Inefficiency is good
Opinion
As an industry, we are obsessed with efficiency. But what if the creation of brilliant ideas requires large dollops of inefficiency — the mull, the stare into space, the browse?
I was sitting opposite a friend at lunch the other day. He called me “inefficient, in the best possible way”.
He was — is — right.
We do similar jobs. Aged and senior (ahem, learned) strategists at strategically leaning media agencies. His, a large multinational; mine, Goodstuff.
However, we are very different individuals. He is analytical, orderly, structured, impatient, intensely intelligent. So much so that he shaves his head completely bald and orders exactly the same as me at lunch. Because he’s efficient.
I am none of these things. I am inclined to be more intuitive, emotionally driven and creative. My still-full head of hair covers a rambling, messy-minded and random brain.
Inefficient, but in a good way. Right?
Disrupt the natural order
I don’t have to bombard you with use cases to tell you that we are obsessed with efficiency as a corporate species at large. It is The Natural Order of Things in the era of late-stage capitalism we’re in.
Automation, AI, centralisation, consolidation, offshoring, outsourcing, the rise of programmatic media and the over-reliance on last click attribution are all driven by a desire for efficiency, in pursuit of profit.
It’s absolutely the question behind the current home-working furore: how/where are we most efficient?
Equally, the motivation behind corporate mega-mergers is, inevitably, cost efficiency.
Fostering inefficiency
But what if, as a creative industry (a very important caveat, that), we are pursuing the wrong thing? And it’s the exact opposite to that which we should be pursuing?
What if creating the conditions for the creation of brilliant creative ideas requires large, juicy, messy, nebulous, unmeasurable, unmanageable, unreplicable dollops of inefficiency?
My esteemed boss, James Townsend, talked about his insistence on Stagwell agencies all being on one floor of a large building to “create serendipity”. But what if we went further still and aimed to reconnect with a harder, messier objective of actively fostering inefficiency?
I, like my lunching chum claimed, refer to inefficiency in the most positive sense. The mull, the stare into space, the browse, the amble, the chat, the peruse, the think, the scribble, the scroll, the stew, the wait, the read, the snooze, the smoke/vape/drink, the surf, the do-something-else, the distraction, the procrastination, the deviation.
Don’t overlook the angels
What if inefficiency is good? Indeed, that’s my provocation.
[Insert obligatory reference to scientific studies to back up my claim, referenced by someone with more credibility, Dr Tracy Brower]
In our inexorable drive towards efficiency, we have and are continuing to overlook, cut out and undervalue — or, worse still, demonise — inefficiency.
All the while, there’s gold in it.
It puts me in mind of one of my favourite quotes, by George Whitman, (inefficiently) hand-painted on the wall of Paris’ Shakespeare and Company — itself arguably the least efficient bookshop in the world: “Be not inhospitable to strangers lest they be angels in disguise.”
An outcome of the eradication of inefficiency is that we’ve become strangers to it. Afraid of it. Even though it’s where the good stuff resides and the angels live.
So let’s allow time for inefficiency, embrace it, create the right conditions for it. In doing so, we’ll be fostering creative brilliance and effective ideas, so it makes commercial sense.
Imagine returning to the office because there’s more inefficiency to be had there. In the commute, the distractions, the idle chats. Acknowledging that it’s precisely the moments of inefficiency that make being together better. Or, equally, at home. Whatever works for you.
Upward surge of mankind
Don’t just take my word for it. I might have tweaked the wording slightly for reasons of, er, efficiency, but remind yourself of the words of that poster boy for rapacious capitalism, Gordon Gekko, and his rousing call to arms: “Inefficiency is not a destroyer of creativity, it’s a liberator of it.
“The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that inefficiency, for lack of a better word, is good. Inefficiency is right, inefficiency works. Inefficiency clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary and creative spirit.
“Inefficiency in all of its forms… In the creation of life, money, love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind.”
OK, completely bastardised, but true, no? And maybe, as Gekko also didn’t say, inefficiency might save the malfunctioning corporation that is the creative services industry.
Ultimately, inefficiency is the yin to efficiency and effectiveness’ yang.
So, be not inhospitable to inefficiency, lest it be creative effectiveness in disguise.
Simeon Adams is a partner at Goodstuff Communications