The Liberator

Yamashita left, and joined Apple as a creative director to launch the Newton, the company's too-early-for-its-time PDA. "He exceeded my wildest expectations," says Michael Tchao, who headed Newton's marketing and is now general manager for technology ventures at Nike. "One thing he taught me is that you can have the conversation, but it's the presentation that helps drive the point home."

It was 10 years ago, in 1994, at 27, that Yamashita set up shop with Robert Stone, a designer he'd worked with at Apple, and Diane Harwood, who has since left the firm. "We realized that the combination of design, communications, and strategy was our differentiation," says Stone. Over time, he says, the firm has evolved from a design outfit that helped bring out a company's purpose and strategy to "a strategy firm, and design is the secret sauce that makes it work."

Communicating a message is tough, but actually changing a company's culture, says Yamashita, is the toughest. At Gap, he and Pressler have run two-day training sessions with the top 200 U.S. executives, a project so ambitious that Pressler says it has taken up 50% of his time. Now the group is training the next level down and rolling out the new vision--expressed in five (still under wraps) values to store managers. A common mistake, says Yamashita, is that executives know what needs to be done but never take the time to make sure everyone else does, too. Although he says his goal is to help the company effect change on its own, executives sometimes forget SYP staff aren't full-timers but rather consultants who work on retainer. "We can't let go of them," jokes Pressler.

Sounds like he, like so many of the firm's clients, is happily stuck on Yamashita.

Sidebar: Unsticking Yourself

Keith Yamashita and Sandra Spataro's new book, Unstuck, offers some straightforward solutions to each of the "Serious Seven" states of stuck.

State of Stuck

1. Overwhelmed

Description Too much going on, not enough people or time.

Action plan Be clear about which mode your team is in--"blue sky" (big picture) or "tuning" (what works now).

State of Stuck

2. Exhausted

Description Your team is paralyzed, burned out.

Action plan Look at your watch. Companies that measure results against the time invested tend to outperform their peers.

State of Stuck

3. Directionless

Description No big picture; action but no results.

Action plan Put your idea in words. Articulating it will help you see potential problems that can then be addressed.

State of Stuck

4. Hopeless

Description The passion is gone; the team lacks purpose.

Action plan Come up with a moonshot--a big, ambitious goal to unite and motivate the team.

State of Stuck

5. Battle-Torn

Description Your team is at war.

Action plan Build a common identity or choose a common enemy before going forward.

State of Stuck

6. Worthless

Description Poor metrics make measuring success impossible.

Action plan Prototype the end objective rather than constantly debating where the team is going.

State of Stuck

7. Alone

Description Your team isn't in sync.

Action plan Use public recognition and praise as a motivator.

Discussion Guide

Interested in further exploring some of the ideas and issues in this article? Consider starting a Fast Company reading group. Here are some possible conversation catalysts:

Keith Yamashita makes a living out of getting companies unstuck. Where are you stuck, personally or professionally? Look at the guidelines to help you decide; does the "action plan" fit? Can you be personally happy, but still stuck? Analyze your purpose using Yamashita's standards of anthropological methods. What's the first step for change?