Communicating Change Starts with Purpose-PropelledⓇ Way
Creating social impact begins with understanding the world around you. Let's learn about how Transparent Path builds shared value for its stakeholders and communicates its purpose.
The stakes are high for Eric Weaver and Paulé Wood. They run Transparent Path, a Washington based Social Purpose Corporation (SPC) that’s driven to tackle the massive issue of food waste.
It’s estimated that Americans throw away nearly $161 billion worth of food per year, or about 40% of our food supply. That’s not just people throwing away their leftovers.
Food waste happens at all stages of the supply chain. Think about it …
Food starts at a source; a farm or small food producer. Then it goes into a truck, then off a truck and into another truck. Eventually, the food reaches its destination.
But along the way, some of this food goes bad. Or maybe the grocery store manager won’t accept it because it looks damaged — people won’t buy it. This complicated process leaves people “food insecure.” They don’t know where — or if — they’ll get enough food to feed their families.
To accomplish their mission to solve food insecurity and hunger for families, Weaver and Wood need the support of everyone in the food shipping process, from small rural food producers to large grocery store owners.
But how do you even begin to gather support in such a distributed, complicated network? It takes real, involved leadership and a strong team to make a difference.
What does it take to communicate change effectively?
We at Impactika Consulting, call it the Purpose-Propelled® way. This is a communication style that looks to find a profit and communicate a message that appeals to a worthy social mission.
Coming back to Transparent Path, they speak to how their solutions will improve profits at every level of the supply chain – from local food producers to grocery store managers. And how technology helps accomplish this mission.
This is how Transparent Path describes themselves: “We are enterprise expats on a mission to reduce food waste and financial risk.”
In this short blurb, they speak about reducing food waste for people (social benefit) and reducing financial risk for market players.
Purposed-propelled language like this is critical for socially-oriented corporations but it’s a challenge to get it right.
Here are three simple principles to crafting Purpose-Propelled® language.
#1 People and community first
Purpose-propelled language is the foundation of community.
When a group of like-minded people clearly understand what the problem is and how it affects them and their families, they’ll go to great lengths to find a solution.
In Transparent Path’s case, there are suppliers and farmers that want to follow standards that are better for our environment. And there are families that want and need responsibly shipped foods.
When you start with people and community in mind, it’s easy to work backwards toward your content and communication strategy.
#2 Speak to the right people in the right way
Knowing what to say is just as important as who you’re saying it to.
Organizations like Transparent Path need to reach an audience that does things the old school way. Their audience may not be savvy with Slack or Yammer. This means that socially-driven organizations need to gain support and require a level of intention that goes beyond profit.
To get their support, you first need to understand where they’re coming from.
#3 Be clear and concise to change your world
Clear communication is conscious communication. And concise messages are the ones that spread like wildfire.
To Transparent Path, it’s important for their supporters to know they’re committed.
Eric Weaver, CEO says:
“We wanted to make sure that we show ourselves and then the world that we believe in giving back; that our current levels of food waste and insecurity need to be fixed, now. We’re committing to solving this. It’s important to us. It’s how we’re going to change the world.”
With a clear message and succinct delivery, you can rally support around your cause and build a tribe of supporters to help you change the world.
To learn how Transparent Path uses purpose-propelled language to earn a profit and achieve their mission at the same time, read the impact story we built with them.
ABOUT US: IMPACTIKA CONSULTING
We at Impactika Consulting help do-gooders do better through Purpose-Propelled® consulting. We are a digital marketing, strategy, and social change consulting firm. We help for-purpose organizations take on the world’s toughest challenges in digital rights, social and economic justice, education, and more.
As an advocate for both business and doing good, Impactika is a women-led team committed to helping organizations around the world find impactful and meaningful ways to market their purposes and connect with others. We don’t do memes. We will never buy followers. We will not create spam. We believe in creating and spreading the word about purpose-propelled people and businesses.
Let us stay in touch on LinkedIn!
www.impactikaconsulting.com