Why strategy works best when you spark, spot, then spark again
It's still quite wild that I am typing this, but over the next couple of months I'll be part of two industry events which I am super proud of:
First, I'm going back to Portugal in May to host a masterclass at the Clube de Criatividade de Portugal on how to recognise and avoid the Handover From Hell. Book your ticket here.
Second, I'll be at Cannes Lions in June with Amy Daroukakis, Sarah Owen and a hugely impressive roster of panellists to each discuss three signals we're noticing right now. Details.
What's interesting about both is that they gravitate around a super scientific methodology that I believe is instrumental to help us add value as strategists in this concept of a plan of a 2026 job market.
You ready for this? It's very complicated. I call it Spark/Spot/Spark. It's an answer to the modern malaise I call Mastermindcore, where a strategist assumes it's their job to mastermind everything or have nothing to do with it at all. If only work were that simple, eh...
Spark/Spot/Spark is the answer to Mastermindcore. And after years of meta-analyses and peer reviewed studies, I've boiled it down to:
The primary role of strategy is to spark something in the conversation that perhaps wasn't there before.
The secondary role of strategy is to then spot something that the other person said that may be interesting to hold onto.
Then we return to the primary role of strategy of using that spotted thing to spark a new thing, and around we go.
Of course, I jest on the over-scientific nature of things, but I really do think this sort of stuff would hold up to scrutiny these days. It's how I've worked most effectively with clients, creatives, producers and even account people. Solo genius is out. Strategic scenius is in.
Over the next few editions of the newsletter, I'm gonna keep riffing on these topics. How to collaborate without defaulting to bland. How to work with what's already on the other person's mind. How to spot things for their movement value, if not their problem solving value.
There's quite a rebellious energy I'm feeling recently about how to do strategy and how to challenge the preconceived notions of what agency life burned into my brain. Maybe it's just because I've been really into this Kim Gordon album and she's just such a badass.
But now isn't the time to just default to the way things were, but to try and codify new ways to define a problem and propose solutions. For better and for worse, in the absence of standards and an abundance of demons, you get to create your own ways into things.
Which, based on chats I've had just this week, is how a lot of people latently feel anyway. Many of us never wanted to fit into the agency or corporate structures that were imposed on us anyway, and finding new ways to twist and shout our way into strategy work are needed.
So. It's T minus one month to my masterclass, and T minus two months until I hit Cannes Lions. I hope to see some of you in either, or both. Either way, I do know this: us oddly shaped minds need to swim together if we want to fight the odds we were given in this market. And it all starts by sparking, spotting, sparking some more.
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