Polle de Maagt 
Polle de MaagtWhy acts, not ads.
Independent strategist since 2011. Before that, trend research and advertising. Clients include KLM, Rituals and Nike. LinkedIn →
In November 2015 I nearly died of a kidney rupture and a lung infection. It changed how I spend my time, and how I work.
I decided to live with more intent. More time with my kids: less screen time, more blanket castles, dancing in the rain. More of the world on foot. Fewer things I did because they were expected of me.
The same rule moved into my work. Fewer meetings, more doing. Fewer slides, more things people can hold, try and change. And even more than before, an obsession with companies that show what they stand for in what they do, instead of in what they say.
I wrote down what I learned here. That is what acts, not ads means to me. The best organisations don't advertise their values. They act on them, for customers and colleagues, every day.
telling it on stage
- 2011 on my own since, after research and advertising
- 19 years in trends and strategy
- Certified LEGO Serious Play facilitator
- 93% client satisfaction
from feedback forms, over the years. - 71 countries, on the way to 100
“It is a joy to work with you. I don't believe in top-down, so I'm glad you spend most of your time with the team.”
Director at an international retail branda real person. what happens at the table stays at the table.
From how people behave to what organisations do.
I have sat on both sides of the table: the side that studies people, and the side that talks to them. Acts, not ads, comes from having seen both.
- 2007
Trendwatching
My first job, at Trendwolves. How people really behave, not how they say they do.
- 2009
Advertising
At Boondoggle, now part of Havas. How brands talk, and what it takes to make people listen.
- 2010
Back to research
Research at InSites Consulting. Now with an eye for what brands do with it.
- 2011
My own way
Digital and customer strategy for brands like KLM, Rituals and Nike. Much of it in travel and hospitality.
- Now
Around the table
From the plan to the people who carry it: board stories, strategy sessions, and teams that run it without me.
Good for a long dinner, or the first ten minutes of a workshop.
is a true story
- the time I nearly died, and what it changed.
- walking the Greenland Arctic Circle Trail alone.
- the secret ice cream challenge with Vitaly Friedman, in Sofia.
- ordering omakase, in restaurants and in life.
- why horse sense beats most frameworks.
- jumping out of a plane on purpose.
Schools of thought I keep coming back to.
Not a framework I bring along. A set of habits I borrowed, and the reason the tool always follows the question.
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LEGO Serious Play
Strategy you can hold in your hands. It lowers the bar to speak, and it moves a room from opinions to shared understanding.
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Liberating Structures
Every voice in the room within minutes, not after the meeting. Small formats that change who gets heard.
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Hyper Island
Learning by doing, and taking the time to reflect on what just happened.Learning by doing, and taking the time to reflect.
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IDEO
Something to react to beats something perfect. Put it in front of people early, and let what they do tell you what to fix.
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Agile
Short loops, visible work, and a team that decides together what comes next. Better every round instead of perfect once.Short loops, visible work, better every round.
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Horse sense
English for plain common sense. The oldest method of all: if it would not make sense to your neighbour, it will not make sense to your customer either.
The same reason I don't bring a framework.
Omakase means "I'll leave it up to you". It is how I order in a restaurant, and how I travel: solo through-hikes in Greenland, the Drakensberg, the Jordan desert and the Kumano Kodo, the last stretch of the Camino with my dad, part of the Via Algarviana with my brother.
Leave your expectations at home and you see more, meet people you did not plan to meet, and handle whatever shows up. That is also how I walk into a room. More on omakas.es.
Rather talk it through?
Half an hour, no deck needed. Bring the question you are sitting with, and we will know quickly whether I am the right person for it.
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Not ready for a conversation yet? Movements is a quarterly brief on the shifts that change what people expect. The same sign-in opens the full toolbox. Get access →
