After two years and 26 episodes we've decided to shake things up a bit with the Google Firestarters format. The '5 questions' structure that we've had since the beginning has been brilliant and the series has exceeded my expectations in all kinds of ways but it's always good to keep it fresh so we're evolving the format to do a deeper dive on one big idea that our guests are going to be bringing to the Firestarters audience. This allows us to explore the thinking of some of the smartest people in the advertising/marketing/strategy communities whilst also keeping it to a punchy 20 minutes.
Our first episode in this brand new format has just been published and is with the wonderful Adam Morgan, Founder of eatbigfish and the author of some wonderful books including Eating the Big Fish, The Pirate Inside and A Beautiful Constraint. Adam's provocation focuses on how marketers and organisations can generate opportunity from constraints, which I think is a particularly apt topic at the moment. There's some excellent insights in here around using 'propelling questions' that combine a bold ambition with a significant constraint to help people to become 'productively uncomfortable' and break open thinking. And also how using 'can if' rather than 'can't because' helps to promote inventiveness. I also loved some of the examples of reframing challenges in breakthrough ways, and of exploring so-called 'pre-competitive' spaces to help progress innovation. So much fascinating insight packed into 20 minutes. My thanks to Adam for some brilliant provocation. Let me know what you think of the new format.
Don't forget that all the episodes of Google Firestarters are available to view here.
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