The chief virtue that language can have is clearness, and nothing detracts from it so much as the use of unfamiliar words.
- Hippocrates Too often organisations are so caught up in their own language that they struggle to tell their story to a wider audience. As outsiders we will challenge your organisation’s traditional communication processes in order to cut through the jargon. The case studies below illustrate some approaches recently used by Advanced Narrative in internal and external communications.
Forum Theatre delivers customer service
A division of a major Australian retailer wanted to make customer service the most important focus of its business. Customer service is tricky, as it requires a real understanding of relationships with individuals rather than check lists and false smiles. Using stories gathered from a mystery shopping program, Advanced Narrative created a workshop in partnership with Be Learning, a specialist learning and development consultancy. Central to the workshop experience was the use of Forum Theatre, a technique that invites the audience into the story, allowing them to witness, comment on and act out roles. The workshop was a resounding success and provided the necessary catalyst to begin the change process. The stories have also been used to create a series of instructional DVDs. Additional workshops have been conducted around the country and behaviour change has begun.
Integrity in reporting fosters real outcomes A large state government department must communicate regularly with the community on operations. Information is gleaned from statistical data and delivered in a story format that allows the everyday voting public to assess progress. Key to this project has been the creation of a network for gathering stories that illuminate statistics. This process provides evidence that allows management to continually align strategy with real outcomes.
The resulting reports have integrity and have been well-received by the community and media.
A literature map meets information needs An Australian consultancy group with a unique history and diverse offer needed a suite of printed materials that provided information on their services within a unified narrative. Key to the project was creating a hierarchy of inter-related documents that provided customers with multiple entry points into the story depending on their interests and needs. In this way the customer had immediate questions about a particular service answered while still having a sense of the company’s philosophy and the other services on offer. Advanced Narrative worked collaboratively with key people from the consultancy to “harvest words” that allowed fresh and compelling copy to be written. This story-gathering process continually challenged the team to refine key messages and points of differentiation in a crowded marketplace.
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