The Pillars of Awesomeness

Umair Haque has thrown open a unique challenge:

Send me your thoughts on awesomeness. A sentence, a paragraph, an essay. Positive, negative, explanatory, or exploratory. Your own real-world examples, or your vision of awesomeness.

Here are some questions to get you started thinking:

  • What resonated most (or least) with you about the idea of awesomeness?
  • Who do you think is awesome — versus just merely innovative?
  • What are your pillars of awesomeness?

Frankenstein's MonsterI like the concept of awesomeness – at least in the context of the Awesomeness Manifesto. Having worked in the fields of business innovation, process improvement, creativity and advertising for well over a decade now, it certainly feels that the term “innovation” suffers from its industrial age underpinnings. It is not JUST that innovation relies on obsolescence – but more that innovation can occur almost without human agency. This is especially true in business where workflows are automated, connections are streamlined and processes optimised.

“Awesomeness” for me implies that sense of “awe” – as if we are looking into the eye of a newly living beast and not quite knowing whether to cheer or to run. And while I have attempted to systematise creative processes for continuous digital strategy or for digital storytelling (P-L-A-Y), I always aim to leave a little space for the disruption of human creativity. It is, after all, the human dimension that brings awesomeness out of the conceptual realm and introduces it to life.