In the Moment

Notes from the forefront

 
 
 

25 Lessons in 25 Years: Part 2/5 — Understanding People and Ideas

 

In our 25 years of business, we’ve learned a lot. Running an agency requires many things, and a big one is understanding. It’s especially important when it comes to the client relationship, making sure we’re listening to find out exactly what they want and need. Within our own teams, understanding is equally important, so we can hear everyone’s voices and create things together.

There’s understanding people, and then there’s understanding ideas and context. We’re endlessly curious about the world and how the industry is changing because of it. We’ve learned a lot about how we study and interpret information that’s relevant to us.

Here are a few of the things we’ve learned:

  1. Talk less, listen more. There is more value in asking questions than having all the answers. We’re often adopting the role of the investigative journalist.

  2. We are what we read. And what we watch and listen to and not to mention interact with. We’re always educating ourselves. Some of our favorite reads are here.

  3. We are what we write. Writing is often a process of discovery. From blog posts to policies to the messages we craft for our clients, we always learn new things as we write.

  4. Creative work brings strategy to life. Which is why long ago, we decided that every strategic plan we created would include a creative demonstration to show the plan in action.

  5. Digital is still the future. And in ways we still don’t understand - we think we’ve arrived in a digital world, but we also suspect this is just the stone age.

We hope you enjoyed these lessons. Stay tuned for more throughout the year!