MASTERCLASS: THE ENERGY OF LEARNING

April 2019

What a phenomenal week! The Masterclass programme is one of the highlights of the Interbrand Academy, and the programme that we just worked on together was the most special yet.

I awoke at 5am on that first morning and looked out over Boston. There was a certain quality of light and energy in the air that brought to mind the words of one of my favourite poets, the late, great Heaney: “There was an extra-ness in the air...”

And it was in every one of you, Masterclassers, as the off-the-charts inspiring individuals that you are, and in the amazing collective that you had become over the course of our time together.

To see and sense the energy and creativity that grew from strength to strength in every one of you over the course of our week together was extraordinary. In our diversity, our differences and our experiences, we have created something very special, for us all to carry forward. I have learnt so much from you all.

We had the privilege of a first during our programme, in recording the first live OutsideIn podcast from our Masterclass. The sparky conversation between Charles Trevail and Harvard Business School Professor, Francesca Gino, set a powerful tone for what we can achieve through openness, experimentation, and embracing different ways of working. Embracing and exploring the unreasonable request, the collisions and the uncomfortable runs counter to supposed norms, but this is what allows us to reach beyond, into disruption and creativity and is the very stuff that often leads to extraordinary results. Listening to stories about a series of game-changers, including three Michelin-starred maverick Chef Bottura, we reflected on how we grow from our resilience, our creativity, our humility, and what we can make happen together.

In the spirit of what it is to be deeply human in business, the phenomenal Susan Betts, from Microsoft, inspired a call to action in empathy at the very epicentre of our lives, both in work and beyond. The lessons that she shared from her journey, in business, in life, will stay with us forever – in how we build layers of experiences, memories, skills and scars until we form a settled structure on our lives. I loved her words on building ‘learning muscle’ – to practice kindness to be kinder, to practice learning to have greater agility and aptitude, and to embrace the empathy within ourselves in order to share it with others. We must unlearn false and negative norms and learn what we need to become the versions of ourselves that we wish to be. Susan, through her own deeply human lessons in life and leadership, offered us a glimpse into the truth behind succeeding: that of practical becoming.

As Susan said with such an understated, and yet, compelling call to action: “A common human language builds bridges and makes unsaid and unheard conversations possible.” Truly the sparks between us all, once set by coming together, leap up and dance in visions and inventions that we never thought possible.

This was a strand of thought that burnt long into the week. Our game-changing Chief Innovation Officer, Chris Nurko, as inventive as ever, lit up the room with his high-octane session on how collaboration elevates us to a different plateau of thinking. Executive Creative Directors Chris Campbell and Franco Bonadio held us all captivated with a session that asked an unreasonable request, embracing the burning necessity of asking good questions and creating the oxygen and energy demanded by creativity within the confines of constraint.

There was not one individual, either as a listener or speaker, who did not inspire me, and spark debate and provocation over the course of the programme. It is entirely true that one should not just hear, but listen, and not listen to reply, but listen to learn. Every speaker had something powerful, poignant and meaningful to share, and every one who came to learn, including myself, was left burning to create and explore.

I’d like to finish with a few words from Charles Trevail, our Global CEO here at Interbrand, that I believe to be the embodiment of what we wish our brand to be. “We want this to be a place where you can truly be your best self. Where you can learn, experiment, be inspired and push yourself. Where you can challenge yourself to push yourself forward to your next self.”

And with that, dear readers, I wish us all to act on what we can do differently, towards change for good - in innovation, creativity, deeply human collaborations, and growth.