Strands of Genius: Embrace a Paradox, Ask More Questions, Take a Walk

Guest curated by Sara Tate

Sep 03, 2020

:: A BIT MORE ABOUT GUEST CURATOR, SARA TATE ::

LOCATION: London
PLACE OF EMPLOYMENT: TBWA London

I’m Sara. City living, child wrangling, CEO at TBWA London. Ex-Strategist, ex-Managing Director at Mother London, ex-colleague of Faris. Ex…quite a lot of things because I’m over 40, so I’ve clocked up quite a range of adventures. Like most folks, I’ve found 2020 quite a ‘character building’ time. Home-schooling 3 and 5-year olds, whilst working, whilst trying not to watch so much news that I exceed the bounds of my panic threshold, has been quite a ride. A ride that has seen me seek sanity in my first love…books. When Faris and Rosie asked me to curate this newsletter on the theme of ‘uncertainty’ it is unsurprising, although deeply unfashionable, that all three items comes from paper pages. The three things below have helped keep me sane(ish), on track and running a business in this most uncertain of years.

Editor’s Note: Faris met Sara at university and then bumped into her professionally at an Omnicom Graduate training away weekend type thing for all the agencies in London/UK [do they still have those?]. Shortly after he found himself working alongside her as the media planner on a breakfast cereal account where she was the account planner. They became close while Faris still lived in London and remain dear friends. We are both smitten with her, personally and professionally, and her lovely husband and children. Her mind, charm, sense of calm and humor, pastoral management and brilliantly practical strategic mind are all well worth learning from and basking in if you get the chance. Miss you, State.

:: THE LINKS ::

EMBRACE A PARADOX

I like order. Knowing where I stand. Things being clear and well defined. Then 2020 crashed into action and almost nothing felt certain. How do I plan, how do I budget, how do I…argh? Enter the Stockdale Paradox. Whilst the story of a prisoner of war might not seem like an upbeat place to start, bear with me. It made its first appearance in Jim Collins’ book Good to Great, the protagonist Admiral Stockdale explained his outlook, which helped him survive many years of incarceration in Vietnam’s ‘Hanoi Hilton’. “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” Jim coined this as the Stockdale Paradox – the ability to balance optimism and realism in the face of difficulty. In other words, I say to myself, ‘2020 is a pain but it will be OK in the end. In the meantime, I need to stop hiding under my duvet and get some stuff done’. (Fast Company)

ASK MORE QUESTIONS

As a mum and a CEO, I like having the answers. Let’s be honest, who doesn’t? Then 2020 took the answers away and reissued the questions in ancient Greek or Russian, or maybe Martian. An excellent coach pointed out to me, that rather than grasp for the answers, it is actually much more helpful to have the right questions. This applies not just to uncertain times but to any times, and asking great questions forms the basis of most good coaching. There are many useful books but The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stainer is a great place to start, and it only has 7 key questions to get to grips with. The author believes that generally our knowledge and advice isn’t as good as we think, and we would be much more helpful if we spent less time telling people what to do, and more time asking good questions. Read the book or watch Michael’s talk, and then remember you just need to ask the questions. Someone else almost certainly has an excellent answer. (YouTube)

TAKE A WALK

If accepting paradoxes and asking questions isn’t helping, then simply have a nice long walk. Maybe hug a tree whilst you’re at it. Even a scraggy inner-city one. There are reams of research written on the benefits of getting outdoors, but for one woman’s personal take on it read The Natural Health Service. Former political journalist Isabel Hardman charts how the natural world helped her recovery from mental illness, it includes interviews with mental illness sufferers and psychologists, and the latest research to examine the role wildlife and fresh air can play in helping anyone cope with mental illness. (Waterstones)

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:: AND NOW… SOME FAST FAVORITES ::

:: Game :: Nintendo 64 Bomberman

:: City :: London

:: Book :: Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

:: Podcast :: My friend Anna Vogt and I have a new podcast coming out in September. It is called The Rebuilders and Everyone's fave Faris Yakob will feature amongst other guests talking about rebuilding an aspect of their life and work. If you are about to embark on trying to rebuild something then have a listen for some inspiration. Follow us on Twitter @RebuildersThe to know when the first episode drops.

:: Album :: Stevie Wonder - Hotter than July

:: THE REBUILDERS ::

"It is not difficult to rebuild a life. All we need is to be aware that we have the same strength we had before, and to use it in our favour." Paul Coelho.

If all that fails, then just read some sci-fi. Nothing like watching a civilisation be overrun by giant alien spiders to make this year seem a bit more certain after all. Start with Children in Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

Sara Tate

sara.tate@gmail.com
twitter | the rebuilders twitter | linkedin

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It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. Our Director of Operations is nomadic like us, our accounting team is based out of Washington, our company is registered in Tennessee, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

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