Our job is to learn to lead, listen to, and support each other. Our job is to learn to love, and to turn from hate. If love is for the brave, I want to be brave.

How focusing on the three organizational pillars of culture, people, and leadership can help fuel meaningful collaboration.

Go beyond identifying collaboration as an organizational value, and make it part of your employer brand. Identify what is unique and positive about being part of the organization, in addition to your mission.
Article: Building Real Collaboration into Your Organization

You can’t learn if you are always focused on efficiency (and if you aren’t open to feeling a bit dumb sometimes).

A must read for anyone committed to learning what makes teams thrive. Radical, and obvious, at once.
Article: 40 Ways to Invest in More Resilient Teams

Facts and figures tell. Emotion sells.

Though written for non-profits who are soliciting donations, this advice is as relevant for for-profits soliciting sales. “Take the donor (customer) to the need.”
Article: How to Insert Emotion Into Major Gifts

The ability to learn is about more than practice, practice, practice.

As it turns out, the ability to learn is about more than building and strengthening neural connections. Even more important is our ability to break down the older neural connections we’ve previously built. It’s called “synaptic pruning.” One easy way to prune back your overgrown synaptic connections? Get some sleep.
Article: Your Brain Has a Delete Button. Here’s How to Use It.

We can help shift the mental health narrative.

Poet Hussain Manawer will become the first British Muslim to go to space. Having dedicated his trip to mental health sufferers all over the world, he describes what he thinks marketers can do to strip the stigma of these debilitating conditions.
Article: Poet Hussein Manawer Discusses how Marketers Can Redress the Mental Health Narrative.

God is love.

Article: Love, Not Violence: See the Anti-Terror Ad Going Viral in the Middle East

An open heart opens minds, even cynical minds.

This is why I love great advertising.
Article: This Is The Cutest Love Story You’ll See From A Grocery Store All Day.

Say hello to the new Southmountain.com.

South Mountain Company is an employee-owned B-corp with the reputation as the best green design/build company on Martha’s Vineyard. Yesterday we pulled the switch on their brand new website. This is a model Clarity project. It began with a full Clarity Brand Study, then we built user experience design, graphic design, copy direction, programming and search engine optimization on top of that foundation. I’d love to know your reactions.
Client website: www.southmountain.com

Playlist
“I believe that love is for the brave.”

Three weeks ago I celebrated Hip Hop artist Tank Ball. I said that she “makes leading, listening to and supporting each other look easy, and really, really fun.” But, according to my analytics, just a few of you followed the link. Here’s a second chance, with an earlier performance. You do want to be inspired by her amazing spirt and her accordingly amazing band. Artists like her come along way too infrequently.

Images of the week

The images in the headers are by Shane Lavalette. They’re from his new monograph ‘One Sun, One Shadow’. The work is soft, beautiful and melancholic.
Article: Shane Lavalette’s Ode To The American South

What’s Clarity First?

If you’re new to Clarity First, it’s the weekly newsletter by Clarity, the consultancy that helps mission-driven companies use their brand – their purpose, values, and stories – as powerful tools for transformation. Learn more.

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