The Difference Between Unintentional Mimicry & Collective Consciousness

So I’ve heard there’s been a wee bit of ‘unintentional mimicry’ hysteria being whispered in the backchannels ever since my last post went live. Was chatting with a friend about it and decided I needed to publish this piece next to set a few people back on-kilter.

Photo by Chicago Art Department courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons.

In my last post on unintentional mimicry, I warned you against the promiscuous appropriating of other people’s brand language.

Perhaps you’ve grown self-conscious {in an empowering way} about where you’ve been less than fresh in your own foundational verbiage. Perhaps you’ve turned a keen eye on a peer or a competitor who’s been a bit loose in adopting your signature phraseologie for herself. Perhaps you yourself have copped to some unintentional mimicry of someone you admire. And you know what? You’re so much better off for taking a look at it.

Now — you can begin to do the work of freeing your own purest and most powerful voice, the voice that only you can inhabit. The voice that your right people rise up and say ‘yes’ to.

What you’re now ready to reflect on is this: there’s a difference between unintentional mimicry and collective consciousness.

Collective consciousness is one way to describe the phenomenon at play when we’re seemingly all hitting upon the same ideas at the same times.  You know you’ve seen that at work. It’s more subtle and less insidious than ‘group think’ — but collective consciousness is common.

Some examples of collective consciousness at work:

Two novels come out in the same year with remarkably similar motifs and characters whose archetypes seem to echo each other.

Three business development coaches launch programs in the same season with eyebrow-raising overlap in the focus and content.

A jewelry designer friend of mine, often after coming up with a new necklace or earring design in the privacy of her home studio, sees something eerily similar pop up in Anthropologie’s online store a few weeks later. {Hidden cameras installed in her home? I don’t think so.}

Many pregnant girlfriends of mine have chosen names for their babies that they thought sounded unique and fresh. And then by their babies’ first birthdays, their “unique” names are in the Top 3 Most Popular Names for Boys/Girls in the U.S.  {Still nice-sounding names, just whoa! trendy.}

Is it in the water? Is it filtering down through the media? Or is there something even more subtle and cosmic at play?

Yes, yes, and yes. It’s collective consciousness. Ideas get around. It’s their nature.

So what this means for you and your brand language: it’s okay to get swept up in collective consciousness. That’s a totally different thing than unintentional mimicry.

The difference is: you get swept up in collective consciousness — blindsided. You’re part of a phenomenon. And yes, when this happens you’re still responsible for rendering your own ideas in your own voice.

Unintentional mimicry is something you do and once realized, are responsible for repairing.

And the distinction between collective consciousness and unintentional mimicry as it relates to the voice of your business:

Collective consciousness positions you as part of a conversation.

Unintentional mimicry, when left unchecked or when allowed to mushroom, positions you as unoriginal.

This month, I’m releasing Freeing the Voice of Your Business, a multimedia product designed to help you own the conversational space that’s rightfully yours as a creative entrepreneur working digitally. To be among the first to learn more, sign up here for Inklings, my weekly e-newsletter.

What else needs to be said about collective consciousness and unintentional mimicry? Please share your thoughts with me and others in the comments.