Who I worked with
AGO Alliance, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to improving the lives of children with the exceptionally rare Argonaute Syndromes (AGO1 & AGO2 genes) and their families
The challenge
Argonaute Syndromes are rare and so the condition is not widely understood by medical professionals, research scientists, affected families or the general public. The AGO Alliance was founded by parents of children who have been diagnosed with the rare genetic mutations. They wanted to connect families who receive this devastating news (amongst each other and with researchers) and “do the impossible to enable our children to develop like other children”. Everyone involved volunteers their time on a part-time basis. While their task to spread their messages was huge, the time available was limited so they needed to be as effective as possible with their communication.
What happened?
I worked with Nora, Co-Founder and President, to provide a series of facilitated sessions through my ‘Write your own comms strategy’ service. She completed the initial diagnostic questionnaire and we talked through what she wanted to get from taking part. The first workshop was a chance for Nora and other key individuals to come together and discuss the organisation’s communications from different perspectives.
Following on from the first session, and using tools I provided, Nora was able to write a draft strategic plan. The review and accountability conversations with me helped her to refine her strategy and assess how it was working.
As the team and I were based in 3 different countries across Europe, the sessions all took place online.
The outcomes
The sessions provided a structured approach to developing a communications strategy that was realistic for their ambitions and resources. As none of those involved had specific communications experience, this guidance helped them to think through key perspectives and assess what was most important to them to achieve. They continue to use and refine their approach to communication, including using the words of the strategy to help them craft good prompts for ChatGPT and save time with content creation.
“Working with Sarah brought us clarity and focus for our communication. Her “write your own strategy” was a great fit for us, as it helped us think through our goals, target audience, messages, channels and success metrics. Sarah also provided very helpful feedback on our draft strategy that helped us sharpen it. The strategy has been a real asset in planning and executing on our communication efforts.”