Woo Alert! Future Ready CMO Visionary Experiences
Future Ready CMO micro-retreats have become a much-anticipated monthly refuge from the unlikely combination of intensity and flatness our professional lives have become. We're cultivating a unique space for people craving meaning and connection, committed to becoming the "change" we seek.
We take time together to free ourselves from cultural conditioning that gets in the way of us becoming the leaders we want to be. We're living in dynamic liminal times, and the old systems don't necessarily work. And the new systems and the new solutions are not in a book.
We need to create them.
We're here to create them together.
To do that, we have to feel and listen deeply. As Einstein said, "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."
It's rare that we make our session recordings publicly available to respect our sense of sacred space. There's a bit of woo that goes and a lot of vulnerability. We do, from time-to-time, share artifacts and insights that come from our work together. We want to be more transparent about the work we do together in the hopes we'll inspire others on a similarly quest for meaning and purpose.
Recently, we explored a shared vision for our role as a community and exposed the underlying shadows that may be holding us back. It can be challenging to sense what's being born and to participate in that while we're experiencing the crumbling of structures at the same time.
The illumination of the underpinnings of toxicity and corruption that we are witnessing day to-day can create overwhelming shock and fear. The grip of corporate culture is tight. To progress in this current reality, we're working on our ability to hold vision through whatever comes.
When we learn to articulate our vision while recognizing our blockers and fears, we develop the courage to make it more visible to others. Holding and sharing vision is a way to lead without structure and create the future in small incremental steps.
“Vision is a word that is so often overused in business. ‘I need to have a vision. We need to have a vision. What is the vision?’ That’s a lot of pressure.”
The problem with this approach is that vision comes in the quiet. It comes from within ourselves. It comes when we take a moment to deeply listen. It isn't in a book. It can't be forced. It's the spirit of bringing things forward.
Harvesting things that feel right and certain that we can name and hold with a sense of knowing. And then holding them loosely as we sense through the experience of the unfolding. This can be a terrifying concept for those of us who've earned our livings creating structure and following rules.
When we learn to trust the senses, we become more confident in the actions we take to bring our visions to life.
Some people are more experienced at working within their own inner vision fields. Everyone is capable of feeling and sensing their own inner compass. It's not something owned by those we label as "visionaries."
That's why we work on this together, so relax and read on.
A practice of shared visioning
We imagined traveling together to a spot in nature to establish a familiar and shared metaphor. Together we wandered down a wooded path. Noticing the quiet as we entered the trees, we observed the shifts of dappled light and calm darkness.
We also heard our feet on the wood chips. When we looked up ahead of us, there was a clearing, an opening in the trees where the light was bright. It drew us forward. As we approached the opening into a sunlit meadow, we saw that the grass had been trampled in the middle.
There was a circle where other groups had gathered before us, coming to a meeting spot. We crossed the threshold and followed the path single-file until we found ourselves standing in a circle together. We invite others. Our colleagues or people from our professional network that we know would also want to share this experience.
We gather as a group, and we face the center. From the horizon, as we look around, we notice that there are twinkling lights on the horizon. They're attracted to the energy of this gathering. Because it's rare that we get to gather this way.
We're sensing what's around the bend for the future of marketing. The future of sharing clean, clear messages or enrolling people and making change together. The lights on the horizon are magnetized to us. They're coming through the horizon and they're landing all around us. They're landing in the circle. They're landing at our feet. They look like Rose Quartz balls.
Each of us has a basket at our feet to harvest a few of them. We wander a bit and gather the balls into our baskets, holding one up to the light, and letting the light shine through the first chosen ball. We ask ourselves, what is this thing? What is this that is getting magnetized to the field of marketing to influence, inspire, shape, what's to come.
After a few minutes of examining the balls we had collected, we put them into the middle of the circle. Together, we imagine them rising into one energetic ball. A collection of what we have each contributed to the field. It floats in the center of our circle and it takes on its own energy.
As we were experiencing this vision, we talked about what we were seeing, and experiencing it from the ball of light we'd created. Things like beautiful energy, a feeling of support and connectedness, hope, curiosity, togetherness, and promise.
Many people saw different colors or none at all.
Some saw shapes and patterns, while others felt a warm tingling sensation or a sense of peace and tranquility.
It was a unique and personal experience for each of us. Yet we all felt a strong sense of unity and harmony as we focused on the glowing ball of light. It was a powerful reminder that despite our differences, we are all connected and capable of creating something beautiful together.
As the ball of light slowly faded, we were left with a renewed sense of purpose and a deepening sense of courage.
Two opportunities emerged.
First, more meaning that's grounded in audience truth.
And the second is the embrace of more meaning.
That means looking through the eyes of the audience.
In today's world of marketing, we've veered towards more shallow messaging about products. It's ironic that we're marketers, and we're talking about shallow commercialism, which a lot of people blame us for. But that's really not why people go into marketing. We go into it because we're storytellers, and we're meaning makers, and we want to make things better.
After we examined our experiences of the ball, we looked at some of the chords that seemed to be holding it to the ground. We named them: obedience, intimidation, micromanagement, politics, exhaustion, fixed mindsets, chasing trends, trying to do it all, and overthinking.
So many external factors related to the unique role of marketing at the center of complex organizations and cross-functional teams. It's very difficult to get people to look past old ways of doing things.
We agreed that small steps as opposed to big leaps are critical now.
Not like "fail fast." That implies recklessness and doesn't resonate with this community. But small, incremental improvements or shifts in messaging, communications processes, the way we enroll people, and boundaries.
Reorienting marketing strategy and processes to people. Not just customers but internal constituents as well. Feeling into and understanding what is resonating.
We're moving into a world where we will need to be a lot more intentional about the messages we're putting out there and the experiences we're creating.
People are much more sensitive to authenticity.
People want to be able to trust that the person that's doing the marketing is making conscious choices that are the right choices. That's a difficult position to hold when there are so many voices constantly questioning the choices you make.
Below is the illustration that was created from our shared vision.
Artwork by Wendy Horng Brawer
We're doing these monthly, so if you're not on our list and want to be added, please reach out or sign up to be the first to know about our next community meet up.
