Dispatches from Spain

A bit of "mental Tapas" from our Global Learning Programs happening now.

¡Hola!

I’m here in Madrid for TBWA’s Global Learning and Development Programs: Tiger Academy (Strategists and Account People) and Master Gunners (Creatives).

My role is Instructor and Executive Coach.

The “students” are rising leaders from all around the TBWA Collective — from Durban to Tokyo to Mexico City to all points in between. (You really see the world in a class!)

The aim of the program is to create “Whole Leaders.” So it’s a combination of skill development and mindfulness.

The folks ultimately come away with real awareness of themselves and their environments. Along with some new tools to help them thrive amidst the chaos.

It was a robust and intense week. Of the myriad ideas that were spawned and bandied about, let me share a few that may be helpful for you.

Mind the Gap Between Doing and Being

We started our mornings with some reflections and meditations.

Our speaker for this talked about the story of the “Master and the Emissary,” from the book of the same title.

This is the metaphor for the left and right sides of our brains which need to be quieted and relieved from their daily, incessant functions.

We learned a good one-minute practice: Focus and count your breaths in a minute. That number 10? 13? 15? That’s how many breaths you need to center yourself.

Key takeaway: The most important trait for a leader is to be centered.

Hello, VUCA My Old Friend

The overriding contextual theme for both groups, Tigers and Gunners, was VUCA. Volatility. Uncertainty. Complexity. Ambiguity. (More on that here.)

Like all of us are experiencing, the world is distracting and fatiguing.

Clients are increasingly risk-averse and transactional.

And creativity, while wonderfully distributed and democratized, it’s also utterly fragmented and the quality is notably uneven. Any kind of mass impact is capricious at best.

Key takeaways: Control what you can control. And focus on creative excellence.

The New Creative Director

We heard from an AI specialist. Her message was clear: We are now living in what she describes as a “new age of quantum creativity.” She sees AI as a tool to enhance creativity in terms of vision, experience and production speed.

If you can think it, you can do it.

And you can see your idea come to life in different worlds, different styles, different voices — literally hundreds of options — in minutes, sometimes seconds.

Beyond AI there were plenty of other forces and dynamics that have truly changed the game: influencers and platform-specific creators, to name but two.

Key takeaway: The New Creative Director must be a Collaborator and Curator, along with their original role as a Creator.

Negotiation is Not a War

There was also a wonderful negotiation specialist. She helped the students reframe how to look at a negotiation. This was well beyond the classic framing, flinching and back and forth nibbling of a typical negotiation.

Her approach was looking at the negotiation as “a journey from disagreement to agreement.” Journey. An important word. It’s not a battle. She also said to remove the “ego” in the negotiation. And rely more on your ability to listen. To understand what’s truly important to the other side.

Key takeaway: Take a more holistic view of a negotiation. And the most important skill you can have is listening.

Flamenco Dances with Business

We enjoyed an incredible Flamenco show at the Corral de Moreia and we were lucky enough to see the legendary Belen Lopez and her partners in sublime: 5 men of various skills from guitar, dancing, human percussion and of course, singing.

Flamenco is a timeless art that takes music and dancing to entirely new levels yet, at the same time, is so intimate and immediate it launches directly into your soul.

Beyond the art, Flamenco has lessons for leaders: Namely, command attention. Tell stories. Everyone plays a role. Support one another. And know your audience and what will connect. Basic, but you can see it come to life in a Flamenco show!

Ok, I only scratched the surface of the learning here.

I do hope there is something helpful for you.

I’ll share more as the program continues this week with our “Sea-Leggers” (new managers).

‘Til then…

¡Vale!