The Relationship Renaissance

I just finished my contribution for The Age of Conversation E-book.  The name of my "chapter"?  The Relationship Renaissance.  The idea for the contribution came initially from Roger von Oech's question during his write-up on me a while back:

"Let’s suppose Digitas says, “David, we’ll pay you to take off two months to write a 200 page book about marketing, creativity, and new media.” What would your “take” be?"

My answer?

"The title of my book would be: “The Relationship Renaissance: How design, social media and technology have created an explosion in creativity, and communication.” And the premise:

Some have called it a revolution. Others evolution. But are we really living in an age of digitally fueled invention and re-discovery?  Enabled by technology, architected through experience and supported with an “open source” thought democracy—we are living in a relationship renaissance which is forcing us to re-think the definition of brands, marketing and how we think about “consumers.”

And since I haven't been given time off to write a book—I did the next best thing.  I used the idea in my contribution (just over 500 word essay).  I won't give too much away, but here is an excerpt:

"What sparked the original Renaissance?  Some historians speculate that the “Black Death” had something to do with it.  The theory is that this caused individuals to focus on the quality of their lives on earth in addition to the afterlife.  As a result, art and science exploded with the help of Greek and Arabic knowledge.

Maybe our own “Black Death” has been business as usual.  In Advertising.  In Business.  In our everyday lives.  To be called a “Renaissance Man” means that you possess multidisciplinary talents.  Today’s Renaissance men and women combine skills in personal publishing, podcasting, virtual worlds and other kinds of digital disciplines—which connect, converse, and ultimately allow us to relate."

You'll have to buy the e-book for the rest—in addition to tons of great perspectives from over 100 other social media participants and thought leaders.  It will be worth the wait.  Proceeds go to Variety, the children's charity, and the book is dedicated to the memory of Sandra J. Kerley.

Comments

[Ben Kelly]

David,

I love the idea of "open source thought". I think you could write a book and do a speaking tour on this idea alone.

I think this concept is definitely a revolution and completely inspiring. I find it difficult to get fellow employees to share their minds, let alone peers and competitors.

It should be all about growing together, not individually.

[Bad Banana]

Love your thinking.

The Renaissance was primarily funded by the vast resources of the Medici family. This elite and powerful family provided the inspiration (and funding) and the rest of Italy followed. As you point out, today's Renaissance is inspired by inexpensive and ubiquitous technology in the hands of the people. Individual people are providing the inspiration, and corporations (and funds) are following.

We are living in the second great age for creative generalits. This time, however, we're in charge.

[Raimo van der Klein]

Hi David,

Personally I believe it is our holistic view on the planet. We search for meaning. We are all connected.

Maybe it is this collaborative/holistic(activation of the right side of the brain?) way of thinking that is needed to spark of the world of creativity and imagination..??

[Valeria Maltoni]

David:

I hope they put our contributions next to each other, I bet they build nicely. I wrote about The Age of Conversation @ Work and will be giving a very few snippets away this week.

[RichardatDELL]

David,

I had a chance to catch up on some web 2.0 reading and enjoyed being inspired by your site. Thanks for that.

Also, I didn’t notice whether you had caught this video which I found on a colleagues website http://www.lingolook.com/2007/04/03/who-said-copywriters-dont-need-to-adapt/

The video is by Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University.

To quote my friend Michael “it’s a phenominally quick revue of the changes that have happened over the web’s brief history and a profound look at the implications”

Thought you would enjoy.

[ann michael]

Hi David!

I would also say that the relationship renaissance you've described is apparent in all aspects of business - management, leadership, customer service - you name it.

Matrix organizations, versus strict command and control structures, succeed or fail on the members' ability to negotiate and influence colleagues. Relationship focused people are far better at that.

This is a fantastic topic! We'll have to talk more about it at SOBCon!

Ann

[Ron E.]

I think this whole relationship revolution came about because as human beings we are always trying to find a balance in life, and it seems we had lost touch with ourselves and others around us, so we're trying to re-connect. I think this is our way of acknowledging that we are a big society composed by billions of people, and that we can learn from each and every single person out there. A tad spiritual? But I do believe this is what's going on, hopefully we'll find the balance as to not tip to the other side of the boat in a few years.

Cheers,
Ron E.
http://brandcurve.com

By the way, you should get on to writing that whole book, I'm sure it would be interesting.

[DA]

Ron,

Maybe a tad spiritual but I agree that one of the big factors behing the "human Web" is that we are all finding each other, we are realizing that "we are not alone". That others just like ourselves are out there.

[The Dead Artist]

there are even other on "the other side" too.

[Robert]

I think you squirrels have eaten too many nuts, yeah lets all do the hippy business model connect grab some dough and let go of all of this computer crap just get a life get out and do something, which is really good advice since Im sitting here doing the same damn thing = I am an idiot, and I guess you know it now too.