This happens from time to time in cyclical worlds, be they sports, entertainment or even education. You get to a point of rinse and repeat, hopefully taking the best practices of years past and reframing so that the core messages or best practices stay consistent and true, while the anecdotes, even the best ones, get a refresh.
Sometimes we can fall into a trap that what was a great example or best practices of the past remains relevant for the current. This is the case especially when you are in a business where the audience constantly changes and often times is younger, and you make the assumptions that the topics…or the topical…of today is the same as what it was in the past, even the recent past. The world is evolving at a breakneck pace, yet our views or examples of relevance, because they are comfortable and easy to us, may not be as current or even relevant as we think they are.
This assumption of relevance can or be a hindrance, a wakeup call, a teachable moment, or can be a massive disruption, and it is often left to the conveyor of the information to learn, listen and adjust.
I have seen this more than a few times in recent weeks and months, especially when talking to, and hopefully learning from, a younger audience of career seekers, job advancers, interns or peers who are attuned to things which we are not always paying attention to in the silo we are living in. It also goes the other way, where we mention something or someone that is self evident to us, yet brings blank stares or questions or a lack of raised hands.
Last fall, I mentioned the movie ‘Hoosiers’ to my super smart Columbia graduate class and got three positives responses…out of 22. Recently I spoke to a class of rising high school students interested in sports business at The School of The New York Times and mentioned that when I first taught that class my first guest was David Stern. I got “those looks” from a few students and asked if they knew who the former NBA Commissioner was…maybe five of 21 said yes. There is also a story I have mentioned before about Michael Jordan. When we were doing publicity for Creed 2, Michael B. Jordan told a story about how MJ, just before The Last Dance came about and while Black Panther was all the rage, went to visit an inner city Chicago middle school. He walked in to great excitement and the students heads dropped. They thought the star of the film was coming to see them, not some guy who used to play for the Bulls in another era.
Now all of these are lessons in relevance, and as my longtime friend Arthur Pincus pointed out, you can use them as sad moments and shake your head, or you can use them as teachable moments for the audience to educate and inform them on the relevance of who you are talking to. After all, it presents an opportunity to pass on memories, stories and best practices to an audience as small as one who can walk away better informed, and it gives you a teachable moment to better understand and learn from those around you.
None of this is new…maybe what’s newer is the shrinking sense of time because what we would like to learn about and pass on and share becomes shorter and shorter, and there is an inherent danger that exists in failing to understand history and value. However literally at our fingertips we can convey history and educate now when people are eager, open minded and interested to listen, just as we should.
Case in point…when I was able to explain who Commissioner Stern was and showed a few images off my phone, those young people became informed advocates, and that’s what we should try to achieve all the time, especially in a world more time challenged than ever.
Open mind, curious learning, inclusive education.
Onward.
