A Growth Strategy Framework for Effective Leadership

Priscilla McKinney: Hello and welcome to Ponderings from The Perch, the Little Bird Marketing Company podcast. I'm Priscilla McKinney, CEO and mama bird over here. And you know me, this is the show where I like to have my friends on and we like to carry on. We like to talk shop. And so today is going to be no different. I'm an oldie goldie with me. I love having friends that you've had over the years. You've had important conversations with them. You've seen careers really take off.

And so this is gonna be a really fun conversation. Brianna Silver is a nationally recognized innovation strategist and she helps Fortune 1000 companies and city governments and other organizations and nonprofits and what have you. She helps them all unlock growth. She helps their teams get in alignment. And more than anything, she just leads companies and organizations through complexity because you know what? It gets difficult and you need help.

She is the founder and the president of Silver Consulting, where I met her, and she's a global research and strategy leader. And she's blending in the discipline and market research with user experience and design and business strategy. And all those things together really bring about an opportunity for transformative change with the clients that she works with. She is now the author of Leading Through Freefall, How Innovators Turn Turbulence Into Trust.

This is a practical guide for leaders navigating uncertainty. And so this is the reason, the very exciting reason that I'm having her on the podcast. It's been very fun to watch the entire journey from the moment I remember us first talking about, I have an idea for a book to today. So Brianna Silver, welcome to the show.

Brianna Sylver: Thank you so much for having me Priscilla and I think we need to do a bit of a correction. I don't think it was me saying I think I might have an idea. I think it was you bringing me over to a corner saying you need to write a book. And I know just the right people for you to do it with.

Priscilla McKinney: I love that. Just, every conversation we had, I'm like, uh-huh, uh-huh, yes, but I need to know how you do that. Uh-huh, yeah, but how did you do that? Or where did you think of that? You know, and it's like when you want more behind the scenes from somebody, you know they have a book in them, right? Yeah. So let's kick off with that because this is super exciting and I want to talk about that really interesting core of the problem that you saw out there. So the book Leading Through Freefall, it argues that the biggest obstacles in innovation actually aren't technical, but they're actually human.

So let's start there. Explain that core idea, that core framework, and why you think that is the truth that stands in the way between insights that get actioned and those that just get shelved.

Brianna Sylver: I love to talk about this because, you know, we all in the market research industry, you know, it's all talk about method. So what is the method that you're going to be using? Or maybe you're talking about sampling and all the, you know, sampling biases that are out there and all those things are important. They are not to be dismissed. But what we don't talk about is how to actually lead the people that you are engaged with through change.

And so particularly in the work that I do because so much of the work that Silver Consulting is engaged in is sort of high visibility, you know, sticky, sticky problems that, you know, people are struggling with figuring out even how to approach them, let alone being ready for the outcome that might, that might emerge through that work. And so people are faced with a lot of tough change. And one of the things that I started to notice is that generally, when we came with new ideas, new insights, they weren't necessarily, you know, embraced with love and acceptance right away.

Oftentimes, they're embraced a little bit with resistance of like, I'm not sure. Who did you really talk to? Did you talk to the right people? I'm not sure that you really spoke to the right people. And, you know, people kind of have to go through that change before they are ready to get to a place of acceptance and being like, okay, now I can really hear what you have to say. And then simultaneously just talking to other leaders, there's a lot of people who have left the insights industry because they're just tired. They're tired of delivering insights and having nothing come of them.

And so a few years back it was like actionable insights, actionable insights, actionable insights. And that was like the catch phrase. And people kept talking about that as the end deliverable of a project, which you know, clearly that's important, but my perspective was always, you gotta step back. It's not the undeliverable, it's the entire journey that you need to be thinking about making actionable. And so that's really where this book has come to be, is to say, what is that emotional journey that is happening parallel to the process journey that we focus on? And then how do we tell the stories that's happening there?

Because really that emotional journey makes the difference between an insight that gets actioned and one that does not.

Priscilla McKinney: This is a book that really has a lot of empathy for that leader who is stuck in that frustrating place and saying, but we got good stuff and now there is a journey and it's not this magic pill moment. And so one of the things I really liked about your book was that you set it up in three really phases that people go through and it helped people I think process it as they're reading and they can identify with, yeah, I remember when that happened, you know. And I love a good framework. I have two parts to my book.

So we're going to start with the first one of yours, which is really about setting people up for success. What do you need to do with these humans at the beginning so that they are ready they really understand the fight they're about ready to have it in in silver consulting you refer to it as suiting up for a battle and we're going to talk a little bit about the messy middle and then we're gonna end with some real hope and talk about getting a safe landing so if it gets if it gets a little bit hard you know don't worry listen to the end of the of the podcast here so tell us a little bit about that that the three stages first of all, but then tell us a little bit about why you start there.

Like what is the setting up that is needed? How do people need to suit up in order to be prepared for success?

Brianna Sylver: Yeah, so the three sections you said, you know, suiting up is really around like setting yourself up for success. The free fall is that messy middle, the stuff that comes out of left field that you could never predict, but you're there needing to react to it and you get to choose, do you react with grace or not, right? We hope we choose grace.

Priscilla McKinney: Just FYI, I always refer to that part as the stunning discomfort of entrepreneurship, but go on.

Brianna Sylver: Good one. And then the third is that safe landing, is like, you know, how do you, how do you really get your insights, your innovations, whatever the product is that you've been creating into the hands of that starts to get into a space of execution. So when we think about that suiting up, setting yourself up for success, these are the, these are the, the things that you can predict need to happen.

Like you need to get aligned on what is really success look like for your project, you know, and not just like what ends up in the RFP. Like that's the functional and the logistical stuff that ends up in the RFP. But we know that basically what people remember is how they felt going through a process. And so you want to be surfacing also the emotional, the social and the spiritual needs around a project. Right. So, so like that's one of the chapters is all around defining project success.

Another one might be like you're working on a project where, you know, this is not the first time this organization has done something like this. And maybe they've had some positive experiences and maybe they've had some negative experiences, but they're back at it and needing wanting a slightly different outcome than what they had before. And so there's a whole chapter that's really around like, how do you acknowledge that? And how do you surface that baggage that regardless of whether you want to it or not, it is running undercurrents of your projects. And if you don't bring it out into the open, it is going to ultimately derail success.

Another chapter in that section is around defining innovation ambition. You know, so many of the projects that we do at Silver Consulting are innovation related, but innovation can have a lot of different definitions. You can use innovation to describe sort of just, you know, me to innovations that are going to help you compete a little bit better. You can use the word innovation to describe sort of adjacent opportunities that just kind of like help you play the game a little bit better, but like you're not necessarily revolutionizing your industry. And then you can have innovation that's like true on breakthrough that, you know, like nobody's else has ever done it before and you're leading the charge.

But like if I design a project for that breakthrough innovation, but you had in your mind more of that, you know, let me compete just a little bit better. Well, that's a huge miss, right? You're not, yeah, as a client, you're not going to be happy with that outcome. So the suiting up section is like all the things that you can predict. You might use all of the tools. You know, I guess the other thing that I should share is that in this book, there's 17 different tools to help someone navigate the challenges associated with insights projects.

And so there are seven of them in this suiting up section. And some of them you may use on every project, like the defined project success. And then some you may only choose to use selectively depending upon the project. But the way I like to think about the tools in this section of the book is they become anchors to come back to. So like, for instance, with that innovation ambition matrix that I was talking about, like, once you've defined what is your definition of innovation and you start to move along in a project, you might get to an ideation session, for instance, and realize like, hey, we wanted to really change the game and all the things that we are choosing to move forward are all the things that just help us compete a little bit better.

And then you can go back to that innovation and vision matrix and say, this is what we said at the start. Are we? Are we underselling ourselves now that we're three quarters of the way through the project? Or do we need to kind of rebalance what we really want to get out of this? But it's always about being able to surface the conversation and bring those things to the forefront so that you stay in alignment as you go through the projects.

Priscilla McKinney: I love that. That's like starting strong. And I know you might be surprised to hear this, Brianna, but my favorite part of the book is the middle, the messy middle.

Brianna Sylver: Of course it is, right?

Priscilla McKinney: I found a lot of comfort in the fact that somebody else knows what this is. And I mentioned to you my little phrase of the stunning discomfort of entrepreneurship, but this applies in all different aspects. It's not necessarily if you're the owner, it could be in your case, a lot of experience with being, you know, the actual insights manager. Maybe you're the core strategist, but I've got to say one of my favorite songs from Coldplay from Every Teardrop is a Waterfall, which is also like, you know, already like gushing, you know out of my eyes. But he has a phrase in there and he says, maybe I'm in the gap between the two trapeze. And that's what when I was reading the section about the messy middle.

So in this freefall section of the book, which is a frightening phrase, you describe this inevitable turbulence that comes out. It is the messy middle, all the stuff that happens on projects. You just can't predict it. You've alluded to that already, but you've got to deal with it. Good leadership hits it head on. So help me understand in this section, how do the tools and the frameworks that you share in the book, Leading Through Free Fall, help insights leaders stand a bit taller in the moment and maybe be a little bit braver when these obstacles come up? Because otherwise it's it's gushing teardrops coming out of your eyes.

Brianna Sylver: Exactly. Yeah. So I mean, think the first thing that that insight leaders needs to need to do is to stop believing the myth that a good project is a smooth project. Like, I think we start to come into it and we're like, if there's any hiccups, we've done something wrong. The project is not a good project. Right. Like we kind of put these labels on it. And the reality is, is like, if you are doing something that is meaningful, you're probably going to hit some resistance.

And so one of the key realizations that I had as I was writing this book was that as people are being engaged with change, they actually go through a grief curve. So Kubler-Ross has the change curve and is the grief curve that you go through. So the first stop on that grief curve is resistance.

Priscilla McKinney: That was.

Brianna Sylver: And then it gets even more ugly, right? It gets, you know, anger and depression and bargaining before it finally gets to a place of acceptance. And so the more complex challenges that you're working on, the more impact that you're hoping to achieve, the more peaks and valleys you're going to have in that change curve. And so, you know, realizing that when you hit this messy middle, and you're getting the feedback of resistance or maybe avoidance or people aren't returning your call or maybe even sabotage, right? Like these things that you can kind of take personal, you're gonna be like, what is wrong with you people?

And then, as I started to really write this book and really start to explore it, because as you know, it starts out as a kernel of an idea and it grows to something much more than you can ever imagine when you start, I realized like these emotions are not things to be ignored, but they really become the signals to really cue you into a deeper side of leadership and a new kind of leadership. And so that's why I love this free fall section of the book too, because it's these moments that you want to this, you want to run away, but it's like a beckoning call for you to lean in.

And so when you feel that resistance, when you feel that dissatisfaction from a client or you feel the avoidance, instead of turning the blame around, use it as sort of this notion to say, whoa, whoa, whoa, what's really going on here? And then how do I actually lean into this and have a constructive dialogue around it? And that's what each of the tools in this section of the book is all around. How do you first recognize that this somewhat negative emotion, whether it's doubt, resistance, avoidance, sabotage, whatever it is, how do you recognize it? And then how do you lean into it in an intentional, purposeful way?

And sometimes that's about just something that's like a reflection prompt for the leader themselves to be like, for you to go through to kind of get your head in order so that you can stand a little bit taller and be a bit braver in that situation. And sometimes it's about bringing clients together to say, know, I know things aren't going the way that we all want them to. So let's process that together and find a new pathway forward. And then in those cases, you know, there's, there's disc, you know, discussion scripts or workshops that you can, you know, lead teams or stakeholders through.

Priscilla McKinney: Yeah, I love that and I felt like it comes from a place of a real deep empathy for the actual practitioner. And you come at it from insights, but I got to tell you, to me, this was just a leadership book. know, 100%. You know, we're all dealing with this. You have some change. The reality is we all want our work to have impact. Right. And so because of that, that desire to have something meaningful emerge from what we do, It is, it is that, that, that should drive us through the hard obstacle to say, yes, the resistance I'm receiving is probably because I'm on to something right now.

Before we move on to what that is like in terms of creating impact, I do want to underscore one thing I really liked about your approach and that is that the empathy wasn't just for, have empathy for the people who are having to go through the change that you're providing. It's like, no, no, no, have empathy for yourself as the leader. And you called that out and I just want to underscore that because those emotions we feel them first in ourselves and that's how we recognize them another and it is the way that we activate our empathy for others because all of a we start feeling badly. And if you are just pushing that down and pushing that down, you can't then activate your empathy for how other people might be feeling displaced or confused or afraid. Really people have a deep sense of fear.

So I thought that was a really great place to start is like as that leader have some empathy for yourself and then you'll be able to turn that out to to others. Okay now probably for other people this is the best part of it's the safe landing and it's what we're all you know who's shooting for of course you know like I said the ultimate goal for any of us as leaders is like, man we're gonna inspire people and we're gonna drive real business impact and you know all of these inspirational impactful ideas. But how does a successful leader in your opinion transition from delivering that great insight to then becoming the steward of that, making sure it does get implemented. So yeah, visionary, like great idea. Okay, now let's actually get this done.

So what are some thoughts that you've just seen this over the years, you probably are so unconsciously competent about this transition that really speaking it out will help a lot of people.

Brianna Sylver: Yeah. Well, and I think that this might change a little bit depending upon the area that you are in and insights, right? Like, where silver consulting sits, we oftentimes are sort of the insights and innovation. And so we're, creating the insight, but it's to lead to, you know, something that we are oftentimes engaged in the creation of. So I think it changes slightly, but I think the core principles stay the same regardless of, know, how much in that continuum you're going.

So the first thing to realize is that despite the fact that, you know, hopefully you've had the right stakeholders engaged in your initiative from the start, right? Like, so if you're developing some type of marketing, you know, thing, you've got the marketing people engaged. If you're, you know, doing some type of service, you've had the relevant service people or product people engaged. engagement along the journey does not equal commitment to having the out. Right? so, so you cannot confuse interest to commitment.

And so one section of the book or one chapter of the book is to say, okay, now that you are at the end and you need that commitment to carry it through, you need to understand how what has been created fits into what is already on people's roadmaps. So what you don't want to have happen is that you just become the appendage to the roadmap. because that means nothing's getting acted for at least three years. So you want to support a reflection of, now that we have this new information, which clearly we thought was valuable to invest in because we chose to split the money and the time towards it, what do we do with this now that we have it? And how do we move it? Does it make sense to move what's on this list a little bit further up in the list versus whatever might be on the roadmap already?

The next is that sometimes, know, stakeholders just have, they struggle with knowing how to turn an insight into an action. And so, you know, one of the things that we do frequently is run workshops to support exactly that. And then another step that you can take is to, once you've defined what are the action steps that will be taken off of that insight is to get down into some of the tactics of, all right, what are the 90 day you know, tap, what are the tasks that you're going to focus on in the next 90 days to really bring that to fruition. And that can really help some of the most stuck teams who just really struggle to kind of gain that alignment to be that like real spark.

And then the last, the last bit in the very last chapter of the book, which I think is important to, to, focus on, or at least to, to give a highlight to is that also sometimes like, as insights and innovation leaders, we just have to realize that it's our job to plant seeds. And at some point we have to surrender the how and when that seed gets germinated, which is probably one of the hardest things to do because we want to see action, right? We've invested all this time. It's like, all right, you asked us to do this. We came back with an answer. Let's get it going. But it doesn't always happen that way.

And I think about one of the other really cool things about writing this book is, yeah, I had to go back and look at so many projects, you all the way back to like the start of Silver's in some cases. So 22 years ago. And, you know, and as I went back to those things, like some sometimes realizing like, you know, I didn't think that that was such a impactful project. Yet, you know, six years later, it's like, oh, my gosh, you know, we're still working with that client. And it didn't happen right after that project ended, but by golly, they have set that thing up. It just happened on a different timeline than what we had anticipated would be.

You know, that's where like just, you know, getting into that space of surrender is really important also once you've, once you've done all your due diligence throughout the process, of course.

Priscilla McKinney: You know, if my memory serves me correctly, this is actually the reason why I pushed you a little bit and said, I think there's a book here. Is because it was talking about a new kind of leader and there is not really a better word for it, but it is a spiritual leader. It is someone who's very in tune with their own emotions. does understand how to regulate them, does understand obstacles, does understand that there needs to be bravery, that this is not going to be always easy. It also understands that this is going to require character.

And so, you know, that, that, what you're talking about, that lack of ego, of doing your best job and then leaving it to someone else, that is an interesting new way of leading. And we don't see it enough in the corporate world. That's true. So just one tiny little note and then really cool you've texted me that you're going to give a little giveaway to my audience. So I always love that. Thank you for that.

Let's kind of give one little short blurb at the end here. It can be overwhelming. You know, setting things up right, seeing it all the way through the end, even when obstacles have come. And then in some ways, maybe even part of the end is yes, the project is in it, but the letting go is different. And so all of these things can be overwhelming no matter where people find themselves at today. But what would you say is one encouraging thing you could say to a leader who is trying to start applying this mindset today?

Brianna Sylver: I think actually you kind of hit on it in the sense that in corporate, we don't allow the emotion as much as we should. And I think the reality is, is more people are emotional than they allow themselves to be. So I think, you know, one is like really recognizing that that's not a point of weakness. That might possibly be your biggest strength. And instead of trying to run away from it, run towards it.

And so, you know, really it's my belief and certainly, you know, the, the premise of this book that as insight and innovation leaders, is our job to lead the emotional energy of ourself, our teams and our stakeholders. And so if you really embrace that call and then really start to tackle, you know, tackle some of the challenges that are presented in this book, I know that you will not tangibly, you will tangibly change. you will not be the same leader and your projects will be having greater impact.

And so it's my hope that, you know, the, people who read this book, you know, I agree with you, it's not just an insights and innovation book. However, every single case study in there is an insights and innovation case study, which I think is such a special thing that we don't normally get in a leadership book. and so you can really apply it and see how it shows up in your projects. But I encourage people to tackle some of those challenges and then start to track what was the reactions of your team, your stakeholder, yourself, and then what was the ultimate impact of your book. And I'm confident it will not be the same as before you kind of ignored that emotion and pretended it wasn't there.

Priscilla McKinney: I love it. Quit ignoring it. Okay, we're gonna start a journey. We're not gonna ignore it. We're gonna really see things for what they are. But Brianna, this has been so refreshing, always talking with you as a breath of fresh air. But it is very practical too. It's a say, look you take a deep breath, you can do this, and then here's how. So you mentioned to me that you wanted to give a little something special to my audience, so tell us a little bit about that. I think that you're going to give away a little bit of sneak peek of some of this this, but for someone.

Brianna Sylver: And I'm super excited about this. So I want to give away chapter four, which is in that suiting up section that we talked about. And specifically the tool that's reviewed in chapter four, which is called define project success is the five intention setting questions. And I use these five intention setting questions on every single project, usually at project scoping and then again at kickoff. And I actually even just sometimes use them in my day-to-day life of what do I want to have happen today as I get into different situations.

So I want to give this chapter away. People can get it by going to leadingthroughfreefall.com backslash ponderings. You'll just download it there and that'll give you a sneak peek of what to expect in the rest of the book. And I do hope you'll be inspired to. Buy it and get the other 16 chapters that are equally as tangible and practical for insights and innovation leaders.

Priscilla McKinney: I love that. And as a fellow author, I'm just going to say this. And if you download the book, either online or if you read it in physical copy, whatever it is, be sure to go back to Amazon or wherever you bought the book and give Brianna a review. That's always so hard for authors. But some books really change us. And it's important to go back and say, you know what, this was an important framework. This was a new way that I learned to interact and grow. you know, as a professional. So it's always so great to come back to an author and tell them, you know, how it helped.

You and I talked about this a little bit. Some people have done some pre-reading of your book and it's like, oh my gosh, this really changed something for you. And it's really awesome to hear that. So I'd love for people to tell you about that. But thank you for that. For my audience. We are constantly pulling the curtain back in this podcast and looking at what people are doing and realizing that, you know, it doesn't have to be a mystery. We could really be overtly helpful to each other and explain what's going on so that we can have a better process, a better mindset, and hopefully better outcomes too.

Brianna Silver, thanks so much. Please check it out in the show notes. We will get the giveaway URL in there and then go check her book out. So Brianna, thanks for joining us.

Brianna Sylver: Priscilla, thanks so much for having me on. It's been such a pleasure.

Priscilla McKinney: From all the peeps here at Little Bird Marketing, have a great day and happy marketing.