Advice, tips and inspiration to help you perform at your best
I’m in the middle of running an online training programme with facilitators looking to sharpen their approaches to facilitating innovation workshops. Whilst there are common skills we can all learn, it’s important to facilitate your way. To create a style you feel comfortable with. Where you also get the best out of the workshop participants.
There are many different brand positioning models in the world of marketing. In the early days of my old agency Added Value, we created a tool called the ‘Bullseye’. I also remember developing a tool with Unilever which became the famous ‘Brand Key’.
Every brand owner and agency has their own version, which they claim to be unique or proprietary. Of course, it isn’t. In marketing, nothing is. The shape of the boxes might change as do the names, but essentially, it’s the same kind of thing. A positioning model.
One of the podcasts I enjoy is ‘The Pitch’. It’s a bit like ‘The Dragon’s Den’, but with an American twist. Where budding entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to potential investors. The episodes are short and entertaining. And you hear lots of interesting new ideas.
Getting clarity on your ‘elevator pitch’ is essential for all of us.
I’m a regular listener to the Guy Raz podcast ‘How I Built This’. I listen whilst out walking the streets of Tooting and across the muddy Common with my faithful dog, Stan.
It’s full of uplifting stories of how entrepreneurs created successful businesses.
One episode that I loved was about Jo Malone. How she worked tirelessly from an early age to create her iconic global brand, initially from her house in Bexleyheath, south east London. It’s a story of success against the odds. Click the link below to listen to it.
I share a love of football, cycling and music with an old friend of mine from university. We live in different parts of the UK, but keep in touch via WhatsApp and meet up when our paths cross. He’s funny, outgoing and has a lovely family. However, our politics are very different and we hold conflicting world views. I really don’t understand why an otherwise decent guy can hold such opinions. I’m sure he thinks the same of me. Luckily, this doesn’t stop us being friends.
‘Keep showing up’.
These were last words spoken by Elizabeth Gilbert in one of my favourite Ted Talks. She was speaking about creativity. She implored us to stay present and work at your craft so that ‘your elusive creative genius’ will make an appearance.
In our personal and professional life goal setting is easy. We find it easy to imagine the life we want to lead. A life where we’re happier, fitter, richer and more successful. Achieving goals is much harder. Unsurprisingly, New Year’s Resolutions usually end in failure. Goals help us grow, but we can get so much better at setting and achieving them.
In a previous post I wrote about how to inject creativity into strategy workshops. Now I’m going to discuss ways you can make your creative workshops more strategic. This doesn’t mean losing the energy and spontaneity required for creative sessions. It just ensures that the ideas you generate are purposeful and on brief. Here’s some suggestions on how to do this.
Whenever I take a brief to facilitate a workshop I categorise them as either strategic (business or brand planning) or creative (generating ideas). I then shape the sessions accordingly. The strategy sessions tend to be relatively cerebral and formal, whilst the creative sessions are much more lively and playful. However, I’ve come to realise that this is a false distinction. The best workshops are where the two styles merge. When creative sessions become more strategic and vice versa. Here’s how you inject creativity into strategy workshops.
Given all the restrictions we’re living with, one of the key challenges for facilitators is how to create the same buzz as face to face sessions. This is particularly important in innovation workshops, where spontaneity and energy are vital. Like everybody else, I’ve had to adapt. Having planned and run a few online innovation sessions, here’s what I believe are the key tools and platforms you need.
Developing a deep understanding of consumer behaviour is one of the most important tasks a marketer needs to undertake. We’re always on the look out for that big, fresh insight that can unlock growth. Whole departments have been set up to generate insights. We go on training courses. We attend conferences. We learn the lingo.
Over the past few months I’ve learnt a lot about feedback. I’ve been giving lots of feedback on presentations delivered to me as part of an ongoing training programme.
Plus, whilst training to become an accredited coach, I’ve received lots of feedback on my own coaching approach.
Here’s my key lessons.
