Confusion in her eyes that says it all
She's lost control
And she's clinging to the nearest passerby
She's lost control
And she gave away the secrets of her past
And said, "I've lost control again"
And to the voice that told her when and where to act
She said, "I've lost control again

^{Joy Division, She’s Lost Control}

In these polarised times, it’s often easy to default to demographics, or behaviours, and make simple judgements on the basis of age, stage or stereotype.

If you work in a fast moving market in communications, it’s often reassuring to cling to what you do know, and promote that. ‘They bought X, they are engaged (whatever that means), so they’ll buy Y’. Or more treacherously, ‘be fans’ of it.

I must confess, it took me a long time to divorce myself from some of this way of thinking. To blindly map behaviour based on what a survey sample, or what buying behaviour said - without stopping to really interrogate what else might be going on. NB, the comms industry’s shift to a more project based existence didn’t help this sort of thinking, but that’s a post for another day.

In fact, it took me until 2014 to really understand this. I was working on Cancer Research UK, otherwise known as CRUK, helping out with their legacy communications. Legacy communications, for those unfamiliar with charitable giving, are where you leave a gift in your will to help your favoured charity. Gifts in wills are hugely important to the likes of CRUK (the UK’s biggest charity), as they enable some of the bigger initiatives to be enacted vs. someone giving on the street…the latter is still effective, which is both depressing and a recognition that it doesn’t pay to toss the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to new things.

ANYWAY. A few little pearls came my way when doing strategy on the account. First is that most people have a bucket of about 4 charities they give to. Three are relatively fixed; through personal experience (mine would be the Alzheimer’s Society, to take one) and one is more cyclical (a tragedy in a country which has moved you, for example). It doesn’t leave a lot of space for the new, unless the case is shown in advance - for example, what your money actually buys (vs. people thinking it goes into a black hole).

The second, and critical point - was the driver behind why people give to charity. In essence, it’s to do with control. Life is frequently unfair. It happens. So how do you respond to whatever it is? Well, one means of dealing with it - exercising some modicum of control - is by giving to charity.

This really unlocked lots of things for me. Why is a client responding negatively to a new idea? It’s partly because it feels out of their control. Why is a consumer group behaving a certain way? Perhaps it’s because their age and stage has been affected by a change in context, leading to a loss of control. Why was the Covid-era so challenging? Because it felt like we couldn’t control it, so we did our best with sourdough, walking and new adventures…until we could mentally get on top of it.

It’s a really helpful lens (though obviously not a catch-all) to explain certain behaviours. Why are people voting a certain way (or not voting)? Sadly, the Brexit lot were right…because they wanted some element of control in their lives, even if it was just one in the eye of the establishment.

It’s a really helpful approach when there’s an unequal power dynamic. For example, why has that new comms structure or management edict not bedding in? The messaging campaign looks good? Well, perhaps you haven’t allowed the space for people to feel in control? Did you consult with them first? Can they have an active role in ‘putting a man on the moon’ as the janitor at NASA put it.

If there’s no sense of agency, no sense of control, you get issues bubbling up. People feel like they can’t do anything to shape their future. Everyone needs an outlet. You might not be able to shape a situation right at this moment, so you need an outlet of some description. I mean, to be honest, that’s the function of hobbies. Spaces where you are trying to learn, get better - and just enjoying the process.

There’s probably another post on the value of not being very good at things, and how it feels like social media hasn’t really helped this - where you see a lot of finished products. Effort is somehow diminished, and agency feels less relevant.

But, that will have to wait for another day. In the meantime, here’s some wistful Australian folk.