The latest episode of Google Firestarters is now out. This one is with the always-interesting Pats McDonald who is the Global Chief Strategy Officer, Creative, at Dentsu. Lots of wisdom from Pats in this episode. I loved the way in which she talked about how generosity should be a kind of operating system for strategists, and how being open with your thinking can lead to unexpected returns (this reminded me of one of my favourite quotes of all time from Paul Arden: "Do not covet your ideas. Give away everything you know and more will come back to you."). I also liked her thinking around how important it is to bring people on the journey with you, how failure to do so is such an easy mistake to make, and how creating memorability is so key ('You don't have to be the loudest person in the room to be the most memorable'). And there's some great thoughts on team creativity and solutions ('none of us is as good as all of us') and changing behaviour (including one of my other favourite quotes from Clay Shirky: 'Behaviour is motivation filtered through opportunity'). Another fascinating episode so I hope you enjoy it. My thanks to Pats for being a part of Firestarters.
I'm a bit late with this (sorry - big deadline) but it's time to open nominations for Post of the Month. As usual I've listed a starting shortlist below but please do add to these and when I have a good number I'll pop them all up for the vote. You can nominate posts that you've read over the past month that you thought were good by sending me the link direct or leaving it in the comments below. Here's my starting list:
The Disapproval Matrix by Ann Freidman
The language of your fathers by John Merrick
The brilliance of Bullmore by Tom Darlington
Please do add to these nominations.
It's time for the first Post of the Month vote of 2022. But first - nominations. If there is a great post that you've read over the past month do nominate it for the vote by sending me the link or by posting it in the comments below. When I have a good selection I'll stick them up for a vote. As always I've put down a short starting list below but please do add to these. So my starting four are:
The Nature of Work by George Tannenbaum
The best of minds, the worst of minds: are we mentally ready for the metaverse? by Amy Kean
The 'Long Nose' theory of tech innovation by Clive Thompson
My Strategy Journey by Richard Huntington
Please do add to these with your own nominations.
Only Dead Fish is a blog and digital consultancy run by Neil Perkin. Neil is the author of two best-selling books on the intersection of business transformation and organisational agility: Building the Agile Business and Agile Transformation (both through Kogan Page), and the curator of Google Firestarters
