Approach
Opportunity is everywhere, but a scarcity of bandwidth can make it elusive. Often, leadership needs a strategic sounding board to make an impact.
I help organizations genuinely understand their present state and map future possibilities. With a commercial strategy agreed upon, I build unique tools to assist leaders in implementing change.
Toolbox
Everyone has a toolbox. Many of the tools are the same, but the ones that make a difference are often created through unique experiences. Here are a few of mine.
Listening & Links
One summer, I hitchhiked from South Carolina to California. I quickly learned the best way to keep the rides going was to keep the conversation going. Listening empathically, discerning the driver's agenda for picking me up, and a good bit of luck kept me safe on the 3000 mile journey. It's a similar set of techniques that Journalists use and how I approach any engagement, whether working with a lone entrepreneur or embedding with a 30 person team.
While I'm not concerned with my safety in any client engagements, I gain a ton of insight by conversing directly with employees and customers. As I work across many industries, I've become very adept at getting up to speed quickly with the market nuances that will make a meaningful difference. Thankfully, I've found that most of the best solutions are already hidden somewhere within the business. One of my jobs is to ask questions that reveal these opportunities and build cross-departmental links often only visible from an outsider's perspective.
Commercially Viable
Previously working at a consultancy that designed, developed, and sourced apparel products solidified my understanding of the need for commercially viable strategies. Fashion is tricky, with most collections finalized before the past season has yet to sell. Forecasters, trendsetters, stylists, and the sort all try to counter this counterintuitive cycle. Similarly, What If, is an exciting way to start an engagement. Many clients might have the will to spend an afternoon or two pondering this question, but all the talk of new and change can get pretty scary without the addition of a commercial strategy.
Strategic planning works if the general direction one's heading is correct and the organization is agile enough to course-correct along the journey. I've found that a mix of qualitative creative inputs and quantitative financial modeling can be a potent mix. It's a way of capturing all the expertise within an organization and building a future state roadmap that everyone understands.
Shared Context
Wherever your career path might lead you, finding a mentor at the beginning is a good start on the journey. I was fortunate to spend three years working with the designer Arnold Wasserman. May it be the move from tacit to explicit knowledge, the visualization of conceptual solutions, or the modeling of scenarios, he showed me how to think like a designer. Regardless of the process used or the project delivered, we always started by establishing the context.
Early in most client projects, I start by building a shared view of the present state. It might center around employees, the brand, products, channels, customers, competition, or a mix of the overall business environment. A significant element of this work is editing and distilling the vast knowledge base within the organization down to vital factors that will impact possible outcomes. Establishing a shared context amongst the key stakeholders is essential to building a desired future state collectively.
Simplified and Timely yet Lasting
While studying for a Master's in Industrial Design at RISD, I took a class in Sculpture called Surrounded, Placed & Valued. My first project was awful; it was totally literal, overthought, and obvious. Over the course of the semester, the teacher Lane Myer, focused on an artist's approach to seeing. The thing is, one cannot always see the end at the beginning.
Consultants often complete projects with a pre-drafted deliverable that drowns the organization in unusable information: fill in the blank. Unfortunately, the old-fashioned notion still exists that more pages mean better work, which means more billables. It's pretty easy to put together an exhaustive deck, but how about a distilled one-pager still in use a year after the project is complete?
I've found the most lasting business deliverables have elements with creative expression; they are faceted yet simplified, elegant, and timely. I comfortably enter many projects, not knowing the end deliverable but letting the process reveal a solution that will live on within the organization.