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Effective communications and engagement are critical to the shared ownership and successful, sustainable delivery of any change programme. Winning hearts and minds is hard work. You won’t always get everyone ‘on side’, but you can and should create plenty of opportunities to talk about and involve your audiences in the change ahead. You need to be able to consistently describe why change is necessary, have a compelling vision for the future and a clear plan to get there that those with a stake in the change can help shape and influence. Working together to develop solutions gets better results. Some changes require formal consultation, which comes with legal obligations too.

At Hood & Woolf we are known for supporting our clients to deliver effective communications and engagement activity to deliver large scale transformational change programmes. We regularly work across regions with multiple stakeholders, working across organisational boundaries to develop a shared vision and voice.

We have significant expertise, specialist knowledge and experience in pre-consultation engagement activity and formal public consultation. We have a deep understanding of statutory duties relating to healthcare service reconfigurations.

We also work with organisations to maximise support for planning applications and are experienced in pre-application engagement and consultation programmes.

Issues, events, regulatory action and governance scandals have always dominated the news, but never more so than when the people representing an organisation say the wrong things and fuel additional unwanted attention.

Instead of disappearing quietly in one media cycle, simple issues can quickly escalate into a crisis, negatively shaping perceptions and your organisation’s narrative. Your leadership time and focus are then diverted from resolving the issue itself. Instead you are propelled into reactively responding to media and stakeholders on their terms rather than yours.

At Hood & Woolf we will help you get on top of the issue, prioritise actions, work out what you need to say to whom, when and how, and regain control. We are experts in crisis and reputation management and will work alongside you through your most challenging times.

We specialise in developing communications and engagement strategies that ensure, no matter what the issue is you are facing, your organisation can own it, respond with impact and empathy and make itself the centre of accurate, authoritative information about it.

As so many successful organisations have proven before, a crisis can strike at any time. What matters is how it is handled. Working with you we can help you respond to an upcoming issue or take the time to scan your environment for potential threats. We can create a comprehensive plan that will ensure you know exactly how to respond and retain control of your organisation’s narrative in the event of a crisis.

Try our free CRISIS SCORECARD to see how well you and your organisation are prepared.

Your corporate communications are an important tool for engaging people in your organisation’s aims and what you are doing. The way you communicate is a core expression of how you lead your business and what matters to you. To be authentic and credible you need to develop consistent, but nuanced and targeted, messaging. You need mechanisms in place for ongoing dialogues with multiple audiences. Effective corporate communications will help you deliver your strategy and deepen organisational relationships with those who matter most to your success.

At Hood & Woolf we specialise in developing and delivering targeted communications and engagement strategies. We can help you identify who you need to be talking to and how best to reach them, making sure you develop a consistent narrative and messaging focused on your most important issues.

Delivering well-executed integrated marketing campaigns that have clear goals can deliver numerous benefits to your organisation – boosting awareness and understanding, brand loyalty, competitive advantage and sales, changing behaviours and more. The key is to use a variety of channels to send out consistent messages in an engaging way that your audience can relate to.

We help organisations bring their brands and campaigns to life and make a real difference to their business. Working hand in hand with the very best creative designers, we can build your brand or campaign, define its positioning, develop the right messaging, and create how your key audiences and stakeholders experience and engage with it.

At Hood & Woolf we create inspiring and creative branding and campaigns that are focused on helping you achieve your business goals.

Through bespoke training and workshops we help organisations prepare to communicate effectively with the people that matter most to their success.

Media training – nothing generates more negative media coverage than a lack of honesty, empathy and transparency and the leader who says just the wrong thing at the wrong time – or doesn’t say anything at all. Our media training, usually hosted at your premises, with working national journalists and camera crew, will ensure your spokespeople respond with one voice, and deliver a consistent and clear message to all audiences that reassures and builds trust.

Public meeting panel training – providing opportunities to let people have their say through public meetings is important for many organisations but it can be unpredictable, especially when discussing contentious issues. Our training will ensure your panel is supported and prepared to handle the unexpected, manage the meeting effectively, handle challenging questions with integrity, and ensure there are ample opportunities to listen as well as speak, so everyone can hear and contribute to discussion.

Message development workshops – it can be challenging to create a shared vision and voice for programmes when they cross organisational boundaries. Our workshop supports leaders to work together to develop, refine and agree key messages which are consistent and crucial to the success of these challenging programmes.

Developing a bespoke stakeholder relations strategy – becoming a trusted voice for your key audiences and stakeholders, isn’t something that just happens. It requires planning, coordination and delivery at the highest level and naturally takes time. Our workshop supports leadership teams to identify, map and understand your most important stakeholders, audiences and influencers. We will work with you to identify who really owns the often complex relationships at play, and to develop an effective stakeholder relations strategy for your organisation.

We can provide experienced chairs and facilitators to help you deliver effective meetings and events.

Our team has significant experience of chairing high profile and contentious public meetings and press conferences and facilitating events. Bringing an independence/organisational neutrality but an understanding of the issues and objectives you want to achieve, we ensure they are run professionally, that your organisation can effectively get your message across and answer questions, and that attendees can satisfactorily contribute.