Sometimes inspiration comes not from what you create, but what you choose to gather and how you pass it on. As I wandered the hushed, marbled halls of the New York Public Library my mind wandered. A long way from home, I was thinking about how to spark curiosity for a roomful of New Zealand’s most thoughtful CX leaders. The answer wasn’t in another branded giveaway destined for landfill. I wanted a gift for thinkers – a prize as quietly powerful as the library itself. So I chose a handful of pencils, each branded for NYPL, each stamped with a quote from an intentional, human-centred thinker. It’s nods to something I’ve been saying a lot lately: the most potent tech tool in 2025 ….is a pencil.
Insights from the treasure room of the New York Library
Libraries hold a special place for me… Auckland’s especially (I’m notorious for my late returns. I owe squillions. Mostly because their ordering system is so frictionless, books arrive faster than letters through Harry Potter’s mailflap). They’re soulful, equitable, and quietly magnificent places. And serve not themselves, but the community. Gold.
That’s what good, no, great CX aspires to be: invisible infrastructure that gives others what they most need, exactly when and how they need it.
You might say that’s also the secret of a truly seamless kete. When you run your fingers across one, you’ll find no obvious starting point, no single showy strand. Merely the interplay of materials with a clear, shared purpose. The beauty is in how the strands are woven together; so continuous, you can’t say where one ends and the other begins. That, for me, is the metaphor for service that lives long after any single tactic, platform, or campaign.
The treasures room at NYPL gave me more analogies than I could have hoped for:
– a threadbare teddy bear, once ordinary, now the most famous bear in the world (Winnie the Pooh),
– beautifully printed with cutting-edge 1455 technology, a copy of the Gutenberg Bible. A reminder of the road to enlightenment.
– The Bill of Rights… full of crossings-out and amendments. A living, ever-evolving document reminding us that the “rules” should be built to learn and adapt,
– and the writing desk of Charles Dickens: one of the most outstanding human scientists. From this desk capturing his observations of the human condition and shaping stories with nothing but attention, intention, and the discipline to return each day to his practice.
So,the pencils I brought home are a nod to all of this. A legacy of humility, intention, and quiet craft. Because what you leave with others matters more than whose name is on it. In CX, as in knowledge, it’s not about self-promotion; it’s about consumer insight and meaningful, seamless service.
So as you move through these 5 insights etched into 5 pencils (or your own leadership journey), consider:
How will you contribute your own strand? What legacy of seamless, human-centred experience are you helping to weave for the next generation?
The five pencils
- “The future is always beginning now.” Mark Strand
- “Think before you speak. Read before you think. This will give you something to think about that you didn’t make up yourself.” Fran Lebowitz
- “There is no enjoyment like reading.” for Caroline Bingley in Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
- “I cannot live without books.” Thomas Jefferson
- “I am still learning.” Michelangelo
“The future is always beginning now.” Mark Strand
Standing before the Bill of Rights, crossed through and full of edits, makes this quote ring especially true. The world’s most lasting documents, like great customer experience strategies, are never really complete. For seamless CX, every initiative, every daily encounter, and every new conversation forms a new strand. An opportunity to start again.
The best New Zealand CX leaders are the ones who can let go of yesterday’s perfectionism. Instead, they show courage to begin anew, to allow for iteration, and to trust in the process of continual editing. Seamlessness, after all, is made anew each day through such momentum: not as a finished artefact, but as a living journey always at its beginning.
Takeaway insight: Give yourself and your team permission to begin again – every day is a new invitation to improve seamless CX.
“Think before you speak. Read before you think. This will give you something to think about that you didn’t make up yourself.” Fran Lebowitz
The beauty of a great library lies in its invitation to learn from what others have already discovered. In customer experience innovation, leadership is not the art of having all the answers, but the craft of listening for better questions. Psychological safety—the kind conceived in radical welcome, as Dr Nikki Elliott calls it—is about inviting dissent and challenge, even when it’s inconvenient.
Seamless CX is possible only where multiple strands are welcomed and woven, not feared. The most robust solutions come when leaders let new perspectives rub alongside their beliefs and make space for the kind of “aha!” moment you’d never generate on your own. Sometimes the best insight comes from the margins – not the main exposition.
Takeaway insight: Seek out voices and ideas beyond your own – making room for fresh perspectives is central to innovative, seamless CX.
“There is no enjoyment like reading.” Jane Austen
Austen, ever the observer of the inner world, gave this line to a character (Caroline Bingley in Pride & Prejudice) more interested in appearances than substance. For us, the lesson is about going deeper. CX is not only about what is said, or metrics that look good on the dashboard. True insight is a willingness to ‘read’ ourselves and our teams. Which stories are we telling that no longer serve us? What subconscious cues are speaking louder than any policy manual?
Ultimately, seamless CX and true leadership is found in those who meet people right where they are, removing labels, and holding space for what the subconscious is really surfacing. True artistry in weaving comes in knowing not just which strand is present, but which negative space allows the basket to flex and hold more.
Takeaway insight: The richest customer experience strategies are built by leaders who read between the lines – uncovering what is unsaid and unmeasured.
“I cannot live without books.” Thomas Jefferson
Standing among the shelves at NYPL, with the Bill of Rights close by, is a lesson in humility: legacy depends on constant reading, revision, and openness to outside influence. Checking your bias and perspective with the radical candour of others. For New Zealand CX leaders, seamlessness is a practice of continuously filling your kete (basket) with strategic insights, best practices from home & abroad, and new questions from many angles. Furthermore, the ability to check your assumptions; to scan globally and remain unfinished. For that is where the real growth sits.
If you want to clarify purpose and stay future-fit, I recommend A New Way to Think by Roger L. Martin. I think it’s a practical companion for any leader who wants their work to stand the test of time, yet never become stagnant.
Takeaway insight: Never stop scanning for learning: global curiosity and strategic revision keep your kete (and your CX) fit for the future.
“I am still learning.” Michelangelo
There is no arrival. Even in his eighties, with his David behind him, Michelangelo was still reaching for the next lesson, the next level of intentional craft. The same is true for today’s leaders: seamless CX is achieved not through claim, but continual learning.
This is where our one-to-one embodied leadership coaching shines. The OPEN Method, Polyvagal insights, and a culture of deep contemplation support the modern leader to show up more objective, more regulated, and able to meet teams where they are. It’s not self-improvement for its own sake, but because your team’s safety, connection, and readiness depend on the state you bring.
If you want abundance and a lasting legacy, I highly recommend 10x Is Easier Than 2x by Dan Sullivan and Dr Benjamin Hardy. The book describes how clarifying your bigger purpose allows you to step back and see the impact you truly want to have. And inspires you to keep evolving.
Takeaway insight: Remain a learner, always. Every act of humility and curiosity strengthens seamless CX and your leadership legacy.
Weaving innovation: how seamless CX comes alive at Good CX
Each of these pencil themes is put into practice at Good CX. Our strategy begins with human-centred insight, and our AI integration consultancy is about building real, sustainable capacity. Helping teams pause and prototype before throwing tech at problems.
How? Our Innovation Labs invite teams to step out of day-to-day noise, surface what’s below the waterline, and grow confident in the collective (sometimes on stand-up paddleboards, sometimes in a theatre). It’s here, beyond the boardroom, that the strands of culture, empathy, and courage are truly rewoven. Why? Because when we allow people to mobilise, we shift them into practices of resilience.
And our fastest-growing service is still our embodied leadership coaching: teaching leaders to put their oxygen masks on first, listen to themselves and their teams, and strengthen the unseen, essential strands of safety and flow. This is what customer experience innovation means to us: a kete not just for now, but for the future, and not just for one, but for all.
The ritual of the pencil: preparation over action for CX leadership
There are only five pencils. Each is a prompt, an act of humility and curiosity. To whoever received one, my invitation is this: resist the rush to action. Instead, pause at your desk and sharpen it as a samurai sharpens his blade even in times of peace, preparing quietly, investing time in skill, care, and clarity before the work begins. In leadership, as in martial arts, the quality of what follows depends on the attention you give to your preparation.
When you sharpen your pencil, use the moment to consider: What am I preparing for? What intention guides my next move?
The saying that “a warrior sharpens his blade even in times of peace” implies the necessity of continuous self-improvement and preparation. True seamless CX is shaped by leaders who honour the discipline of readiness: the habit of stepping back, contemplating deeply, and acting with purpose and precision. It’s the preparation, not the performance, that creates legacy. Every pause to reflect, every ritual sharpened by thought, becomes its own invisible strand, strengthening the kete for those who follow.
If you’re one of the lucky recipients, I’d love to hear what surfaced for you as you took a mindful moment to prepare for CX leadership. If not, perhaps you’ll create your own ritual: choose a tool, a pause, or a question that grounds you in the values at the heart of seamless service and an exceptional experience.
In the end, it’s these moments of reflection, much more than our grand strategies, that hold the whole together and invite others to pick up the next strand.
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