When was the last time you or your team thought about your “why?” Why do you do the work you do, publish content out into the ether, or source new clients? These are all questions our team took some time to think about and answer. Truth be told, like many others in the communications field, we don’t usually have time to focus on our own messaging. When our team started down this path, we realized we had lost sight of our why. Make no mistake, we were all still committed to doing the work we do for our clients day-in and day-out, but we found ourselves asking what is it that binds our work together? So, we thought long and hard about our personal “why” as it relates to the work we do for cities, public utilities, companies, nonprofits, etc., and we landed on what was authentic and true for all of us- “to strengthen community.”
In the spirit of strengthening community amongst our team, we took it one step further and all came up with two things we do well as a collective, and two problems we solve for our clients. Not surprisingly, we were all in sync with our responses and of course, there was some overlap. What really struck us was the fact that all our responses fed back into our why of strengthening community. Increasing stakeholder buy-in through education, being proactive with local and national media outlets, using messaging that’s accessible to all, and storytelling in fun and creative ways, is all about strengthening a sense of community. That is at the core, the end goal, the reason why we get up and do the work we love every day.
Below are the two lists we came up with during this exercise.
Problems We Solve:
- Take the pressure off our clients to respond to media during a crisis
- Stop the spread of misinformation
- Provide fast responses and turn-around time for projects
- Optimize their social media networks
- Establish clear and consistent branding Simplify their messaging so it can be understood by all
- Summarize a lot of information into a few short bite size sentences for easy consumption
Things We Do Well:
- Communicate with each other
- Develop systems
- Continue to increase our efficiency and welcome new solutions
- Provide constructive criticism to each other in a non-threatening way
- Make lemonade out of lemons 😊
- Hit deadlines, no exceptions
- Support each other to grow in our roles and as a team
- Create visuals, videos, graphics that work
In closing, don’t be afraid to ask yourself or your team to clarify your “why?” Yes, it can help drive your marketing, content, or sales strategy, but more importantly, it serves as the binding force at the center of your team. Get inspired, stay creative, and keep moving forward!