Outside Perspective Y26W19 - Random.
The power of randomness, stratroulette, our next huddle on late payments, introducing Sara Bender, and our usual #curiositystream and #gigs
Random.
I got called out this week.
Matthew and Caroline from LOOK UP hosted a BRILLIANT session on finding and telling your own story, in our monthly huddle (if you missed it, recording is in the slack).
Without spoilers, their session included some pointers on figuring out the “role” you play for others. Are you a challenger? Are you a problem solver? Are you a supporter?
My face was on the slide. (Shameful behaviour Matthew, I shall be having words with your manager). But I was labelled as a “Unifier”. Someone who brings folk together.
I never intended on playing this role, but there has been a theme to all of my work over the years: creating spaces to engineer for serendipity. (Ask me to explain how projects like OP and The Disposable Memory Project fall under this idea over coffee).
I think there’ power in randomness. I think chaotic fusion is a good thing. I think having a plan or mission isn’t always necessary. I think in a world where everything feels like it needs to have objectives, OKRs, purpose, structure and efficiency - mess is okay too.
This week, we ran our first StratRoutlette in the community. 60+ people have been paired up pseudo-randomly for coffee, conversation, connection. It’s an experiment in structured chaos. What might come of it, I don’t know.
I do know that already, our community space has created collaborations, connections, friendships and random conversations about pottery. And I’m here for it.
Not every interaction or conversation needs to have some agenda. And right now, more human and meaningful connections are needed. As the independent scene continues to grow, we all need to invest in connecting to each other.
We’ll be re-rolling the dice on StratRoulette next month.
mk
Bonus Huddle:
Freelancing & Late Payments.
We’re running an additional huddle this month for UK freelancers and small business owners, focused on tackling late payments, powered by our sister project freelancing.support, on Friday 29 May 14:00 - 15:00 BST.
Late payments are a huge issue facing freelancers and small business.
In this practical session, we’ll be looking at:
The scale of the problem
Why they happen
How do deal with late payments
How to avoid late payments
Your rights
What action you can take
And we’ll have plenty of time for discussion, sharing experiences and questions.
Hosted by Matthew Knight, Chief Freelance Officer at freelancing.support - this is a free call, for UK based freelancers and independent workers.
Meet the OP: Introducing Sara Bender.
Each week we introduce a new member of the Outside Perspective community. Sara Bender is a senior brand and communications strategist, creative thinker and problem solver with almost 20 years of international experience in branding, communications and media agencies.
Tell us a bit about yourself and how you got here.
I am a strategist and entrepreneurial self-starter driven by a deep-seated care for people and the conviction to challenge the status quo. My career is built on 20 years of international brand and communications experience across London and New York, where I have helped global icons like Chanel and American Express translate complex data into meaningful narratives. Today, I act as a thinking partner for mission-driven organisations, helping them tell their stories with clarity.
In 2019, an encounter with Extinction Rebellion sparked a transformative journey of unlearning that led me to embrace a citizen mindset, move to the vibrant community-driven town of Frome and become a BioLeadership fellow, moving away from traditional corporate activities and toward work that aligns with my values. I am focusing my expertise on charities and non-profits, helping mission-driven organisations to tell their stories for impact. I’d love to talk to you about Lawyers for Nature, YoungPlanet and Antidote Studios, and figure out how we can get more brands supporting local community action.
What are you working on right now?
We are in the middle of system collapse. The stories we’ve told ourselves and our audiences are no longer true. If you do well in school, go to college, get a job, then you can find a partner, buy a house, have kids and live a nice life. In that world, I could answer this question with ease. But now, ‘The Work’ to me, is relational.
So, what am I most proud of? Recently I’ve helped create Three Sisters, an eight-person community of communications professionals who support one another to live, be and work differently. Together we support one another with the death of the stories we’ve been promised, trying to make a life of meaning and difference, whilst on the capitalist hamster wheel of mortgage payments and the endless disconnect between school holidays and working hours. In our recent past, half of us have been made redundant, a third are retraining, and two are running to serve as local counselors. We show up for one another day in and day out, reading job applications, coaching on health conditions and being each other’s cheerleaders. ‘Cause when you say the quiet part out loud, you need a support system in place who are willing to do the same – which is what we are building. Let me know if any of this resonates, would love to chat to you about your experience in this space.
In addition to that, I have spent seven years informally retraining. I’ve been with and/or worked for Lawyers for Nature, Antidote Studios, YoungPlanet, Purpose Disruptors, Clean Creatives, Business Declares, The Great Imagining and The Alternatives. I am currently working on a new framework: Community Development Goals (CDGs) and I am looking to develop it further. We know community holds the key to our success and livelihood on the planet. We also know that community support has not been prioritised and has been underfunded over the past 50 years. I am curious about how we – as communications professionals – can help shift the funding from top down Corporate Social Responsibility to bottom up community-led and people-powered.
What’s your outside perspective?
We need to stop convening and start coming together. Between COP, Anthropy, BlueEarth and others, we have perfected the performative dance of corporate greenwashing. This is exhausting, expensive and it is not working to make a meaningful impact to people in their places. I want the good stuff at the margins to take center stage. We need to cut the crap and be with what is. I envision a radical evolution of the Creative Mornings blueprint – one that is local, climate-aware, community-based, and thrives on the belief that everyone is creative but updated for the predicament we are in.
What if Mother Nature were the Director of our gatherings? I imagine a National Imagination Briefing held entirely outdoors, in circles, without technology. It would be a space where things are allowed to be slow, where people use their hands to make things (not be on phones), and where the discomfort of our time is processed together rather than managed away. We need more of the raw power of human connection and collective imagination.
This perspective is fueled by Jon Alexander's book, Citizens, Matt Golding’s podcast “Screw This, Let’s Try Something Else” and the work of Dr. Renee Lertzman on the vital role of curators in impact gatherings. While we must tell the truth about our systems, we will only inspire action through what makes us human: the ability to sit in a circle, look each other in the eye, and imagine a world that actually works.
Finally - three things you’re currently consuming.
Watching: Dirty Business, Channel 4 (Three part docu-drama on the water industry and sewage crisis in the UK.)
Listening: The Great Simplification, Nate Hagens (Podcast that explores the systems science underpinning the human predicament.)
Reading: Convenings, Cohorts + Communities: Notes on so-called “impact” gatherings
» Connect with Sara on LinkedIn or via the Community.
Curiosity Stream
» Agencies, our world is being eaten — Alex Dixon at DACRE on the reality of declining agency relevance in an era of AI, stagflation and shifting media diets.
» Richard Dawkins One-Shotted By AI Girl — Dawkins became convinced Claude was conscious and named it Claudia.
» Introducing the Nocturnal Otherworld — An episodic trend report exploring the culture and communities that come alive at night from Alexi Gunner.
» Science-backed reasons your freelance business isn’t growing — Via The Freedom Route newsletter. Helpful for anyone wondering why the pipeline isn’t filling itself. (Thanks Ellie)
» Have you heard what HMRC wants to do now? Details on an open HMRC consultancy around small company reporting. One for limited company directors. Thanks Ann
» It is literally impossible to be a brand consultant — Funny because it’s true. Painful because it’s true. (Thanks Emily)
» On the divergent ‘personalities’ of LLMs — and some shared flaws — Edward’s Culture Decoder digs into the psychological attributes and concerning biases baked into our AI tools. (Thanks Edward)
» Antiquoted — A repository of expert voices that aren’t just straight white men. Worth bookmarking if you’re looking for fresh faces for events, pods or interviews. (Thanks Rob)
» Insights & Strategy Co-working Day — Monday 11th May, The Brew, Shoreditch. A dedicated co-working day for independent insights & strategy professionals. (Thanks Ramona)
Gigs.
A digest of recent gigs found and shared via our community — plus things from our friends and partners. Want to reach 5k+ strategists for your next project? Drop me a note.
Found and Shared:
[US] Freelance Strategist for Experiential agency
https://bit.ly/4u5iVLQ[UK] Freelance Strategy Director at Something
https://bit.ly/49BJnUS[DE:Berlin] German Speaking strategist for retail research project at Grace Houghton
https://bit.ly/42Q6GXf[US] Freelance Senior Social Media Strategist via LHH
https://bit.ly/4tSzV7G[UK] Freelance Global Media Planner via Liberty Hive
https://bit.ly/49cak1e[UK] Freelance brand strategist, luxury and hospitality brands via
https://bit.ly/4umjC34
Don’t forget, we share these in real time here:
» Web
» Telegram
and of course, our slack channel if you’re a community member.
That’s all for this week, have a lovely weekend!
mk✌️