DELIVER ON YOUR POTENTIAL

Clarity First helps you clarify and communicate complex ideas in any setting.

By adopting our three-part, So What Strategy approach you will learn how to design your communication strategy, develop your one-page storyline and deliver your communication powerfully in any setting.

Click here for the curriculum for the Core Modules 

... we regularly see people cut both the length of time it takes to prepare their communication and the time it takes to get a result halve.

Here are some examples:

- Anthony's Chief Financial Officer started getting responding to his emails within the hour rather than providing delayed or no responses.

- Cerise started seeing her Steering Committees agreeing with her recommendations the first time she presented them.

- Stefan went from preparing 50+ pages for his business cases to preparing just 2 pages - and getting a fast 'yes'.

- Rebecca and her team cut the amount of time it takes to prepare board papers by 60%.

- Javed was told that his finance paper was the best the CEO had seen in his 3.5 years with the company.

- Alice, an analytics professional, who is not a native English speaker, has become the 'go to' person in her team when they are preparing any important communication.

Clarity First provides a ‘go to’ framework that helps you clarify your thinking before communicating in any situation.

We see good communication as an outcome of clear thinking, rather than the other way around.

This means no more drafting long papers or PowerPoints and then iterating endlessly on them, but rather using a structured technique to map your ideas onto a single page, socialise it and only then prepare your final piece of communication with speed.

We don't see the communication itself is not the be-all, rather the ‘be-all’ is the impact you have.

We are delighted when you work through our process and realise you do not need to communicate at all.

This happens more often than you might expect.

Clarity First is for anyone who wants to engage their stakeholders in complex ideas.

Participants are smart professionals who have never been taught the skills they need to communicate in a way that engages other busy executives, particularly decision makers.

Current participants include those in analytics, consulting, project management, the law, organisational development, research, technology and more.

They typically have 15 or more years' experience, but include professionals with anywhere from 5 years to 30+ from all corners of the globe.

Davina Stanley founded and facilitates this program.

Davina learned the foundations of her craft at McKinsey & Company, and has been helping technical experts to communicate clearly for more than 20 years.

She and her business partner, Gerard Castles, lead a team of 8 structured communication specialists based in Australia who increasingly travel internationally to serve clients from a wide range of industries.

Where Davina is not able to do so, her team members (most of whom are McKinsey trained) will provide document feedback during the program.

Davina and Gerard are the authors of The So What Strategy, which offers what they see as the seven most commonly used storyline patterns in business.

We offer regular live working sessions where we work through a challenge together. These are typically held twice monthly at times that suit almost any time zone and are available to all program members.

We offer yet more sessions to members of the Momentum level, who have graduated from the initial 'Core' level.

The small number of people who opt in to join the Foundation Membership also receive a quarterly one-on-one coaching session with Davina. They also receive email feedback up to six pieces of communication across a year.

I can only offer 8 places at this level at any one time.

This will vary depending upon how much time you invest.

Participants progress as their work and life schedules allow, so it is hard to predict: some binge through the modules quickly, others prefer to take their time and digest the concepts thoroughly, iterating between learning and doing.

Having said that, three months will enable you to cover the basics at a steady clip, six will give you a strong foundation and a year of fairly regular attention will see your communication transform.

In 20+ years of helping a wide range of professionals improve their communication I have found that hearing about an idea in a workshop or a video is a poor substitute for learning a small number of ideas that can be used straight away.

By introducing concepts in small pieces over a period of time, allowing opportunities to use the ideas, ask questions and receive feedback we see far more sustainable skill building.

I also see how learning is derailed by urgent business priorities. The new flexible program design enables people to flex to your busy schedule.

This enables us to tailor our live and recorded materials to suit your learning stage.

Those in the Core Program want to understand the concepts and start using them straight away in regular and potentially routine communication.

Sprint Members are ready to take the ideas to new heights as they apply the ideas in a wider range of settings, particularly using our seven powerful storylining patterns.

Momentum Members are working toward mastering the approach in higher stakes situations.

Participants typically invest 1- 2 hours per week for focused learning while also practicing their new skills at work (so they can get that time back really quickly).

Participants tell me they quickly ‘get back’ the time invested as they answer fewer clarification questions, fight fewer mis-fires and have a familiar and universal process to use when preparing their communication.

Having said that, I do observe that most participants' interaction with the program varies as other priorities take them away.

I regularly see times when they 'binge' and then times when they rest before coming back.

Participants learn via a mix of independent and group learning (should they choose to join in for our live working sessions).

• The core materials outline our approach step by step.
• Live - recorded - working sessions focus on applying the ideas learned in the core materials.
• Supplementary materials in the library provide stretch, examples and related insights.

Here is an outline of how it works:

The core learning materials are housed within a structured online course, which we call the Core Curriculum.

It includes 33 short powerful modules, which walk you step by step through the So What Strategy while also offering examples of the ideas in action.

Each video and a challenge that asks you to think.

You need to score 70% or more of the questions from each challenge to move to the next module.

We also provide notes to download as well as closed captions and transcripts for the videos for those who like to read as well as listen.

Inside the Recordings area, we offer recordings of our live working sessions along with sample documents we created that may provide a framework for your own communication.

These recordings from our interactive sessions do more than provide sample documents. They offer insights into both strategies and tactics that other experienced professionals are applying that will be relevant to you and your work also.

For example: have you thought about which ideas to leave in your drafts in the hope that your stakeholders edit them out ... and leave the key ideas that matter to you alone?

Inside the library we offer supplementary learning materials, storyline examples, patterns and more extercises for those who want to stretch themselves.

You will find you get lots of attention during the live sessions, but if you are looking for more, we suggest taking a Foudnation Membership.

This 'VIP' level provides quarterly one-on-one coaching as well as email feedback on your own work.

There are two participation levels, allowing those who want extra opportunities to work directly with Davina to receive more attention.

Classic Program Membership

The classic program costs $149 per month, or $1,490 for a full year's access, including taxes. Australians, Kiwis and South Africans enjoy a 'home ground advantage', by receiving a discount that balances out the currency differential.

Foundation Program Membership

I offer a small number of Foundation Memberships. This is available only for an annual fee of $2,990.

This level includes everything available in the Classic Program as well as a quarterly 30-minute 1-1 coaching session and 6 opportunities for email feedback per year.

There are a couple of other things to note about the payment process:

• Tax invoices and receipts can be provided
• Registration can be confirmed with a credit card payment during the registration window, or bank deposit, a purchase order or a formal email from the person responsible for payment explaining when payment will arrive.

Go here to join the waitlist - or to register, if registration is currently open.

You have two options:

#1 - If paying monthly or annually, you can pay with credit card via our secure payment portal on the website. We use Stripe as our payment gateway, which is well recognised as a secure and easy to use platform.

#2 - If paying annually, you may submit a purchase order to us as evidence of your commitment to the program. We understand that corporate procurement processes can take time, and allow you to start the program once the PO is provided.

It's all about focus.

If we open the doors at specific times only, we enable ourselves to focus more fully on program participants the rest of the year.

We can't do our best, as a team, if our focus is split between continuously onboarding new participants and simultaneously supporting those already in the program.

Providing specific opportunities to join the program provides us with a far greater ability to serve everyone.

Please check our information page for the current closing date and time.

If you get into the program and realise that it does not do what we say it will do for you, please let us know within the first 14 days.

We will refund you in full, no questions asked.

We hope you will explain what went wrong so we can learn from your experience, but will automatically provide a 100% refund regardless.

Click THIS LINK and you will either be taken to the registration page during our 'open period' or to our 'waitlist' page to be notified when registrations reopen.