Truth & Spectacle

Leaders today face a world on fire, demanding constant adaptation and creative reinvention. Psychological safety is the essential tool for this shift—not as a "comfort zone," but as shared permission for candor. Here is how leaders can practically foster a culture where teams are safe to fail, imagine, and leap together. This is a part of a series about big leaps and a culture of reinvention.

Ivan Pols and Alex Mecklenburg, co-founders of Truth & Spectacle, reflect on a year of unsticking leadership teams through their Big Leap methodology. They dismantle the myth that iteration is better than bravery, and talk about why a solid foundation is the only place you can jump from. From high-stress charities to sticky boards, learn the vital difference between agreement, alignment, and c...

Alex and Ivan talk about the inspiration, neuroscience, personal experience and methodology behind their new workshop, The Big Leap. It’s a method that is designed to help organisations understand a new strategy and quickly bring it to life through actions and initiatives. They look at the power of good questions, inspired by Warren Berger's book, The More Beautiful Question. About how long distan...

In this conversation about truth and spectacle, Alex and Ivan look at how and why they apply coaching to brands, and get really excited about the power of a good core story. What is brand story coaching and why we think it's pretty cool.

When we started Truth & Spectacle , it was done with the belief that people are more creative than they imagine . We assumed that being ‘creative’ was something that teams and organisations wanted to be - but we learned quickly that it wasn’t that straightforward. To many people creativity is a ‘gift you’re born with’, for others creativity evokes stories of ego, genius, loudness or elitism. W...

Since our business and personal worlds have suddenly relied on video calls like never before, we thought it would interesting to talk about the new challenges of running workshops, what virtual work is, how to make deep connections with colleagues and how to do this with no post-it notes or snacks. Alex and Ivan discuss their experiences and share what works for them. It turns out that virtual wor...

It’s Spring 2020, and we’re in the middle of the Covid-19 meltdown. Alex Mecklenburg and Ivan Pols had a conversation about how much has changed, what hasn’t changed, and what we’re doing now. The big questions seem to be more urgent that ever, but we can do small things that make a difference today. For ourselves and others. Alex is a creative business coach and an associate at the digital think...

MegaPops are Megan Egan & Poppy Cumming-Spain, a creative team working at Creature London . They’re recent grads of SCA 2.0 and have pretty much launched themselves into the industry on a rocket fuelled with mad energy. Alex met them while mentoring at SCA and was struck by their charisma, honesty and wonderful work. We met them in Shoreditch in early May and talked about how they built their...

Katharina is a Business Psychologist and the Managing Director at InnovationBubble. They are a business consultancy who use behavioural science to understand how organisations and brands really work. She’s advised companies like Virgin Atlantic, TalkTalk and Habito on finding the hidden psychological influences that affect their business strategies. She talks about the difference between truth and...

Jonathan McKay joins Ivan Pols and Alex Mecklenburg to discuss how Girl Effect use brands to improve the lives of girls around the world, and the role of truth and spectacle in reaching them. Jonathan is the Senior Director of Create at Girl Effect, who were founded by the Nike Foundation in 2004, and today are an independent creative non-profit working from nine global locations and active in ove...

Silas Amos joins Ivan Pols and Alex Mecklenburg to discuss truth and spectacle in design. Silas is a designer and design strategist who has worked with Budweiser, HP, Eve Sleep, and Unilever. He does some wonderful collaborations with artists like Sir Peter Blake and the Yarza Twins .

in December 2018, Alex Mecklenberg and Ivan Pols, Co-Founders of Truth & Spectacle talk about starting a podcast. The audio quality is rubbish and you can hear dogs playing in the background. It's a brilliant.