The First Rule of Judging? Resist the Obvious

Some winners seem to be so obvious. They come from the previously garlanded and carry great expectation. But perhaps the first rule of judging should be to resist the obvious and look a little more askance at what’s on offer. 

I'm put in mind of a famous Brazilian writer, Machado de Assis and his short story O Alienista  (The Alienist).

The protagonist is a physician who becomes obsessed with finding the cure for all mental illnesses. A very dedicated student while in college, he first travels all around Europe and Brazil before going back to his home town, a small, conservative town in Brazil. His arrival is seen as a big thing for the city, as his reputation as a dedicated doctor precedes him. There’s excitement and expectation, but little do they know what the doctor’s plans are.

All he can think of is how to improve the mental health of his clientele, or better yet, how to come up with a formula, a solution, a therapy that would eradicate all the weaknesses of the soul. He then transforms his practice into a mental hospital and starts to evaluate his patients based on what he considers to be normal and abnormal behaviour. 

"Creativity – and the great and big and beautiful ideas it brings – is just like human behaviour."

In the beginning, he hospitalises those whose social and psychological profiles don’t meet his own expectations. For example, his best friend, who lost his wealth because he would lend money to everyone but was never paid back, is one of the first patients to be admitted and has to stay at the clinic for a long time. Other friends go through the same experience, and even the physician's wife is admitted for treatment after spending a whole night awake, thinking of what dress she should wear to a party. She was so excited and worried about what to wear that she couldn’t fall asleep. Her husband doesn't think that's normal behaviour, so off she goes to the hospital.. 

Needless to say, in a very short amount of time he has a full house, with 75% of the city undergoing some sort of treatment.

The city, or what is left of its population, starts to question whether the doctor knows what he was doing. Even the doctor himself isn't sure about his criteria, and so he decides to try a different approach. He declares that everyone at the hospital has been cured and releases the patients. He then starts to admit people who haven't done anything out of the ordinary, who've been living quiet and discreet lives, sleeping well for years, eating well and with no complaints of any sort. Something like, if you’re normal, you’re abnormal. 

It doesn't take long for the population to become uncomfortable with those criteria either. What once was the way to live a normal and good life starts to be considered unacceptable. Eventually, everyone turns against the doctor. The poor man, who was once so sure of his theories and rules, is left alone with his own thoughts. After a lot of thinking, he decides there’s only one way to deal with the situation, goes ahead and admits himself for treatment.

 Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

It is a delightful story that tackles human behaviour, the emotions and expectations and fears related to what is “normal” and what “rules” should be used to judge normality. 

In my opinion it is the same with creativity, which is also a state of mind, a human behaviour, a way to express how we see and feel things. Creativity is a language of its own that impacts everything we do: the way we dress in the morning, the way we cook, how we travel, what we buy and how we sell. 

Just like the doctor – by the way, his name is Dr. Simon Bacamarte – who relentlessly tries to find a way to rule his world, we, in the business of creativity try relentlessly to find the best idea. Dr. Simon started with the obvious but he learned fast that going with it wasn’t the answer and he also learned a lot about himself. He fought the obvious and found the courage to look at what he could be doing wrong in order to make it better.

Creativity – and the great and big and beautiful ideas it brings – is just like human behaviour: unexpected, unpredictable, unforgettable and not at all obvious. 

So, when judging the Health Lions, together with the group of talented creatives that I’m honoured to stand alongside with for this opportunity,  I”ll ensure that we implement a little of Dr. Bacamarte’s findings and stay away from the obvious.