Each and every week the Square Holes team are deep in the bowels of a number of projects, working to mine all of the insights that we can to help grow businesses and support thriving cities.

These insights are used by businesses and organisations to innovate their offerings, move into new markets, track their impact and hone their products and output. Each week we will be sharing a broad insight that we have learnt for you to use in your own work.

Let us know what you find valuable!

Jason: Keep on spinning 

We’ve been updating Square Holes’ 2026-2030 strategy, which has turned my thinking to the concept of perceptual motion in business. The idea that with the right relationships, team and systems in place, momentum begins to build and the wheels become round rather than square. The Flywheel model devised in strategy bible ‘Good to Great’, and used by groups as diverse as Atlassian to Amazon (to the other brand letters of the alphabet), presents that: growth comes from small wins that accumulate over time, drawing people in, engaging them with minimal friction, and delighting them such that they become advocates who fuel new cycles of growth. Once the flywheel is spinning, it keeps working even when you’re not pushing, because each delighted customer and friction-less process adds energy back into the system. It’s about deliberately designing a virtuous loop of attraction, engagement and delight that keeps spinning, making innovation and expansion feel like a natural extension of motion rather than a series of jolts.

Dylan: Eating well

This week we’ve started working on a project exploring older Australians’ relationship with food and eating well. Through early discussions with our team and the client, it became clear that eating well is so much more than healthy eating and nutrition – it’s about how food makes you feel, how it connects us with others and how it shapes our sense of identity, routine and belonging. A review of recent studies found that almost all reported an “association between loneliness or social isolation and one or more food / eating behaviours that would usually be considered harmful to health.” Whilst other research shows that “a third of weekday evening meals are eaten in isolation, and the average adult eats 10 meals out of 21 alone every week… This is despite most respondents claiming that eating with others made them feel closer to each other.” Early discussions for this project and associated research reinforced the importance of making eating intentional, not just nutritionally, but socially and emotionally. When we treat meals as more than fuel they become powerful contributors to wellbeing. Moving forward I’m going remind myself eating well is not just ‘eating healthy’, its eating with others, with purpose and utilising food as a source of connection.

Mahalia: Millennial nostalgia

When I think of Generation Y (of which I’m a part), I think of nostalgia. More and more media aimed at this demographic veers towards a reliving of a simpler time, through reboots, fashion revivals, and legacy sequels (
‘legasequels’). Experts argue that this trend is driven by a desire to escape/cope with modern stressors like economic instability, digital saturation, and turbulent social cohesion. We are looking to relive childhood comfort as we deal with a housing crisis, cost of living crisis, pandemic, and crumbling world order.

Think your business or organisation could do with some insights? Contact us here.