Welcome to the Field Dispatch: questions and connections from the field, through my work with Braden Fieldwork & Advisory. Subscribe to the Field Dispatch on Substack
Fieldwork is a practice of getting close, asking questions and collecting small data—entering a client’s world to notice what’s already there, then making it visible.
Two concepts traveled across very different disciplines for me over the past month: sustainability and compelling preaching.
Both originated from my recent work with Go Tell It in the Mountains, a faith-based initiative centered on compelling preaching. We convened for a sustainability retreat in Hollidaysburg, Pa.
I first encountered the idea of conditions from a quote by painter Robert Henri that I came across in Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act and logged into my Field Notes:
“The object isn’t to make art, it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.” —Robert Henri
That idea traveled with me to the retreat. What if sustainability works the same way? Rather than pursuing sustainability directly, what if we create the conditions that allow it to emerge as a side effect?
Through my work with Go Tell It, I’ve also been developing a working definition of compelling preaching:
Compelling preaching tells a story people want to join—a conversation of belonging and participation that leaves room for more questions.
Then, unexpectedly, the following week both concepts reappeared at a Press Forward gathering in State College, Pa., in a room filled with local and regional press, volunteers and people thinking about the future of local journalism.
The industry was completely different, but the underlying question wasn’t: How do we keep this particular thing—local journalism—alive?
It was closer to: How do we structure the industry and the work so sustainability follows?
Sitting in a room full of journalists, I realized my working definition of compelling preaching travels, too.
It isn’t limited to preaching. It describes compelling communication. It describes social media. It describes journalism. It even describes my work itself.
And, appropriately enough, the Press Forward gathering left room for more questions.
My work revolves around questions. We don’t have the answer before we know the question.
Which is fitting, because I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to describe the work.
I’ve been experimenting with a new way of explaining Fieldwork when someone asks what I do. Instead of launching into an elevator pitch, I ask:
“Do you remember Columbo?”
And then I follow up with:
“I’m kind of Columbo for brands.”
I enter a client’s world, ask questions, follow what catches my attention and look for what’s already there.
At Press Forward, I tried it on someone. I got a response I hadn’t heard yet, one that caught my ear and made it back into my Field Notes.
“Do you ever find anything they don’t want discovered?”