Almost four years ago now, my wife and I finally became something we’ve always aspired to be since we can remember aspiring to be anything – parents. And recently, we got to experience what can be one of the more stressful events newer parents get to enjoy – choosing a school for our son. But miraculously for my wife and I, this was a non-issue because my wife happens to be a preschool teacher at a wonderful Montessori school not far from our house.
As part of the onboarding process, I went to tour the school during class time and see everything in action, and that’s when it struck me – my wife’s job as a Montessori Preschool Teacher, and my job as a Creative Director at an experience design agency are way more similar than anyone, including myself, would ever initially suspect.
At Hyperquake I lead our Experiences design team, which helps our enterprise clients create highly immersive, story-driven environments which serve as executive briefing centers for VP’s, C-suite execs and their staff. So, as a target audience, the people visiting the spaces we design are arguably some of the highest functioning members of our modern society. My wife, on the other hand, teaches early childhood education to Pre-K kids at a Montessori school, which for those unfamiliar, is a very cool education model that emphasizes self-directed learning, hands-on activities, and collaborative play in a carefully prepared environment tailored to the needs of the students. So, not to degenerate these lovely little humans, but they are firmly on the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to being functioning members of society. What our jobs have in common though, to overly simplify both fields a bit, is that they make understanding our world fun.
And if an experience is fun or engaging, we are hardwired as humans to remember it better. It's that simple.
Forget Spreadsheets. Start Building with Blocks.
My toddler’s early education experience is mostly physical, tactile and interactive – perhaps the exact opposite of what you think of when recalling your classroom days. His schooling, at this stage of his young life, provides a very hands-on approach to learning that unlocks his developing brain where things click and stick. And in this environment, he’s like a sponge – after doing a task a few times, he remembers what to do and then stores that knowledge where he will build upon it. And most of that stickiness is a credit to this Montessori style of learning.
Executive business leaders, on the other hand, ascend to their positions first as subject matter experts, then as managers of teams of some kind, and then finally as managers of other managers. And as they climb the corporate ladder, they are required to continuously absorb, understand and articulate with clarity the new and emerging information across the entire enterprise, much of which is likely to be outside their original areas of expertise. As such, they get inundated with briefs, reports, and an endless supply of spreadsheets to aid in their learning, which can prove tedious and uninspiring.
To break through all that noise and truly make a lasting impression with an audience, a different, more engaging approach is needed. An approach that is more experiential, more interactive, more memorable and more fun. An approach that might look a lot more like a museum exhibit, or even a Montessori classroom, than executive boardroom.
Five Things a CEO and My Toddler Have in Common
While my four year old son isn’t responsible for closing multi-million-dollar deals, how he learns is a reminder, even a blueprint for how CEOs – and other key decision-makers for that matter – should think about learning and absorbing essential information.
- They are constantly learning a lot of information, quickly – from foundational blocks of information to specific solutions, a lot of learning needs compressed quickly in order to stack more and more knowledge, especially given the speed of today’s technology and rapid innovation.
- A preference to be entertained while learning – immersive and interactive is a winning combination for engagement whether you’re four or 54. This doesn’t dilute the learning because it seems playful or less professional. To the contrary, it enhances it to make it memorable and easier to recall, which beats reading endless streams of emails and reports.
- A desire to share what they’ve learned – while kids might not always have the words to do it justice, they are quick to want to show you what they’ve learned. That same mindset of “show don’t tell” also applies to executive learning, and helps ideas spread through your customer’s enterprise.
- An appeal to pique curiosity in others with a compelling story – as humans, we are hardwired for stories, both story-absorbing and storytelling. When the story we learn is compelling and clear, not only do we internalize the information at high levels, our drive to convey it to others becomes contagious. That’s when the real magic happens.
- They both tend to get what they want – okay, so this one says more about my parenting skills than being useful information about talking to high-level executives. But there is also a lesson here, and it’s about knowing your audience. A toddler can’t initially understand that they can’t have candy for breakfast, but if you meet them on their level, they can be made to understand. Likewise, knowing the personas of the executives in the room, and what their challenges and pain points are, will go far in finding common ground.
Anticipating "Think, Feel, and Do"
For years, our Experiences team of creative storytellers have imagined and constructed experiential learning and sales environments for our clients. From Customer Experience Centers and Innovation Labs, to Museums and Branded Exhibitions and Pop-Ups, today’s branded experiences, and those of the future, need to be adaptable and interchangeable; they must be immersive brand and cultural experiences with both digital and physical components designed to captivate audiences, inspire action, and strengthen loyalty.
For many Fortune 500 companies, brand experiences built in the real world have become an essential component of the business development playbook. But the way they get built – and ultimately what people learn there – determines success. A center or experience that does its job well goes far beyond standard sales and product marketing, and creates a powerful story that their customers can not only understand, but connect with on a deeper level.
At Hyperquake, we preach a “Story as Strategy” approach. In crafting a storyline for our clients and projects, we create a foundational tool that is easy to follow, rooted in brand vision and purpose (what the client seeks to do, change or achieve), and can then serve to build an immersive experience around in physical space. And as we develop that experience, we keep “think, feel, and do” front and center:
- What did the experience make them think about?
- How did it make them feel?
- What action does it inspire them to take?
Our work is to tell a compelling story in a way that anticipates what our clients’ customers are going to think, feel, and prepare to do next.
Creating Brand Spaces That Drive Business Outcomes
As a Preschool Teacher, more than anything else, what my wife hopes to spark in her kids is a love of continuous learning. We live in an amazing, wild world, and if her students graduate out of her classroom with a curiosity to understand it, she has done her job well.
And for me as an Experience Designer, that’s not too far from how I view success as well. We strive to create experiences that do more than impress. If we do our jobs well, we create and clarify a story, accelerate understanding, and increase conversation. The experiences we craft are rooted in business strategy and built for adaptability, enabling clients like Microsoft, Illumina, Honeywell, GE Healthcare, Visa, the Library of Congress, and others to turn physical spaces into engines for growth.
Want to create the most interesting story of your business ever told? Let’s build it together.
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