Learn, Think and Strategize

Foreword

Launching a new venture takes a lot of introspection, and the same goes for our inaugural post. Even though we had been Doing Business As (DBA) [re]draft for a little more than 3 years as a side business for projects that could find a place in our ongoing activities, the COVID crisis revealed what was really making me thrive : communication! And we were blessed to have the opportunity to help a few events weather the storm in those times of lockdown, further convincing us this was our calling to be helping our clients and hopefully, people in general navigating the complexities of efficient communication.

With so many topics and stories we want to share with you the question is "Where do we start?".

This was a no brainer as we decided our foundational post should outline our mantra (from the Sanskrit "thought, thought behind speech or action" ), "Learn, Think, and Strategize!"

Inception

As “cliché” as it may sound, the process took its roots in infancy, when discovering Europe as a kid, I could not find my place in society, even less satisfied by the way I was described and classified. I soon became obsessed by the meaning of words looking for answers in books, and by the same token in modes of communication that were new to me namely radio and television - especially documentaries and war reports. I was blessed to have two great reporters and even greater human beings in my neighborhood, and they became my heroes and source of inspiration. As I grew and gained autonomy, cinematic productions, expos and conferences completed the array of sources to help me define who I was in the world I lived in and beyond.

Confrontation

The natural next steps came under the form of “activism” with the emergence of ecology and human rights movements. Those were moments of community search and discovering the power of speech. But I couldn’t quite engage into political movement as I found them too doctrinal and too hierarchical to my taste, and in a way counterintuitive to my vision of freedom of speech, if that makes sense. So, I basically remained a student leader without any affiliation because, deep inside of me, something was missing.

Performance communication

Sports, and professional basketball brought me the missing pieces. As a player, I grew frustrated by the lack of vision most coaches had, applying tactical schemes that more often than not led to perplexity among the players. And the buy-in process via war rhetorics got old real fast.

So I started looking into successful programs, their leadership, be it coaches, athletic directors or general managers, or the players themselves to understand why they succeeded year in year out albeit distinctive game style and personnel. To dig deeper, and get first hand experience, I got involved in the worldwide “Clinics” tour featuring, each off-season, famous coaches covering a “topic” of the game they loved. I participated as a demo player and interpreter, which helped me discover their power of speech geared towards performance and how it worked, regardless of the audience, and the players on hand.

It starts with a philosophy…

The “Why?” led me to understand that the underlying force came from the distinct philosophy they developed as teachers and master(mind)s of the game. As they developed, all those successful leaders to be took a hard look at how their vision of sport and life in general could translate into something transmittable and perennial. That philosophy could then become the cornerstone of their teaching and leadership, a source of truth, compass to thinking, learning and strategical processes through time.

… and ends with a strategy.

We can obviously extend this beyond the scope of sport, which is what I try to apply across life and professional projects.

I believe that day to day human interactions are basically transactional, and by essence bi-directional (i/o in technical “jargon”). With that in mind we need to learn in order to think and then make choices. Likewise we cannot capture interest and/or “allegiance” without giving something: this is the essence of trade. And to achieve that, communication is key. Which leads me to say that strategies to successfully create an app, a shop, a course, a workshop, a conference or a marketing campaign all need to be prepended by “communication”.

Next steps

Hopefully, I managed to raise some eyebrows, as we would like to explore and share with you topics covering communication skills, tools, and strategies in various contexts be it education, commerce, culture and more.

We would love to hear from you through our usual channels.

Thank you for reading.