Your company is special. Tell its story

If your company has a few years under its belt, it is a success story. We've all heard those statistics about how many businesses don't make it past the first year. No doubt there have been some ups-and-downs, but two things are certain: there are a lot of stories to tell  and there have been a lot of lessons learnt.

CELEBRATE YOUR HISTORY

Having a company history written is the perfect way to capture those stories while they are still fresh in people's minds. It's like recording Grandma's stories while she's still with us: a time capsule that will provide worthwhile memories for generations to come.

Anniversaries are the perfect time to do this. Your tenth birthday? Twentieth? I recently worked on a history for a business's 50th anniversary – and they have every intention of coming back again in 25 years.

But of course you can have your history captured at any time. Perhaps a number of long-term employees is retiring. Perhaps the family business is being sold so that the founders can enjoy a well-deserved retirement.

I can not only help you write your history but with my colleagues we can turn the whole thing into a beautiful book that will be valued by your clients and staff for years to come. But of course if you don't want to go as far as a book it can be something smaller – as small as just a webpage if you prefer. 

Whatever the reason, and whatever its final form, the important thing is that the history is captured 'before all the old people die'.

Contact me today and we can have a chat about what might work for your business.

Capture your corporate memory and 'lessons learnt'

Many organisations find themselves making the same mistakes over and over again – sometimes completely unknowingly. The main reason for this is that as management and staffing positions turnover (something that is ever-more frequent), the corporate memory is 'reset' every few years. There is no one left to remember what was tried before and why it did or didn't work.

My 'lessons learnt' service is one way to improve this situation simply by capturing 'what worked and what didn't' while it is fresh and before everyone moves on to the next thing.

This is not a far-reaching, expensive service involving company-wide attitude surveys and multiple workshops. In my experience such exercises are too big to be repeated so they become a one-off snapshot of a moment in the organisation's life.

Rather, my service is designed to be 'bite-sized' and minimally intrusive. It can be used at the end of a major project, capturing what worked and what didn't. It could be an annual recap, looking back at 'the year that was' as you look towards the next year. It could be an reflections interview with a departing senior manager. The idea is 'smaller histories, more often'.

Each project is designed to meet specific needs and constraints, but a typical 'lessons learnt' project would involve:

• Interviews conducted with the key players
• Possibly a joint 'lessons learnt' workshop
• Collection of any relevant documents
• Compilation of a written 'history' of the project or period emphasising what worked, what didn't and what to change for next time.

The results are usually delivered in the form of an electronic document in a convenient format. Printed versions can be created if needed. Photography and/or video records can be organised in addition if required.

The primary aim of this service is capture your corporate memory and reproduce it in a form that can easily be digested by future employees. Our aim is to keep these documents short but meaningful so that they will be read and won't just gather electronic dust.

If this sounds like something your organisation could benefit from, contact me to discuss your situation. No obligation of course.