How Not to Be Motivated

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ow Not to Be MotivatedbySteven HellerJune 24, 2008

Although they may put forth the occasional pearl ofwisdom, I cannot tolerate motivational speakers.

Their imperious, self-bloated stagecraft is, for me,like listening to chalk screeching on a blackboard.Nonetheless, I know people who draw realinspiration from this twaddle. In fact, at a fewconferences Ive seen audiences become rapt indevotional attention as motivational gurus toss outbromides about how to achieve design nirvana.

Maybe Im just being a little too cynical. Maybe thatnagging voice inside my head is correct when itsays, If you gave these folk half a chance, youdlearn what you need to become a betterdesigner/business wonk and actually find true

fulfillment in your chosen fieldwhich, incidentally,might help you rise above the pitiful pettiness ofyour current existence. Well, faced with such apersuasively articulated argument, perhaps it is

time to drop my resistance and open my ears andheart.

My problem, however, is this: while you can remove the cynic from the skeptic, you cant lead a horse to the waters of motivational salvation whenprejudices are deeply ingrained. And mine aredefinitely deep. Listening to motivational speechcadencestough-love vibrato alternating with

earnest, sing-song rhythmsis about as annoyingas listening to the TV pitchman who slices anddices or sells male enhancements on infomercials.I hate the patronizing timbre that others seem tofind hypnotic. Despite the fact that, to me, theyoffer little more than robotically formulaic liturgies,I finally gave in to the inner voice urging me to givemotivation a try. Understanding that the key toacclimating myself to such rhetoric would best bedone, at least initially, in a more palatable way

than attending another design conference, I curledup with a book.

As luck (or fate) would have it, I stumbled onto TomPeters Essentials: Designpublished several yearsago and adapted from Re-Imagine!: BusinessExcellence in a Disruptive Agea decidedlyevangelical, motivational tome that promises toempower its readers to innovate, differentiate andcommunicate through the marvel of DESIGN. It iswritten by the most influential business thinker ofour age, or so says the flap copy. Tom Peters andhis persuasive powers are indeed legendary: the

co-author of the celebrated In Search ofExcellence, he is a pioneer image consultant forRolls-Royce, Starbucks, Virgin and Intel, amongothers. Thanks to the Essentials pocket-sizededition, I could dip a toe in the waters of hisknowledge and experience, and, if his lessonssunk in, maybe Id become a more enlightened

design person (and just maybe those nastyheadaches and that annoying twitch would goaway, too). I might even graduate to his others onLeadership, Talent and Trends.

But first, an admission: in case my snarkinesssends the wrong message, this essay is not a ragon Mr. Peters. He is an acute business thinker and,more importantly, a tremendous design advocate.His motivational rhetoric is sincerely intended toprevent designers from being odd ducks whoshould be confined to their desks. Actually,Peterss laudable mission is to release us fowl

from stereotypical bondageand the fiction thatwe are inarticulate passive-aggressive artistes whoroutinely push our own aesthetic agendas at theexpense of our clients need. Rather, he insists weshould sit at the CEOs immediate right at theboardroom table, which I presume means not asservile concubines but as meaningful strategiccontributors. And it takes an uber-guruone of

the many honorifics applied to Peters on thebooks back coverto help the rest of us get ouracts together.

Peterss goal is to both bolster designers

confidence while proselytizing the value of design to business. For instance, there is nothing morerousing to this designers ears than Peterssforceful directive to execs to have a formal designboard, routinely invite top designers to address

the company as a whole and make certain thechief designer is a member of the board ofdirectors or, at the very least, a member of theexecutive committee. Having read these words(twice), I felt he was that proverbial big brother

the one who protects and defends against thebullieswe all wish would be at our sides at allclient meetings. (By the way, he further urges

those execs to have great art on the walls toimprove their visual literacy. Who could argue with

that?)

Peterss sprightly tome is packed with visual aids,including typographically explosive manifestos,insider tips, bullet points, lists of to-dos and not-to-dos, homilies, slogans (e.g., Design = Soul;Believe It), screeds, rants and raves, asides,declarations and words of wisdom on designs


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large (and potentially enormous) place in theuniverse The book looks like an ambitiousPower Point or (better yet) Keynote presentation,with each sentenceand almost every wordmeant to jolt and stimulate. Among Peterss manyquotable truisms, for example, is this message tocorporate executives that cant help but feed a

designers optimism: You dont become design-minded by opening a checkbook, spending a fewhundred thousand dollars on a great designerand then telling him/her to please do the designthing.

Peterss collected aphorisms are like Home SweetHome samplers for us designers, and hisrationales for how and why design is essential toall facets of corporate culture is so solidly absoluteit is difficult for even this cynic to find ways topuncture his logic. Even his frequent hyperbole isindisputable. He clearly loves design and hates

those who misunderstand it. He wields prose like abattle-ax against the hordes that encouragemediocrity or worse.

Peters believes design makes dreams (or at leastdream products) come true. As a contraction of

the term marketing of dreams he uses thecoinage dreamketing. On one of his many bullet-pointed pages peppered throughout the book heexplains that dreamketingis: touching the clientsdreams, the art of telling stories and entreating,building the brand around the main dream, andbuilding buzz, hype, a cult. Another of his

many motivational mantrasEnthusiasm begetsenthusiasm. Technicolor words beget Technicolorresponsesseems to define his entire philosophy.So, after reading the 160 pages in but a few shorthours, I was convinced that if he were Secretary ofDesign for the United States, designers woulddefinitely enjoy an elevated status heretoforeunknown in this or perhaps any country. In fact, Iwas so sincerely motivated that while reading Ieven punched the air with my fist: Right on!Peters!

Yet despite that unbriddled surge of excitement, I

find something troubling about his motivationalmethod.

You see, Peterss Design is as much a reservoir ofmotivational tropes as it is a bible for themotivationally needy. It is a stunning example ofwhat he himself calls buzz, hype and cult, and Ihave this nagging feeling that his motivationalrhetoric, which reads so convincingly, is poweredby hubris, fueled by generalization and depends

entirely on packaging to succeed. If I succumbed to this allure, just think about the more malleablereader.

Are design motivators really just hucksters? Mustdesign-speak really be hyped-up marketing speak?Peters basically says yes. To truly persuade clients

that design is worth something, designers mustexhibit what Tibor Kalman called the bullshitfactorthe gift of doubletalkwhich is the point atwhich all this motivational hooey gets depressing.While I understand the realities of businessand Irealize that Peters and other motivational gurussimply want us to do better (or as he says,dramatically alter perspective), must we build ourcredibility on a foundation of hype? Why must therhetoric be so calculated that it soundsdisingenuous, even if it is not?

Intense repetition of a single idea, phrase or

doctrine is called brainwashing, and that is exactlywhat motivational speaking (and writing) is allabout. Motivational speaking, like advertising andpropaganda, is part psychology, part philosophyand part ideology (religious at times), couched inany mannerism that sells the big idea. Frankly, Iwas taught that brainwashing (a torturous practicefirst administered to American prisoners by theChinese Communists during the Korean War andbest illustrated in The Manchurian Candidate) iswrong. Of course, every successful motivationalself-help author or lecturer is at least tacitlybrainwashing their audience, and they exude

hubristic self-confidence to command theirlisteners or readers long enough to impart theirwisdom. The uber-guru must satisfy the need of hisaudience to be bettered, if not transformed,

through sage advice, convincing promises andcorrective admonishments. Motivationalism and itscousin self-helpism are such a big business thesedays because we all want direction and aresusceptible to anyone who seems willing andcapable to offer it.

Yet back before design gurus roamed this wasmore or less accomplished through

apprenticeships. Mentors were teachers and teachers found ways to impart ideas indemonstrative ways that went beyond aphoristicrhetoric alone. A good teacher didnt resort to theformulas so common in motivational speech andwriting.

Sure, people wrote inspirational booksDaleCarnegie was the pioneer with How to Win Friendsand Influence People in 1937but the practice


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was not as clich as it is now. Turn on any channelin the early hours, and someone is at the pulpitmotivating. The design field is a fairly recentrecipient of this gift, but now has more than its fairshare. Today, anyone with a good stage presence,convincing oratory and catchy slogan can be amotivationalist. Some certainly hit the right nerves

and stimulate strong responses. But it is just tooeasy to get sucked in for all the wrong reasons.

After readingDesign I feel a bit shucked and jived.And believe me, I tried to be tolerantreally, I did!So maybe it is just me. Maybe I find it hard tobelieve that being formulaically told what to do willmake my work, my life, better. Still, I believe thatwe all must find our own answersour own blissfulmotivationfor ourselves. Or maybe you should

take two bromides and call me in the morning.

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About the Author: Steven Heller, co-chair of theDesigner as Author MFA and co-founder of the MFAin Design Criticism at School of Visual Arts, is theauthor ofMerz to Emigre and Beyond: Avant GardeMagazine Design of the Twentieth Century(Phaidon Press). He is co-author of New VintageType (Thames & Hudson), Becoming a DigitalDesigner (John Wiley & Co.) and Teaching MotionDesign (Allworth Press). His book Iron Fists:Branding the Totalitarian State (Phaidon Press) isforthcoming. www.hellerbooks.com

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How Not to Be Motivated