By Paul Coghlan, creative director, JWT Perth

I have a theory. It’s rather simple. The Theory of Energy Displacement. I share this theory with my team and industry friends, quite often. We as an industry are fuelled by passionate people. We are an industry that thrives and succeeds because of the passion and energy people bring.

My theory is rather like a distribution model. Every one of us starts each day with a certain quota of passion and energy. How we then choose to distribute it is completely up to us. Negatively, positively, profoundly. It’s up to us.

It’s nothing new to say with the rise of data, a widely-asserted questioning of advertising’s role, coupled with decreasing budgets and increasing time pressures, it’s never been more important for all our passion to be drawn into unearthing brilliant, business-changing solutions for our clients.

That is everything.

But with every push there’s pull. Passion is a delicate thing. It can easily be displaced into the wrong areas – if you allow it to.

So, what creates inertia and pulls our passion away from what’s most important?

Self doubt

Nothing negatively displaces individual passion more than worrying what others think. Solving business problems with original thinking is a truly vulnerable space. Too much passion can be placed into worrying about that. It’s certainly easier to place our passion there – far harder to put it into pushing fear aside. But that’s what we must do – every single time.

Looking at the scoreboard, not the ball
Always follow the ball. We are only as good as our last piece of work. If it’s good enough it may go up on the scoreboard – it may not – but don’t waste your energy looking to see.

A serious world
Unfortunately these days, we live in a really serious world. Way too serious. The media tells us so. Feed after feed after feed. Such worrisome negativity can sap our passion away into dark, non-productive spaces. Don’t let it – we’ve never lived in a safer world.

Data versus an idea
Our passion can very easily be drawn deep into numbers and away from what is still the most important thing – a potent idea that beautifully connects with hearts and minds.

Spanners in the works
Great work will never reach its full potential if passion is displaced away from it. All it takes is one person in a team pushing their passion into negative, doubting spaces. Brilliant ideas are so delicate, they need every single person feeding their passion positively into it – the client, the creative team, planner, account managers, producers, directors, CX designers… everyone involved.

And what pushes passion into the right areas?

Having an open mind
Every single person is different, with different backgrounds and therefore different perspectives and ideas. Respect that.

A relentless curiosity
Seeking true originality commands having the attitude that there’s always a better or different way.

Focussing on people’s positives
Unless you think you can turn someone’s negatives into positives, just focus on someone’s positives, and how those positives can be applied to pushing great work through.

Feeling empowered
This all comes down to knowing where you stand. We are a young industry – people at every level must feel empowered to have a say and contribute their passion and energy, equally.

Pulling others up, not putting them down
Look out for people, make them feel like they can do anything, and their daily energy quotas will all push the right way.

Now.

What happens when our passion and energy all pushes the right way? Here are some examples of brilliant ideas that could never have seen the light of day without relentless passion, from every single individual involved.

The Amphibious Leg – a brilliant example of a creative team having the passion to solve a real-world problem, coupled with a client matching that same level of passion to make it happen.

The Next Rembrandt – a brilliant way to combine tech and data in a truly unique manner to demonstrate just how innovative ING is.

The Theory of Energy Displacement is simple. You began today with a certain quota of passion and energy. How you choose to distribute it – negatively, positively, profoundly – is entirely up to you.

Paul Coghlan is the creative director at JWT Perth