Let’s pursue extraordinary

TODD Babiak is clearly a quick study. Listening to the Canadian recently appointed as chief executive of Brand Tasmania, you would think he had been researching and thinking deeply about the Tasmanian mindset for a lifetime — if you can get past his accent.

With an authority that results from having sat through hundreds of long conversations with Tasmanians over the past two years, Mr Babiak explains that Tasmania is not just the “clean and green” catchphrase that most people instantly associate our brand with. To be Tasmanian, he explains, goes far deeper than that. To be Tasmanian is to consider the adversity as part of any story of success — that because of our history and position in the world, we have had to work harder and do things better. And that has kept even the most successful of us humble.

The Tasmanian success story, then, is generally not one of rags to riches, Mr Babiak has rightly discerned. Instead, it’s one of rags to meaning. And that, he says, is actually something quite unique — and the key thing we should be focusing on in amplifying our brand internationally. The result is Brand Tasmania’s new catchphrase: “The quiet pursuit of the extraordinary.”

“Everybody talked about Tasmania in that way,” Mr Babiak told associate editor Amanda Ducker in their interview for her Cafe Society column yesterday. “I think it’s a really special cultural expression and one we can use to unify our efforts and talk about this place.”

PERHAPS IF WE SET OUR GOALS NOT ON DELIVERING OUTCOMES ON PAR WITH THE NATIONAL AVERAGE, BUT ON EXTRAORDINARY OUTCOMES WE WOULD GET BETTER RESULTS

But perhaps there’s something else here that this place-branding expert has unlocked. Perhaps “the quiet pursuit of the extraordinary” could become our mission statement — the key to building our state: a place that protects what makes us special, but that isn’t afraid to take advantage of the opportunities presented to us.

Perhaps if we set our goals not on delivering outcomes that are on par with the national average, but instead on extraordinary outcomes then we would get better results. On functional literacy, for example, why should we not aim for 100 per cent? The Government says it is working hard to fix the public hospital system. Wouldn’t it be inspiring if the target they set was to have elective surgery and emergency department wait times at the top of the leaderboard?

And if we were consistent in setting those goals together, what would be the flow-on effect? Would it be that we could forever get that chip off our shoulder? That we could quietly but confidently believe that to be Tasmanian means you can be the best in the world at what you do — because you have the grit to stay a meaningful course.

Elizabeth Blackburn, Bob Clifford, Richard Flanagan, Hannah Gadsby, Marilyn Lake, Bill Lark, Ricky Ponting and David Walsh didn’t set as their goal to be as good as the mainlanders. They set out to quietly pursue the extraordinary. They understand, as we all innately do, the need for Tasmanians to work harder than mainlanders to achieve success and to embrace that challenge. But it’s this hard work that actually delivers the outcomes — that makes what they do extraordinary, and yet still very Tasmanian. And that’s a pretty exciting realisation.

Responsibility for all editorial comment is taken by the Editor, Chris Jones, Level 1, 2 Salamanca Square, Hobart, TAS, 7000