Community Engagement

audiences respond to defensiveness and euphemism far more negatively than they respond to an admission of fault. If people already know something went wrong, telling them it didn't, or that it wasn't that serious, doesn't reassure them. It irritates them.

Most people working in communications are trying to do the right thing. They want to steady the situation, reduce harm, and keep trust intact. But "strategic comms" can slide into defensiveness easily, and the response can end up sounding more like protecting credibility than listening.

When a campaign lands badly, the instinct is to ask who signed it off. The real answer says more about how approval systems work than about any one person's judgement.

A housing association posted recently about the work it had done for tenants during the heatwave, and the work itself was genuinely good. In the same list they reminded contractors to follow guidance...

People are very good at answering the question in front of them, and not nearly as good at telling you what they actually need. This is not a flaw in your residents or your service users. It is simply how human beings work.

This article explores seven of the most common communication mistakes local authorities make and offers practical solutions that communications teams can implement immediately.

This guide explores practical ways to build public trust through communications and highlights actions organisations can implement immediately.

How we’re helping the National Police Association win on LinkedIn by designing for what people say.

Human behaviour hasn’t changed nearly as much as our strategies assume. This creates a fundamental mismatch between how organisations communicate and how people actually receive our communications.

For years, we’ve treated communications as a desk job. Writing statements. Monitoring channels. Managing approvals. Reacting to headlines. Producing content at speed, often at arm’s length from what we’re supposed to be explaining and off the back of SLT requests. It’s efficient because it’s measurable – you always know where they are. Increasingly, it’s a massive problem.

Why leading with the story changes everything for your communications strategy.