Three minutes’ audio: one anecdote, one thought, and a question for you.
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Three minutes’ audio: one anecdote, one thought, and a question for you.
Click ‘play’ to listen, or if that doesn’t work in your browser you can right-click here and choose ‘save target as’ to save the file to your own computer.
Maybe this is overgeneralizing, but I wonder if people who frequent a business-oriented forum like your marketing one are fundamentally skeptical about divination as a means of solving a business problem. They’ve been trained to rely on books, seminars, and other more-or-less quantifiable or at least “practical” tools. They likely view any kind of divination as fortune telling, hardly appropriate for business. As to how to change that perception, um, get them to “think outside the box”? (Sorry) ;-}
I expect you’re right. Posting there was not exactly part of the marketing strategy…
But… here is the tricky part… how come divination seems to be substantially outside the ‘self development’ or ‘personal growth’ box? That’s one I’d like to, um, unpack a bit. (Quick, someone find me another metaphor.)
learn the science behind your art.
“Personal growth” and “self development” have gained wide currency and even respectability in the business world. They have entered the mainstream of bizthought and are therefore nonthreatening. Whether they do any good is doubtful, but lots of folks are eating very well selling books and seminars.
Unfortunately, I think any business person with serious aspirations who admitted to consulting an oracle pf any kind would be laughed out of the coffee room. The corporate world operates under a set of strict but unwritten rules, and any deviations (or deviants!) are highly suspect. So even if a young up-and-comer DID toss the coins, he or she would be ill advised to let coworkers or bosses hear of it. Rapid promotions would NOT be forthcoming…
So… How to market I Ching to business community? Maybe a business-oriented book, a fable of sorts. A book that has done phenomenally well in the US is called “Who Moved My Cheese,” a cheesy little story about change and risk-taking that was (and still may be) on the business best seller list for ages. It’s silly and simplistic, but it had a gimmick that worked. Maybe something along those lines?
I think Mark McElroy has got the right idea for the business community (not that I have any ambitions to market to them at all): see the Bright Idea deck. It’s actually modified tarot, but the words ‘tarot’, ‘divination’ or ‘oracle’ are conspicuous by their absence from this whole site. Impressive work – divination by the back door!
I think the embarrassment factor extends well beyond the corporate world, though…
Wow, I’ll say! Talk about a great gimmick! It would be interesting to know how he does with it.
You are right, the whole idea of divination turns off a lot of people for a variety of reasons. It looks like Mark has managed to demystify and detach his product from the arcane/”occult” and thereby make it palatable to the embarrassed or fearful. It’s not divination, it’s garden-variety brainstorming. If you can find a semantic twist like that, you’re in!
I understand that the majot Corps in Japan use the Yi regularly – that it is regardes as a respectable tool.
hi
marketing i ching to buz is foly… ignorance is bliss
why tell our secrets?
i once attended a business seminar and qave a 45 min presentation on 12 business problems and i answered using the i ching
i got a A+ for my presentation, i just read the hexagramme.
bye
I’ve been finding my readings guided in the last year by a basic outline of “me and so-and-so” (my relationship with who or what ever) or “Am I harmonious today?” or “What could I have done more virtuously today?” (Actually this last question I put in the language of the twelve step programs). I’ve begun since buying the Ritsema/Karcher book and taking Hilary’s course to seek to know future outcomes of a given action but, you see, it has not up to now been a necessary ingredient of my “practice.” A guide to harmonious relationships and dealings with strangers and money (!!!) Reassurances about the affection of your latest valentine, the freedom to trust your own ethical judgement all day long and wait until bedtime to lose sleep churning it over…This is plainly desirable and I think we can and do deliver. When I read fortunes in cafes for coffee money my sign said “Understand past and present; feel ready for the future.” (That’s all for now. I like my writing to have a certain cadence but I find I can’t end this paragraph in a masterful enough way.)