Talk to me: find out how thinkpublic helped public sector professionals reconnect with users, and each other.

1. talk to me
helping public
sector professionals
reconnect with users,
and each other
External communications and internal communications are
deeply linked. If your team doesn’t know what its users need
to hear, then approaches will differ, and communications will
become inconsistent. Read on to find out how thinkpublic
helped one public sector body reconnect with its users...
social innovation and design

2. In 2008, thinkpublic were approached by a senior executive
at a high profile public sector body. Having attended one of
our regular Social Labs, he was impressed by the thinkpublic
approach and wanted to know if we could help. About to launch
a high-profile national service, the 80-strong team were not
communicating the organisation’s role consistently to outside
stakeholders. Mixed messages kept being put out.
thinkpublic paid the team a visit. After an afternoon
of interviews and workshops, we soon discovered
that internal communications was the main
challenge faced by the team. This was affecting
how they communicated their work to the outside
world. So we went out to meet their users, to find
out what they needed to hear from the team about
their new product.
thinkpublic filmed interviews with representatives By reconnecting
of all the team’s different stakeholders. When with their users, the
we went back to the team and showed them the team have realised
stakeholders’ enthusiasm and commitment for their how they need to
new product, it recommitted them to their work. communicate the
It helped them understand what their users strengths of their
expected of them, and the role they needed to new product.
play in their sector. Their next challenge was to
step up to that role.

3. We organised a second series of workshops,
designed to help different members of the team
see how they could improve the overall approach
to internal communications. Using our interviews
with stakeholders, we identified key messages
about the team’s services that each stakeholder
needed to hear. And we developed visual tools
that would help them remember these messages,
to embed the new communications strategy within
the team. The products developed are now being
used across the organisation.
The project has delivered good results. By
reconnecting with their users, the team have
realised how they need to communicate the
strengths of their new service. And by employing
visual methods that get people talking about
internal difficulties in new ways, thinkpublic have
been able to stretch the team to meet their internal
communications challenge in a positive way. The
team now have an enhanced understanding of
their users, and the tools to communicate and
engage with them better into the future.

4. find out more:
To find out how thinkpublic
can help improve your
communications contact:
thinkpublic
5 Calvert Avenue
London E2 7JP
+44 (0) 207 033 9978
deborah.szebeko@thinkpublic.com
www.thinkpublic.com