Creative Capes

How design leaders build influence, navigate conflict, and lead across cultures. In this episode, Ekaterina sits down with Julia Whitney, executive coach and former General Manager and Executive Creative Director at the BBC, where she led a 150-person UX and design team.Julia spent over 20 years as a design leader across the UK and US before turning her experience into a coaching practice that helps design leaders at companies like Condé Nast, AWS, the Financial Times, and IDEO perform at their best.Julia is also a teacher at our Executive programme for Design Leaders: https://fla.wiki/4fDlOirWhat you'll learn:

► Why self-limiting beliefs about leadership are the hidden barrier for most design leaders
► How to build sponsorship at the next level up — and why empathy is the first step
► How cultural differences shape communication, hierarchy, and trust — and what to do about it
► The four types of workplace conflict and why identifying them early changes everything

👤 Who this episode is for:
Design Leaders · Heads of Design · Creative Directors · UX Leaders · People Managers · Anyone going for a senior or C-level role · Anyone who's been passed over for promotion and wants to understand why

00:00:00 Welcome, Julia Whitney, Executive Coach and former Executive Creative Director at BBC
00:02:05 What design leaders most commonly struggle with
00:04:20 Self-limiting beliefs and the leader you think you have to be
00:07:25 How introverts can build influence without performing extroversion
00:12:00 Levels of zoom: how leadership shifts at every career stage
00:17:25 Why candidates get rejected for senior roles — and what to do instead
00:20:00 How to build sponsorship at C-level using empathy
00:27:25 Generational differences at work: what the research actually says
00:36:20 Multi-hyphenate careers and the future of work
00:40:25 Remote vs in-office: why it's more nuanced than you think
00:46:55 The SCARF Model and why people resist change
00:49:30 Leading multicultural teams and the Culture Map by Erin Meyer
00:54:35 High-context vs low-context cultures and remote communication
00:59:30 How to handle conflict: the broken record technique and four conflict types
01:07:05 Centralising design in a broadcaster organisation
01:13:45 Final thoughts and who Julia recommends we speak to next

By 26, Ivy Ross had jewellery in the permanent collections of 12 international museums, including the Smithsonian and V&A. She went on to hold executive roles at Calvin Klein, Swatch, Mattel, Gap, and Disney before arriving at Google, where her hardware design team has since won over 240 global design awards and helped Fast Company name Google the most important design company in the world in 2018.
Her book Your Brain on Art, co-authored with neuroscientist Susan Magsamen, became a New York Times bestseller. She is one of the most creatively accomplished people working in business today.

Future London Academy spent a day with her in London, during which Ivy has shared And if you are curious about our Executive Programme for Design Leader that Ivy teaches on, you can find more information here: https://fla.wiki/4evyOFI

How can designers reach the executive level, and what are their responsibilities and the impact they get to create?To find out, join our Design Executives Series with Tim Greenhalgh, Founder and Creative Director at Like a Moth and former Chief Creative Officer at Landor & Fitch, one of the most iconic creative agencies in the world.Tim is also faculty member of our
Executive Programme for Design Leaders: https://fla.wiki/3RTKnxH
Over more than 30 years, Tim has led a team of over 1,200 curious minds across 20 countries, creating award-winning brand experiences for clients including Apple, LEGO, and Adidas. During our live interview, Tim will share his mistakes and learnings, along with insights into leading at executive level.

What you'll learn
► How to create and maintain high-quality design standards, and motivate the team to "destroy the ordinary"
► The value of design and creativity for business performance
► Tim's journey from creative director to chief creative officer
00:00 Meet Tim Greenhalgh — 40 years leading global creative at Fitch and Landor, now founder of Like a Moth
02:00 What Tim learned from Rodney Fitch about the value of design
05:15 How to justify the value of design to clients
13:00 How to present bold creative ideas so clients say yes
19:25 Why most creative briefs are just agendas and how to fix them
23:35 What nobody tells you about being a chief creative officer
33:10 Dealing with underperformers in creative teams without burning the culture
35:30 Why there's no such thing as a bad project
45:20 How Tim uses sight, insight, foresight to start every creative project
52:40 Destroy Ordinary: the creative framework that united 26 global studios
57:45 The future of craft, ideas and creative leadership
01:06:00 How to sell the value of an idea (not just the design) to business leaders
01:08:45 Has hybrid working destroyed studio culture?
01:12:20 If you could change one thing in the world

👤 Who this episode is for: Design Leaders · Creative Directors · Heads of Design · Agency Founders · Brand Strategists · Innovation Leads · and anyone curious about creativity, leadership, and business

Tim is also faculty member of our Executive Programme for Design Leaders: https://fla.wiki/3RTKnxH

How IDEO uses play to solve real business problems. In this interview, Ekaterina sits down with Michelle Lee, IDEO Partner and Executive Managing Director of IDEO San Francisco.
Michelle Lee began her career as an aerospace engineer, working on satellites, wondering why it took so long to launch one. A friend's room full of toys changed everything. What followed was a winding path through the toy industry: an internship at IDEO in 2004, a startup she spun out and left, and a return to lead the Play Lab. Over two decades, she brought over 250 products to market with Hasbro, Mattel, and Sesame Workshop, and today, she is Partner and Executive Managing Director of IDEO's San Francisco studio.In a recent conversation with Future London Academy, Michelle shared what she's learned about creativity, leadership, ambiguity, and why play is one of the most underestimated tools in business.

What you'll learn:
► Why play is a serious business tool, not a frivolous one
► How to design a non-linear career by following curiosity rather than chasing titles
► How to move from individual contributor into leadership without losing the craft
► Why clients are partners, not customers, and how generosity builds trust
► How to prove the ROI of design, play, and creativity using IDEO's POWER framework
► How to use AI as a sparring partner without losing your creativity
👤 Who this episode is for: Design Leaders · Product Designers · Heads of Design · Service Designers · Experience Designers · Creative Directors · Agency Founders · Innovation Leads · and anyone curious about creativity, leadership, and business

Chapters:
00:00 Welcome and why play matters in business
05:30 How to design a non-linear career by following curiosity
10:30 From individual contributor to leader without losing the craft
17:00 Heart vs dollar sign: balancing creativity and business as a senior professional
20:30 Why clients are partners, not customers
24:30 How to step into senior leadership without going it alone
29:30 The IDEO IQ framework and the ROI of play
41:30 How to sit in ambiguity and why good friction matters
48:30 How to convince business leaders that play drives results
53:30 Cultivating IDEO's culture: concrete floors and rough prototypes
01:01:30 AI at IDEO: rough, rapid, right prototyping in the AI era
01:10:30 Earning design a seat at the table and more curiosity in the world

Nearly 30 years ago, James Hilton answered an ad in Creative Review, met a stranger named Ajaz Ahmed, and they signed Virgin as their first client. That was the beginning of AKQA.
AKQA went on to win Grand Prix Cannes Lions, James was named the UK's number one digital creative director three times, and they were acquired by WPP for around $550 million. He also made the Creativity 50 alongside Jonathan Ive and Lady Gaga.
What followed was a design studio, a custom motorcycle brand featured by Netflix and Top Gear, a Chief Creative Officer role at Native, and now a position inside Abbott, helping a 100,000-person healthcare company grow.
James invited Future London Academy to his home outside London to chat about his journey.
And if you are curious about our Executive Programme for Design Leader that James teaches on, you can find more information here: https://fla.wiki/42jCun4

00:00:00 — Meet James Hilton — The Design Leader Who Built AKQA Into a 6,000-Person Agency
00:01:00 — Selling AKQA for £340M
00:04:00 — What made AKQA succeed: obsession, craft & hiring people smarter than you
00:09:00 — The founder's paradox: staying in the work vs. scaling a creative business
00:11:00 — Building a Culture of Honest Feedback as a Creative Leadership Strategy
00:16:00 — Over-delivering as a growth strategy: how AKQA became a trusted advisor
00:28:00 — Life after AKQA: leaving, fear, and starting over from scratch
00:37:00 — Imposter syndrome, catastrophic thinking & using data to fight anxiety
00:44:00 — Stoicism as a leadership practice: the philosophy that changed everything
00:49:00 — Design with a capital D: transforming organisations at scale (Abbott case study)
00:53:00 — Why design leaders are a business value lever, not a visual service
01:00:00 — AI as a design tool, post-scarcity futures & final advice for design leaders

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