Preparation gets you to the start line. It doesn't make the middle comfortable. The change becomes real because we kept moving through the part where we weren't sure we could. Mile by mile. That's how we move forward.

Tony Stark lets very few people in and controls everything once they are in.Steve Rogers includes everyone and means it every time.Natasha Romanoff wants belonging more than either of them and has spent twenty years making sure nobody can tell.Three superhero Avengers. Three completely different interpersonal operating systems. One team that is always one pressure point away from fracturing.

When I started M. Hatter Consulting 12 years ago, I was drawn to work that asked people to believe in what did not yet exist.

With my clients, I’ve had the privilege of helping reimagine businesses in ways that once felt impossible. We’ve built new digital capabilities, transformed aging assets into new products, and designed operating models that stretch across borders. Bold work, steeped in adventure. Like all of you, I feel the next era arriving at a speed that can be disorienting. AI has changed so much, so quickly. We’re all genuinely students again.

I spent last week training in the dark side.
No real lightsabers. No robes. Just a lot of uncomfortable self-awareness. And now I’m happy to share that I’ve officially completed my Hogan Assessment Certification and am now a Hogan Coach. This means I’m trained to predict how leaders are likely to behave when stress is high, patience is low, and the pressure to deliver never lets up.

Every week brings the nearing destination into sharper view, and those in the driver’s seat are seeing the widening expanse of roads jutting out ahead in various directions. Understandably, for business leaders, there is a keen sense of urgency to select and proactively position one’s organization for the optimal exit route. Might these reactive experiments in distributed workforce and remote collaboration spur a movement to be built upon, an isolated moment to be reflected upon, or a mandate to embrace change in order to thrive on the other side?

Maybe our many months of reactively managing ‘the what’ and ‘the how’ of company operations, have somehow accelerated a sense of clarity around the future that awaits. And more specifically, ‘who’ will proactively lead us there.

I recently spoke with three talent recruitment luminaries about the opportunities marketers and agencies should now proactively mobilize around to stave off the regrets of uttering ‘hindsight is 2020.’

I am a glass half-full person. In regular years, I find those silver linings and make that lemonade. But this is no ordinary year. More than six months into the pandemic, I suspect everyone is craving something stronger and something brighter: the platinum linings. Where silver linings offer hopeful insights, platinum linings have the potential to truly transform. I recently spoke with three incredible business leaders about the platinum linings 2020 has revealed for them, and how their organizations have navigated to meet this moment.

As Adland reimagines a future amidst the madness of COVID-19, demonstrating in tangible, operational terms how to partner with a marketer and deliver a distinct experience might prove to be the special elixir we seek in uncertain times. I recently connected with four agency leaders to learn how they are walking their walk with today’s top brands.

It has become increasingly difficult to avoid the apocalyptic tales of an industry gasping for its last breath, as more and more conferences, industry coverage and client meetings are laced with fear and resignation. And yet for every ‘winter is coming’ narrative, there is a company defying this plot via a formidable dose of resilience and ingenuity. The insight: they deploy the instruments of organizational design and operations to create opportunity. I recently sat down with a handful of these businesses – some relatively new and some legendary – to learn how they are continuing to evolve their businesses amidst the current industry madness.