Et si on s’inspirait de la sagesse sud-africaine ?

(+13 rating, 13 votes)

L’année 2010 sera t-elle l’année de l’Afrique du sud ? En commençant par  la sortie le 13 janvier du nouveau film de Clint Eastwood , Invictus,  qui montre l’incroyable et difficile évolution culturelle de ce pays après la libération de Mandela (voir bande-annonce ci-dessus), jusqu’au pic de la coupe du Monde de football en juin. Le monde a beaucoup à apprendre des “Sud-Afs” ! Y compris dans le domaine des Idées et les hommes qui changent un pays.

John Hunt est un des meilleurs créatifs du monde. Aujourd’hui Worldwide Creative Officer de TBWA\, il est le cofondateur de l’agence de publicité TBWA\Hunt Lascaris en Afrique du Sud, agence maintes fois primée à Cannes (dont il fut l’un des Président du Festival), qui obtint le Grand Prix de l’affichage mondial en 2009 pour sa campagne “The Zimbabwean” (cf mon post de juin 2009 ” Et si on mettait directement l’argent de la pub dans la pub ?”). John a également été directement associé à la campagne électorale de Nelson Mandela en 1993 qui a ouvert l’Afrique du Sud à la démocratie. C’est un passionné des “idées qui changent le monde” au nom de sa devise “Life is too short to be mediocre”. Il vient de publier aux Editions PowerHouse NY un petit manifeste, intitulé “The art of the idea“, très bien écrit (John est d’abord un “copywriter”), et superbement illustré,  plein de finesse et de bon sens sur la manière d’avoir des idées et d’éviter qu’elles ne soient tuées dans l’oeuf. En voici quelques extraits choisis sous forme d’aphorismes.

• “Having ideas is being in the pursuit of unexpected relevance…Schools teach us to learn, but not to think” (Intro)

• “Sunrise people, like Mandela, know that if you don’t have all the answers yet, it does not mean the idea is invalid…Sunset people don’t kill ideas, they just take away al the oxygen surrounding them” (Chap1 : you get sunrise or sunset people)

• “Habits can become so deeply ingrained that it produces a mental gridlock” (Chap2 : Lemmings have plans too)

•”Fear is a lousy motivator for fresh thinking… Most of the world’s greatest ideas were first very fragile thoughts… Very few concepts are born perfectly formed and ready to go… If you allow ideas to germinate a little, ou also stand a good chance of them developing their own kinetic energy… The real value of an idea is to see how far you can push it.” (Chap3 : Ideas have moods)

• “The most banana of republics intuitively know they are just one brave idea from collapse” (Chap4 : we are all equal before the idea)

• “Logic is the status quo’s first line of defence… If logic is introduced too early into an idea, it often kills it…Logic is rarely a catalyst.” (Chap5 : Logic is kryptonite)

• “Information is nothing more than the raw stuff… Until it’s seeded with an idea that leads to an action, it’s just a lump of words and figures.” (Chap6 : I Google therefore I am (not)

•”Way before a thought can evolve into something we believe in, it floats in the primitive soup of instinct.” (Chap7 : Trust your instincts, or they will go away)

•”Big ideas have a “What if” quality about them that initially defies measurement and metrics.” (Chap8 : Incremental change is fine if you are glacier)

•”Very few ideas survive the third person trap. If a new idea is worth anything, it should make everyone a little nervous…It means the idea caries change within it… The first test of an idea is the level of commitment to it…If you stands for nothing, then that’s also what you attract.” (Chap9 : Expediency is not an idea)

• “If you want something new to emerge, you want people in the room who don’t think like you” (Chap10 : Embrace diversity, it’ll hug you back.

•”Words can be very beautiful or extremely dangerous…Silence is the perfect place for an idea to grow in.” (chap11 : an idea is a paradigm shifting moment )

•”Never put lipstick on a pig” (Chap12 : never put lipstick on a pig)

•”Thought police people believe experience has reavealed the hly tablets of the future.” (Chap13 : think about the thought police)

.”Few ideas, like the wheel, change the world… Ideas are Darwinian as life itself – only the strongest survive.” (Chap14: This is just in, we’re mortal)

•”Ideas no longer live solitary existences.” (Chap15 : Idea Apartheid is dead)

•”Change the physical space you’re in and your brain follows suit…A point of view is someimes just exactly that.” (Chap16 : No one orders a bouquet of beige flowers)

•”A predator politician has no interest in the quality of the idea, other than how it will enhance his personal agenda.” (Chap17 : Enter the politician, exit the idea)

•” In the land of ideas, a comfort zone is not an environmental friendly place to be… By keeping your mind fertile, even the tiniest seed of a thought has a good chance of growing into something extraordinary.” (Chap18 : We don’t know what we don’t know until we do what we don’t usually do)

• “The high mortality rate of ideas often has less to do with their quality and more to do with ther mode of transport… If fresh thinking is to stay fresh, it has to be quickly accepted, rejected, or positively modified…A cage thought can’t fly…If, however, ownership can be conferred on everyone, the miraculous begins to happen. The idea turns into a movement.” (Chap19 : Ideas don’t ravel well through a bureaucracy)

•”The big trick is to be relaxed about uncertainty, if possibly, to even enjoy it…It’s difficult to have an epiphany if all you want revealed is what you already know.” (Chap20 : it’s not the circle of life , it’s the circus of life”)

Chaque chapitre du livre de John Hunt (disponible sur Amazon) est illustré par l’artiste peintre Sud-Aricain Sam Nhlengethwa. En achetant le livre de John, vous ferez en plus une bonne action, puisque tous les profits iront à l’initiative Room 13 qui vise à permettre aux jeunes écoliers de développer leur créativité. En voici la présentation faite par John :

“Room 13 is a unique initiative that provides an environment for underprivileged children to unfurl their imagination. Here they can express themselves in anything from painting and drawing to drama, poetry and storytelling.Room 13 changes their lives. It’s unique in that the project is essentially run by the children themselves. They are their own management team, they choose their own artist-in-residence. But with this freedom also comes the responsibility of making Room 13 sustainable. So while they explore their creative talents, they also learn about entrepreneurship and leadership skills. There are 33 Room 13’s around the world, of which 13 are in South Africa.”

Room 13 est d’ailleurs une initiative associative qui sera lancée en France en 2010, dont j’aurais l’occasion de vous reparler très bientôt. En attendant, vous pouvez faire mieux connaissance avec les enfants de Room 13 en Afrique du Sud, en devenant fan sur Facebook de l’initiative “SHARP(ER)” menée par Emmanuel André.