lightbulbs don't go on unless the house is wired right

one of my favorite things to do is to bug people about things. my favorite subjects (people to bug) are barbers, coffeeshop proprietors, and especially cab drivers. my wife can certainly vouch for my tendency to ask these people pretty much anything that's on my mind - but normally i try to relate it to something i'm interested in from a business or brand perspective.

for example, if i see a cup of coffee in a cab driver's cupholder, i'll ask him if he likes it. often that's enough to create a one-way (i.e., AT me) conversation, especially if i'm just headed crosstown. if he gives me a quick answer, i'll drill a little further. you like the taste? the jolt? the flavor? whatever...just to hear how s/he thinks about the product. i was especially obnoxious about doing this with coffee during and right after my time at starbucks, but even asking the clerk at crate and barrell how comfortable her shoes are can be really insightful to me - not because i want to buy the shoes, but because i might want to get them for my mom, or at least, because i want to know how people who stand all day make decisions about shoes. it's just interesting to me.

so imagine how vindicated i felt during my recent read of Pat Fallon and Fred Senn's new book "Juicing the Orange" when they disclosed that the source of inspiration for Fallon Worldwide's creation of Citibank's "Live Richly" campaign was a conversation between one of the Fallon team members and his barber. apparently the guy was talking during his haircut about the problems with connecting people emotionally to banks, and the barber said basically 'it's not about creating a relationship with a bank - it's about knowing that a bank can help the average joe achieve what he wants.' that was a breakthrough, and it turned the value proposition of consumer banking on its head. Fallon won the account (it was mid-pitch during the barber episode), and it turned out that the concept didn't play just in the US - the notion of "creating balance" with a financial partner resonated to varying degrees all around the world. this all started from a sidebar conversation with someone out there in the real world.

as i'm going back into consulting, i have all the respect in the world for the statistical view on the world. i am awed by the power of statistics and love to use it to win (or at least distort!) arguments in my favor. but, at the end of the day, a powerful story resonates so much with me, and i believe, with key decision-makers within leading organizations. the key is to balance the taxicab, barber, and harley-ride storytelling episodes with some good ol' swaths of research from the masses so you can speak expertly but also emotionally. or something like that.

that's why the title of this post is so critical. to garner the insights that are going to help you (or in my case, help me help clients), you have to put yourself in the position to collect them. that can be risky - how do you know if people will talk to you. it can be annoying - what if they never shut up? it could be somewhat impractical - what if you can't afford cab rides? but there are solutions to all these problems, and at some level, once you've taken an initial risk, it's all fun and coasting. collecting insights from those around you becomes part of your daily life. and in this world of hyperconnectivity, people staring into laptops, earbuds living in people's ears...it's nice to unplug and just talk to somebody once in a while. you might even make someone's day.