To understand how data storytelling works, devour the extraordinary film, The Beatles: Get Back. Apart from watching the creativity of John, Paul, George and Ringo, it’s a perfect example of using data to tell a persuasive story. Just the other day in one of my storytelling training sessions, the Head…

I am in a virtual room with 30 mustard-keen media types aged between 20–35. Generations Y and Z being addressed by Gen X (a moniker far more youthful than telling everyone I was born in the same year The Beatles’ White Album was released). We’re here to discuss creativity, and…

When I decided a few years ago to change my career, friends and colleagues fell into two different camps. They thought I was either brave or insane. To be honest, I thought I was both. …

The creative world is riven by unfairness and under-representation from BAME talents. The media world especially. Just a few weeks ago, the advertising industry, through a special edition of its trade magazine Campaign, decided to push the argument on. One of its most inspiring figures, Karen Blackett, who has been…

Sometimes the best stories are told just in quotes. No background, no exposition, no clever conclusions. Just quotes. When you put a bunch of them together, they reveal so much about a person, their character and how they think. Which is why I decided to experiment a little with my…

Retailers across the world are facing a tough, uncertainfuture. Business is migrating online, rents are too high for independent retailers and the experience of shopping is often an underwhelming one. This is especially true of record shops. I suspect most of those in the British media lamenting the collapse of…

Some of my most challenging and interesting consultancy work is to get creative with highly complex and dull source material — white papers, interviews, research, half-baked thoughts from hugely talented individuals. …

When it comes to traumatic experiences, selling a house is pretty high on the list. Buying one too, which is why I’ve never been able to understand why buyers and sellers can’t figure out small issues by themselves, why lawyers have to be involved in every detail. …

We stood in the entrance hall to Grenfell Tower and knew that it was an accident waiting to happen. Electric wiring open to the elements, fire extinguishers that were either broken or stolen, insecure fire doors, lifts that were forever out of order, a lack of lighting that made crime…