Slate l Spark
Our Story
About Slate Spark
We are where ideas become action.
2025 cleared the field. The systems, hierarchies, and certainties that once guided business are gone. What comes next will be built by those willing to rethink everything, from how we work to how we lead, connect, and create.
Slate | Spark is a collaborative think tank and action lab. We gather thinkers, writers, and strategists who want to do more than analyze change. We design what replaces it.
The slate is the clean surface, where assumptions are erased. The spark is ignition, where one idea catches and becomes motion. Together, they define what we do, from Pivot Papers that change the way you approach your goals in this new world, to Think Tank Sessions and one-on-one consulting that turn thinking into doing.
Our Mission
Slate | Spark exists to explore the future through collaboration, not prediction. We are building new ways for people and organizations to move forward when precedent no longer applies.
Why now?
After three decades of helping people plan for what is next, I finally realized something obvious. The future does not care about our plans. The models, the forecasts, the long meetings where someone clicks through a PowerPoint about strategic pillars are all built on what worked before.
The problem is that “before” has officially left the building.
Leaving History Behind
Humans have always used history as their GPS. We plot a point from the past and assume it will guide us safely into the future. But this moment is different. Politics have become performance art, truth is a moving target, and artificial intelligence is rewriting the script while many of us are still looking for the table of contents.
The comfort of what used to be true is gone. The rules of risk and reward that made people feel safe are gone.
At a recent meeting, a Wall Street analyst told me that he thought 50 percent of the American workforce could be out of a job in three years. I smiled politely, took another sip of coffee, and thought, well that sounds inconvenient. I do not believe in panic. I do believe in awareness. I believe in small, smart circles of people thinking together. People who are curious, grounded, and willing to challenge themselves and each other.
There is no wait and see this time. If you wait, you will be watching opportunity wave from the rearview mirror. And honestly, who wants to spend the next decade waving back.
The Great Untethering
Let us be honest. For the last fifty years, we have been living in a padded room of American certainty, convinced we were the smartest, safest, most exceptional people on earth. We built an economy on confidence and credit cards. It was fun while it lasted.
I gave a talk recently on how we got here and what to do about it. That session is now in a Pivot Paper, which is our deep dive into a single topic. It is included here if you want a roadmap for shaking loose what no longer fits and walking toward something that does.
More and more people are rethinking their next steps. The plans that once felt steady are now a bit wobbly. The jobs, the industries, the investments that defined success all need a second look.
Change is not optional. It is oxygen.
A few things I am thinking about...
Five Pillars of Success for 2026 and Beyond
Success in this new world will no longer built on titles or identities. It is built on daily practices. Our Pillars of Success are the five daily actions that shape clarity, momentum, and the ability to collaborate in a world that refuses to sit still. Time, Focus, Discipline, Curation, and Intention form a framework for how to move through life with purpose rather than performance. Together they create a foundation strong enough to build a future that matches who you are becoming, not who you were.
Language
Years ago, I knew a man whose father hid him during the Nazi occupation. His father told him, if someone says it is a beautiful day, go outside and look. It might be pouring rain. That line has stayed with me forever. Pay attention. Do not take anyone’s word for it. The sky might be blue, or it might be on fire.
Now take the word leader. I see it a hundred times a day on LinkedIn. Everyone is a leader. I have never liked the word. I do not want to lead anyone and I do not want to follow anyone either. I want to collaborate.
Years later I collaborated with, of all things, a leadership coach. She and I wrote a book together called Circles of Collaboration. She still believes leadership is the entry ticket. I still do not even like the word. She thinks leadership is so woven into the fabric of our society that you cannot ignore it and you have to incorporate it. I believe collaboration is the stronger and more result oriented route to get anywhere.
We do not agree on the language at all, but we do agree that when people come together as equals around a problem, things move. And besides, it is so much more fun.
Circles of Collaboration is really about that difference between us. Her world speaks the language of leadership. Mine speaks the language of collaboration. The book lives right at the intersection of those two, and I think that is where the future lives as well.
Assessment
It is time to reassess what we call assets. Skills, relationships, property, reputation, all of it. What used to count may not count the same way anymore. That house that was supposed to keep you secure in old age might not. The job title that sounded impressive last year might already be a relic.
Net worth is not just money now. It is adaptability. It is the ability to rethink, to reset, and to join with others who are doing the same. This is the moment of pivot. Pivot is a word you are going to see a lot from us in the future.
What Slate | Spark is Doing
Here is what we are already offering as Slate | Spark.
Pivot Papers
Short and sharp deep dives into topics that define this moment. Think of them as blueprints for what is next, with fewer buzzwords and more real talk.
Roundtables
Groups of thinkers, doers, and question askers who come together to work through what is changing and what to do about it. You bring your questions and your experience. Others bring theirs. The magic is in the mix.
One on One Consulting
One on one work for individuals and companies who want to understand where they stand and what to build next. It is part therapy, part strategy, and there is usually at least one moment where everyone goes quiet and says, oh.
Pivot Labs
Live sessions built to make people think and then act. The goal is that you check your phone afterward, not during.
The Invitation
This is a moment to get out of our corners and into conversation. I want Slate Spark to be a place where smart, curious people come together to figure out how to thrive in a world that keeps rewriting the rules while we are in the middle of the story.
If that sounds like your kind of table, pull up a chair. Bring your ideas, your uncertainty, and your sense of humor. I will bring mine.
The future is not waiting. Neither are we. - Christine Merser
Team Slate l Spark
Our team gathers around the circular table of collaboration. Each person brings something essential to the success of whatever sits at the center of that table. Everyone is responsible for their specialty within any project. It’s collaboration. Always.
Christine Merser
Collaborator
Loves all things 'story.' Sell me with a story and I'm a loyal customer for life.
Teagan Haynes
Collaborator
Earning a master’s in communications while still figuring out exactly what I want to say. Turns out curiosity is a career path, too. I channel that curiosity into creating content that sparks conversations and connects people.
Lover of travel, pickleball & always in search of the next best bite
Courtney McMahon
Collaborator
I have a passion for web design. I love creating visually appealing websites that are both functional and user-friendly.
Frances Pearson
Collaborator
Keep the focus on the goal line and I'm all in. Let's get this content loaded!
Equestrian, travel enthusiast, avid reader & podcast listener
Meg Tschaikowsky
Collaborator
Give me a puzzle, and I'll make it my mission to solve it. Streamlining and efficiency are my areas of expertise.
Seasoned hospitality professional, dancer, trail navigator & airport dad
Amash Gull
Collaborator
I’m passionate about grabbing new opportunities everyday in virtual world of business.
Slate l Spark
Philosophy
"Progress begins when we clear the slate, strike the spark, and imagine what could be, then act on it."
— Christine Merser, Founder & Collaborator