Killing the elephant in the diversity room - social class - By Lisa Thompspon, Planning Director at Wavemaker North
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Killing the elephant in
the diversity room -
social class
By Lisa Thompspon, Planning Director at Wavemaker North
July 2020In the world of brands, it can feel as Doing so enabled the authors to smash the myth of the
lone genius, and instead prove that great innovation is
though we constantly face damning the result of’‘Collective Genius.’
headlines about the state of our industry.
We’re too short term, brands are no They explain that the role of the leader in innovative
organisations is one who can “create and sustain an
longer relevant, our best creative work is environment that unleashes the slice of genius in each
less effective. Orlando Wood released a of their people and then combines that ‘Collective
book telling us that the advertising brain Genius’ into a single work of innovation” (Hill et al,
2014).
has turned sour.
This is relevant to our industry as we rely on innovative
Even if the headlines are alarmist, there is evidence
problem solving, and groups brand representatives
that our industry needs a rethink. But this response will
working together.
argue we shouldn’t be holding out for a hero.
We should be creating a culture of ‘Collective Genius’
that helps reinvigorate our industry to one that can
better solve problems, reviving creative work and
building an industry brimming with innovation. But to
do this, we need to address the cultural make-up of our
industry.
To frame and inspire this response the book Collective It is imperative that our
Genius: The Art and Practice of Leading Innovation will
be utilised.
industry creates and sustains
a culture that enables
The book analysed companies including Pixar, eBay
and Volkswagen who all constantly deliver innovation.
‘Collective Genius’
Killing the elephant in the diversity room - social class 2So how are these cultures created?
Through analysis the authors identified three abilities
that innovative companies all share to continually
innovate: Creative Abrasion, Creative Agility and
Creative Resolution.
The definitions are represented in Figure 1; however, all
three abilities are required - they fuel each other.
In analysing these three abilities our industry isn’t
currently able to achieve one: Creative Abrasion. This
ability relies on two things diversity and conflict. Our
industry is not diverse.
You are probably reading this and thinking of course,
we need diversity, we talk and champion it a lot. You
may assert that just last month in Campaign, Karen
Blackett proclaimed “Diversity isn’t a problem to fix it’s
the solution” (Small, 2020). You may be well versed
Figure 1: Hill et al. 2004
in the statistics that “diverse companies produce 19%
more revenue” (Powers, 2018). And you may combine
these three issues and exclaim that of course we need
diversity in our industry because doing so helps us at diversity through the lens of thinking differently,
come up with innovative solutions, so you aren’t telling enables us to unlock a real challenge with the industry;
us anything new. we are an industry where we all think the same.
But, digging further into Collective Genius unearths Evidence comes via the work of Andrew Tenzer and
a challenge to the way our industry views diversity Ian Murray, in two key studies Why We shouldn’t trust
resulting in our industry not being able to produce our Gut Instinct and The Empathy Delusion. Through
Creative Abrasion. Unless solved we will struggle to psychological research he revealed the advertising
innovatively solve problems. industry has a “different unconscious ‘thinking style’
to the modern mainstream (Tenzer & Murray, 2018)”
In Collective Genius, diversity is defined as having summarising in Gut Instinct that “people in the ad
“people who think differently.” (Hill et al, 2014). The industry see and experience the world differently”
key word being think. (Tenzer & Murray, 2018).
As the book acknowledges just because “people look It’s not just that we see the world differently, but we
different doesn’t mean they’ll have divergent points of all think the same. Tenzer and Murray state in The
view.” (Hill et al, 2014). Their analysis proves that “for Empathy Delusion that “people in marketing and
innovative problem solving, you want to bring people advertising tend to be marching to the same beat”
who think differently, people who have different skills, (Tenzer & Murray, 2019). The result - we don’t benefit
knowledge, working and thinking styles and different from conflicting viewpoints and are unable to practice
preferences for how they gather, process and assimilate Creative Abrasion.
data” (Hill et al, 2014), acknowledging that “Different
life experiences and personal identities may lead to
different outlooks, but not necessarily” (Hill et al, 2014). So why do we all think the same…?
Because we’re elite
This is crucial because it demonstrates that in order to
be truly diverse, we must look beyond visible aspects of Tenzer explains his research demonstrates that the
diversity. industry’s ‘cognitive biases’ “strongly correlate with
affluence and social grade” (Tenzer, 2020).
As an industry we currently only focus on visible
personal identities. With two types dominating the Further evidence proves that coming from a privileged
conversation; ethnicity and gender. A shift to looking background has become the industry norm.
Killing the elephant in the diversity room - social class 3In the book The Class Ceiling: Why it pays to be
Privileged, Friedman and Laurison utilised survey
data from the Labour Force Survey, which in 2014
for the first-time asked questions about class origin to
understand the class make-up of certain industries.
Within the book a chart unearths startling evidence
(Friedman & Laurison, 2020).
Class divisions are hardening
• Advertising is the seventh worst industry in terms and inequality is once again,
of make-up from different class origins
• 60% of those in our industry come from
increasing.
Professional or Managerial Origins (vs. 30% of UK
workforce)
• Only 15% of our industry come from working-class YouGov Profiles (YouGov, 2020) demonstrates this is
Origins. (vs 30% of UK workforce) happening:
Furthermore, YouGov Profiles data demonstrates 27% • 63% of women who work in the industry went to
in the industry went to private school, compared to 7% University.
of the UK (YouGov, 2020). • 75% of those that are BAME in the industry went to
university. 69% of those that work in the industry
This reveals that as an industry we are not recruiting who are BAME were privately educated
those from working-class origins. Resulting in us not
bringing in those that think differently to help create the This reveals that without broadening the definition
culture of Creative Abrasion. of diversity to include social class, we will not be
ensuring that we recruit those from more working-class
And whist more common diversity topics such as backgrounds, only those that look different, not those
gender and ethnicity will help bring in some different that think differently.
outlooks, it is important that we don’t just look at
personal identity measures as a true reference for
diversity. This is because looking purely at the two in And the reason this is happening: there is
isolation could still result in recruiting only those from an elephant in the diversity room
privileged backgrounds.
The IPA Diversity Census released in 2019 doesn’t
acknowledge social background as a measure focusing
purely on ethnicity and gender.
Campaign’s Diversity issue doesn’t tackle the subject.
But this isn’t a criticism, addressing and monitoring
social background is hard. Friedman and Laurison
explain that class became a difficult word in the 80’s
and 90’s with politicians and academics lining up to
“proclaim the end of class” (Friedman & Laurison,
2020).
Social mobility was seen to be increasing and there was
a “misconception that Britain become socially open”
(Friedman & Laurison, 2020). However, since then
political and global factors have created a “growing
consensus that class divisions are hardening” and
“inequality is again increasing” (Friedman & Laurison,
2020).
Linking back to the industry, conversations with Leila
Siddiqi, IPA Director of Diversity unearths that in 2017
the IPA Census looked to include factors that would
Killing the elephant in the diversity room - social class 4help analyse social backgrounds, but agencies didn’t
have the data and “this is a problem nobody’s cracking” You could argue today brands operate in a more
(Siddiqi, 2020). complex world, but if this is the case this is a problem
for us to creatively solve. And to do this it is imperative
However, it is a problem we must collectively solve. We that we get the right culture to meet these challenges.
must add to the definitions of diversity. We must build This relies on addressing the challenge that we
on the extremely important conversations about gender currently don’t recruit from working-class backgrounds
and ethnicity. We must talk about social class. We must and have diversity of thought.
broaden our definition of diversity. This will create an
industry more able to build a culture where Creative
Abrasion is possible. So how do we tackle these problems?
In addition to the benefits we will see from making Collective Genius demonstrates problem solving
our businesses diverse from an ethnicity and gender requires different thinkers to solve any challenge. This
viewpoint, we will be able to make our industry more is the same. Therefore, to develop ideas I have identified
innovative by bringing in different thinking styles found diverse thinkers from a variety of fields specifically
in those from different classes. those with expertise in ensuring industries recruit from
different social backgrounds.
Research by Deloitte “shows that diversity of thinking
is a wellspring of creativity, enhancing innovation One key collaborator is Sarah Atkinson, CEO of the
by about 20 percent” (Bourke & Dillon, 2018). Social Mobility Foundation. Below are three steps that
Broadening our definition to include social background will start to solve this challenge.
supercharges our efforts.
Step 1: Measure
And if you need further proof, we have evidence from We need to understand the challenge we have in the
the history of our industry. industry. Therefore, I recommend the IPA partner with
Orlando Wood’s book Lemon details the decline in the Social Mobility Foundation to measure the current
creative effectiveness and the reason is we have become status of those from working-classes in the industry.
too left-brain in how we approach creativity.
This isn’t one simple question, and usually starts with
As well as providing further evidence that we all think a base of three questions; whether you attended private
the same, he also explored ages at which creativity school, did you have free school meals and did your
peaked, and the period between the late 1960’s and parents go to university? (Atkinson, 2020). Each of
1980’s was deemed a golden age for UK advertising. these factors contribute to the level of disadvantage you
face when getting into a career.
In his book there is a key line which proves different
classes working together creates better work. He asserts Multiple questions are required because this area is
“London Creatives had cognitive diversity; they were complex, and multiple factors impact how easy it is for
coming through from both middle and working-class you to start a career.
backgrounds” (Wood, 2019) proving that ensuring a
more varied make-up of the industry can yield brilliant However as stated above only 7% of the UK population
results and a “golden age” of creativity. went to private school, Sarah explains that anything
above that in the industry demonstrates that the
industry is more privileged than the average.
In addition, we must also track those who answer prefer
not to say, because this factor offers guidance on how
inclusive the industry is. From this we would work with
the Social Mobility Foundation to set targets, and re-
measure at agreed points.
Conflict is so important that
We should set bold objectives to for a certain number of
its absence constitutes a flaw IPA partners to appear on the Social Mobility Index, of
that limits innovation. which no creative agencies feature and only one media
agency does.
Killing the elephant in the diversity room - social class 5Step 2: Creating the right culture for For example, Manchester Health and Care
Creative Abrasion Commissioning (MHCC) have seen brilliant results in
As well as having targets it is important that we ensure recruiting a team of those that think differently resulting
our culture is fit for purpose. We must ensure different in a more successful team.
thinkers feel welcome and bring all of themselves to
work. Cat Duncan-Rees whose role as Lead Community
Facilitator, explained to me in an interview that
The biggest mistake we could make is create an MHCC “threw away the rule book in recruiting for
industry where we bring in those from different social a new development team, ignored usual checklists,
backgrounds and mould everyone to think the same. interviewed anyone with a passion for Manchester and
This won’t create the culture for Creative Abrasion. This the work we did, regardless of what ‘specific’ experience
is especially crucial because as well as diversity, Creative they had.
Abrasion requires conflict.
We didn’t follow the rules of usual interviews, and when
Whilst conflict can make us flinch, it’s critical because they started their posts, we made sure the team had
“when alternatives compete in a marketplace of ideas, plenty of dedicated space and time to get to know each
they actually get better” (Hill et al, 2014). If the culture other, work out for themselves the best way to work
is right within an industry “collaboration of diverse together and with people and communities in North
individuals produces healthy conflict, and that produces Manchester.
more and better ideas” (Hill et al, 2014).
Conflict is “so important that its absence constitutes
a flaw that limits innovation”, without it you get
something “pretty average” (Hill et al, 2014). However,
whilst conflict is required, the right culture needs to be
created, which only happens if people “feel motivated
and psychologically safe.” (Hill et al, 2014).
Therefore, if we are pushing to recruit different thinkers
from diverse social backgrounds, we must ensure we
create a culture in which they feel motivated to be
themselves. This relies on stories…
Listen to stories from within the industry
Sarah explained data is often hard to talk about, and as
well “as numbers from your measurement, you need
stories” (Atkinson, 2020). We need to actively seek out
those within the industry who are from different social
class backgrounds and understand how it feels for them
in the industry. We must talk about the issue.
Listen to stories from other industries
A challenge like this requires our industry to change
processes in creating the culture for Creative Abrasion.
We are not alone in this challenge, and great work is
happening in other industries.
Killing the elephant in the diversity room - social class 6The result is a group who all get on but would never
have connected in any other circumstances, they are
all different bringing different perspectives, there is a
50/50 gender split, they are ethnically diverse and come
from different backgrounds.
The senior managers recognised that if we recruit
more of the same, we perpetuate what it is that isn’t
Building a culture of
working currently. We are nine months into a five-year ‘Collective Genius’ enables
programme, and we are already seeing the benefits of a
team given permission to work in ways that make sense
our industry to grow
to them and the communities.” (Duncan-Rees, 2020). the economy.
Therefore, as an industry we should seek out and learn
from these examples, inviting them to speak to the IPA
Diversity team and industry leaders, helping us develop To conclude, our lack of focus on social class means that
best practice for recruiting and retaining different we are not creating the right conditions for creativity
thinkers. and innovation. This is crucial for brands to develop
new products, create great campaigns and grow
Step 3: Build our industry brand businesses.
We need different thinkers, and we need them to want
to join our industry. However, there is probably little However, by broadening our definition to include
awareness of the roles within the industry. Therefore, social class we are creating an industry best set-up to
as any good brand builder will assert, we must increase creatively solve problems. This shift will help us fuel our
the audience who understand what we do. industry for the future.
Our industry’s success will be built on having the best Collective Genius acknowledges diversity of thought
different thinkers want to come and work with us. helps recruit great people because it means “creativity
Therefore, we must act like government advertisers and energy and therefore excitement” (Hill et al, 2014).
such as the DfE or Royal Navy who advertise for staff to But it won’t just be a positive for the industry.
the masses on mass reach media.
Patrick Collister explains in the documentary John
We create a campaign that advertises for different Webster: The Human Ad Man great work enables us
thinkers from all backgrounds, showing our industry to to “build factories, keep people in jobs and support
be inclusive and one where the best brains regardless of brands” (Werber, 2013). Building a culture of ‘Collective
background are needed. We ask our media partners to Genius’ enables our industry to grow the economy.
donate space, we ask a diverse group of people to create
the campaign. We rally cry for different thinkers. We
can’t presume building brands is a career that currently
appeals to everyone, we must make it desirable.
Of course, alongside this, we continue the great work
of initiatives like Advertising Unlocked and Creative
Pioneers, both are doing brilliant work showcasing our
industry to young people. But we must do more.
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