Latest Unthinking - February

We explore mental availability, Nike losing its DNA, 1 graphic to reframe persistence and 4 Unthink highlights to enjoy.

Are you ready?

Picture the scene.

You’re lying on a beach in Mexico. You’ve been in the sun all day and it’s time for a beverage. You walk up to the beach bar. What are you choosing? What feels right?

How about this one…

One of your friends plucks up the courage to tell you they’ve spotted dandruff in your hair. You’re heading home and decide to do something about it. What do you purchase?

A few more…

Tomato sauce for a bacon sandwich? A drink to enjoy whilst watching tennis? A luxury watch to invest in? Searching something online?

A cold refreshing corona or an icy marg sounds pretty good in Mexico and Head & Shoulders is probably what you’re going for in a dandruff crisis. Heinz, pimms, rolex and google are the likely candidates for the other scenarios.

Of course, there are more options in play for each scenario, and these aren’t the right answers, but if you came to a few options quickly, then those brands have done their job.

This is mental availability.

Mental availability matters for companies when they want to align themselves to specific moments, feelings and scenarios. A cold refreshing beverage on a beach? Corona. Deleting dandruff? Head & shoulders. Some tomato ketchup? (it has to be) Heinz.

When you think of corporate Learning and Development currently, you may think of workshop providers, forgettable frameworks and triangle sandwiches.

And it turns people off from attending & showing up open-minded.

Rightly so, that wouldn’t fire us up.

I mean, would anyone be fired up by this?

Unthink exists to change that association with our award-winning Learning Experiences.

Imagine a world where learners associate a development programme with Learning Experiences made of memorable moments, heart swells and goosebumps.

How good would that be? This is what Unthink does.

We want to be top of mind for L&D teams fed up with workshops and are ready to do more.

That is the goal.

And that is why we are inviting people to attend an open learning experience on 20th March in London.

It’s a chance to experience what we do, for free.

If you know someone in L&D who you think would like to get a taste of Unthink then please do reply to this email and we will share the open Learning Experience details with them.

This dirt track story isn’t about the magical creative thinking of one company like it usually is. Rather, the dangers of repeating highway tactics for a brand that had become loved for its dirt track thinking and innovation.

On June 28, 2024, Nike faced the largest stock price collapse in its history. A single day wiped out $25 billion or 32% of its market value.

It had been a rough few years under the new CEO John Donahoe who had deployed his data-driven leadership style from decades at Bain & Company.

John started streamlining product lines, re-categorising products into demographics instead of sports and bringing a direct-to-consumer focus.

While these changes initially boosted short-term profits, they ultimately eroded Nike’s innovation, brand value, and customer loyalty.

The overreliance on data and cost-cutting led to significant challenges. Innovation stalled as Nike relied too heavily on data to drive demand, ignoring the creative process of introducing consumers to new products.

Recently, Nike acknowledged these mistakes and appointed Elliot Hill as CEO in 2024 who has decades of experience at Nike and a deep understanding of its culture.

That is, staying true to their DNA of innovation, empowerment and ambition as showcased in the recent Superbowl halftime ad featuring Sha'Carri Richardson, Cailin Clarke and 7 other prominent female athletes. It had been 27 since they made an ad appearance at the Superbowl so they defaulted to athlete-centred narratives with ‘Just Win’ to capture audiences’ hearts, once again.

And it worked. The ad amassed over 66 million views on Instagram by early Monday afternoon, making it Nike's most-watched video in record time.

A reminder if ever we needed it, to stand for something.

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See you again in March!

Team Unthink 🫶

Graphic of the month: