Leading With the Language of Intuition
I’ve led much of my life with intuition and the language of inner knowing. I process information primarily through my feelings, dreams, visuals, and colours. The language of spoken and written word does not flow as easily to me and it can take me a longer time to access words in my mind.
So, when I was asked to lead the co-creation of a new name for SheEO with our community over the course of only two months, I instantly felt a well of mixed emotions rise up — among many things: fear, excitement, anxiety, and determination.
Early on, I shared with the group of 20–30 community members that gathered regularly over the last 6 weeks that all ways of knowing and being are welcome in our space. You do not have to be a brand expert to contribute meaningfully to the experience of generating ideas for a new name.
Part of that trust meant listening to my own gut and allowing my intuition to guide us through the twists and turns of each week.
I have a daily morning practice of pulling a card from one of my various oracle decks and interpreting the message in the symbolism reflected.
Lately, I’ve been drawn to using the Prism Oracle deck by Nicole Pivirotto — a deck using the magic of colour to tap into intuition. Along this journey, I’ve pulled a card every day and shared relevant messages.
As we begin to reveal the results of this process to the community and to the world, I want to share in the way that speaks most authentically to me — tapping into the messages I’ve received from my intuition along the way with a creative spectrum of colourful emotions.
Disruption + Ideation
Towards the beginning of the community consultation process, two cards I pulled were: Disruption and Ideation.
It is uncommon to invite your community to openly generate and decide on ideas for a new name and brand experience. I had no idea what I was about to get myself into, but I leaned into my ability to steward from a place of collectivism and trust in the community and process.
While we started with a very linear process to get us from Point A to Point B, it was important to lean into disruption as needed and see where our ideas might take us. As early as our first group working session, we scrapped parts of our original plan and applied a non-linear and iterative approach to co-designing and leaning into emergence. Each week, as we prompted the community to reflect on a facet of our new brand, we synthesized key insights and continued building on the areas that resonated most.
“You are lost the moment you know what the result will be.”
— Juan Gris
Stop + Reflection
There were many times in the middle of the journey that I was so overwhelmed with the intensity and timeline of the process, that I didn’t create space to Stop and Reflect. We were pushing forward with a sprint of weekly calls and synthesis to favour a rapid responsive process, instead of pausing where needed.
Any time I drew one of these cards, my fear of the timeline told me I needed to keep moving, but my instincts reminded me to honour the space that needed to be given to meaningfully reflect.
Sometimes it’s in the spaces between action where we find the answers we seek.
Each time I saw these cards appear, it was a reminder to go gently and that pausing for reflection is part of progress and movement.
Death + Flow
Finally, two of the cards that appeared throughout the last few weeks as we committed to a final concept were: Death and Flow.
SheEO has built up a strong brand that many in our community feel a connection with. Though our brand recognition is strong, it’s a time when many organizations are changing their name too. It’s a time to reflect the world we want to live in. The name ‘SheEO’ is a play on words that centres the gendered binary pronoun ‘she’ with a top down title like ‘CEO’.
We’re re-aligning towards the future we wish to co-create together — one beyond the binary and towards collectivism, reciprocity, equity and inclusion.
The connection between these two cards reminds me that death can signal beautiful beginnings. The cycle of life allows for a renewal from the ashes. With transformation at the core of what we do at <New Name>, formerly SheEO, it’s a reminder of the natural flow of life and the energy of water that nourishes us through changes and adaptations.
We’re looking forward to revealing the results of the community consultation process of bringing forth a new name, together over the coming weeks. Follow along (@sheeo_world) with #NewNameSheEO as we Reveal + Reflect the evolution of this next phase of our journey.
