Cultural Momentum

How to Harness Cultural Momentum

January, 2013

the basic idea• This work is intended to create momentum within the agency: the invisible

force that results in producing more with less, creating exceptional outputs more efficiently, and helping people have more fun in the process.

• Momentum requires addressing several different elements:

– Illumination: research to identify issues, truths and opportunities. (Issues can be very specific in nature and it helps obtain buy-in.)

– Focus: a clear and cohesive strategy (one vision, one voice.)

– Alignment: total understanding and engagement of purpose, process and permission to play by all (common language, expectations.)

– Propulsion: ignite cultural levers to improve creative flow, individual empowerment and buoyancy (on a company, team and individual level.)

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What Is Culture?

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Culture is not something that is passed down from top to bottom, but created among individuals who are of a like mind and temperament, with a common goal and language. If these elements are not present, culture is the agreement that is made that keeps the proverbial ball rolling and everyone from killing each other.

Culture is made – with intention – to create efficiencies while generating the ‘juice’ that enables conversations, ideation, courage, leadership and ultimately, a magnet for other likeminded people and businesses. It is self-sustaining organic growth that isn’t painful or counterproductive. It results in autonomy, less policing, firing on all cylinders…in a word, momentum. Agencies that have it get more done with less. Agencies that don’t can’t seem to keep the wheels on the rails.

Culture is critical in organizations that engage in creative development because the process must be organic to some degree, because it’s an industry of taste and because of the nature of the individuals involved. It can be nurtured, managed and recalibrated with the right handling.

Culture

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Culture = un-policed

Beliefs

Behaviors

Language

Interactions

Signs of a Poor Culture• No laughter in hallways or meetings.

• Self-policing on the ‘little things’ and not on the work. No desire to ‘swing for the fences’ or do more than is necessary.

• Leadership feels they need ‘bed checks’ to manage staff or constant supervision.

• A bad habit of scarcity mentality (not taking vacations) which shows in ‘no light behind the eyes.’

• Shutting down (lack of engagement) and quiet brainstorm meetings.

• General inefficiency (fretting or re-doing work vs. producing.)

• Unhappy staff, unhappy clients.

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Real Examples• What kinds of situations call for this work?

– Mid-sized ad agency OM = wants to double in size and be more efficient (profitable)

– Mid-sized ad agency CEO = wants fewer day-to-day hands-on client/agency responsibilities

– Start-up = wants systems to streamline, grow

– New leadership team at established company = wants a vision to unify efforts and stimulate new thinking

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What is the Context for Culture?

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Brand is Do, Be, Say

Do: Product

Say: Expressions

Be: Culture

What we do, what we make, our products

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How We Express

Do: Product

Say: Expressions

Be: Culture

What we do, what we make, our products How we express

ourselves internally and

externally

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Who We Are

What We Do: Product

Say: Expressions

Be: Culture

Who we are, why we care and how

we do things

How we express ourselves

internally and externally

What we do, what we make, our products

Role of Branding: Port of PDX• If I may, I'd like to relay a quick story...I was doing a micro (1 hour) branding

workshop for the Port of Portland (100 or so people.) A man raised his hand said, "I am a Marine Biologist and I don't know why I'm here." I said, "Do you go to cocktail parties?' He said he did. "And do people ask you where you work?" Again, a nod yes. "And you say 'the Port of PDX', right? Yup. And then they say, "what does the Port DO?" Lots of laughter. A nod yes. "And you answer them, right?" Yup again. "Well, then, Mr. Marine Biologist, you are in branding. If everyone says the same thing at cocktail parties you have a strong brand (and in a connected way, a strong culture.) If everyone says something different, you have problems." He was happy to stay and enjoyed having a collective way of talking about his company and having points of connection with his fellow staff members.

• Brand, culture and business are all inextricably intertwined. Brand is badge of the tribe. It’s not about the WHAT it’s about the HOW and whether people believe if it is authentic’. Brand affects new business, recruitment and a shared sense of tribalism and purpose (one vision, one voice) with all contributing to its definition, expressions, core strength and longterm health.

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Four Steps to A Better Culture

1. Audit Your Culture and ID Key Levers

2. Audit Your Clients’ Wishes and Actuals

3. Fix What You Can Today – Big Rocks

4. Address Additional Needs - Ongoing

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1. Audit Your Culture

• Send out an e-survey to understand the answers to these questions will help you know which levers to turn.

• Conduct a workshop to illustrate lifts and drains. Seek to increase lifts and decrease drains (examples in the back but overall it’s about turning the levers to get more of the things that inspire us and less of what brings us down/gets in the way.)

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AUDITING BELIEFS

• What does success look like?

• What is a sin at this company?

• What am I rewarded for?

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AUDITING BEHAVIORS

• What am I spending my time on?

• What doesn’t get done that should?

• How motivated am I to come to work?

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AUDITING LANGUAGE

• What gets said in hallways?

• What gets said when brainstorming?

• What is our collective mantra?

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AUDITING INTERACTIONS

• What do people support each other on?

• What are sources of strife/unrest?

• To what extent is fun allowed?

• What would they change if King for a day?

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2. Audit Your Clients

• If you are game and able, talk to your best clients to find out what they love and what they would love more of. And then talk to clients you pitched but didn’t get.

• At minimum, pull up past 2 year financials and in a workshop setting with the leadership team (or as homework), plot clients on a perceptual map as follows

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$$$

$

LoveHate

Looking at actual revenues and PROFIT

MARGIN and plot clients on the $ axis

based on what they’re worth to you financially

(top/bottom sides of page.)

profitable

not profitable

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Your Goal is to Identify Each Clients’:

Relative Revenues (high margins)

Ideal/Efficient Processes (best practices)

Fun/Respect Quotient (best relationships)

Work You/Clients Are Proud of (best outputs)

Burnout Factor (worst relationships)

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$$$

$

LoveHate

Subjectively evaluate each account based on the factors above and put them on the above scale (right/left sides of

page.)

Not a lot of fun or respect, uninspired work and/or people burn out working on

this account.

A lot of fun/respect, great work and/or a vibe/process that

makes people want to work on this account.

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$$$

$

LoveHate

Lions

Horses

Dogs

Feed Your Lions

Work Your Horses

Shoot Your Dogs

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Feed Your Lions

• 80% of revenues come from 20% of customers.

– BUT sometimes you may think they’re profitable because of the volume of work or the amount of squeak.

– Make sure it’s based on actuals. Make sure they’re happy and see if you can get more.

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Work Your Horses

• These are the ones that will require a concerted effort to figure out which side of the fence to put them. Work with them to:

– Fix poor processes that keep them from being efficient/fun and/or profitable.

– Fix poor relationships that keep them from being fun/respectful/producers of great work.

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Shoot Your Dogs

• This means firing them. Or letting them know they’re on probation. Or actively looking to replace them.

– Agencies made money firing bad clients.– Be sure they’re not game to change first before letting

them go.– Being vocal about intentions to replace can help morale.

3. Fix What You Can Today

• As the Eastern saying goes, ‘big things are little, little things are big.’ Put someone (or a team) in charge of ticking off easy things and removing drains. Not only give permission for change, encourage the spirit of breaking old ruts/bad habits/stagnant air. As Harvard Business Review espouses, “manage your energy, not your time.”

• The following is a list of ‘small things’ that made a huge difference in the energy, enthusiasm, efficiency and effectiveness of ticking small irritants off the list. It’s empowering. And that’s contagious.

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Cultural Change Elements

Elevate language to incite invitations (e.g., yes, let’s)

Cultivate efficiency (e.g., stand up meetings)

Create an inspiring environment (e.g., matching forks)

Break bad habits (e.g., hotel bells)

Identify common threads/goals (e.g., ‘deviate’)

Inform/fall in love with your customers (e.g., poster child)

Use and value creative briefs/process (e.g., reward)

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Examples

Elevating Language• In most agency brainstorming sessions, people often will

say, “The client will never buy it”, “It’ll never work”, etc. which shuts down conversations.

• At Cole & Weber, we had a self-policing rule to use ‘Yes, and…” and “Yes, let’s…” to transition to new thoughts in every interaction – even with clients. This language shift was instrumental in fostering ideation and collaboration (learned from invitation language espoused by improv groups.)

• At an agency that had a bad habit of negative language, we put hotel bells around the office to provide a way to break the negative spiral. Hitting the bell conveyed to all ‘let’s start again with better language.’

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Elevating Language• What gets said in hallways is a huge indicator of culture.

And what gets said gets done. I’ve audited many agencies over the years and have found a typical mindset that is indicative of the vibe/culture: most say, “I’m so tired” or “Do your timesheets.” Not inspiring and often exhausting. And worse, it is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

• Conversely, at Apple, their mantra is: “[Is it] insanely great?” I believe it plays a key role in the success of this organization – and any organization.

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Cultivating Efficiency

• One good example of how a small change can have a big impact is the swipe we took at ‘meeting hell’ at YRG. The agency was paralyzed by endless meetings. To counteract this, we put in clocks and took the chairs out of meeting rooms. At the end of the habit-changing time, they overwhelmingly decided to keep it this way and now call their meetings ‘huddles.’

• Writing briefs is also a critical step and a core component in cultivating efficiency.

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Inspiring Environment

Another YRG example illustrates the need to create an inspiring environment. This was a place that espoused the value of aesthetics, yet the furniture and even the forks in the break room were cheap and unmatched. The effect of this on designers is visceral and while others couldn’t put their finger on it, when we changed them out for decent ones (not expensive), the mood, morale and atmosphere lifted noticeably. Other changes were made, such as throwing out old files, based on key tenets in creating good Feng Shui. Good space matters.

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Identify Common ThreadsMost organizations, but especially those in the advertising and design fields, must understand that theirs is an industry of taste.

To create a sense of cohesion (one vision, one voice) it is important to define the collective taste. What is great work and what is less than? A great exercise to begin this discovery is to create a ‘wall of fame’ and a ‘wall of shame’. Publicly showcase both your work as well as any out in ‘the real world’ that lives in these buckets – and then discuss themes and ultimately put words to them. At C&W our short-hand for what was great work was if it ‘deviated’ from traditional category communications.

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Inform/Fall in Love with Customers

One of my clients was a NW ski resort. During a workshop, I discovered that a few staff members had disdain for ‘people with new gear’. They didn’t feel they were part of the tribe and they definitely didn’t love them. I’ve seen this in other categories/industries many times since.

Imagine how this might impact the experience for customers. Imagine if the people in charge of marketing don’t respect the customers. A strong brand radiates the connection they have with cultists in word and action (and weak brands don’t.)

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Inform/Fall in Love with Customers

Doing relevant, interesting research is a huge piece of doing smart, effective work. It is a key to doing great work efficiently. It also helps everyone fall in love with the customer and understand their love for the brand -- keys to doing good work, building strong brands and successful companies. And doing good research helps the agency be more powerful (knowledgeable and confident) in the agency-client dynamic. It is a referee. It helps reduce or eliminate stupid fights. Most successful companies talk to their customers – and I believe most successful agencies do.

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Charge for Strategy

Many clients I’ve worked with are doing good strategic work but without discipline – and often

without getting paid for it. Most need to find a way to not ‘give away the gold’. One branding agency

I worked with said that 40% of their revenues came from strategy work alone – outside of creative work. Making it a clear part of the

process with a clear deliverable is part of it – but believing you should have the time and money to

do it right is a bigger part of it.

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We Don’t Have Time for Briefs

When I worked at Omnicom (both at BBDO and DDB), the teams did not fully understand the

need to make the time and allot the budget to do research and write a brief before beginning

creative work. At the end of my tenure, leadership understood and summarized their new perspective as, “We never seemed to have the time to do it right, but we always seemed to

find the time to do it over.”

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4. Address Additional Needs

• Hiring/Resources – Juicy recruitment ads/defining criteria

• Unity – Defined tribal taste and language

• Brand Expressions – Refreshed look/feel

• New Business Presentation – Refined pitch

• Documentation/Sharing – Launch/Onboarding of newbies

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These expressions can be an immediate result of previous work or they can be a

secondary area of focus. The key is to not jump the gun and go straight to outputs as the work must be done internally first (with

reminders and rewards to make sure it sticks) before putting it out to clients or prospects.

Expressions must be authentic – and without buy-in and real organizational change, these

outputs may be rendered hollow at best.

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Case Studies

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experience• Extensive work has been done across a variety of categories but with

a similar mission: to create greater flow, improve employee engagement at the workplace and better work as a result.

• Similar work has been conducted for:

Young & Roer Columbia Sportswear

Grady Britton First Independent Bank

Nemo Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Liquid Agency Perkins Accounting

AHA Writers Group Patagonia

Citrus Adidas’ Global Innovation Team

Clarity, Coverdale, Fury DoveLewis Emergency Animal Hospital

• A client list with reference quotes is appended and a full list can be found at wildalchemy.com.

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What follows are summaries and quotes from various clients. They are intended to provide an overview of the type of Wild Alchemy’s cultural

alignment work with them and the resulting success achieved.

It should be noted that the specific workshops and/or cultural activities each undertook varied

by client – from a single workshop to more intensive and specific alignment work which

affected the scope of impact, but all found relief from major pain points.


Young & RoerSmall Tech Agency, PDX, OR

This agency was in crisis when I was asked to help. New management was brought in by the Board in order to keep the agency from becoming

insolvent. Internal discovery sessions revealed areas of latent pride and sources of frustration and inefficiency. Workshops provided a common

language and sense of purpose and process but there were a few speed bumps that had to be addressed specifically.

To reduce ‘meeting hell’, clocks were installed in meeting rooms and chairs removed. Hotel bells were installed around the office to signal a ‘change of language’ to break bad habits of negative communications. Small changes were made to the décor to improve inspiration and clutter was cleared out.

Common goals were posted to redirect energies to nobler goals. The cultural changes affected the tenor of the office as much as the workshops

did (to provide a new framework.) Excitement was palpable immediately and momentum fed on itself.


Y&R Client Testimonial“Having Lynette and Wild Alchemy work with our agency was the most productive and enjoyable thing we’ve ever done as a group. Aside from great teambuilding and exercising some creative muscles, our business improved immediately and dramatically. The team gained new confidence and began to enthusiastically approach clients and prospects with an “anything is possible, let’s figure out how to make good things happen” mentality. Our new business win percentage hovered in the 70% range, margins went up as team members figured out how to provide great work and service at lower internal cost and, in the year following our sessions with Lynette, our revenue, margin, and net profit all exceeded the previous 10 years combined.”

-Mike Heiser, former Managing Director of YRG (note: YRG was successfully purchased)


Columbia SportswearOutdoor Apparel Company, PDX, OR

Columbia Sportswear has many teams working across multiple product lines and brands across the globe. They had great innovations but seemed to be at a plateau in terms of market share. A new brand manager opened the door to addressing some issues she saw with their brief writing as an

easy point of entry.

While they thought they had the brief nailed, a ‘pop quiz’ showed a lack of unity and understanding in the brand promise (and benefit to the

consumer.) In addition, several process issues were causing undue stress and undermining positive behaviors – resulting in heated tempers, late

nights and missed opportunities (inefficiencies) in communications.

Recommendations from internal surveys and workshops addressed both process and cultural issues as well as branding and brief writing skills.


Columbia Sportswear/SorelOutdoor Apparel Company, PDX, OR

As a foray into ‘thinking about their brands more creatively’, the Creative Director of CS wrote a Haiku for the brand which helped create a common platform/language around the brand’s essence that the organization found truly inspiring and easier to share/refer back to

Warm Dry Cool ProtectActive Outdoor Persona

I Have No Worry

Post-workshop, new trafficking software was installed, briefing processes augmented and briefs reworked (to be more creative and brief.)

As a result, they are enjoying newfound cohesion, impact and momentum across all product lines/teams and have seen great success from recent

global marketing campaigns for several brands.


Columbia Sportswear/SOREL

“Killer Briefs has transformed the way we work together.

Briefs are clearer, more potent and purposeful.

The work is more compelling. Inspired, brand right and market right.

Lynette started something remarkable that we have seized upon and amplified; she helped us quickly and efficiently uncover our brand’s core

truths.

Our collaboration is more meaningful, we have more more fun embracing challenges, and the work is better.”

~Kimberly Barta, Senior Global Brand Director


DoveLewisEmergency Animal Hospital, PDX, OR

After successful rebranding work and capital campaign, this non-profit was able to focus on the last piece: issues and

drama amongst medical staff.

After one-on-one ‘counseling’ conversations with all medical staff (and leadership), several small things were uncovered that led to a full cultural recovery (staff started getting along, showing up to meetings, having conversations, not calling in HR, etc.) One example: medical staff were often running at a pace that prevented them from taking breaks (and eating.) Allocating budget to have high protein snacks on hand (vs

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Agency Client Testimonial

“Having Lynette and Wild Alchemy work with our agency was the most productive and enjoyable thing we’ve ever done as a group. Aside from great teambuilding and exercising some creative muscles, our business improved immediately and dramatically. The team gained new confidence and began to enthusiastically approach clients and prospects with an “anything is possible, let’s figure out how to make good things happen” mentality. Our new business win percentage hovered in the 70% range, margins went up as team members figured out how to provide great work and service at lower internal cost and, in the year following our sessions with Lynette, our revenue, margin, and net profit all exceeded the previous 10 years combined.”

-Mike Heiser, former Managing Director of YRG

(note: YRG was purchased) Wild Alchemy 50

Clarity Coverdale Fury

Creative Ad Boutique, Minneapolis, MN

A staff audit helped identify equities in the current culture: a clear sense of what doing a good job meant that happened to

be a mantra (a phrase one heard regularly in hallways was ‘grow your clients’ business’.) This led to a retooling of the agency’s brand as a Growth Company (vs. ad agency) and

subsequent case studies/new business presentations. Leadership interviews helped identify a good ‘cultural fit’ for the agency and found a one word description: earnest (in

what they’d look for in a potential new hire.) This clarity and refocus helped them gain new, better clients and streamlined

processes internally – resulting in a fat bottom line.


Clarity Coverdale Fury

Creative Ad Boutique, Minneapolis, MN

A staff audit helped identify equities in the current culture: a clear sense of what doing a good job meant that happened to

be a mantra (a phrase one heard regularly in hallways was ‘grow your clients’ business’.) This led to a retooling of the agency’s brand as a Growth Company (vs. ad agency) and

subsequent case studies/new business presentations. Leadership interviews helped identify a good ‘cultural fit’ for the agency and found a one word description: earnest (in

what they’d look for in a potential new hire.) This clarity and refocus helped them gain new, better clients and streamlined

processes internally – resulting in a fat bottom line.

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The Source of My Cultural Fascination and Gold Standard

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My perspective is based on having worked for, what I believe to be, the cultural Holy Grail: The Richards

Group.

This agency is one of the biggest, most profitable privately held agencies in North America. From my

tenure there, they have grown from 60 people to 600+.

The culture not only helps this agency create award-winning, effective work for clients such as Corona, Motel 6, Home Depot and Hyundai, it does so with efficiency

(profits are awe-inspiring) and fun. Great people – especially creatives - who worked there in the early 80’s when I was there are still there 30 years later, producing

outstanding work. And that, friends, is priceless.


The Richards Group

The Richards GroupTRG was my first agency job. It is to this day one of the largest privately held agencies in North America and the best agency experiences I’ve

ever had. I credit much of their success to the wonderful cultural tenets Stan put in place.

One of the keys to his magic was cultivating efficiency at every turn. Everyone had a Mac. He created a word processing center to clean up all documents and ensure consistency (we were only responsible for

content.) He instituted bowling lunches every other Friday (mandatory) and invited us to discuss ads we’d seen in CA with creatives (establishes

taste, language and trust talking about creative that wasn’t their creative.) He defined our task. He sent us home at 6 pm and encouraged

us to come in at 4 am instead. He created an environment that demanded excellence…and fun.

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The Richards GroupWhen the agency nearly doubled in size from 150 people to 300, we had

an issue with fueling conversations. Email was new (yes, I know I just dated myself) so he banned internal email. Clients only. Because ideas happen in hallways. He created telephone lists with pictures and first names only. He held all agency ‘teaching’ meetings once a week (an

hour only – rotated 3 disciplines to chat about what they were doing for 20 min each.) We had an all-agency status meeting (2 minutes for each representative from each department) which made us accountable. We had ‘stairwell’ meetings to address ‘news’ and ‘rumors.’ I have so many

more examples (ask me sometime ;) but the idea is that he did everything around creating efficiency while also inviting conversation

and sharing – often at opposing ends for many organizations.

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Ways to Engage

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If You Like What You See

Let’s discuss how we can work together. I’d be happy to chat with you about the best way to work with you to conduct all or part of this process.

There are three general scenarios for budgeting with varying degrees of autonomy/facilitation:

Classic Wild Alchemy Audit + Recalibration

Two-Day Retreat

Muse

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classic audit + recalibration

E-Survey to All Employees + 2 Moderated Listening Sessions

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Leadership Sessions to Debrief / Discuss Recommendations

Brand and Culture ‘Training’ Workshop with Agency for Cohesion

Set up cultural anchors for change and metrics to measure impact

2-day retreatDevelop and send an e-survey to all employees/analyze for presentation

at retreat. Note that a key client can be included in the following.

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Set-up and Conduct a 2-day Retreat (including defining the ideal, discussing lifts and drains and possible cultural recommendations as

well as brand/brief training to get on the right path.)

Reconvene with Leadership to agree to critical changes and establish reinforcing anchors, metrics and rewards to gain momentum.

Provide input as needed to resolve any lingering issues (e.g. software solutions.)

muse sessions

Develop and send an e-survey to all employees to understand motivators and obstacles to flow/ help with listening sessions

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Recap findings with Leadership to assess key levers to be addressed (cultural elements that impact success)

Meet with Leadership to walk through agency audit exercises and provide direction for and ways to gaining agency buy-in

Present summary of key recommendations, cultural anchors for change and set up metrics to measure impact. Conduct agency presentation of

recommendations (if desired.)

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Other Wild Alchemy Resources (Training DVD + Handouts Available)

• How to Write Killer Creative Briefs

• BrandThinking and Creative Research Techniques

• Stellar Account Service

• BrandYou and Creative Momentum (for Individuals)

• Entrepreneur’s Boot Camp

About

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Lynette Xanders is Wild Alchemy’s Founder/CEO and Chief Strategist. Her extensive marketing and consumer research

experience comes from being a 20-year Account Planning veteran of advertising agencies such as Cole&Weber, DDB Seattle, BFS/Chiat Day, BBDO Vancouver and The Richards Group as well as an external partner for some of the best agencies in North America (such as W+K.) She is

the author of the Chaos Creativity Journal and teaches at the Art Institute of Portland. She and her family live on Mt. Hood, Oregon to appease her

skiing problem.

Food & Beverage


Financial Non-ProfitAgency


Sports/Outdoor

Luxury Home TourismShoes

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Cars Luxury Leisure

RetailTechnology

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Education Healthcare Senior Living Travel


Nice Words

As Cultural Alignment Partner

“Having Lynette and Wild Alchemy work with our agency was the most productive and enjoyable thing we’ve ever done as a group. Aside from great teambuilding and exercising some creative muscles, our business improved immediately and dramatically. The team

gained new confidence and began to enthusiastically approach clients and prospects with an “anything is possible, let’s figure out how to make good things happen” mentality. Our new business win percentage hovered in the 70% range, margins went up as team members figured out how to provide great work and service at lower internal cost and, in the year following our sessions with Lynette, our revenue, margin, and net profit all exceeded the

previous 10 years combined.” -Y&R

“Lynette has the whole package: Creative. Innovative. Senior. Hard-working. And

fun to work with. She helped refine our new business platform and get us all on board which gave us a great sense of unity.”- ClarityCoverdaleFury

“Lynette helped our agency clarify our positioning and reconnect with our staff. She truly understands the creative business and It was great to have her independent observations.

Her client and employee surveys gave us insights that have changed how we do business. I'd recommend Wild Alchemy to any creative shop needing a fresh outside perspective.”

- Nemo Design

As Agency Strategic Partner“Wild Alchemy is our go-to strategic partner. They bring energy and enthusiasm and extensive expertise to the table, and never disappoint when it comes to really insightful recommendations or thoughtful analysis.

Wild Alchemy is neither wild, nor do they make gold, but they do provide brilliant insight and thoughtful recommendations that are wildly successful and result in real value for the client.” - Rick Braithwaite,

Partner, Sandstrom Design.

“I’ve been a client of, and partnered with, Wild Alchemy on numerous occasions over the past 10 years and I can honestly say I’ve never had a more inspiring or truly collaborative experience as it relates to consumer

insights or brand strategy. Plus, they have really great taste in wine.”

- Rebecca Armstrong, Managing Director, North

“Lynette is the kind of planner creatives love to work with. Not only is she creative herself, she knows how to find an insight and mold it into an interesting place that’s ripe with creative possibilities.” - Jim Elliott,

ACD, Cole&Weber

“Lynette gets it. She’s smart. She cares about the work and helps make it better.”

- Tony Lee, ACD, Leo Burnett Toronto

“Wild Alchemy’s immersion into Outward Bound, and their ability to see deep into the possibilities of the brand, allowed us to make meaningful change, fast. Wild Alchemy has the ability not only to gather critical

information, but they create the stories, paint the picture and provide the tools necessary to motivate people and catalyze action.”

- Craig Trames, Executive Director, PCOBS

As Research Partner/Moderator“Lynette produced insights that were creative, smart, AND actionable.” - Doc Martens

“As a marketer, I would never think of doing positioning work without enlisting the help of Wild Alchemy. They are true partners in discovery, creativity and brand strategy.” - Nike

“Wild Alchemy led a series of engaging, productive and insightful branding meetings with the board, staff and patrons. Armed with our shared understanding and alignment, updates to our website, facilities and materials were extraordinarily successful and much more cost effective.”

- Artists Rep Theatre

“Lynette is more than a market researcher. She is an expert in using research to guide and improve a creative process in a way that both clients and agencies can get what they need to move ahead with confidence. She is wonderfully objective and honest, and makes the rest of

us look a lot better.” - Meredith Publishing/Nestle

“Lynette is the best qualitative researcher I've ever worked with. You would expect her to be extremely smart about understanding the issues and opportunities underneath the research

brief. What is even more useful, however, is the way she employs her great interpersonal skills to disarm, charm, empathize and relentlessly pin down her respondents without ever

appearing more showy or threatening than a really nice, interested friend. It’s a wonderful skill to watch and I can recommend her without any hesitation as a joy to have on the team.

- Cole & Weber Agency Head

As WORKSHOP Leader/Speaker“I am still drawing energy and benefits from those remarkable two days.” - Creative Director

“One of the most thorough and inspirational introductions to brand

analysis in which I’ve ever participated.” - Managing Director

“Love working with Lynette. She can make an all-day workshop actually

work, with great results.” -Senior Copywriter

“Your collection of wisdoms and exercises is outstanding. Very functional, yet mysterious and curious and challenging.” - Business Owner

“One of the best speeches on branding I’ve ever heard.” - Gov. Conf on Tourism attendee

“Suffice it to say I found it wonderful, extremely helpful and it gave me the motivation I desperately needed to start making the baby steps on the way to solving bigger problems. I

just think you’re the cat’s pajamas.” -Microsoft employee

“There are workshops and there are experiences; there things that make you think and things that inspire you. Spending a day with Lynette Xanders in Brand You was an inspirational

experience while unlocking a level of insight, clarity and creativity that is inspiring me in every aspect of my personal and professional life” -Business Owner/Author

JOURNAL Quotes

“You’ve produced an outstanding journal. Thought-provoking, intelligent, and very well art directed. Congratulations.” - Stan Richards, The Richards Group

“It’s my touchstone. My brain. My diary for what others call ‘work’.”

- Susan Bladholm, Port of PDX

“[This] journal is unique in its inherent capacity to invoke thought, intention, and action. I have found it to be a remarkable tool for stimulating creativity, decision-making and strategic

planning. It is a place to foster personal exploration and development. The journal is very inviting, interactive and engaging.”

- Sharon Kitzhaber, Kitzhaber Communications

“The Creativity Journal has such a sense of playfulness that is so helpful for creative business thinking and strategizing. I’m a huge fan! Thank you!”

- Ryan Buchanan, eRoi

wildalchemy.com

Lynette Xanders

[email protected]

206.755.6800

:: Creative Research :: Brand Strategies + Copywriting :: :: Culture :: Workshops ::

Cultural Momentum

Business

Transcript of Cultural Momentum