Most Communication programs start with tactics. I start with a conversation.
Before a strategy is sketched or a message drafted, I sit down with the CEO and each program leader and ask the questions many communicators never get to: What does this organization need to accomplish in the next one to three years? What has to change - in policy, in funding, in public understanding - for that to happen? Who holds the power to make that change, and what do they currently believe?
Everything else follows from those answers.
I've worked this way for more than two decades across public health crises and climate campaigns, disaster responses and economic development initiatives, in boardrooms and in communities whose only link to the wider world is a cell phone. The sectors change. The discipline doesn't.
Listen first
A — I learn what actually moves your stakeholders. One of the first things I do is listen — to leadership, to program staff, to the communities being served. Understanding what a policymaker needs to hear, what a funder needs to trust, and what a community actually believes determines the quality of everything built on top of it.
Plan backwards
B—Every dollar connects to your goals. I've told more than one CEO: if we can't measure what I'm doing for you, let's not do it. Every strategy, message, and campaign connects directly to something the organization has committed to achieving and can be measured against it.
Fresh Thinking
C—The unexpected answer is often the right one. I ask what this particular organization, with these particular resources and goals, actually needs and the answer is often something that didn't exist before. At a climate policy think tank, that meant designing an event at a UN Conference that won government endorsements for the organization's new proposal.
Measure what matters
D — Results your board and funders will trust. Coverage volume, social reach, and subscriber growth prove activity. What reveals whether communications is actually working is often qualitative: a policymaker's changed position, a funder's deepened confidence, a partner's decision to align their work with yours. I measure both.