I recently read an interesting story and a concept which I thought I would combine to one in this week’s reflection:
The story:
In 1998 the largest financial services firm in the world, Citigroup, came into existence with the merger of Goliaths of the industry Citicorp and Travellers Group, with a valuation of $140bn and assets under management of $700bn.
Considering the scale of this merger, it was decided that the group needs to go through an extensive rebranding exercise that encapsulated the entire range of their services.
$10 million was allocated for the rebranding exercise and $1.5 million of which was ring-fenced just for the logo design.
While $1.5m for a logo might look like a stretch, it is 0.0007% of their valuation at that time. There was more to lose with a sub-par brand image than the money they spend.
Citigroup had roped in Paula Scher and her ground breaking NYC design agency Pentagram for the logo design.
All parties came together for a kick-off meeting and Citigroup leadership discussed their challenges and what they were hoping to get out of the engagement.
As she listened, Paula started doodling on a piece of napkin and within a few minutes passed a napkin and said “This is your new logo”.
A crux of a logo done in one meeting for $1.5 million.
As she effortlessly brought forth this stroke of genius, a member of the Citi team couldn’t help but question how something so significant could be accomplished in an instant.
Now before her response, let’s look at the concept.
The concept:
We have all seen the speedometers in the car. It is a linear scale that tells us how many miles/kilometers we will cover in an hour. So if it reads 60, it means we will reach 60 miles in one hour. This is the one in the bottom of the orange line.
On the contrary, the one on top of the orange line is called the Pace-o-meter. It is not a linear scale and it shows minutes per 10 miles.
How many minutes does it take to cover 10 miles? For instance, when you drive at 100 mph, it takes 6 minutes. At 40 mph, it takes 15 minutes. At 10 mph, it takes 60 minutes.
Looking closer, you will realize that if you are driving at 20mph and if you are increasing it to 40mph, you will half the time needed to reach 10 miles from 30 to 15 minutes. But from 100 to 110 mph, you save hardly half a minute.
Would you actually risk your life by driving 10 mph faster merely to save half a minute over 10 miles?
The Perception of reality is defined by how the information is presented to us.
In the first, speed feels linear. In the second, you see the diminishing returns of going faster. More risk, less gain.
Just like the pace-o-meter reframes our perception of speed, mastery reframes our perception of effort. What looks fast to others often feels natural to the one who’s mastered it. Paula’s response to the Citigroup team clearly emphasizes this.
Paula’s response:
So when the Citigroup leadership team questioned Paula Scher on her conviction in such a short time span, she responded,
“It’s done in a second and 34 years.”
Behind that seemingly spontaneous act lay a lifetime of experience, honing her craft, and immersing herself in countless creative endeavors.
Her response emphasizes that true mastery is a culmination of not just the present moment but every experience and all the knowledge stored within an individual’s mind. It is the unseen layers of expertise that grant the ability to distill complex problems into elegantly simple solutions.
A simplified term we are used to is the learning curve - Any skill requires a high level of effort in the beginning to learn but then the rewards are higher for lesser effort until you gain mastery and become unconsciously competent.
At this state of mastery, you cannot question the results just because it didn’t require the same effort it took in earlier instances. Your brain is not driving at 10mph anymore, but at 100mph.
Your subconscious mind in this state of mastery is performing at a level where effort is not the key indicator of performance.
The Citigroup logo is not a one-off for Paula. “We have a box of my first sketches that my team saves, they look like little dumb scribbles sometimes,” she explains. “But then when you see the actual thing and the scribble, they’re the same thing.”
And this is where I feel Mastery in a corporate job can often feel less rewarding. Unless you have significant agency in your job, the result of efficiency gained by Mastery will only lead to more work.
So employees often end up stretching the job for the sake of it. But does this really help anyone?
