March 9th, 2010
The ‘And’ Between Us
There is a Sufi saying that goes something like this: “Because you understand 1 you think you understand 2, because 1 and 1 make 2. But what you don’t understand is that in order to really understand 2 you must understand the and.”
In her fabulous book, Leadership and the New Science, Margaret Wheatley, illustrates the ‘and.’ Under a photo of the Aurora Borealis she writes: “When the solar wind enters earth’s atmosphere, its charged particles stream to the magnetic poles. As the particles interact with nitrogen and oxygen, they become visible as colored light. These aurora demonstrate that space is not empty.”
What are the bonds between us? What is the magic ‘and’ that happens when a person and a person (or a person and a product) connect? We change each other. What most marketing fails to recognize is that both parties are changed and continue to change through the duration of the relationship. Dynamic, 21st century marketing must seek to understand the ‘and,’ and find ways to illuminate it so it may be incorporated and accounted for.
posted by schuyler brown
Filed Under: Skyelab
Last night, my husband and I attended the 40th Anniversary party of
“When Nations grow Old,
It is not enough to be busy, so are the ants.
A week ago I went to Washington, DC to host a consumer workshop for a smart phone maker. To clear my mind before the event, I decided to take a walk through the city. Having lived in DC for a few years in the 90s, I mentally plotted my route to take me past a statue of Ghandi I remembered near Dupont Circle.