It Depends

Learn to love the ‘it depends’ of experts

At a particularly stressful time in my agency career I needed legal advice. My work life had been full of (often misplaced) self-confidence and I wasn’t quite ready for the depth of ‘it depends’ I experienced from the legal profession.

I found it deeply frustrating and was probably a dreadful client. I eventually sacked them. They couldn’t spell for toffee but they were probably good lawyers. I actually needed to slow down and listen hard to their ‘it depends’ advice.

Our brains are funny things really. The ability of our minds to short cut to a firmly held opinion with very little evidence is well documented. We are hard wired to make quick assumptions based on very little evidence. Important to our survival in the open savannah, but not necessarily the open office.

Conversely, the more information we have, the less firmly held our opinions become. Doubt is the partner of deep knowledge.

Our brains crave efficiency so will anchor opinions quickly and then entrench those opinions firmly. You can see this in the extremes of politics (both sides) and also those that follow business cults. I avoid the evangelicals and pay attention to expert doubters such as Tom Roach (Count the ‘it depends’ in THIS article!)

All of us, everyone reading this (including the author) will hold very strong opinions with very little evidence. I will admit a deep mistrust of the benefits of FMCG advertising on social media.
Am I an expert? No.
Am I basing my opinion on less than 5 campaigns? Yes.

Pitiful really. A marketing consultant discounting a media channel with such limited knowledge. If you are honest with yourself you will hold similar opinions on all sorts of areas. Be easy on yourself though, your brain is making your life easier as a result.

What you need is an expert that knows enough to say ‘it depends’. Those honest experts that have knowledge enough to know the grey areas (*raises hand).

And the legal case? Well, it did depend if I am honest. The opponent in that case is now one of my very best friends.