6 months into The Change Arc and I'm feeling reflective, thankful and excited in equal measure.
Reflective of a whirlwind 6 months after my business partner (Rob) and I took the leap of faith to launch The Change Arc and also very thankful that we did.
I'm also excited about the potential, the huge possibilities of the businesses and the community we can offer to changemakers that want to make things happen.
We've worked with some incredibly inspiring people in the last 6 months and have been blown away by their dedication and enthusiasm. The work we've done has validated the very reason for forming the agency and the value we thought we could add through a more connected approach.
I'm often asked how it's going and what it is we actually do at The Change Arc. With this in mind, I thought it would be a good opportunity to share our view of the agency and the reasons we created the business in the first place.
So What is the Change Arc?
When people ask me about The Change Arc, I'm often met with confusion and curiosity. They've read our headline mission statement on the website and are interested to find out more.
We enable changemakers to grow and inspire others.
Ok, so what does that really mean?
Well, it means that we help individuals and teams unlock their changemaking capability, develop powerful communication skills and then we work with them to inspire others act.
Change comes in all shapes and sizes, but one thing is sure, it doesn't happen on its own. Someone or something is the catalyst.
To change the status quo, audiences need to be moved and inspired to think differently. This may be to act, to try, to champion, to advocate and spread a message to others. Whether it's a cause, a campaign, an election, a new product, a new way of office working or a company transformation, there's actually little difference.
It's about great communication. The right message at the right time relative to your target audience. Great communication isn't just transactional, it can create a feeling, a moment in time, a revelation of shared understanding and vision. Clarity of "why", "how" and "what" is created relevant to the individual, and that moment grows.
Change is also personal. It happens individually, one conversation and interaction at a time. So, at the Change Arc, we look at ways to amplify and scale this.
Research and data insights help us to understand key audience profiles which is crucial. By knowing what's important to them, gaining insight or context into their perspectives, we can create relatable messaging strategies that builds trust and confidence and importantly impact.
Through our projects we prioritise and focus on the routes to influence. Who we need to engage with and when, identifying the early adopters, champions and advocates along the way to amplify our message to meet the goal.
In the last 6 months, we've worked with a number of inspiring people across the areas of politics, social entrepreneurship and business. We've operated deliberately in the shadows, acting as partner, navigator and accelerant to their purpose.
Our work with individuals and organisations shifts mindset, stimulates action and nurtures loyalty.
How did The Change Arc form?
It all started with a shared belief between Rob and I that positive change can be achieved one conversation at a time. We were both ready for a new challenge and both had aligned aspirations to put our efforts towards something that could make a positive difference.
Through our own experiences, we knew first hand that leadership and changemaking can be a lonely place and decided that we wanted to change that.
But we didn't want to create just another communication, design or digital agency. Instead, we wanted to focus on supporting individuals - the changemakers who seek to make a real difference.
We could see a real lack of integrated support available for great people looking to make a difference. So we developed a blended offering to help accelerate things. A combination of personal development, communications strategy, insights and activation to create a unique and effective agency approach.
This model of working with our partners is allowing us to support their aspirations consistently, build deep relationships and ultimately enable them to succeed. Already our attempt to connect the dots where individuals agencies cannot is reaping the rewards.
We try not to put ourselves in any particular box, but you could call us Coaches, Thinkers, Creators and Critical Friends. We support individuals and organizations to fight the good fight and are in the trenches with them side by side.
Looking forward
The Change Arc community is now also starting to build. We're enjoying connecting together like minded individuals to support each other and over the next year we're excited to develop content and resources for all to contribute to and share. We'll continue to learn, to disrupt, build our use cases and refine the way we operate.
So, here we are 6 months in. Passionate about creating positive change and supporting those who share that passion, delivering exciting projects and having a great time doing it. Lets see what the next 6 months holds.
If you would like to understand more about how The Change Arc can support you or your organisation's change goals, get in touch through the usual channels
Iain Fowler is the Co Founder and Managing Partner of The Change Arc, a strategic communications agency and community dedicated to unleashing changemaker potential. After 20 yrs in the media and communications industry, Iain now focusses his time developing individual changemakers and organisations communication capability and connecting this with strategy to effect positive change.