Communication happens when we listen
Sarah-Jane Freni has been Golden Key’s Communications Manager since December 2019. On multiple disadvantage day, she reflects on how we give our clients a voice to ensure we get to #seethefullpicture.
I studied Public Relations at university and have been working in comms or related fields (events, marketing, …) for over 20 years now. My role has changed hugely over the years, particularly with the advent of social media, but I still love what I do and I’m always keen to learn more about methods and tools of communication.
Golden Key is a multi-faceted organisation with many stakeholders and audiences. It’s been interesting managing our communications, especially in what has been a particularly unusual 18 months. And for the most part, I’d like to think that my experience and knowledge has allowed me to tackle most challenges with skill and grace and that I’ve managed to increase awareness of our work and improved the flow of communication among our various stakeholders.
However, finding ways to give our clients a voice, has been a tough nut to crack. You see, typically in comms, we’re encouraged to define our key messages and stick to them. You look at your organisation’s objectives, decide how comms is going to support these and then agree what the messaging should be. And then everything you produce is derived from these key messages. You create a brand, templates, a tone of voice, visuals, etc., all in line with your messaging. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, good communication relies on clarity and key messages offer just that.
But when you’re working with “complex” people, who have often been forced into boxes by services and have subsequently lost their voice, trying to make them stick to your comms model tends to be fruitless. Our clients deserve to have their story told but they are often unable to share it in ways that fit our neat little templates.
The beauty of Golden Key of course is that it is a safe environment for experimenting, so experimenting we did. And beautiful things started to happen when we listened. And I mean, truly listened!
At the start of the pandemic, one of our clients agreed to keep a diary of his lockdown experience and share it on our blog. I imposed no agenda, no format, no timeline, I just gave him free reign and unconditional support. Our email exchanges were about his writing, of course, but also him asking me technical questions on things like graphic design and which software to use and I helped him as best as I could. And what followed was an inspiring series of blog posts over the course of a year. While we gained an insight in his world and in his recovery journey, SJ found his voice and bloomed.
I wanted to find ways of creating video case studies that would protect our clients’ anonymity. One of our Housing First client agreed to trial a whiteboard video. Again, I imposed no rules, no format, no expectations. Together with his key worker, I sat down in his home with my recording equipment and with the help of just a few prompts, he told us his story and we listened. His key worker later told me that the client had said more in that session than he’d ever done before. After the interview was over, I wrote a transcript which I then turned into a script that the client signed off. We hired a voiceover actor and created the whiteboard video. I must have listened to his interview a dozen times and while putting the video together, I must have heard his story a dozen times more. And yet, every time I see or hear the video, my breath still catches and my heart gives a lurch. By giving our client a platform, one free of judgement and agenda, we managed to capture his journey in all its perfect imperfection. The end product is a powerful video and a cathartic experience for the client.
At the end of last year, we were approached by Arnolfini and Bristol Photo Festival who wanted to commission a photo project on the theme of Housing and Wellbeing. Jessie Edwards-Thomas was selected, and Golden Key gave her access to the clients who were residing in a hotel as part of the Everyone In initiative. Jessie ran weekly workshops with our clients, opening a dialogue with them on their experience of the homelessness pathways. Together, they co-produced a series of images and then curated the images to create an exhibit for Arnolfini. Grey Areas is now up for everyone to see and our team visited the exhibition this past week. What we saw is a display that is thought-provoking and gives us an unexpected insight into our clients’ world. The exhibition looks nothing like what our typical comms would look like, nothing like what I would ever have written or created. And yet, our clients’ messages came through, loud and clear. I’m told that for some clients, the creative sessions with Jessie were the highlight of their week and I know of at least one client who said it made him feel seen for the first time.
When chasing client stories, us communications professionals are guilty of creating barriers because we tend to get so wrapped up in our messaging and templates and models of communication. The reality is that clients with multiple disadvantage are rarely able to engage with us at that level. I’ve come to realise that our role is not to dictate the message but rather to translate it. We should give clients the means to tell us their story in their own way and our job and challenge, as communicators, is to find ways to share and amplify that message.
If we truly want to #seethefullpicture, we should listen, with no agenda, no judgement and no template! By offering our clients access to a wide range of tools, by letting them dictate their medium, we are giving them a voice. And their voice deserves to be heard.