Looking back, 2011 was really a bit bonkers wasn’t it?
For us last year was mainly about learning by doing, collaborating and experimenting…
We said bye to Dan as he went to Costa Rica, hi to Anouk who’s joined the gang then hi to Dan as he came back again, full of perspective and new ideas….
As a small, and unperfectly formed gang living in a topsy turvy world of disruptive change, we’ve been trying to ‘lean into uncertainty’ - it’s been an exhilarating ride.
Our mission is to help others and ourselves innovate with purpose – connecting networks for profit with networks for purpose. And hopefully have a bit of a laugh doing it….
As we set our sights on 2012, we’ve looked back at the 10 things we challenged ourselves to do in 2011. Some stuff worked really well, others less so. Some stuff just didn’t happen.
Wishful thinking or optimistic idealism – whatever you call it, these challenges are becoming our version of a business plan.
So, in no particular order here’s what we got up to…
1. Do more Good for Something 8/10
In the past 12 months, we’ve taken on 18 diverse projects with 10 organisations.
We love it that we’re increasingly being asked more challenging questions. Tackling the hard stuff is about being brave enough to take leaps – so a massive thanks to everyone who’s supported and challenged us with those on our journey to date.
All of our projects have involved helping pioneering individuals and teams build deeper purpose, meaning and empathy into their organisations and brands. Highlights include missions into community energy innovation, student engagement, sustainable fashion innovation, purposeful travel and lingerie (yep!), sustainable banking and booze R&D.
Oh, and we also did our first ever Good for Something project which was ace – the first Good for Nothing gig inside an organsiation – more on that below.
2. Do more Good for Nothing 9/10
2011 was a big year for Good for Nothing.
We put on 7 ‘gigs’, supported 19 social and environmental causes, had 6 ‘socials’ which involved ale and collaboration in that order, made a newspaper and a stack of films and were chuffed that over 500 great people have got involved in the community via our online platform - Good for Noth-Ning.
Our 2nd gig – a 48 hour event in May – got billed by Eye Magazine as ‘Creative Collaboration meets Rave’ which we quite liked. Some great stuff got done for Bletchley Park, Gnewt Cargo and FoodCycle.
We had a pop at a 4 hr gig with 50+ design students at the D&AD New Blood Festival which rocked. And buddied up with Innocent’s creative team do a a 24 hour blast of Good for Nothing for Brixton social enterprise – The Remakery. And challenged the St Bride Library Critical Tensions conference to do Good for Nothing resulting in a 4 hr gig for the Hackney Yoga Project.
Then there’s 50/50 Make or Break – a collaborative digital fundraising effort for the famine in East Africa. In the aftermath of the London riots, we put on a 2 day gig touted as a ‘Creative Love Riot’ with an emphasis on “making stuff, not breaking stuff”. Kicked off by us and the awesome team over at Made by Many, the project ended up involving hundreds of very talented people across 9 countries. Together this international network created 43 internet-based projects in 50 days (hence 50/50) to increase donations and awareness for the famine. To date 50/50 has been featured on BBC Click, Good, PSFK, Adage, AdWeek, Common/Fearless, Eye Magazine, Protein, Creativity Online, MTV, Mashable and on Mexican TV! The Chemical Brothers made a bespoke audio-visual mix as a project, and as a ‘platform’, it won a bronze Lovie award!
Oh, and it’s raised nearly £250,000 which is amazing…
3. Make something useful 6/10
We set out to create a thing that we (and anyone else) can use to innovate with purpose.
Upshot is that we haven’t built anything ourselves but as a by-product of the 50/50 project with Made by Many, we’ve ended making something potentially very useful…
50/50 is really just a lightweight platform + payment gateway. We learnt tons about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to collaborative digital fundraising.
Next job is to package it up into a “product” to share openly with others to find lots more new uses for it…
4. Share our Manifesto for Innovation with Purpose 5/10
This is ongoing and we’ve not nailed it yet. It will never be perfect.
2011 was about building a new set of questions and practices - many of which we’re learning from our Good for Nothing and 50/50 experiences. We wrote about what’s needed and what’s possible which frames much of our work. We’ve also been capturing and developing a toolkit of stuff that works (and doesn’t) from Good for Nothing so we can get more people doing GFN in more places this year.
The thing about innovation is that we know that process sucks compared to practice. Especially when you want to do shit that matters. So, this has to be a constantly evolving toolkit which will continue to be updated and shared as we learn more and more, by doing.
5. Meet more diverse people to open up new avenues of innovation 8/10
Doing Good for Nothing and 50/50 has introduced us to so many amazing, soulful and purposeful people
We’ve started working with quite a few of them more regularly, and it’s changing how we approach our projects.
A special mention to all the friends of Good for Nothing who’ve helped get it off the ground, especially Loz.
And for the Made by Many crew who’ve been such awesome collaborators…Tim, Cath, Andrew, Conor and Nicki
6. Move into a new basecamp 0/10
Er. A massive #fail. Must do a LOT better…
We’re feeling the need to get nomadic so if you know of any space in Central London with like-minded makers and doers and room for 4 or 5, please shout!
7. Finding porpoise 6/10
We love our friendly little porpoise – he scouts the world for the latest, neatest ideas with purpose and shares them here. He’s been pretty active this year seeking out new stuff to the tune of 37 ideas.
This year, we’re going to collaborate some more with Steve King who runs Social Business to keep this side the purposeful inspiration going….so watch this space.
8. Make more movies 9/10
We’ve had a lot of fun with this…
Check out our vimeo to see the kind of stuff we’ve been making…but perhaps the best film we’ve been involved in was this launch film for 50/50 – animated by Max Brown from Hypernaked and illustrated by Loz Ives of Because Studio.
9. Link up big business with social enterprise 8/10
By luck more than design, we’ve had a go at this twice by doing Good for Nothing gigs with both Ecclesiastical and Innocent Drinks…
In the late summer, we piloted the first ‘Good for Something’ gig in partnership with Ecclesiastical – an ethical insurer who works a lot with charity and the 3rd sector. In essence, we help them to do Good for Nothing and it was pretty amazing. The film below tells the story…
10. Get out and get active 7/10
A big highlight of the year was our team trip to the Lake District to walk, talk and plot for 2012 – we’ll post those plans up next, but in the meantime here’s a little film we made of the fun and games…
Extreme…..
Pace. Speed. Velocity…
In Top Gun, Maverick and Goose’s mantra was “the need for speed”…
In rugby, as my life as a fairly average winger testified, there’s no substitute for it…
So what about pace in business? On projects? What is the pace of purpose?
As the world moves faster, and the pace of change accelerates, we’re looking for new ways to design projects that help teams to discover their purpose through collaborative creativity – overcoming inertia and generating momentum. Projects like our social mission and innovation experiment Good for Nothing
Last week I was inspired by a post by Ruth Carruthers over at the Do Village called Is Thinking still Doing? Ruth was battling with the tension between thinking and doing. She tells the lovely story of an artist called Jeremyville who’d taken a long afternoon off over an unplanned lunch. An unexpected pause that helped him to step back, think and really focus on what he wanted to do. He slowed down. To speed up. He thought, then did. And made this ace print to tell the story.
It reminded me of snowboarding. Snowboarding (and indeed many extreme sports) are a great metaphor for pacing on projects. The slow/fast rhythm. The intense adrenalin rush of dropping in, picking your line, pushing your boundaries, the noise, your heartbeat racing, body and mind in sync. And then you stop. A brief lull, a quiet calm, a time to reflect – sat on a lift, surrounded by the most awe-inspiring natural environment you can imagine – regathering your breath and your energy. And so it continues. As you go higher, you look for your next line, you start to mentally prepare, and then you focus and go. You slow down to speed up.
It reminded me of a half-marathon I ran in Marlow. Only my second one ever. There were 3 hills, each really very steep. I was trying to run at an even-pace. Pushing for a new personal best. I kept finding myself going too fast up the hill, ahead of others and tiring myself out. And then going too slowly down them, being overtaken by the experienced runners who knew better. They kept their energy in reserve, slowing down on the way up. And using it to push themselves faster on the way down – when conditions favoured speed. Clever stuff – adapting, slowing down to speed up. Again.
It reminded me of the rhythm of great conversations. With my wife, friends, family. The ups and downs of storytelling, the emotional highs and the lows, the energy peaks and troughs. The slow meandering and rising crescendo as you stumble across something funny that builds and develops. Bringing back themes and recombining ideas to reach new places, improvising in original and fresh ways. Again, the pace – fast – slow then fast again.
In fact, above all, each of these reminded me of nature. The day/night cycle. How a good sleep completely refreshes your perspective. The constant evolution of a finely balanced and tuned ecosystem. How all of a sudden, from nowhere, the seasons change. The leaves all start to fall, or the cold wind blows in, or the bulbs break through heralding spring. It made me think about how nature affects our mood, our productivity, our behaviour and indeed our outlook on life….we’re not constant, we’re just constantly adapting.
Which made me wonder why we plan our work lives to be so constant. And our projects to be evenly paced. It seems life doesn’t work like that. Purpose seemingly doesn’t march to the same drumbeat as a Gantt chart.
Most businesses work to a quarterly rhythm. Numbers and projects revolve around it. We tend to assume results will happen in a linear fashion driven by efforts that are evenly distributed time over a set number of days/weeks/months. The milestones are board meetings.
Yet nature and human endeavor seem to work to a different pattern – we’re influenced by the seasons, we’re adaptive, we can sense, we move fast and slow, we’re designed to be in touch with the environment.
Don’t get me wrong – to make things happen, we need plans, we need targets, we need deadlines. 100 days or 3 months is not a bad target to get stuff done but what does the 1 minute, 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, 1 month version look like? Most good projects we’ve ever worked on make the big breakthroughs in the early days.
What’s abundantly clear is that we shouldn’t let our desire to achieve goals be rigidly dictated by the plans we make – they’re a guide, not a straight-jacket. It’s more important to think about how we can create environments and a project rhythm that encourages genuine insight and breakthrough.
So we ask ourselves as set of critical questions at the outset of any project:
Have we built in enough time for reflection? And inspiration? Can we get immersed in more natural environments at some stage to help people think more freely? What kind of different experiences will let our sub-conscious kick-in and enable new ideas to form ? How can we create the space and connections that will encourage serendipity and obliquity? Can we enable teams to be guided by what needs to happen next based on the idea, not just by what’s on the project plan?
Think agile planning which Neil Perkin and businesses like 37 Signals and Made By Many use to great effect – bumping up against the immersive experience of being connected with nature. Snowboarding meets innovation. Sprint finishes and scrums meet hill walks and reflection. Helping teams to think better and do more.
As we embrace the urgency of finding creative solutions to global resource constraints, we’re hopeful that this kind of non-linear, adaptive and ultimately more human way of working will be a key strand in establishing a different kind of pace and a deeper purpose in business. A new pace of purpose.
Short post today to report on a happy/sad day at Pipeline Towers as we say goodbye to one third of our crew – Dan aka @dansolo is finally heading off on his big adventure to the lovely Costa Coffee Rica for 6 months.
As many of you know, Dan is a bit of a force of nature – in a good way. A genuine mash-up on a mission.
On the one hand, we’re really a bit sad that he’s off and we’ll most definitely miss him for the next 6 months.
He’s an amazing partner with bucketloads of energy, empathy, ideas and creativity. We’ve met some great people via Dan, many of whom we’re actively collaborating with on projects as we speak. We’ve learnt about action enquiry and all sorts of leading-edge thinking about responsible business from his MSc. We’ve discovered (but not tried) barefoot running. And we’ve learnt tons about ourselves to forge a new path, purpose and identity for both The Pipeline Project and Good for Nothing.
On the other hand, we’re genuinely chuffed for Dan and his young family and wish them all loads of luck, love and happiness massive on their exciting adventure. In many ways, it’s once in a lifetime opportunity – the sort of brave and challenging experience that will undoubtedly lead somewhere interesting. Knowing Dan, we’re not quite sure what that will be, but are thrilled that he’s taking the plunge. And can’t wait to hear all about it.
The one thing we are hoping is that Dan will live up to his Star Wars alter-ego/DJ name/twitter handle; @dansolo. As a Jedi Knight, Han Solo also absconded for a while (albeit involuntarily, frozen in carbonite as we recall), only to return with a vengeance in Return of the Jedi. Maybe the same thing will happen with Dan. The Costa Rican sunshine, happy vibes, family time and amazing nature will at some point bring him back to these shores with a fresh take on life for us to carry on together on our mission!
In the meantime, and to keep with the Star Wars riff ….
Dan, may the force be with you…..
Awe from The Pipeline Project on Vimeo.
This is something we mashed up last year. It’s not prescriptive or exhaustive but starts to express what matters to us, ideas and people we respect and admire in the work we are trying to do.
Grab yourself a cup of tea, put your headphones on and take a 10 min break.
We’d love to know your thoughts.
As is customary at this time of year, our thoughts are turning to 2011 and what kind of stuff we want to do more (and less) of.
We don’t do resolutions, but we do like to set ourselves the odd mission or two. And then see how we get on against them. It’s our version of a ‘business plan’…
So, here’s what we’re aiming for in 2010. In no particular order…
1. Do more Good for Something
Keep helping the people we work with to innovate with purpose and have a wider and deeper impact both within their businesses and their marketplaces
2. Do more Good for Nothing
Build on all the ace stuff we learnt and great people we met this year to put on 2 more events with more doing – more developers, more makers, more hackers, and more positive social impact
3. Make something useful
Create a thing that we (and anyone else) can use to innovate with purpose – maybe on the interweb or hacking physical and digital spaces – ideas welcome!
4. Share our Manifesto for Innovation with Purpose
We’ve been slowly putting this together over the last year and now want to get it out there in an interesting way so people can add to it or challenge it to make it better. And do more of it.
5. Meet more diverse people to open up new avenues of innovation
We’re small, agile and always keen to meet like-minded thinkers, makers and doers - clients, experts, academics, social entrepreneurs - leading pioneers from across different disciplines who have challenges for us, or want to go on missions with us
6. Move into a new basecamp
We’ve had fun being where we are, but want to find a place to live in with a bunch of like-minded makers and doers – offers on a postcard please, we need 3 desks, preferably central London-ish
7. Finding porpoise
Keep our friendly little porpoise active and happy – he scouts the world for the latest, neatest ideas with purpose and shares them here
8. Make more movies
Keep making films that tell stories of projects or bring to life issues in more compelling ways – helping people to see things differently and to act on them
9. Link up big business with social enterprise
We think this is part of the future for brands, done in the right way for the right reasons. Next year, we’re on the hunt for the right people and networks to hook up for the benefit of all parties……
10. Get out and get active
We like running. And nature. Last year we rambled and windsurfed in Dorset and did the Cardiff Half Marathon. 2 of us finished, one didn’t. This year we’re setting our sights on some new outdoor challenges. Just shout if you’re up for joining us…
Watch this space for the mid-year report. In the meantime, if you’ve got any ideas or can help us on any of the above, please do get in touch!
As summer seems to be coming to a crashing, damp end, the exam results are in and a new term’s nearly upon us.
In a rare pause for reflection and in the spirit of transparency, we figured it was worth revisiting some of the things we set out at the beginning of the year to see how we’ve been doing….
Overall
Fun had doing our own thing…….immeasurable
Number of businesses we’ve worked with……11
Time spent with family and friends…….loads more than before
Projects done or underway……18
Games of tennis……at least 20
Work from referrals…..91%
Team runs…..2 including this one on the coastal path (mental windy day in Dorset)
Repeat business……72%
Football games gone to…..3
Top 3 clients…..80% of what we’ve done
Post-work drinks……lost count
Views on blog…..8,253 from 51 countries
Serious mistakes made…..a few
Briefs we’ve had and said no thanks……3
Trips to the seaside……1
Blog posts….24
Conversations with normal (non-marketing) folk…. About 100 days worth
Boardroom conversations….8
Money spent on marketing…..£0
Holidays taken….some crackers, but like Netflix we don’t count
Tom R
1. Develop more great ideas that help make clients more successful
Yup, got some really good missions going. Now in the fortunate position of working those through to make them happen….
2. Find some more people to work with who are as bright, brave and committed as Tom F
Very pleased to have welcomed Dan Burgess on board in July and on the look out for more talented folk to join the team
3. Do some stuff that makes some positive change for people and the environment
Definite tick in the box here and something we will be able to talk about in time…
4. Find a cool office
We’ve got a great space that overlooks a park and that’s a stone’s throw from the culinary delights of Borough Market and the fantastic El Vergel café – what’s not to like?
5. Build a cool web site
Nope. Not done yet, but as we speak, we’re briefing it in armed with our coloured crayons….
6. Play better tennis
Not sure if I’m playing any better (‘he is’, sic Ed) – enjoying it though
7. Do some technology work
Yep. Been doing some very interesting stuff launching next year. Watch this space
8. Make some great films for clients
Made a few. Learning a lot about what it takes to make great films – next step is to become more self-sufficient (would welcome any tips)
9. Help pipeline have more fans and followers
We’ve all been blogging and tweeting away – feels like we’ve found a few like-minded souls, got a conversation going and been getting at least a little attention???
10. Listen, learn and learn some more
Definitely yes – learnt tons since we started Pipeline about purpose, about doing business the right way and about helping clients transform their organisations
Tom F
1. Find some more fellow ‘jedi knights’ with as much insight as Tom R has to build our ‘A-team’
Yep, you heard from Dan already. We’re chuffed he’s joined us and are on the look-out for some more similarly brilliant purposeful people join the Pipeline Project this autumn
2. Make the work we’ve already started with lead clients create a big impact
Not bad, a lot of what we do is behind the scenes but our first two clients have made big progress in bringing their purpose more clearly into the market. More soon
3. Get a car client to help create the next generation of cars
Nope, not yet but we are looking at some very exciting opportunities with electric vehicles so we may still get into this before the years’ out
4. Fly a lot less
Yep, very proud of this. Have lost my gold card membership (a pointless badge to be honest), and only flown 3 times all year (all short-haul to either Zurich or Munich). Means I’ve spent loads more time at home with the kids, and long may this continue!
5. Beat Tom R at tennis, even if just once
Nope. Have taken a set, but nothing more. He’s playing with me. Must try harder (and maybe sneak in some private lessons…..)
5. Beat the big guys to get work, hopefully more than once
Not sure . To be honest, not really concerned anymore about who we compete against. I’m way more into why we do what we do and working on stuff that matters. Doing okay considering we’re just 3 people, so mustn’t grumble…..
6. Do the London marathon in 3hrs 30 or less and make some decent cash for charity
Aaargh. This became all consuming. Had to pull out of London with a nasty illness but didChester about 6 weeks later. Came close at just over 3hrs 45 mins and learnt a ton of stuff about distance running, and was proud to have raised over £3000 for NSPCC. Now we’ve got about 10 friends and family all signed up for the Cardiff Half Marathon in October, so all gearing up for that.
7. Build a brilliant network of like-minded partners who help clients and each other grow
This is coming together. We’ve found some great creatives, film-makers and agencies to help out on some of our missions including our friends Andy and Alec over at Splendid Communications, Tom at Cool Hill Productions, Tamar at Futureal, Laura at Laura Kidd, Molly and Rob at We All Need Words and Jim at Agitprop amongst others.
8. Run an event that creates something useful, and people have a laugh
Not yet, but got something cooking so watch this space in November
9. Decide which gaming console to have in our cool office
Nope. Gave up on this, prefer to get outside and run or play tennis.
10. Keep pushing the comfort zone, trying new stuff and seeing what happens
Absolutely. Have got way more into film, more into sustainable communities and cities, making our own content, way more into politics and have been exploring new ways to help people identify and act on purpose. Can’t stand still on this though, so hoping to learn more about all of this and more.
We’re pleased to say that we’re contributing towards an exciting new blog called Conservation Economy that’s launching this week. Head to www.conservation-economy.org and check it out.
There’s some fantastic contributors from a range of marketing, advertising, communications and innovation backgrounds all looking to provoke a debate that fundamentally questions the role of our industry in driving consumption. There’s already some fantastic posts up on there that are worth a few minutes to digest as well a set of resources if you want to get more information.
Our first post published on Conservation Economy is below, so have a browse and let us know what you think.
WHAT IS IT, EXACTLY, THAT YOU DO?
Here’s a question. What do you tell other people that you do?
In fact, have you ever stopped, paused for a second, and reflected on what you’re actually doing? Or gone one step further. And also asked yourself why?
This is not easy stuff. It’s a line of enquiry with the potential to get deep, meaningful and unravel itself faster than you can say ‘psychotherapy’. Or even ‘nutter’. It’s hard to step back and see the things that shape how you view the world. It’s hard because it’s a hard thing to think about. Full-stop.
Yet, these questions are absolutely central to this debate we’re starting. They are the key if we want to unlock the door in how businesses meet their social and commercial agendas in the face of seemingly impossible resource challenges.
So why is this sort of change such a real challenge to our industry?
First, we’ve had it all a bit too easy. We’ve been on a comfortable, lucrative journey where it’s normal to put the serious issues to one side and get on with the fun job at hand – growing the consumption economy. We haven’t learnt to sacrifice or place value in things other than profit.
Second, we’ve got really good at driving consumption-based economics. It’s a well-oiled machine, quite literally. We’ve ridden the wave where the answer was always growth and more growth. The system thrived on it. The training taught for it. The rewards incentivised it. And no-one questions it.
Third we’ve created very little evidence for or indeed aspiration to experiment with new social business models. New ideas that can both turn a profit and contribute positively to society. Put more simply, we need more success stories to point the way to the future.
Lastly, and maybe most importantly, it’s challenging to step away from the herd. We’re part of a generation that’s had very little to get behind. Sure, we might have felt part of a movement – a sense of belonging from being part of rave culture – the tribal feeling of supporting a sports team. But we’ve not personally been to war. We’ve never had to ration. We’ve never really been under attack. We’ve never been on a real mission.
Coming back to my original question. I’ll be honest. I’ve never really succeeded in explaining what I do. Just ask my mum.
It’s not because what I do is that hard to explain.
It’s because what I do is loosely called “marketing”. And “marketing” is part of business. And business has become part of a world that seems somehow distant to many, or even most people. An alien, impersonal and slippery game of snakes and ladders that’s a couple of steps removed from the nuts and bolts of how most normal folk think.
The closest I’ve ever got to a tangible answer was making soap. My mum had heard of Procter & Gamble. I was a scientist in product development and she was proud of me, especially as I was using my biochemistry degree. But she was still disappointed that I’d not followed my dreams of being the next David Attenborough. Or been a doctor. Or done something that, you know……was worthwhile…was good.
I’m excited by this debate because for the first time, I’m seeing an opportunity to reconcile what I’d previously seen as irreconcilable challenges.
To put the insight and creativity skills that sit at the heart of marketing to much better use. To help create new social norms where we reset the dials a little in a more balanced way, and build more aspiration around innovative, sustainable business models and brands. To tackle head-on the niggling feeling I keep getting that the world does not need yet another ill conceived, profit-grabbing line extension to that brand.
To be able to proudly and clearly answer the question about what I do to anyone who asks, and not get punched or laughed at (too much!).
It’s exciting because it’s not business as usual. It’s radical, challenging and important. And when I explained it to my mum, she got it – first time; and it was good.