Innovate or Die

This book was written in 20 minutes
by the staff at Management Today.
The writing was facilitated digitally by
Andrew Missingham. The book was
typeset and designed Robi Wood.
1
InnovateorDie?
This book was written in 20 minutes by participating
delegates at Management Today’s Leadership Live
conference. The writing was facilitated digitally by
Andrew Missingham. The book was typeset and
designed Robi Wood.
bandaequals.com
Innovate
or Die?
Collected business
wisdom in the age
of COVID-19

Table of
Contents
Chapter 0
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Introduction
Listening
Communication
Agility
Conclusion
Contributors
Who is B+A?
8
12
42
78
104
106
110

We’ve learned through years and
dozens of published works, that
the process of writing a book
unreasonably quickly is as useful
as the printed thing itself. Why?
1. Writing a book gets people
working together.
2. It forces decisions to get made.
3. A book makes the intangible,
tangible, taking what could be
hard to grasp, and making it real.
4. Book writing creates ownership.
You own the ideas, so shout
about them!
5. If the throw is right, the catch will
come. The right question gets the
most useful answer.
While digital fatigue interferes,
books are still here to work with us.
Paper. Pen. You, and us. 1 hour (or,
somestimes just 20 minutes!).
B+A Book
in an Hour
At B+A we think one of the best
ways to solve business problems is
to write books about them. We do it
for clients all around the world. We do
it collaboratively. And we do it in really
short spaces of time.
76

When I was asked to present at
Management Today’s Leadership
Lessons Live virtual conference in
June 2020, they plugged my name
into a plenary session that they’d
written the rubric for in advance.
“Innovate or Die” it was called.
I couldn’t argue with that. If this weird
year has taught us anything it’s that
without innovation, we’re toast. But my
starting point for such invitations tends
to be that the collected wisdom of all
of the participants will invariably beat
anything that I could think or say. We is
smarter than Me anytime.
11
Introduction
10
Introduction
Chapter 0

Whilst at B+A we’ve done this process
(writing a book in an unreasonably
short amount of time – we call it
BookInAnHour™) many times before.
But this was the first time we did
it virtually, and the shortest time in
which the content was written. It was
written in just 20 minutes. It was a
lot of pressure, but also a lot of fun.
So the book’s themes (Listening,
Communication and Agility – three
key ingredients we at B+A believe any
organisation will need if it is to innovate
and not die) have been reflected in the
making of the book itself.
On behalf of me and the many
co-authors, I hope you enjoy it.
Andrew Missingham
B+A
andrew@bandaequals.com
And for that reason, I chose instead
to use my allotted 30 minutes, after
sharing a couple of introductory ideas,
to ask the 392 participants in the session
a set of questions that I really wanted
to answer (and I hope you will too).
The smartest, most surprising, funniest,
most insightful answers have been
compiled into this book.
13
Introduction
12

Listen with all available senses
Listen with all five senses
This chapter’s all about who we’re
currently listening to, what they’re
saying (or not saying), what they
could teach us and how we can
act on it. Because if there’s ever been
a time when leaders need to deepen
and broaden the rare skill of listening,
it’s now.
Listening is so important to what
we do at B+A, that we have a saying:
“Listen with all five senses.” Or rather
we had. Because we came to realise
that five senses is not enough, and
sometimes it’s too many. What if your
senses are impaired? Or what if you
need to listen with another sense – a
sense of humour? A sense of outrage?
A sense of place? So now we say
“listen with all available senses.” Do
this, and you can’t go far wrong.
1514
Chapter 1
Listening

17
If you listened to
them more, what
do you hope they
can teach you or
show you, that you
do not know now?
Listening
16
Who are you
currently not
listening to (or
listening to too
little) in your
business, that
you believe could
provide surprising,
but useful insights
into how to improve
your business?

“James works in Operations. He’s been
around about 6 months and he’s 23
years old. I’m not sure what he’s into
to be honest, but he is very helpful,
really responsive when you have a
question and is one of the most
knowledgeable people in his team.
What does that tell you after only 6
months? James could teach me what
I don’t see or hear after being in the
business for so long, or at a more
senior level. He’ll bring fresh
perspective and shine a light on
areas that are potentially failing that
are obvious to him but not others.
Most of all, he’ll have a voice to say all
the things that he would be too afraid
to speak up about now.”
“Sam is our Senior Accountancy
Apprentice. He’s been with us for 3
years and he’s 22 years old. Sam’s into
Man United and socialising. Sam could
help teach us how to use technology
to innovate. He could bring a fresher
younger perspective to systems and
processes. By listening to him, he will
feel a sense of gravitas and contribution
and therefore increased motivation to
make a tangible difference.”
Listen to the fresh.
“The youngest colleague in my team,
let’s call him Steve, is our digital
marketing assistant. He’s in his early
twenties and has been with us for just
over six months. He’s an epitome of
Gen-Z: self conscious of himself,
society and celebrity, but he also
picks up on the smartest digital apps
and latest social trends, understanding
each app’s relevance so he doesn’t
waste time on things he knows people
(and clients) won’t be interested in. I’m
only 10 years older than him but it feels
like a lifetime listening to him speak
– the fashion and hashtag trends he’s
into, as well as the music he listens to,
venues he visits and people he follows
online. He is juggling so many interests
and activities it’s actually very impressive.
He does what he says, and rather than
wait or ask a question, he’ll find
something or someone through a few
clicks of a button. With Steve as my
guide, without doubt I can streamline
my digital and social presence, and
engage more with younger influencers
who are going to be leading projects
for years to come.”
19
Listening
18

Listen to
those seasoned.
“Adrian the Accountant. I’ve known him
for 35 years. He’s 64 years old, loves
music, drinking and smoking. He keeps
up to date with current affairs and
remembers every book, magazine and
film he’s into. Adrian finds the things
I can’t find and is very tidy where I am
not. He’s methodical and accurate.
What I could learn from Adrian is how
to be more accurate in my engagement
with others. I would slow down and
think before responding too quickly
and making stuff up. I would see the
value of method and accuracy vs
speed and creativity.”
“Aiden is a Business Unit Head. He’s
been with us for a year. He’s 55 (I think)
– he may kill me for that. He’s into his
family success. Aiden, how can we
use your wealth of experience from a
commercial perspective? You could
teach us how to deal with ambiguity
the pressure that comes with the
territory – but still deliver results
take control.”
“Through the reps going into outlets
selling our product, we should be
listening more to our most junior clients
in stores. We rely on them day-to-day
to sell our product but we don’t listen
enough to what makes their lives
tough and how we could improve
them, removing barriers to revenue.
They could help inform innovations to
make our product better. What issues
and challenges could we remove that
would enable greater engagement and
therefore higher revenue?”
21
Listening
20

“Tina works in the customer centre
and has lots of friends at work and
home. She’s been working for us for
25 years. She’s 50 and is about to
become a grandma. She’s into cooking
for family and friends and does a
lot of fundraising in spare time. Tina
can show us what our customers are
thinking every day. Do customers’
comments change on different days
of the week, or in different seasons?
Tina can tell us what customers want
at Christmas.”
“T is from Thailand and is a 44 year
old single mum. She has a passion for
dance and performance arts and she’s
uses social media. T has been with us
for 2 years. She works with people with
learning disabilities and has a passion
for the resilience and entrepreneurship
and fun that exudes from them. From
T, we can better learn how to use the
virtual tools out there. For instance,
how to engage on social media in new
ways (like TikTok) which we never use.
We can learn how to get our members,
all who have disabilities, to engage
more on social media.”
“We are not really listening to our sales
team, who have been furloughed
recently, with many coming back
to remote working only. They are
collectively wise. Some have been with
us for over 20 years but sometimes are
considered to lack the enhanced skills
we need in the pushed-through digital
world. If we listened to them more,
we’d understand better what they see
and what they need from us as leaders.
We cannot be arrogant enough to
think that senior management knows
it all anymore. If we listened more to
our sales team, we could then make
decisions much quicker. This would
reduce frustration. We’d be a wiser,
more rounded company.”
“He’s a scientist called Bruce. He’s one
of our economists and has been at the
company for around 3 years. I would
guess Bruce is in his mid 30’s. He’s
into hiking, the outdoors… and data.
Frankly, I would hope Bruce could get
me more excited by data and logic-
based decision making as he lives and
breathes metrics.”
23
Listening
22

“Katie is my sister, who works as a flight
attendant supervisor. I have known
Katie all 33 years of her life... She loves
watching Britain’s Got Talent and Tom
Jerry. If I listened to her more, I could
learn how to enjoy life more freely.
Listen to those Outside.
“I’m not listening enough to James.
He’s an academic and he’s my husband
which is a hard enough job for anyone
I’m sure! He’s been with me for 30 years
and he’s 50 years old. He’s into fishing
(yes there are currently frozen maggots
in my freezer... urgh!!!) COVID-19 has
impacted the future of my business and
where I take it now is open for review.
What I do impacts him as what he
does impacts me so it would be good
to know his views on where he’d like to
see my business go or what he thinks
it could be that it isn’t now.”
“Ben is in his late thirties, has a degree
in computer gaming and also loves
graphic illustrating in a comic book
way. He is an IT support engineer with
us and has been with us for a couple
of years. Ben’s quite right wing in his
attitudes and opinions. I think he could
give me lots of ideas about how people
unlike me think.”
25
Listening
24

“My name is Jack
I am 6 years old
You employ my Mum
In 12 years time, you’ll employ me –
but you’re not listening.
I like Dinosaurs
and PE with Joe
I like seeing my Mum more.
I can teach you how to learn.
How to ask why. A lot!
That everything is an adventure.
That it’s all pretty simple really
and how not to second guess.
That Mum is happier now
she doesn’t have to get on a train
so early
and come home after
I’m in bed.”
“We’re not listening to Mirabelle.
Mirabelle is someone who is never
afraid to talk to you about what she
feels and what she thinks, but because
she’s the cleaner, I am not sure if we
take her thoughts into the business.
But here’s the thing; she owns a business,
she’s a mother of very young and not
so young children, and she always
speaks total sense! She can teach me
about real life, she can tell me what
matters to people “on the street” and
she can tell me it without all the b******t
we normally get from advisors!”
27
Listening
26

What questions from
consumers or customers
(a.k.a.“people”) do you
believe you need
answers to right now,
to be able to survive and
thrive in the future?
29
Listening
28

“How does the current Covid crisis give
us an opportunity or scope for change?”
“How will the events industry survive
the pandemic?”
“How can we be prepared to ensure
that if a global crisis happens again
(which it will), we are already prepared
to manage it, and continue thriving
during it?”
Questions
on Covid.
“How can we move away from the
concept of “new normal”? This suggests
that anything “new” would, again, be
(or become) static.”
“Will consumers go back to
the old ways as soon as it’s
considered safe to do so?”
31
Listening
30

“Will you (i.e. business) help or harm
me as a consumer, a customer and
a citizen?”
“How can I re-engage with
others and tap back into a
sense of community which
is more than just a sense of
collective gratitude?”
“How can we better help poor
and vulnerable people across
the world?”
“How can I make a difference? Me?
What can I do for you to help YOU?”
“Who am I? Do you know me? How
will you understand me better, more
deeply, to know what I need and want?
How will you ever truly engage me to
keep me by your side?”
Questions
on Existence.
33
Listening
32

“What do customers really want
from us?”
“What could
we do better?”
“What could we change?”
“How much face to face time do you
think you will need in the future?”
“If you had a crystal
ball, where will the
market be in 1 to 3
years and 3 to 5
years?”
Questions on
the basics.
“How can we adapt our services
to be more inclusive and accessible
to support the development of all
regardless of their background?”
“How do we build
a genuinely diverse
organisation and way
of thinking?”
“How can I get my team
to work together more
collaboratively?”
“How do I harness disagreements to
great effect and develop more than
the sum of the parts rather than
spiraling conflict that festers?”
35
Listening
34

If where you look
determines where (and
to whom) you listen, then
great listening (weirdly)
starts with your eyes.
And listening’s just the
start of a conversation.
Once you’re listening
to many more people,
and many more inputs,
with all available senses,
the conversation you’ve
started will need great
questions to keep it
flowing. That’s what
communication is,
isn’t it?
So.
Where you look,
you listen.
37
Listening: Conclusion
36

Revolution in the Head:
the Beatles’ records and the sixties
Ian Macdonald
Drawing on a unique resource of
knowledge and experience to ‘read’
their 241 tracks, McDonald gives us an
engrossing classic of popular criticism
in which the extraordinary songs of
The Beatles remain a central and
continually surprising presence.
The Knowledge Illusion
Steven Sloman
Busts the myth on individual thought.
A really key work on how teams work
together. Lots of good science and
theory (but easy to read).
Further Reading
on Listening.
The Work of Art in the Age of
Mechanical Reproduction
Walter Benjamin
A seminal 1936 essay by German
cultural critic Walter Benjamin in which
he explores how the age of mass
media means that audiences can listen
to or see a work of art repeatedly – and
what the troubling social and political
implications of this are.
Welcome to the Future.
Ben Gallagher Andrew Missingham.
Blog-post from co-founders of B+A
written early in Covid lockdown, with
some reasons for optimism (and
reasons for listening).
https://blog.bandaequals.com/
welcome-to-the-future/
41
Listening: Further Reading
40

43
Pre lockdown we did not understand
the fear staff were feeling and we
stuck to government guidance but
we know now we could have led the
lockdown sooner. Follow your gut.
Lead and don’t be afraid to be the
only one leading in that direction.
Think of a time in this crisis that
surprised you by your business’s
ability to be agile.
Lockdown. We locked down and
everyone and everything went online,
except a very few services where 121
visits were crucial to service delivery
and contract security. Staff learned to
use teams/zoom/skype etc, everyone
learned how to make their laptops or
smart phone do what they needed to
deliver their work effectively and
service users were happy. Some staff
identified we needed to offer other
basic need support to our vulnerable
service users so they set up a food
bank with no previous experience of
doing so. In the first 12 weeks of
Covid, we gave out 80,000 meals to
over 900 people, 50% of whom were
BAME. We developed a slick, efficient
and essential service in 1 week which
has got better every week. We rock
and our staff are leaders.
When this crisis is over, how might
you mainstream this agility into
your business?
We are already planning to be more
agile but we are trusting staff, who
have shown us once again how skilled
and able they are to be a big part of
developing the post lockdown plans.
Each team is agreeing themselves
which part of lockdown transformation
they liked and want to keep and we
have been consulting service users
throughout on what they wish to see
once lockdown ends so they we marry
the wishes of the people we service
with the wishes of staff delivering
services. We will stop leasing new
buildings for new services, and home
working will be the default, unless
intelligence and evidence from staff/
service users tell us differently.
What would you need to change
to allow this to happen?
Our attitude of mistrust – this has
already changed. We need to also
develop excellent and real-time
feedback systems with service users
so we are reflexive to their needs and
change the online delivery to face to
face service delivery when this is
required by the service user (who
own their own support plan) and
that staff understand that the control
belongs to the people we serve, first
and foremost.
42
Alison Lowe
Who are you currently not listening
to (or listening to too little) in your
business, that you believe could
provide surprising, but useful
insights into how to improve
your business?
Their first name Lauren. They do
Administration and Payroll. She’s
26 years old and she’s into Game of
Thrones and gaming. She’s been with
us for 5 years. If we listened to her
more, she could show us where the
irritations in the organisation are for
her, where we improve processes,
where exactly we can most effectively
add value.
What questions from consumers or
customers (a.k.a.“people”) do you
believe you need answers to right
now, to be able to survive and
thrive in the future?
How do you need our services
to change post covid? What support
can we give you to support the move
to more agile working for our
organisation?
During this crisis, in terms of
internal communication with your
team, what message (words and/or
action) did you get most right?
What’s the lesson in that?
That we care about the health,
wellbeing and safety of our staff.
People’s basic needs must be met
for them to thrive and trust the
organisation.
In terms of internal communication
with your team, what message
(words and/or action) did you get
most wrong? What’s the lesson in
that, beyond this crisis?
Alison Lowe has worked with voluntary
organisations for nearly 30 years. Right
now she works as the Chief Executive of
Touchstone a Mental Health Charity in Leeds
and wider West Yorkshire. Touchstone work
with and for people that are affected by
mental health problems and they specialise
in working with BAME communities,
coproduction and community development.
In January 2020, Alison was invited to chair
the review of statues in Leeds by the Leader
of Council, Cllr Judith Blake.

Transmission is nothing;
Reception is everything.
45
In this chapter we’re exploring
the ticklish, but crucial skill of
communication. The great Irish
playwright, George Bernard Shaw
famously wrote: “The single biggest
problem in communication is the
illusion that it has taken place” Whilst
Shaw’s spot on the money, when it
comes to the art of communication,
at B+A, we put it a little more
succinctly:
Because if you’re not getting through,
are you communicating at all? That’s
why it’s a strong arguable case that the
most important invention of the 20th
century wasn’t the telephone, but the
second telephone.
44
Chapter 2
Communication

47
The partner skill to Chapter 1’s
listening, communication at its best
is a constant, iterative feedback loop
of learning. So here are some of the
collected successes and failures that
our co-authors have learned when
communicating with their teams in this
crazy last few months.
46

49
During this crisis,
in terms of internal
communication with
your team, what message
(words and/or action) did
you get most right?
Communication
48

Scenerio plan...
“Crisis comms: we got the advanced
warning and scenarios setting right.”
“Welcoming ideas from all staff.”
“What helped us was a clear sense of
what is important – the prioritization of
survival and permission to act swiftly
and decisively to achieve that: so a
sense of opportunity as well as a sense
of threat.”
Keep Talking...
51
Communication
“In internal communication with my
team, I feel what I have got right is to
keep the lines open, to check back
with those on furlough regularly so
that they still feel involved and to
allay fears, and to thank those not on
furlough for all the hard work they are
doing. I am rewarding those who have
carried on working with a week in a
timeshare resort in this country with
their families – this is partly because
I cannot go myself this year due to
looking after my mother who has
dementia, so I get a vicarious holiday!”
50

“We had regular touch-ins to stay connected and
provide assurance, but most of all empathy was
vital in this extraordinarily uncertain time.”
“Letting people know it’s ok to not feel
ok and that we don’t expect everyone
to be working with the same output or
level of intensity as when we’re in the
office environment.”
“Recognising that we are whole people, not just
workers or team members – emotions, feelings
and personal issues count.”
“Being able to say I don’t know
when I don’t know.”
“The message of openness,
sharing. And internal support.”
“That we care about the health, well-
being and safety of our staff. People’s
basic needs must be met for them to
thrive and trust the organisation.”
“And it’s not just internal – reaching out to clients
and discussing how they are and how I can
support them. A big part of all this, for me, is
empathy and listening. Checking in and having
an open dialogue. This could be about the work
but also about them, as human beings. I think
we tend to separate the two far too often and we
lose that vital connection.”
53
Communication
But most of all,
be human…
“To share how difficult it is. Honestly.”
“That it’s ok to walk away from the laptop
and take a break.”

“Our people are most important to
us as their well being is essential to
everything we do and deliver. We’ve
made additional effort to make that
message front and centre in a global
health crisis but it is just as relevant in
a business-as-usual environment.”
“Demonstration of care for the individual as well
as for the corporate entity – looking after the
wellbeing of individuals.”
“How are you doing? No, not
how is the business doing, how
are you doing? Are you managing
lockdown, remote delivery, and
family stresses, ok?”
“There is a silver lining in this cloud of Covid-19.
We will head into a Better Normal not just a
New Normal. Admitting that it is an emotional
rollercoaster that was pretty darn hard at the
beginning but like everything we are getting
used to it.”
52

5554
Moving forward, the
communication lessons
to retain are...

57
Communication
Be always on...
56
“I was really good at the start in
keeping the communication going
but I could be better keeping it up.
The business has picked up so my
focus has changed.”
“Build relationships, not just
communication channels.”
“Being forced into doing something
at a pace that feels impossible and
uncomfortable is actually really very
effective. It’s exhausting and bursts of
intensity should be interspersed with
bursts of going for a long walk in the
sunshine, reflecting and relaxing.”
“We have the capacity to support each
other throughout the company, and we
succeed more when everyone feels like
that is an option.”
“External situations affect how we show
up to work. It’s always ok not to be ok
– we all have bad days.”
“People’s basic needs must be met
for them to thrive and trust the
organisation.”
“I’ll make more of an effort to keep
people informed with regular Zoom
meetings to answer questions as the
CEO that were sent online or asked
during the meeting.”
“We need to be flexible, work faster and
smarter – and there are tools that can
help and bring that to life.”
“Change is possible. Change can
be positive.”
“Communication is nothing if it’s
not honest.”
“The importance of consistent and open
communications: it builds trust.”
“Communication is every direction:
up, down and across all teams. And
understanding how other people are
reacting to change at different times.”
“People need a mental health check-in
and/or a sounding board. Just because
your current situation might be fine,
doesn’t mean that it is for
other people.”

59
Communication
And build
capacity...
58
“We should be able to act this swiftly
and decisively even if there isn’t a
burning platform!”
“We are way better able to adapt that
we think. “Yes”, not “No” is the default
setting. Don’t ask can we do it, ask
HOW do we do it.”
“Develop expertise in digital
engagement and sharing messages
interactively. Get at the link between
immediacy and personal.”
“We need to build confidence among
team members on effectively using
tools – demonstrate them in action,
and really bring home the ‘what’s in
it for me’ factors along with the wider
benefits to the organisation.”
“Try and plan way ahead, identify
opportunities and risks and then
ultimately work more closely with
clients to assist them with insight and
thought. Time-consuming though.”

61
Communication
60
In terms of internal
communication with
your team, what
message (words and
/or action) did you get
most wrong?

63
Communication
Too much,
too narrow?
62
“As a leader, frankly we created a
reliance that I have to communicate
and that others then wait for me to
say something.”
“For the team reporting to me, I tried to
keep complete control. For my team
of peers, I didn’t share the challenges,
only the success, and this led to them
not fully understanding, and this led to
some conflict and over commitment.
Forgetting to remind my team that
they are not ‘working from home’ they
are ‘at home trying to work’ and that
it’s absolutely ok to have to leave a
meeting to comfort a toddler. It’s ok
to be interrupted. It’s ok not to be
available all the time (in fact don’t be
available all the time!).”
“Thinking that my sense of what’s the
right way of doing things is the (only)
right way – I need to be more curious,
challenging of myself and open to new
paradigms.”

“The team don’t always want to hear my
glass half full version of events.”
“There were a few tone deaf
communications from the CEO, trying
to inject humour and raise money for
charity – but actually highlighting how
different his lock down life was from
that of employees.”
65
Communication
Too optimistic?
“Pretending everything is okay and that
business is rolling in. The lesson in that
is not getting the opportunity to take
help and support from people who are
in the same boat and would love to
help and support.”
“Probably trying to lighten the mood
around the coronavirus and its impact
on our industry.”
“I try to buoy up the ship and sometimes
that sentiment doesn’t land well. Not
making it clear that this impact is going
to be huge and could impact on jobs
in the business as while no one was
furloughed and we had a few good
wins which kept us going though
lockdown that will take us through to
next year, this could have engendered
complacency rather than motivated us
to really push on even though limited
market opportunity.”
64

67
Communication
“Slow to react with customers as
perhaps gave them too much time
to adjust to the changes.”
“Not getting a contingency plan of all
partners quick enough so they could
help each other and make collective
decisions operationally compared to
those that I make which is strategic.
Once this was in place it went well
and there was a strong sense of
togetherness.”
“We could have had more clarity on
shared sense of priorities once the
initial crisis is over.”
Too slow, too
short-term?
66

69
What these mis-steps
taught me, that I need
to remember was...
68

And trust
the team....
71
Communication
Model humility
and vulnerability...
70
“Give everyone a brief and then let them give
out the message but make sure they are part
of putting it together and do not let people
go off script.”
“Follow your gut. Lead and
don’t be afraid to be the only
one leading in that direction.”
“Other people (not just me!) can
help solve a challenge.”
“Be more transparent
with leadership and the
impact they are having
on their teams.”
“Encouraging real collaboration,
providing support and encouragement
– for teams as a group but also as
individuals – is the key to success.”
“Don’t pretend to know when
you don’t – be honest.”
“Proactive contact with
customers can be gentle,
probing rather than full on.”
“Sharing that you are personally
struggling and being honest about
this to the people that have supported
you can open up a better line of
transparency. We all can help each
other through this crisis. Together we
will thrive.”
“Be honest and
share both sides
of the story.”
“Keep in touch with your people and perhaps ask
them questions about how they are feeling, which
would have seemed intrusive before the current
crisis but now makes people see that you care.”

During coronavirus we’ve been
living through a time where clear
communication has been a matter
of life and death. And while we’ve
seen successes and mis-steps
(here in the UK, from “Stay at
home, save lives”, to “stay alert,
stay safe” springs to mind) even
at the highest level, what’s so
heartening about this chapter is
that this crisis has been such a
rich source of learning for so many
of you. We’re looking forward to
watching you flexing and building
on your new reception-focused
communication muscles, and
becoming stronger because of it.
73
Communication: Conclusion
Now.
Exercise your new
found muscles.
72

Fierce Conversations
Susan Scott
This book will give you the insight and
skill to make every conversation count.
Ways of Seeing
John Berger
A unique study of human
communication in the 20th century, and
how the growth of technology utterly
reshapes society, personal lives and
sensory perceptions, so that we are
effectively transformed by the means
we use to communicate.
77
Communication: Further Reading
Further Reading
on Communication.
The Medium is the Massage
Marshall McLuhan
A unique study of human
communication in the 20th century, and
how the growth of technology utterly
reshapes society, personal lives and
sensory perceptions, so that we are
effectively transformed by the means
we use to communicate.
Reclaiming Conversation
Sherry Turkle
How digital technology can adversely
affect intimacy – and what to do about it.
76

79
Instead, many of us will continue to
work from home and connect online.
So, companies everywhere will need
to keep listening to customers,
understand their pain points,
understand the opportunity and
innovate to survive, and thrive.
Communication.
The way we talk to ourselves – the
language we use and the way we
frame it – can have an inordinate
impact on our mental state and
success. What we choose to plant
in our minds through self-talk can –
literally – create our reality. Instead of
feeling powerless, ask ‘How can I stand
in my power at this time?’ Instead of
feeling lost, ask ‘What is the one thing
that only I can do, that if done well will
make the biggest difference?’
The framing of the questions we ask
ourselves can often lead to different
qualities in the answers we find.
And it can make all the difference
in setting a course towards a more
positive outcome.
Agility.
At the start of the crisis, we asked
ourselves, ‘What do our customers
need from us right now?’ And then
we went to work. When people
first started to physically distance,
Insights quickly pivoted to a ‘virtual
first’ delivery model. This included
delivering free educational webinars
to help our global practitioner
community upskill for virtual
delivery. We also produced a free
virtual delivery eBook to give our
practitioners a resource they could
refer back to as they got more
comfortable delivering Insights
Discovery in a virtual environment.
Elsewhere, because we believe its
physical – not social – distancing, we
started running a series of free weekly
webinars. Our aim here was to
strengthen our global community and
keep learning alive, and we’ve been
blown away by the response.
Efficiency.
My personal belief is that the
moment of adversity is the seed
of an opportunity – so you should
never let a good crisis go to waste.
Create space and examine what
the disruption you’re experiencing
is teaching you. At the very least
it will liberate you. It may even help
you discover the very innovation that
enables your business to become
the business of the future – in the
here and now. Encourage the
‘disruptors’ and ‘change agents’
in your organisation to come forward
with their ideas. Coronavirus is an
opportunity to shake off bureaucracy
and red tape; to improve efficiency
and speed up innovation. It’s what
has enabled Insights to launch five
new virtual products in a matter
of weeks.
78
Andy Lothian
Listening.
At Insights, we engage in a regular
dialogue with our customers and
listen – really listen – to what they’re
telling us. Every quarter, we carry
out random ‘Customer Happiness’
surveys across our global customer
base. Customer Happiness measures
two things – 1) Net Promoter Score
(how likely clients are to recommend
Insights to friends/colleagues) 2)
Customer Effort – how easy clients
find us to do business with. We
also conduct surveys after every
workshop we run.
We use the results to understand
what our customers want, generally.
But then we go one step further.
We’ve set up a Customer Panel to
explore in greater detail what results
are telling us. And we use it to test
solutions to different issues, and
innovations and advancements. We
used this approach to completely
overhaul our Connections practitioner
resource site and relaunch in the early
days of ‘lockdown’.
One thing is clear as we transition
to the next normal, there won’t be a
mass migration back to the office.
Andy’s company, The Insights Group,
is one of the fastest growing UK
businesses, with industry leading
results. Insights Learning and
Development, the Group’s flagship
company, works with some of the
biggest names in the world of sport,
pharmaceuticals and technology, and
clients include more than 80% of both
the SP and FTSE 100 indexes. Andy
gained a BSc Honours in Economics
and Computer Science from the
University of Dundee, and an MBA
from the University of Bradford. Away
from The Insights Group, Andy is a
keen sportsman, guitarist and pilot.

Agility.
Chapter 3
81
The world has changed so drastically
in the last few months, that a business’s
ability to adapt is more crucial than
we’ve ever experienced before. We,
as collectives and individuals, continue
to face unprecedented challenges, but
our creativity is the key to getting us
through. Sniffing out hunches without
fear of failure, and following that scent
to unearth an unexplored way of
working is the new-normal of business.
This chapter is all about reflecting
on the crisis management of Covid-19
and applying those learnings for the
future beyond this virus. We’ve got to
be quick and self-critical, working to
shorten the lag-time between action
and evaluation. Whether it’s through
innovations in workflow (working from
home, engaging in new channels of
personal communication) adapting to
new and more technology (participating
in digital trainings, developing
strategies to manage zoom fatigue) or
fine-tuning our ideology, our capacity
to be agile and integrate our learnings
will take us from crisis management to
long-term preparedness and success.
80

Agility
83
Think of a time in this
crisis that surprised
you by your business’s
ability to be agile.
82

“We run lots of physical events but had to
quickly switch to webinars, videos and
podcasts. We’ve built our audiences over
time, but surprisingly quickly and most of
our webinars are oversubscribed. That’s
a result of careful targeting and ensuring
the content is relevant.”
Agility
85
“For years we’ve been taking baby steps
to try to achieve better digital inclusion
– but we patronised our consumers
and assumed they didn’t have the
technology, the wherewithal, the will.
We moved online... and there they were,
tapping their watches. They’d been there
waiting for us all along.”
“In responding to Coronavirus I was
impressed by the speed with which our
Management Committee came out first
to staff to reassure them and put them
in a holding pattern while they re-wrote
our entire business plan and budgets in
2 weeks (a process that normally takes
the business months to agree).”
“A digital solution that had been in
the wings for a couple of years – was
landed in a matter of weeks. We had
braver decision making, challenged
our risk appetite and consolidated
resources into the priority area.”
“I have become more open to NOT doing
things I thought before that I should, to
make more choices based on deeper
principles than I had adopted before.”
84

Agility
8786
“Based on the clients requirements
regarding crisis and change
management through the Covid19
crisis, we were able to complete a
full Discovery Assessment into the
IT capabilities without ever having
attended their offices. The assessment
was rigorousand exactly what the client
wanted despite being so urgent and
impromptu.”
“We had to postpone our flagship event
as it was due to take place at the peak
of the crisis. In one day we convened
a meeting, agreed the postponement,
agreed the comms around it, contacted
all suppliers and made a new date.
Normally convening this meeting would
take a week!”
“Historically we’ve looked at
communicating to new biz
opportunities via post and email. Since
there’s no one in offices we generated
a LinkedIn advertising strategy. While
still in its early days, the click throughs
have been large.”
“After the initial shock and awe was under
control and a routine of lots of exercise
was established, I learned that this forced
hiatus was a golden opportunity to reflect
and refocus, and I have engaged in lots of
learning. Read lots of books I have been
meaning to read and engaged in plans
to write my own book. I’ve created and
reinforced lots of new networks and found
them really useful.”

89
When this crisis is
over, how might you
mainstream this agility
into your business?
What would you
need to change to
allow this to happen?
Agility
88

More agile
in workflow.
“Always anticipate. We often become
complacent when things appear to be
working. But you never know at what
point there might be a change... and
being prepared places you in a stronger
position. Overworked people with no
time outside of work don’t have the
headspace to think creatively about
that which appears in good health now
becoming an issue down the road. We’ll
need more staff to share the existing
load and help strategize for the future.”
“We all need to learn to say no. To
embrace things that seem hard. And to
work together in different ways so we
can acknowledge and resolve conflict
at the outset.”
Agility
91
“Let’s look at different marketing
strategies. Testing and analysis will
become a new part of growing the
business. We’ll need to get buy-in from
the wider team and allocate budget
and team time to manage and drive. It
will be a grand change of focus for the
marketing and ops team.”
90

“We need to develop real-time feedback
systems with service users so we are
reflexive to their needs and change
the online delivery to face to face
service delivery when this is required
by the service user (who own their own
support plan) and that staff understand
that the control belongs to the people
we serve, first and foremost.”
“We have a greater ability to prioritise
deliverables and not spread delivery
resource too thinly. We can generate
a culture of making difficult choices
about prioritisation and trust that will
result in better products with faster
completion.”
Agility
93
“The lesson for the future is to keep
talking. My business has been working
remotely now for thirteen years, so
there was not a major change in
workplace – however, what did change
was that we had to stop visiting clients
after the first push to set them up to
work remotely. Since then we have
been much more active online – in
social media, in business networking
and in offering online training to
existing and new contacts. We plan
to continue this as we have gained a
number of new clients during the crisis.
We have also developed new services
we can offer nationally as online
networking means we are no longer
only meeting local businesses. What
we need to change is some of the job
descriptions of our staff, so that they
can do new things when they come
back from furlough.”
92

Agility
9594
“Keep well up to date with digital
conferencing and communicating
possibilities (consultant or in-house?)
and how to use without failure or
distraction. We should identify the
most effective way, but be sure to not
move too quick for support base and
their appreciation and usage. How
can we provoke mutual education
at a similar pace?”
“We’re now widely adopting digital
events – and that won’t change.
We’re also developing our content
to ensure it remains well targeted
and relevant to audience. We should
have more investment in tech – e.g.
marketing automation – to reduce
manual interventions and pointless
resource draining.”
“We’ll continue to use technology as
our main source of communication
whilst face to face will grow in
importance. How can face to face
communication become more efficient?
This is a new model of working and will
expand into different areas.”
“Implement more training in subtle
refinements for online delivery and
time management.”
More agile
in tech.

“Let’s continue blog posts, and have
more flexible working hours. Let’s focus
less on doing things just because,
“we’ve always done it that way.”
“We’ll continue to pause more often so
that we can recognise that meaning is
deeper than product offerings. We can
generate these moments of pause by
cultivating our own sense of a holistic
life of values.”
“To mainstream, I need to keep time
for personal study in my working
schedule, and make sure it isn’t just
professionally related, but that it’s
for personal enjoyment. I’ve been
brainstorming a list with myself! I
can accomplish by restructuring my
business plan to allow for a day per
week for study.”
“I’ve really learned the value of
continuous learning and engagement
with others. I want to continue to
nurture networks by limiting my
LinkedIn time and spending less time
buggering around on FaceBook and
other social media.”
Agility
97
“It has shown us that we’re able
to, where necessary, complete a
fundamental part of our business, and
for our clients simply quickly, flexibly
and to the professional standards we
deliver. To continue this forward we’ll
need an internal commitment. It’s all
too easy to fall back into old habits
rather than attempting to maintain
something new and uncomfortable.”
More agile
in ideology.
96

In Blink: The Power of Thinking
Without Thinking, Malcolm
Gladwell teaches how your brain
can rationalize any decision, but
your intuition is what’s going to
grant you success. Compared to
your subconscious, your conscious
mind is incredibly small. So during
this crisis, the fact that you don’t
have time to think on something
too long, is actually working in
your favor. When the stakes are
high, high as they are now, we
can’t pontificate and navel-gaze
— we must create, deliver and
innovate in efficient fell swoops.
Agility: Conclusion
99
Go.
Trust what you’ve
learned.
98

Decisive
Chip Dan Heath
How to make better choices in life
and work (by the authors of “Switch –
How to change, when change is hard”)
but better.
The People’s Platform
Astra Taylor
A critique of the broken promises of
the internet age, and how to change
and take back the agile culture that the
digital age was supposed to deliver.
Agility: Further Reading
103
Further Reading
on Agility.
Work Like A Woman
Mary Portas
How to change how you do business,
by building on Portas’s “values that
matter”, and equip it for an agile
new age.
Option B
Sheryl Sandberg
How to face adversity, build resilience
and find joy by understanding and
harnessing the power of rehabilitation,
recovery and redemption.
102

105
someone was searching for “anxiety”
for example, then we served this
content from leading professionals
to get the help to them. So the first
piece of agility organizationally was
getting resources in place to help
Snapchat’s 210 million people that
use the service. And then it was,
okay how do we help our partners
survive and thrive in Covid and in the
post Covid world? But now we’re
getting to a place where we actually
think that Snapchatters, the GenZed
Millennials are gonna have a real
crucial part to play in the recovery. So
again thinking agility wise, how do we
shape our business and service to go
and make sure they do play a critical
role in the recovery.
What do you think their role is
going to be in it and how does
that fit with you guys?
It’s proven factually that they are more
resilient to the virus so we feel they’ll
be out living their life and going back
to work more quickly. Especially if
we get to the world that it feels like
we’re moving toward here where
the lockdown measures will be more
nuanced, not one set of roles for
the whole country but they might
be regional. And I don’t think it’s too
much of a stretch to think they might
be around other health conditions
and age potentially as well. In some
ways too GenZ and Millennials are
kind of disproportionally hit by Covid
because as you know, they’re not
taking exams, university might not
go back in it’s full form in September,
and equally even those kind of new
jobs and entry level jobs are going to
be pretty hard to come by. So there’s
this juxtaposition between being
crucial for the recovery and also being
hit quite hard by Covid.
Do you have a role in that
to help them?
I think our role in that is a few things:
We do think that they’re going to
be the leaders of tomorrow, so we
need to ensure that they still have
a voice on our platform, and we
know essentially that pretty much,
for Genzed and Millienialls, we are
their platform of choice. So: how we
can get information and resources
to them to make sure they can take
advantage of job opportunities,
education opportunities or health
information at the same time?
104
Ed Couchman
Ed Couchman and Andrew
Missingham hopped on a call where
Ed answered a few of Andrew’s
burning questions about Snapchats
role in the world during and post
Covid-19.
How has Snapchat’s response
to Covid-19 demonstrated your
company’s agility?
We felt we had a responsibility to help
to stop prevent the spread Covid-19.
So the agility for us was to work with
third party news organizations, the
world health authority and the NHS
to make sure that we had credible
information on the platform.
So that was the first pivot, thinking
about how we were to get factual
information to the community. And
then the second thing was that
we heard a lot from Snapchatters
that they were feeling anxious or
concerned, so we launched a bunch
of mental health support tools. If
Ed Couchman is the General Manager
of Snap in the UK. Ed leads the
company’s largest European sales
office (in London), working with
advertisers to best leverage Snapchat’s
ad formats, and examine the business
impact and ROI they provide. Ed has
over two decades of experience within
the media and advertising community,
serving as Director of Agency
Partnerships at Facebook for over six
years. Prior, he was Head of Digital and
Future Media at Channel 4 and led the
display team at Associated New Media.

Listening, Communication and Agility
are all building blocks stacked atop one
another. To become more agile, you
must become a better communicator,
and to strengthen your communication
you need to work on your skills as a
listener. Take stock of those around you
to open up the streams of information
flow and diversify what you hear.
Cultivate balance within yourself as
you keep channels of communication
open with your team and your
leadership. Most of all, be honest and
human. Reflect on everything you’ve
experienced and learned during this
time and creatively strategize the world
you want to create with the skills your
company has acquired.
As we hear over and over again,
there’s no “going back,” we can
only move forward. We hope that the
anecdotes within this book have given
you solace and tools for your team,
creating more rungs on what’s felt like
a disappearing ladder. No one knows
the answer, no one knows how the
world will look next month, so trust
your gut, celebrate your imagination
and lean into those you trust.
Conclusion
Chapter 5
Conclusion
Well. This virus sucks. We don’t
have a model for how our businesses
should handle it, let alone how to feel
or personally adapt to changes. If
there’s a universal takeaway across
industries, it’s that empathy was
previously undervalued and now
completely necessary. We are all
having a difficult time.
Innovation was a buzz-word before, a
word that companies used to describe
new iterations of product and style. But
today we can no longer get away with
rhetorical spins. Covid-19 has been a
crisis to spur us all into collective
change. And with change coming at
rapid speed, the lessons of listening,
communication and agility may work
as lighthouses through this long and
foggy storm.
107106

Sue Davies
Alison Grimshaw
Duncan Culley
David Williams
Krisztina Ipacs
Sophia Arthur
Annie-Marie Wynne
Duncan Lewis
Alan Tyrrell
Bree Sims
John Libby
Natasha Howell
Jamie Holland
Alison Lowe
Catharine Ayton
Andy Lothian
Authors.
Rozena Ali
Georgina Warren
Dan Petrovici
Jeremy Hay
Cheryl Kwok
Kathatine Walters
Rosie Farrer
Lesley-Anne Ryder
Heather Tilston
Oliver Schofield
Fiona Anderson
Trevor Long
Rob Pumfrey
Rupinder Uppal
Kerry Denholm-Price
Diana Catton
109108

@tomkim@serkantucan
@jhadams
@malikulzahir1@malikulzahir1
@dinalf
@floweirdly
@toyomai
@carter
Contributors
Photos.
In this book, we wanted to highlight our relationship
with long-time client VSCO by using some of the
content generated within the photography app.
If any of the photos caught your attention, make
a point to download VSCO and reach out to the
creator. Artists never tire of hearing how their work
has affected someone else...
@conorandrich
@localhaven @migsiete
@atiqahismailmarshal
@migsiete
111
@deadsince97
@arcadekeyz
@vdalvocamillo
110
@-michael
B+A
@-michael

B+A is the fastest,
most creative
management
consultancy in
the world.
With offices in London, Shanghai and Portland
Oregon, we answer three simple questions:
What’s going on around us?
We run research and insight processes.
We don’t take any longer than absolutely
necessary, we don’t subcontract work to
others, and we certainly don’t use some
one-size-fits-all approach.
Where should we go next?
We help clients work out their goals and
ambitions, then figure out how best to get there.
How do we get the best from our people?
We evolve and transform business cultures
for the better.
Innovate or Die is part of an occasional series of books we
write on subjects that interest us. We hope it interested you.
If you’d like to know more about us, get in touch!
All the best,
Andrew, Robi and Team B+A
projects@bandaequals.com
bandaequals.com
Who is B+A?
@naiaraveltri
113112

The image represents a metaphor.
Resilience in times of Covid-19
uncertainties. My steady watch.
Reliable, clear. Delivers the
outcome regardless of the
changes in the environment.
115

Innovate or Die

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