Before assuming we need a better message, it can be useful to understand how the people we're trying to reach see the issue themselves, and what might make a message meaningful to them.

Example: Design Council / Essex County Council - Climate Action

Essex County Council was developing a Youth Climate Ambassador Network, but early research suggested that climate action was not a strong priority for many students. To move forward, the council needed to understand what young people actually cared about, rather than assuming that climate itself was the starting point for engagement. I co-designed and facilitated a session bringing 15-18-year-olds and their teachers together to explore what a positive future for Essex might look like. Through futures exercises, storytelling and systems thinking, we developed ten themes for climate action, five of which were prioritised by the group. The work explored what climate communication might look like when it starts from young people's own perspectives rather than from the messages adults assume they should hear.

When a behaviour change initiative isn't being used, the issue may not be the intervention itself. It may be that we're asking people to act without understanding the wider conditions shaping what is possible, practical or meaningful for them.

Example: Design Council / London Borough of Hounslow - Climate Action

London Borough of Hounslow's Net Zero team wanted to build community participation in tackling climate change in one of the borough's most deprived neighbourhoods. An early idea was a parklet focused on air quality, transport and access to green space, but there were questions about whether resources were being directed to the right problem and whether residents would use the proposed intervention. Using design and systems thinking, I supported the team to stress-test the idea. I initiated a ward walk and explored local assets, barriers and everyday routines. This highlighted factors affecting community participation in the first place, including underused existing green space, low incomes, extensive working hours and high levels of crime. The research shifted the focus away from a predetermined intervention towards outreach that could build trust and help establish what conditions might make community participation possible in the first place.

Sometimes the most useful question isn't how to improve the established approach, but what it might be overlooking. Looking at a problem through a different lens can reveal possibilities that are difficult to see from within the usual frame.

Example: World Health Organization - Public Health

WHO programme leaders in the No Tobacco Unit asked me to explore whether anything might be missing from existing graphic health warnings on cigarette packaging, following feedback that audiences were becoming desensitised to established adverse health-impact messaging. To do so, I introduced a behavioural lens, Schwartz's Theory of Basic Human Values, to analyse 574 graphic health warnings from more than 37 countries and identify opportunities to make tobacco-control communication more culturally relevant. This research informed new questions for country-level practitioners to explore, with potential to support policy innovation and implementation of Articles 11 and 12 of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). Initial findings were published in the 10th WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic (page 19).

Getting people in the same room doesn't automatically mean they're on the same page. People from different sectors and backgrounds may arrive with different priorities, language, assumptions and ideas about what needs to happen and how, making collaboration difficult before the work has properly begun.

Example: University of Bath & Bath & North East Somerset Council - Economic Development

University of Bath's Living Well Now and in 2050 research project aimed to explore the potential adoption of Doughnut Economics as a regional economic development strategy. Interest in the Doughnut Economics concept was growing across research, policy and civil society, but engagement remained largely siloed. People came to the framework with different levels of knowledge, professional interests and perspectives, resulting in tension. To help build the shared understanding needed for meaningful participation, I developed and facilitated a nine-week readalong, 24 workshops, a public lecture and an urban photo walk. The work identified practical conditions that supported productive cross-sector dialogue in the local context: informal and preparatory spaces, creative framing, sustained relationship-building, and tools that helped people connect evidence, lived experience and policy goals.

Ideas such as sustainability or regeneration can sound straightforward at a high level, but become much less so when we try to apply them to a particular profession, organisation or project. The next step is often in exploring what the idea actually means in a particular context.

Example: Lumsden Design - Enterprise Innovation

International interior design practice Lumsden Design was facing growing expectations from its public sector clients and team to engage more confidently with social and environmental impact, but had only ever encountered sustainability through a reductive 'eco' lens. The practice had strengths across design, materials, communication, place and social value, but hadn't yet connected these to a broader understanding of sustainable development or what it could mean for the business. I mapped the team's existing knowledge and experience, then built a shared foundation around the principles of sustainable development. We used this to explore what was already present in the practice, what was missing, and where new opportunities might lie. The team recognised that sustainability was much closer to their existing strengths and interests than they'd expected. What had initially felt like a constraint became an untapped creative opportunity, with specific areas to research and develop for positive impact and a stronger basis for communicating their value.