Ask me to be a Critical Thinker/Friend

I was really excited to be asked to provide critical thinking skills to the fabulous environmental/social impact duo Nancy Hyne and Ali Fisher - Plans With Purpose.

They’ve been busy developing their THRIVE programme for clients and asked if I’d review their pitch presentation.

Here’s what Nancy said on Linked In about my feedback….

“There is a lot of jargon in the sustainability space.

EDI
EUDR
CO2e
ESG

Even when you work in sustainability it can be hard to keep up, so it's hardly surprising that business leaders can get overwhelmed.

Making a decision about the best way to maximise your social and environmental impact when you're confused can feel like an uphill battle.

And while I genuinely try to avoid jargon in the work I do, I confess I don't always get it right.

That's why Ali Fisher - Plans With Purpose and I chose Vicks Ward 🌍as one of our critical friends for our soon-to-be-launched THRIVE programme, designed to help ambitious leaders work past that overwhelm to unlock value for their business, ecology and humanity.

Vicks is an absolute superstar when it comes to words and she challenged us - kindly but firmly - to be even more considered with the language we're using.

Because we're passionate about helping organisations sift through the noise and build an effective and measurable sustainability plan that is value-packed.

So the language we use matters. A lot.

Thank you Vicks!”

Years of training in advertising agencies, reviewing creative concepts, scrutinising headlines, copy and layouts, coupled with "listening hard to clients" has given me a few tools to push back - gently - when a concept might benefit from it.

In my early days in agencies, I'd present a creative concept to client. They'd run off a load of comments and amends. I'd run back to creative and relay them. Creative would shout at me and push back on every single one.

In time, I learned what needed a push back and what didn't. Choosing which battles to pick with creative and which to pick with clients. Always with the objective in mind.

Voicing the thoughts others might have or be distracted by.

Because I want my client’s ideas to work as hard as possible - with the limited time you have your reader's attention for.

Standing tall and clear above the competition.