Applications

Synanim is optimized for a variety of applications and uses.

Mission-Driven Organizations

In this turbulent time, societal values are changing fast. The action plans and messaging that worked in years past — or even just last year — may be irrelevant and tone-deaf today. Many mission-driven organizations (MDOs) are struggling to understand and communicate with their donor base.

MDOs typically use surveys and focus groups to better understand their community but both approaches are unreliable.

Surveys require a fixed set of pre-selected questions. Word choice matters and it is impossible to know of any conceptual misalignment your questions may have. And focus groups may be tainted by the social influence of articulate, assertive, or attractive participants.

Hiring a consultant to administer these approaches may help or it might just produce a false sense of confidence.

Synanim avoids these pitfalls by starting with a blank slate. Your constituents build a vision from scratch. Sessions begin at the foundational level, shared values. From there, groups then construct a sense for what matters, what's missing, and how best to provide solutions.

Your constituents may develop a mission statement, strategic plan, or any consensus document. And the data is recorded. You may review the progression of ideas from all participants as they progressed to the final result.

Advocacy Groups

Advocacy groups (AGs) seek to influence public opinion in order to affect change in public policy. So, not only must they understand what people think and want, like MDOs, they succeed or fail based on their effectiveness in influencing thinking in a new direction.

If your organization is like most AGs, you rely heavily on surveys and focus groups. More art than science, success with these approaches is highly correlated with the consulting group you choose to work with.

Synanim invites your constituents to tell you what they value, why they value, and how to act upon those values. Every word produced comes from your constituents' minds, not from a consultant's survey.

And Synanim records every word at every step. The data recorded offers enormous value for understanding the progression of ideas and reactions to word choices.

Mental Health Providers

America is experiencing a mental health crisis. Pew Research confirms that roughly one-third of adults experience some form of depression. And many who report a need for mental health services do not access them due to cost concerns.

Synanim can help. It builds upon narrative therapy, which establishes each of us as the expert in our own lives. We all have problems but they do not define us. We all have knowledge, skills, and values that can reduce the influence of our problems. We just need a positive inner narrative.

Synanim brings support groups together to collaboratively create positive narratives. People in need offer a self-assessment then they and their group write a positive, hopeful story.