CODE OF MISCONDUCT

In a contemporary climate where misinformation, disinformation, virtue signalling, grifting, confusion and polarisation have been normalised, we reject harmful modes of behaviour in favour of misbehaviour that encourages freedom, agency and empowerment.

Our Code

1 Helpfulness

Associates of institute should seek to help those that they encounter, preferably by empowering them to help themselves in an ongoing manner. They should prioritise the free-flow of knowledge.

2 Integrity

Associates of institute should display a reasonable level of moral responsibility but most importantly should bring integrity to their day-to-day working processes, collaborations and communications.

3 Objectivity

Associates of institute should communicate ideas impartially, fairly and on merit, prioritising foundational ideas over jargon and hearsay.

4 Accountability

Associates of institute should not hide behind algorithms and test their claims openly and seek to test them publicly when possible. Where possible they should actively promote and robustly support these principles and challenge poor behaviour, especially when it has become normalised.

5 Openness

Associates of institute should communicate in an open and transparent manner and not spread misinformation or disinformation. They should seek the broadest possible context at all times and resist premature lock-in on bad or contested ideas.

6 Honesty

Associates of institute should consistently be seeking the truth.

7 Professional Performativity

Associates of institute should feel free to ridicule potentially harmful ideas, especially if pitched as false expertise. They should not perform professionalism as a mechanism for grifting. They should seek excellence through free enquiry and robust process and be humble when communicating their ever-developing expertise.

Rationale

The Communication of Ideas

Communication is often at the core of our work. We communicate our offerings, we communicate with our clients and we communicate and discuss ideas with the learners that we collaborate with. In turn, we help others with their communications in many forms.

The development of ideas and our desire to communicate them have always been defining characteristics of humanity. The ways that we can transmit our ideas to remote audiences continues to evolve and is now typically linked to the use of existing or emergent media technology. Institute is interested in these ideas and in the different ways that they are transmitted.

Within our skills development programmes we cover key communication skills and the development of information, data and media literacy.

Better Ideas for a Better Future

We are interested in developing the integrity of cultural communications so that we can talk to each other more clearly and more honestly. If we can do this then we can have better conversations. From there we can develop systems that are less at odds with our real needs. We believe that it is possible to become less self conscious, less compromised by expectation and to communicate in a multitude of ways that more closely reflect our humanity. This starts with us, in our own communications and carries through to brands if we wish them to convey our beliefs.

Technology and Agency

We all too often elevate technology functionality above human well being. We are terrible at predicting the future and we would argue that we increasingly double down on silly umbrella ideas like ‘disruption’. We are seduced by dystopian visions of the future while forgetting to define and explore what utopia might look like. We need to define what we want our world to look like, they ways that we want to live, play and work. We need to identify and develop the required skills and then we need to work towards it.

From Concept to Culture

Institute brand work connects ideas to audiences. As our cultures continues to evolve within a rapidly changing world, we explore the nature of ideas and the media technology that will carry the ideas of tomorrow. The research of our network of artists, designers and technologists, explores the cultural nature of ideas, examines the media of tomorrow and helps businesses to become brands.

Our brand work with clients cuts through the nonsense and received wisdom to get at the heart of brand communication and our academic programmes start with core concepts that provide context for learners to develop their own ideas in relation to their business and their goals.

Rejecting ‘Content’

Content is the stuff inside something. The contemporary obsession with umbrella terms often kills meaning and prevents free investigation before it can begin.

Marketing starts with an agenda to manipulate a group of individuals grouped together as a ‘market’. The idea starts in one person’s mind and ends up being experienced by another person’s senses. The space between these two individuals is huge and the mechanisms that comprise it are multi faceted and require the presence of discrete and transferable skills from across domains of knowledge and experience. The marketing industry struggles with ‘content’ in a variety of ways and the ability to employ the required skills.

The resulting lack of quality and the wilful spread of un-empowering ideas will only be exacerbated by the use of assistive technologies like AI unless attitudes change.

Professional Performativity

Our Code of Misconduct highlights our frustration with grifters and self proclaimed ‘Thought Leaders’. We reject disingenuous codes of behaviour pitched as best practice and sometimes as guidance. We reject professional performativity and ‘brand-safe’ conversations. There is very little that we are certain about in this world. We should explore it with openness and with integrity to empower others to become better than us. If we do this then expertise might creep up on us as a by-product of disciplined free enquiry.

Collaboration

We are collaborative and work with a host of local talent from across the disciplines of the arts, design and technology. Our associates work with us as a team on commercial projects as well as mentoring, coaching and delivering academic programmes for all types of business.

Integrity

integrity | noun 

1. the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. 

2. the state of being whole and undivided.

3. the condition of being unified, unimpaired, or sound in construction. 

4. internal consistency or lack of corruption.

The concept of integrity is one of our guiding principles. We can use this as a sense checking mechanism across a variety of activity. We apply it to business: Do the mechanisms have internal consistency? Are they sound? We can apply it to the work that we do and apply it to brands: Is this proposition honest? Does it have an internal logic and consistency?

This is a simple concept that we all understand. For a child in the western world this might start as they begin to play with a toy like Lego and make decisions on how one piece should be connected to the next. If internal integrity becomes a guiding principle then it becomes empowering for all involved as it allows us to define objectives, test ideas and develop fit-for-purpose outcomes. This also encourages us to think more broadly about the nature of values. We could call this is principle and its a principle that we’ve valued across time and across cultures.

Virtue Signalling

All of us have the capacity to be amazing and to be truly awful in our thoughts and actions. We could imagine measuring ourselves against some kind of scale that measured our success or failure in some regard. We may constantly strive to be at one end but it is likely that the scale would be more spotty than we’d like. Given that this is the case, it is quite something to promote ourselves as a paragon. If we are actively promoting virtuous aspects of our activity as brand and we are using this a smoke screen for less virtuous activity then it is probably only be a matter of time before the brand is damaged. If we are being less than honest and making a big deal about the opposite we’re equipping a potential social media mob with explosives.

The best advice than we can give- just don’t do it.

Ready to Innovate?

Are you ready to tackle the world on your terms, ready to collaborate in a meaningful and productive way? Ready to innovate in industry? Feeling ambitious? It’s time to productively misbehave.