How to Create Openness & Teamwork With Your Strategy - Interview With John Pankert

Director of Strategy for Havas Montreal, John Pankert, joined us to chat on our Strategy and Leadership podcast. Havas is one of the biggest advertising groups in the world, and they work with integrated campaigns and a variety of clients on digital products and projects.

There are 70 people in the Montreal office, including advertising teams, front and back end developers, content creators, and an in-house strategy team. There are six people on the strategy team who are able to  work with diverse strategy needs a client might have. John and his team help clients define their strategy and positioning, create team buy-in, and then build the organization's branding and positioning from that strategy. 

Through leading Havas Montreal's internal strategy and leadership, as well as working with clients' strategies, John shared some of his best practices for leading strategy, onboarding teams, and shaping culture, such as: 

• Organizations do not exist in a vacuum. They exist in reality and will meet friction at some point. If you understand these potential constraints, your strategy can be adapted to plan for different scenarios your organization may face. 
• Communication is essential for both leading teams on a daily basis and for communicating your organizational strategy. 
• Culture cannot be created or invented, but it can be shaped. Activities such as cross departmental collaboration and leadership town hall meetings can help build camaraderie and trust within the organization. 
• Celebrating failure is a key to innovation. If your people are afraid to fail, they will not try new things.