OUR IMPACT
We're on a mission to provide the best learning and creative experiences with the most positive impact — for the people we work with, the community of Rutland and the planet we share.
WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?
Positive purpose + bad communication = good things get lost
Too many answers for human and planetary health are getting stuck. Life-changing medicines not funded because the rationale wasn’t clear. Low-carbon choices ignored because they sound boring. School leavers drifting because they can’t frame or express their value. Collaboration shelved because no one started the conversation. Innovations on hold until someone figures out the patent requirements. People everywhere struggling to get by, just because they can’t make clear what they need — while those trying to help them can’t be heard. The impact of bad comms is so big it’s hard to see, but many of the causes are simple and waiting to be fixed.
HOW CAN WE SOLVE IT?
Positive purpose + good communication = good things happen
A new generation of organisations is making human and planetary health their reason to exist. Each has found a clear purpose. It could be making waste-free packaging, developing new medicines, helping a disadvantaged group or preparing others to lead change. By providing purpose-driven organisations with the skills and resources to explain what they do and why it matters, we enable their stakeholders to understand, trust and engage. Which is when change happens.
WHAT’S THE MODEL?
Positive purpose + learning the skills + the right backup = good things happen
Since 2008 we’ve been evolving a model for change based on a mix of learning facilitation and creative support. Learning interventions include one-to-one coaching and mentoring, group workshops, project focused learning programmes, and editorial guidance. Creative support spans everything a client might need to produce an effective communication, whether it’s a document, presentation, website, film, event … or song.
We first developed this approach with corporate customers, over time turning our attention towards projects for positive change. In 2023 we began the process of becoming certified as a B-Corp, setting out our mission to work with purpose-driven organisations, and changing our Articles of Association to reflect this. Working with our stakeholders we’ll continue to test and evolve the model.
WHAT ELSE CAN WE DO?
Governance
Only 32% of small business owners in the UK are women, despite outnumbering men by 900,000. The Art of Explaining is majority-owned by a woman, Clare Heath, and more than 70% of our senior consultants are women.
We’ve amended our Articles of Association, which now legally require us to consider all stakeholders and make business choices that have a material positive impact on society and the environment, taken as a whole. Our mission statement supports this promise.
Environment
Being service-based and working locally or remotely gives a lighter footprint in some respects, but like all digital businesses we’re part of the significant and widely ignored global impact of fabricating and powering devices and data storage facilities. We’re finding ways to reduce our digital environmental impact, for example by clearing unnecessary storage and switching to low-impact data-efficient website design. We also recycle, use low-carbon travel options and have started to measure our carbon footprint. Our offices are in a thermally inefficient old building, but we’re taking steps to improve efficiency, for example with thermal blinds.
Community
We want to extend our learning and creative experiences to the local community of Rutland. This year we’ve volunteered nearly 10 days for local projects that include serving on the governing board of Catmose College, running careers workshops for young people, and leading a community choir for all ages and abilities.
Customers
We’ve promised to give our customers the best learning and creative experiences with the most positive impact — and we need them to tell us how we’re doing. Having people and planet alongside profit in our constitution has pushed us to engage with customers more fully — as stakeholders in a bigger picture. We’re currently completing a series of surveys to understand what they need from us and how we can improve. We’re also accountable as an FSQS-registered company and CPD Group accredited provider.
