

17. 5. It’s a very
self-aware
culture
What we stand for and what we are good
at is a constant discussion. On every
project, we try to bring the best of our
culture to the work. Creative Commons: Leonard John Matthews http://www.flickr.com/photos/
mythoto/3943777830/sizes/o/in/photostream/

18. 6. It’s a quiet
culture
Much of our culture happens through
Gchat, AOL chat, Basecamp and on our
internal blog. Loudness doesn’t indicate
anything; making stuff does.

19. You know you’ve made it when this happens to you.

20. 7. If change
matters,
don’t service
it with lips
Jazz hands and lip service can only get
change so far. We’ve made several
changes over the years - from making
movie websites in Flash, to now, where a
majority of our work involves products
and platforms. Creative Commons: Cobalt http://www.flickr.com/photos/coblat/525132270/
sizes/l/in/photostream/

21. II.
How we focus
on behavior
An unprocessed approach to strategy in 5 slides

22. Ideas
compel
behavior
If we take this as an obvious given...

23. Purpose is
the new
idea
How does the business serve humanity?
Then purpose - because of its ability to compel behaviors - is the new idea.

24. And the planning
is in the
behavior
How will the business behave?
What behavior are we trying to affect?
What behavior can we play to?

25. The future of planning is
in the experience
Stage
Step
Actions
Insights
Content
Metrics

26. III.
Make-behaving
Turning behavior into made things

27. Wrigley
Skittles
Understanding that Skittles lovers enjoyed certain types of bite-sized content led to a
never-ending rainbow of absurdism.

28. Before

35. Lucasfilm
Starwars.com
Understanding that Star Wars needed to engage superfans as well as less involved
people, led to a website that allowed depth as well as simpler exploration.

37. stronger screen
VW add

42. Google
What do you love?
Do You Love
Understanding that people learn by doing and that their passions are key to their online
behavior, instead of a messaging campaign, we created this tool for Google.

43. Before

51. Big Spaceship
Most Awesomest
Thing Ever
Understanding that people love comparing random things and debating which is better
led to this: The Most Awesomest Thing Ever.

55. So, that’s how a focus on behavior affects our culture, our approach and our work. And,
while I hope that Frankie from Coney Island escapes the cycle that his ideas may trap him
in, and if we treat Frankie merely as a metaphor, then our industry doesn’t need more
Frankies.

56. Can good behavior get
you out in time?

57. Mark Pollard, VP Brand Strategy - @markpollard
www.bigspaceship.com