I totally agree, companies and even some designers (once myself) try to be to corporate. I changed that with some re branding from AquaWebSolutions to my actual name. Acting like I was a team when it was only me.

The reason I DID it was cause people would look at me and think… Uhh, ye um you? I’ll get an agency, sorry.

Even if my work stood up pretty well against theirs.

But like you said times have changed and so have I ;)

Lovely post

hi there

@Ana I know it might not come through as this, but when I talk about rockbandism it’s more the personal idea of being in a rockband than all the “bads” that comes from it.. I elaborate a lot on that in the ebook – but I can see it hasn’t been throughoutly specified in this blogpost… =)

I like the 4th point

“Start leading instead of managing – If we can measure stuff why should we manage it? Leadership is key here instead of management. When you lead you tell people how to reach the stars, when you manage you keep them on the ground.”

You rock!

Worth reading

Couldn’t agree more!

I’ve been thinking about this a lot, actually wrote a blog post about it a year or so ago (http://jarkkolaine.com/2007/06/09/why-bands-rock-harder-than-teams/).

I find that being in a rock band rather than a standard business would be much more liberating and exciting for the team members too, and not only great for the customers. We are a generation that wants something to believe in (like every other generation before us, I suppose), and we could be the ones to turn business into just that.

We have the power to make business into more than just money making machines. By doing the steps you list, and changing the world one step at the time.

Great post!

Rockband’ism – Where to start hey? The term you’ve coined seems to be floating round the Twitterverse, maybe you should look to add it to one of the many online dictionaries ;-)

A number of the points you raised are likely thoughts that have crossed our minds in the past, but everyone’s so busy being busy these days we never get a chance to stop and do these things. Just seeing them on the screen has given me more drive to think WWRD (and WWJD) then to go on and actually action them!

Thank you for the little bit of inspiration,

Steve Daniels

Hi guys, thank you for your wonderful comments – Im glad you like my thoughts on rockbandism and companies and I thrill to inspire…

Anyway let’s all strive to make the business of business more than business – I guess that’s my goal for the new year

“Implement good karma in your everyday life”… i’m not sure how well rock bands cope with this. But I guess I’d like my business to be like Radiohead.

Might implement this term when i’m trying to stop artists “from looking like (complete) asses online”.

cheers

@Ana: True, not all rock bands apply to the “rockbandism status” — at least in my books.

U2 is a wonderful example of what companies as rock bands should be about.

And then there are the ones who just reap the benefits of being in a band but don’t give anything back in return.

Let’s be more like the good guys :)

“This really isn’t time for more business as usual, our environment (digital, natural, work or any other kind of environment) is changing. You are going to have to change too.”

This sounds strangely familiar to aspect brought up in “The Cluetrain Manifesto”. I don’t know if you’ve heard or read this book. I highly recommend it, it’s just plain smart.

http://www.cluetrain.com/

-MP

I’ve been thinking of this particular topic maybe too much lately.. Should I present myself as “Ask’em Consulting” or “Kemal Delalic”. I guess your blog post here makes things a lot easier =)