LAND AN DELIVER – EPISODE 006
Smart teams are not the problem. The real challenge is what happens when the same perspectives, roles and ways of thinking show up in the room again and again.
For anyone working in comms or marketing, this is a familiar frustration. You are surrounded by capable, experienced people. You put time aside to brainstorm. You want something fresh, something that cuts through. But the ideas that come back feel safe, familiar, and not quite good enough.
The issue is not a lack of creativity. It is the mix of people and how their thinking is used.
When the same voices dominate, or when caution arrives too early, ideas shrink before they have a chance to develop. What looks like a creative problem is often a structural one.
When done well, this process is not about trying harder or pushing people to be more creative. It is about creating the right environment, the right roles, and the right order of thinking so ideas can grow, evolve, and actually land
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In this episode of Land and Deliver, Louise Chandler-Rutt and Darren Wingham tackle a familiar frustration in comms and marketing: why smart, capable teams still end up producing safe, predictable ideas.
They explore what is really going wrong in creative sessions, why it is not about a lack of effort or talent, and how the mix of people and roles in the room shapes the outcome more than most teams realise.
Drawing on real-world experience from corporate, media and campaign environments, they introduce the “people pod” framework. A simple way to structure creative thinking by bringing together four key roles: the Organiser, the Spark, the Sense Maker and the Guardian.
They show how the order of thinking matters, why ideas often get shut down too early, and how to create the conditions for stronger, more original thinking that actually leads somewhere.
If you are tired of recycling ideas or tweaking last year’s campaign, this episode will change how you approach your next brainstorm
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