FINDING
YOUR HIDDEN
STORY
Our Discovery Process has been developed over a number of years, and, as its name suggests, allows us to discover the key issues about, and fundamental character of, an organisation. It is often most useful when an organisation has been grappling with an issue for a long time, or has become unsure of its purpose. What we often find is that the answer has been there all the time. It just has to be unearthed.
It’s not really about a sophisticated methodology – after all we’re just talking to people. The sophistication comes in really hearing what people are saying, and what they’re not saying. This is complicated, and nuanced – based on all the myriad interactions people have with you. Through all this noise, we pick up the signal.
We dig deep into the organisation’s DNA, by talking to people within the organisation, people who are in its orbit, and people who have little or no knowledge of it. We find that usually interviews provide the best format to achieve the deepest investigation and stakeholder engagement. Sometimes we supplement these with focus groups or workshops.
Those conversations inform our understanding, but they aren’t the limits of our insights. We look around at what other organisations – peers and those in completely different sectors – can teach us. We also review the existing communications across all the channels.
From this we get a deep understanding of the organisation – what it really stands for, the difference it makes, why anyone else should be interested in you. And this gets turned into a report which summarises and synthesises those voices. We get beyond meaningless corporate-speak to a set of words that capture who you really are. And set out an outline creative brief on how all the findings should be implemented across the range of communication channels.
This latter part is a vital stepping-stone to the practical implementation of telling your story. We are always intent on avoiding the bane of all reports – that they stay just that, gathering metaphorical dust. We avoid that through the thoroughness of the process, which means the recommendations are correctly founded, and by always operating within the context of real-world practicalities.
Capturing the essence of your mission has a propulsive force, giving everyone externally a clear idea of who you are, and everyone internally a sense of purpose. It is a catalyst, a platform for all the communications that follow. This can have dramatic, long-term impacts, as these examples show.
