Breaking patterns
Meet the storytelling strategist who forces herself to embrace the unexpected.
“I’m really interested in how words can make a difference, and what happens when you start exploring with words,” says Anna Tengwall, a 35-year old freelance brand strategist who nudges companies to tell more creative stories.
She encourages her clients to let go of a strictly rational mindset and instead dare to embrace new and emotional ways of thinking within a company.
“When you start to talk about the more emotional values within a brand, it’s like it opens a totally new sphere for them and they get really enthusiastic.”
Asking the ‘what-ifs’
Exploration without intention is an important part of her process. “It’s important to dare to explore very early ideas or very early concepts and to take them further,” she says.
That involves asking hypotheticals. “Thinking ‘What if this would be real’, ‘What would happen if we applied this to the whole company’. And then, when I test it out, thinking ‘What would it mean for product development’ or ‘What would this mean to our culture’.”
It requires conscious effort, she reckons, but is a great way to challenge your own thinking.
Inspired by the unexpected
“I do my best writing when I’m in unexpected spaces,” Anna says. After all, you can’t schedule a good idea, but just be ready to capture inspiration when it happens. Train rides, flights, and twilight moments of creativity just before drifting off to sleep have resulted in a vast collection of notes with random ideas, concepts, and future possibilities.
Occasionally, it helps to break patterns. Anna's often nudged out of her schedule by her one-year-old farmdog, Pelle, which provides just the right dose of disruption to spark new thinking.
“I need to be very agile to his needs,” she says, “I find that’s very good for my creativity.”
Space to think
Above all, great thinking requires space, Anna believes — in your calendar, your mind, as well as within a suitable physical environment.
“When I’m in need of more focused thinking I might go to a cafe, because the buzz can help me concentrate and I don’t get interrupted by other people. And when I need more dynamic thinking, I prefer to have my private office where I can use a lot of different tools and talk out loud to myself.”
At times, it’s just about shutting out noise entirely. For that, Anna clears her calendar for the day, switches off her phone, and dashes outdoors.
“I think it’s crucial not to rush, to give yourself space and to keep your mind open for great ideas to flourish.”
