lucid plot

We want to use design, content, and technology to help our organisations create customer-centred and sustainable digital work: services as seamless as Zipcar, mobile apps as intuitive as Instagram, customer service as helpful as Zappos, and content as useful as GOV.UK. But our culture gets in the way. Our organisations operate like factories, determined to preserve hierarchy, divide responsibility into silos, and dehumanise work so it’s more “efficient”. We’ve got plenty of ideas, we work with skilled people, and our tools get better every day—but until we start changing our organisations’ culture, we won’t achieve our objectives.

Start Changing Your Organisation’s Culture Using Storytelling and Startup Techniques from Together London on Vimeo.

In this 8 minute video I explain why we need to start changing our organisations’ culture, how storytelling can help, and what we can learn from startups.

Participate in the workshop

I’m leading a full day workshop on this topic on 23 May 2013 in London. We’re offering a discounted “early bird” price until this Friday 10 May. See you there!

We’ve come a long way from the early days of the web, when “real” business people would pat us on the head and say things like, “your digital toy is nice, but my customers will never use it,” and we’d believe them. They were responsible adults with business degrees, while we were just messing around, right?

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In Episode 10 of the Together London Podcast, I talk to Rob Hinchcliffe about community management, transmedia storytelling, and content strategy. Check out Rob’s website, his upcoming talk at Confab London, and follow him on twitter @hinchcliffe.

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In Episode 9 of the Together London Podcast, I talk to Wiep Hamstra from the Netherlands about accessibility, how to structure web teams, and becoming an agent of change. Check out Wiep’s website, her upcoming talk at Confab London, and follow her on twitter @wiepstra.

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As people who work in technology, content, and the web, we’re at the forefront of cultural change. And we need to take responsibility for the way we run our communities, both online and face-to-face. Let’s talk about some of our problems.

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Content strategy isn’t a technique or a process or a seven-stage program that will solve your organization’s content problems. If it was that easy, we’d all be relaxing on our yachts right now (WiFi enabled, of course) instead of tearing our hair out.

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Most organizations are taking huge digital risks.

“We need someone to help us with our content strategy.” That was the request from a prospective client in the digital marketing department of a financial services group, and after spending five minutes with their website I understood why. Their business units were out of control: publishing endless content without a plan. The symptom they wanted to fix was poor customer experience ratings: most customers asked to be called back instead of attempting to use the website.

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Organizations can’t succeed in our new multi-platform, mobile world unless they transform themselves into digital-first businesses.

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In Episode 3 of the Together London Podcast, I talk to Kate Kenyon, content strategist for the BBC, eBay, the UK Government, Orange, and Expedia, about her career so far, getting content strategy adopted, and how to build a business case for change. Don’t miss Kate’s London workshop on 21 September.

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In Episode 2 of the Together London Podcast, I speak to Sara Wachter-Boettcher, author of the upcoming Rosenfeld Media book “Content Everywhere”, about content strategy, future ready content, and how to change organisations. Don’t miss Sara’s London workshop on 21 September.

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