My approach

The Design Council’s Double Diamond is a useful way of thinking about how I work, across both coaching and communication:

We start by opening things up: listening, questioning assumptions and exploring what’s really going on. Then we make sense of what we’ve found, refining the themes to identify what really matters and form a useful plan of action.

From there, we open things up again – exploring ideas, approaches and possible solutions – before narrowing our focus to put the best ones into practice and achieve results.

Good communication has moved on from a top-down approach. To engage people and build trust, we need to create a shared mindset between ourselves (the person or organisation doing the communicating) and our audience (the people we need to bring with us).

Once I move into the discovery phase, my BRIDGE approach helps me look beneath the surface through six domains that shape people’s experience:

Here’s what those themes mean:

Barriers  What is getting in the way?
Relationships  What relationships and power dynamics are at play?
Identity  How do people see themselves and where they belong?
Data  What do people know, believe and assume?
Goals  What does each side want or need to happen?
Emotions  What are people feeling, and how may that affect what they do?

Looking at the context from both sides – audience and communicator – reveals assumptions, tensions and opportunities that might otherwise be missed. We then use this rich insight to inform an approach that genuinely resonates with people and brings them with us.