Purpose is a state, not a Strategy

For over 25 years, I've worked at the intersection of brand strategy, digital storytelling, art, culture, purpose-finding and sense-making.

I’ve sat in boardrooms of all sizes, with teams of all kinds. I have spent much of my career trying to work out how and why some brand strategies cannot be embodied by their people and/or cultures. I believe brands that flourish with a great strategy aren't the ones with better frameworks, or a better articulated strategy, though those things do matter. They're the ones whose people can sense complexity, regulate under pressure, make decisions, and take aligned action from integrated intelligence, not just analytical thinking.

We're managing 21st-century complexity with VERY out-dated models of human capacity that are being supported with AI.

But we have so much innate intelligence that we don’t include in building brands or business. And we leave all of this true creative intelligence out. Which seems like the worst strategy to approach a strategy because the research is clear:

• Decision-making is fundamentally embodied

• Pattern recognition emerges from sensing, not just analysis

• Organisational culture is a collective nervous system that is alive, feeling and responsive

• Innovation requires accessing cognitive states beyond analytical thinking that can only be accessed with regulated nervous systems that feel safe to do so.

Brands navigating these times to flourish aren't just thinking differently - they're sensing differently.

Business as usual is so optimised for intellect and analysis. We've ignored the body's intelligence: interoceptive awareness, nervous system regulation, the capacity to sense what's emerging before it can be articulated.

This is the strategic gap that alive, breathing brands can fill.

If this feels true to you, get in touch. I run strategy/sensing sessions for brands that want to actually sound different, not just claim they are. I use some techniques from neuro-aesthetic/somatic research-nothing weird, just ways to think better. You know how your best ideas come in the shower, or driving on the motorway, or even in your dreams? I help you access that state in a workshop, but without getting in the shower, car or liminal space. Instead of grinding through frameworks, or trying to land visions that feel too far away or unrealistic - we work with how your brain actually has breakthroughs, how your nervous system can take action, and how your brand can be inspired and inspiring.