Observations – No. 4 and thanks for all the fish.
I’m coming to the end of the first phase of my six months of exploration.
If you didn’t hear about my magic fish, have a look back at this post outlining the rough process I’m taking, a play on the Design Council’s double diamond – but in short, step two (after committing to resigning from a brilliant role without something next planned) was about feeding the fish, lots of non-agenda conversations and coffee with a broad and random set of people.
Step three is distillation. Taking the threads I’ve heard over the last few months, identifying the things which are interesting, exciting, offputting, compelling and a collection of other describey words, and doing something with them.
“I’ve recognised that the idea of being any one thing is wrong”
I had originally intended to create a sort of “proposition” or “positioning” for myself – here’s who I am, what I do, what I offer, hire me! – but upon thinking about what people are looking for, what challenges organisations are facing – I’ve recognised that the idea of being any one thing is wrong.
There are plenty of time where concrete and succinct positioning are useful, indeed critical. A doctor of tropical deseases, a corporate tax lawyer, a counsellor who specialises in couples therapy – when you know what you want, it’s great to know who offers it.
But we’re in a time of constant change.
Disruption is the new normal.
Adaptability and the ability to observe, orient and act is more valuable in many organisations right now, whilst they are trying to define their new purpose (if indeed that is now possible).
Many teams don’t know what they want, don’t know what they need, aren’t even clear on what they are or what the problems are.
That, for me, is the role of a good strategist – observe, distill, orient, coach, observe, learn, rinse, repeat, iterate, do better, do different, do more – whilst at the same time having a longer term view on where you are heading. The long term bit is challenging for most.
Many have used the phrase “existential crisis” in relation to their industry or their agency – and I think its an acute observation – many businesses simply don’t know what they are, do and offer any more. The desire (or demand) to transform outpaces the agreement upon the direction in which many are pointing.
So to have a fixed and concrete poisoning seems counter to what is needed, and to what I offer.
My career, what I had always felt was patchwork, misfittish, scrambled – actually has a common theme: spending my time in the near future, and helping others tangibly make that future happen sooner (or better).
Sometimes it’s people, sometimes it’s brands, sometimes it’s culture or organisations, sometimes its process or products or simple comms ideas.
And that requires a set of qualities, not an offering. A set of tools and approaches. A mindset and a heartset (more on that idea later). A relationship with others and an energy to push forward. Not a positioning, not a job title, not a role. But an actionable belief system.
I’m at the early stages of distilling this – what those qualities are, what the belief system is, I think its in many of the people I’ve met and spent time with, not only in the past few months, but those I’m attracted and connected to over the past decades too, and they’re not just strategists.
In fact, I think it’s a new set of essential qualities for modern work. A set of qualities which aren’t very well tested by interviews or shown in CVs. A set of beliefs which aren’t necessarily rewarded well in organisational hierarchies or structures. A mindset which isn’t well encouraged or supported or developed within most employee/employer models.
Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to talk to the leadership team at Arla Foods – the dairy cooperative behind brands like Cravendale and Lurpak. I was talking to them about Human Workplaces and the notion of respect and relationships with your people, and how, whilst it feels like a real first-world problem; employee experience and wellbeing, work life balance, emotional and motivational states; whilst it seems like something right at the top of Maslow’s hierarchy, the truth is that emotional and physical wellbeing are the same thing, and a healthy bottom line and employee development are also the same thing – in the long term.
“the [culture] project has become about so much more than delivering smarter outputs — it’s really about creating better inputs”
The reason why I got involved in cultural design was because I wanted to foster an innovation culture at Carat, to remove the need for a team of innovation specialists, and replace it with an entire agency who were innovation-first – culture was a means to an end to do my job well, but the project has become about so much more than delivering smarter outputs – it’s really about creating better inputs, and the experience has truly helped me think about how people behave within organisations, and more importantly, how organisations behave around people.
It sounds like I’m pointing myself in the direction of focusing on people and talent and organisational cultures – maybe that may happen, more likely it falls under “interesting” rather than “next step” – but one thing is absolutely clear – that the journey I’m going on should be available to anyone and everyone, as part of their employment, not as a thing one has to try and figure out as an extra-curricular project, and somehow I’d like to try and make that true for my team, regardless of the role I take next.
Over the next few months – now I move into the next segment of the fish, I’m going to try and reduce the multitude of conversations into simpler thoughts, and expand upon them here. I don’t intend on stopping the “feeding” stage either – in fact, it has made me even more committed to making exploration and open agendaless converations part of my ongoing working practise, so there is no end of this, but rather a constantly set of revised and renewed ideas. And of course, then I need to find a job.
It feels like there is a little branch already – the things I’m interested in doing personally, and the things which are observations on work at large – so I’m hoping by the end of this year, I’ll not only be with a new team ready to rock, but also have some really tangible ideas of how to work with that team in better and more human ways.
This article has been published as part of an ongoing series of posts related to me looking for my next role. I’m working out a six-month notice period as Head of Strategy and Innovation, and wondering what I could/should/might do next. If you think someone might benefit from this article, please CLAP or SHARE, or leave a response to share your thoughts. I’m always available to chat over coffee or skype too.
