Good Messaging isn't Enough

AKA Beyond the master narrative

We believe that our actions, as individuals or as organizations, are as much a part of our storytelling as the words we say. As with our minds and bodies, the two must move together as one.

Whether it’s due to limited capacity or a habitual reliance on external expertise, our movements often turn to public relations consultants, deciding strategy and action in one place and words and messaging in another. We’ve seen all kinds of organizations separating organizing and communications in isolated silos. Relying on this approach places an unreasonable burden on magic words to fill gaps in strategy – or worse, mistaking tactics for strategy. “Good messaging” does not exist in a vacuum apart from the actions we take in the world.

We work with partners to build shared analysis and narratives that support and inspire strategic organizing and communication. By developing strategy rooted in narrative analysis, we build the capacity, instincts, and conditions that lead to effective messaging. Our work helps groups abandon the belief that outside experts hold the answers.

When we combine organizing and communications, we can let go of the need for experts to conjure magic words for a given situation, and instead learn to produce more nimble, effective, and diverse messages and narratives.

There are no magic words.