Content vs. Container

Content vs. Container. Also known as, my favorite organizing principle.

I've worked for 20+ years alongside creatives who make tangible, experiential things (brands, spaces, campaigns, design systems, restaurants), and have obvious, discernible mediums through which they make the things—graphic design, architecture, interior design, food.

What I do, on the other hand, is less tangible (brand + business strategy, client/project management, leadership, advisory), which means my medium is words. Words in the form of conversations, workshops, and of course, So. Many. Decks.

I have a love/hate relationship with many of the words I use in my work. They mean different things to different people. They have different orders of magnitude for different industries.

So I needed another way in when working with teams and clients. Another framing device to help analyze, organize, categorize, and prioritize what we were actually talking about or trying to solve for.

Content vs. Container.

It works for just about anything.

🔹 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸: The deck you sent but didn't land even though "the work" was good: strong content, weak container.
🔹 𝗠𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀: The best brains discussing the best ideas but it all derails and fizzles from no agenda, no alignment, and no actionable next steps: great content, poor container
🔹 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: The project you know is the perfect case study but don't know how to talk about it: promising content, needs the right container
🔹 𝗛𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴: The super talented XYZ who turned out to be the "wrong" hire: good content, wrong container.
🔹 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹: The agency leader with a great team, maybe even a healthy pipeline, but wants to innovate, work differently: solid content, wants a new container.