WAALD - The Narrative Consultancy
WAALD has been developing strategic narratives for the economic, political and cultural sectors since 2012. Founded by Frank Otto Dietrich and Ralf Schmidt-Bleeker, WAALD supports top decision-makers in all fields from strategy development to the implementation of their strategic agenda.
Narratives move our world
When certainties disappear, facts are contentious and presidents govern via Twitter, then we’re in the middle of a new era – an era of intellectual change where fresh thinking is needed in order to be successful in practice.
Purpose and identification are today more important than ever. People need narratives to organise the complexity of their lives: they appeal to people’s imaginations, they give assurance, they convey morality and ethics, they provide justification and clarification, and they help us with advice, warnings and information.
Method
We live in a world where little is achieved by facts alone: only narratives create the bigger picture. Economic, cultural and political brands are thus being faced with completely new challenges, which is why WAALD follows its own understanding of strategy:
- Strategy is narrative!
- No narrative = no strategy!
- Strategy as narrative means acting differently – in all the organisation’s key areas of activity!
For this purpose, WAALD has developed the following work process:
- Story Listening – Interviews with members of the organisation as well as relevant stakeholders; transcription of the results
- Social Listening – Observations on the market and the competition in a narrative format
- Semantic Space – Presentation of surveys in the semantic space; highlighting areas of tension as the starting points for narratives
- Strategic Narratives – Dissonance-relevance analyses and the formulation of strategic narratives, namely transformation, purpose and competitive narratives
- Strategic Agenda – Action planning; project planning and rollout strategies that put the narrative into practice within the organisation
- Implementation – Supporting the strategic agenda up to implementation
WAALD is an agile, collaborative organisation, its growth based on a meaningful participation model for partners and employees.
WAALD is independent and works with clients in co-operative revenue and participation systems.