#17: Sparking change through creativity
A Q&A with Glimpse founder, James Turner
Pass It On is a bi-weekly newsletter bringing the tech and non-profit sectors closer together through knowledge sharing, written and edited by Lauren Crichton.
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Today's Q&A is with a rather brilliant human named James Turner. To introduce him, I need to tell the story of how he and I met:
I met James in a London pub in 2016, a couple of months before the Brexit referendum. I was working in advertising at the time, attending a free event for advertisers to explore how we could use our creativity for good. James, who was a Head of Comms at Greenpeace, already had the answer: we should be creating glimpses of the positive change we want to see in the world.
Fast forward several weeks, and I found myself exploring exactly that in (yet another London) pub with James and a few of his other eager advertising recruits. With knowing irony, James asked us all to imagine a world where advertising didn't dominate public space.
Our answer was C.A.T.S.—the Citizens Advertising Takeover Service—a two-week-long campaign that would replace 68 London Underground billboard ads with pictures of furry felines. In what I can only describe as a whirlwind five months that followed, we crowdfunded £25,000 to make it happen (yes, really!) and made headlines around the world when the campaign went live in September that year.
With this wild and wonderful project, Glimpse was born, the collective that James now co-runs full time and which you'll learn more about just below.
James was the first person to show me how my professional skills could lead to something other than profit, and that positive stories could be clever, unexpected, and deeply moving. His integrity and imagination have left a profound mark on me, as I’m sure they will on you too.
And with that, on with the Q&A!
🌍 Using creativity to spark positive change - with James Turner
What is Glimpse?
Glimpse is a creative collective that uses storytelling and imagination to spark change. Right now, imagination is more vital than ever because so many things in our culture are filled with dystopia and fear. Of course, it's important not to shy away from the reality of things like climate change and the pandemic, but we can only fix these problems if we can tell a new story about where we want things to be headed.
On a practical level, we are a worldwide collective of people from advertising, marketing, graphic design, film, and other places. We run creative ‘seasons’ four times a year, which are open to any of our members to join and share ideas. At the moment we’re working on topics like nature and polarisation.
The rest of the time we work with a core team of six people. We’ve worked with charities like WWF and Choose Love to help them bring creativity to their work. More recently, we've started working with grassroots groups and organisations like Green New Deal UK to support their work in communities across the country.
We're increasingly focused on helping people with no creative background unlock their imagination and find ways to bring it to life in their local area. Imagine if every citizen of our country had a clear, compelling, and positive vision for their community which they could take to their elected politician or local business and say, "Why can't we do this?".
Both you and your co-founder Zac left full-time jobs to run Glimpse. What made you take the leap?
Zac and I have always believed that creativity is a massively powerful tool and that it's absurd that it's used to sell things like electric toothbrushes most of the time. We both quit our jobs—mine at Greenpeace and Zac's at Golin— because we didn't think that creativity was being used in the right way. Greenpeace was hugely creative but didn't always put the 'positive vision' at the centre of its campaign process. And Zac's background in commercial PR was always at odds with his personal values. He used to collect Greenpeace whale stickers when he was a kid, which tells you everything you need to know.
How has your experience in the non-profit sector influenced how you run Glimpse?
One of the most valuable things about coming from a different background is that you don't know what you're doing, so you make it up as you go along. But it's really hard to hold onto this mindset as you grow. When we first started, Glimpse was like an after-school club for creative people. The briefs were short and vague, we didn't have any deadlines, and we sat on sofas making each other laugh. That's where brilliant ideas like C.A.T.S. came from—which you played such a big part in, Lauren—and it's hard to replicate that atmosphere now that we're more established.
I guess the main thing I have held onto from my non-profit background is that I would never see Glimpse purely as a service organisation: we have a voice, a point of view, and a skillset of our own. It surprises me that very few creative agencies would consider becoming campaigning organisations in their own right. Why not? You have all the tools to do it.
Glimpse is all about using the power of creativity for good. What does a team need to do to be creative?
Inflate the balloon
At Glimpse, we like to talk about how the creative atmosphere is like a balloon. If you support each other's ideas, the balloon stays afloat—the conversation ebbs and flows with energy, and you tap that balloon a little bit higher with each supportive comment. Even if the idea is basic or doesn't entirely make sense, it might lead the room to somewhere interesting.
On the flip side, negativity or cynicism will slowly deflate the balloon: people will feel less confident, and the energy will sap away. And if you shoot down someone's idea, the balloon pops. Common sense, really, but it's incredible how many people think it's their job to poke holes during a creative session. To keep things constructive, we focus on our language: "yes, and" instead of "no, but" as you've previously written about, Lauren. We also monitor our behaviour by giving out red and yellow cards to people who criticise ideas.
Give great ideas the structure and time they deserve
Our first ideas are rarely the best ones, especially when you come up with them under time pressure. Instead of relying on one ideation workshop, our team likes to use this 4-step process:
Hold a group ‘inspiration session’
Work on ideas individually, in the bath, biking, walking etc.
Share and build on these ideas as a group
Sleep on it, and make sense of what we have
Refine and build 2-3 top ideas
We run a lot of exercises to stimulate creative thinking at various stages of this process. For example, at the start, we might use the Remix—an exercise that involves taking an existing idea in culture and applying it to our problem/challenge. Once we're honing in on an idea, we might stress test it with the Honey Pot—an activity where you figure out how to make the idea so attractive that everyone wants to watch and share it.
What advice would you give to charities faced with planning for the future under conditions of extreme uncertainty?
Get serious about inclusion and representation
Taking a real, concrete action today is 100 times more powerful than a lengthy principles doc gathering virtual dust on your server. So rewrite your recruitment policies now, and find ways to collaborate with more diverse groups as soon as possible. The charity sector is a bubble, and politicians see the sector as a bubble. Until we can demonstrate that our campaigns resonate beyond that bubble, we won't have power.
Shift attitudes and mindsets, not just policies
At Glimpse, we believe that culture drives politics, not the other way around. To create impactful change, charities need to focus on shifting attitudes and mindsets as well as individual policies. Choose Love is a great example: by promoting the value of compassion as an organising principle in our world, its messaging and programs go far beyond conventional refugee relief. That's a much more interesting and powerful way of campaigning.
Tell the story of the world you want to create, as well as the one you want to avoid
Humans make sense of the world through narrative. It's what drives action and behaviour change. So all non-profits need to be storytelling organisations.
When it comes to the story you tell, dare to be positive. Charities have relied on evoking pity and shock tactics for too long. We have a responsibility to help people understand and imagine a positive future—even if it's harder to do well, and the news media are less interested.
It's surprising we deem positive stories to be less effective at driving donations. Think about the advertising industry: it works by telling you how happy you'll be if you buy a certain product. We took this principle and turned it on its head when creating the Choose Love Store, the world's first store that sells real products for refugees. You can shop your heart out and feel great, but you leave with nothing. You feel great because you're doing something good while having a delightful shopping experience—the space is airy and bright, products carefully arranged, photographs of refugees smiling.
And it works: since 2017, the Choose Love Store has raised over £5million and reached over 40,000 customers across three continents. The press loved it too.
Finding creative ways to convey the change you seek to make is hard. But it's possible! Be willing to experiment, try new approaches and platforms, and believe that people will thank you for it.
Invest in youth, even if they're unreliable
Culture is changing. Youth is rising. Just because younger people have smaller wallets doesn't mean they can't engage in your mission. And by engaging, I'm talking about more than petition signing: what are other creative ways you can get young people to participate? How can you offer people experiences and things to do that benefit them, as well as you? Again, the Choose Love stores are a great example—over 1000 people have volunteered in them because the experience was convenient, uplifting, and made them feel part of a community.
Young people may not be reliable donors, but they hold the moral clarity and energy we need to create meaningful change.
Stay hopeful. You're on the right side of history.
It's tempting to talk about your issue as a mighty battle against an insurmountable foe. But locating your work within an unstoppable wave of change is a powerful storytelling tactic. Consider the current debate over LGBTQ+ rights: 10-15 years ago, the situation was bleak and static; now there's major policy change in favour of marriage equality, a lot of better law about discrimination, and a sense that mainstream culture has moved, perhaps forever.
The same thing is happening with racism in football: something that was really hard to shift for 50 years is being upended by a new generation of players and fans. It’s really powerful to present what you’re doing as the inevitable shift towards a more just, tolerant society, rather than an impossible fight against the forces of darkness.
What three books have had the biggest impact on you?
The Autobiography of Malcom X - Malcolm X, Alex Haley. My first real sense that there was burning injustice (and courage) in the world, which I read at about 13.
Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood. I try to avoid dystopian fiction as I think there’s too much of it out there. But Atwood really is one of the finest writers we have.
The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test - Tom Wolfe. The spirit of creativity, radical acceptance and peace at the start of the 1960s changed the world and inspired me forever.
Thank you, James 🙏
More questions for Glimpse or James? Get in touch via hello@weglimpse.co
And as always, please let me know what you think. I’d love to hear whether James’ perspective and advice have sparked any ideas:
See you in two weeks!
Lauren 👋
Good practical examples from James of changes for the better.
The key is to teach school children about the way they can change attitudes going forward as they will be the people able to implement the changes going forward .