Our Unique Approach
We work with you to connect, reveal, combine, listen, discover, communicate, and share.
We’re systems people.
We focus on the connections between what people do, how organizations structure operations, and what people think and feel.
Strategy
It begins with strategy. And that’s not a plan. Grounded in values, strategy is the thread that connects operations with an organization’s mission and vision.
The analytic lenses we look through help us see things differently. Our frameworks add value by giving you a new perspective.
We believe everyone and every organization is in the business of transferring knowledge.
Knowledge Transfer
Knowledge is more than data and information. An underutilized asset in most organizations, it must be curated to meet the diverse needs of internal and external stakeholders. Developed with appropriate methods, carefully managed, and operationally aligned, it is a key tool in mitigating and managing risk.
-
Research
Knowing what we don’t know is key. Making wise decisions absent complete information is always the test of leadership. The right answer to the wrong question is a distraction.
-
Landscape & Risk Analysis
Perceptions of risk underpin how individuals behave and the direction organizations take. The external landscape is always changing. To steer toward opportunity and mitigate risk, understanding what drives change is crucial.
-
Audience Definition
Jane Q. Public has fragmented. Microtargeting, AI, online communities, voting trends and purchasing patterns create opportunities –- as well as static. Understanding your core audience is paramount. Go narrow and build from there. Or go home.
-
Attitudinal Research & Values Identification
Everyone is a pollster today. But discerning what people believe, think, know, feel, and say they will do often requires more than a one-off formulaic survey. Humans are a complicated species. We dig much deeper to truly understand people, especially the underlying values that shape opinions and behavior.
-
Alignment
Grinding the gears when moving an initiative or organization forward is costly, time-consuming, and a drain on leadership and team morale. When individual parts of an organization may be operating successfully, leaders can struggle to diagnose a problem that they can’t readily see and for which there is no one responsible manager.
-
Content Management
Storage is never the purpose of a filing system, whether paper or digital. It’s about ease of retrieval. The test is whether colleagues can efficiently find the information they need, when they need it. Adding value to each search transforms information into knowledge.
Knowledge Transfer
How and with whom acquired knowledge is shared determines its value. We find the sticky spots in your processes that undercut the value of your knowledge. We help you understand what your stakeholders want to know. And we make sure your story works for them.
-
Communication Links
Communication is dynamic, not linear. Listening, not speaking, is the key to effective communication. And sequence matters.
-
Narrative Development
Getting the message right isn’t good enough. Embedding a message into an engaging overarching narrative that has deeper resonance and tells a compelling story is essential. Disconnected from that overarching narrative, most messages have a short half-life and limited impact.
-
Video Storytelling
Like bookends, facts bound the space that defines an issue. But between them, decisions are made based on more than facts; personalities, experiences, and stories all matter. And today, visual images matter more than ever in the competition for attention.
-
Stakeholder Engagement, Facilitation & Satisfaction
Engagement alone is not the goal. It is the stakeholder experience that counts. Understanding the thinking of stakeholders, in advance, can make all the difference. Facilitation that recognizes the differences between hearing and listening drives positive outcomes.
-
Communications Audit
Communicating for the sake of communicating is not communicating at all. There needs to be a goal beyond the communication effort itself. Measuring the effectiveness of communication is essential and is impossible without establishing organizational goals at the outset. As the bridge between internal knowledge and external impact, communication cannot be limited to one or the other.
-
Partnership Development
We focus not on what exists at the outset of a possible partnership but rather on what might be created collaboratively — that neither partner would be able to develop alone.
