A few years ago, a contact of mine once invited me to a preliminary meeting at a world-renowned fashion magazine publisher. She briefed me beforehand: do not arrive suited and booted. These are creative people. They see suits as uniforms.
I made some concessions. No tie, no pocket square, top button undone.
When I arrived I looked around the room. Every single person was wearing sneakers, blue jeans, and a black turtleneck. Those with longer hair had it pulled back in a braid. Most of the men had three-day stubble.
They were all wearing a uniform. They just did not call it that.
And I was the one they pointed at.
The word uniform comes from the Latin uniformis, unus meaning one and forma meaning form or shape. One form. Everyone the same. Which is precisely what I was looking at. The suit is a uniform, yes. But so is the studied rejection of it, worn with the same devotion, in the same colours, down to the same stubble length. The only meaningful difference is that one group is honest about what it is doing and the other has convinced itself it is being original.
Groupthink does not only live in boardrooms and bureaucracies. It lives just as comfortably in creative studios, startup offices, and anywhere else people have decided they are too independent to follow the herd. The herd is just wearing different shoes.
I got the consulting contract, for what it is worth.
