The tagline for Rebel Tree is "grow boldly." At first glance, you may think it an odd choice for a communications company. After all, I'm not going to teach you to maximize your profits or help you move your operations to a new office complex.
But I am here to help you grow. Growth, after all, isn't simply a matter of getting bigger. Growth is an action we take every day. We grow In so many ways. We grow up, we grow stronger, we grow smarter, we grow kinder, we grow into ourselves, we grow our relationships and our communities. Growing is part of our humanness. Humanness is what makes us better communicators.
So what does it mean to grow communications? Well, let's think about the tree when we think about growth. If communication flourishes and grows organically like a tree, it needs strong roots. The first step then is to take stock of how our communications is planted. Is it strong and healthy? Is the organizational soil rich or rocky? Will it get enough sunlight and water to thrive? How much does it even need?
Perhaps I am pushing this metaphor too far, but you can see where I'm going. Communications doesn't just happen. It has to have solid and strong foundations. With those, we can grow our trunk, our ethos and goals live in the trunk. How do we want to be seen? How are we seen? How do we let people know what we stand for? This is all part of our trunk. The branches and twigs and leaves - every campaign, press release, town hall, community event,even our standards guidelines, all of it makes the tree what it is, unique and beautiful.
Growing boldly is what we can do when we are confident our tree is strong. We don't let it grow out of control, but we do let it reach for new sources of light. We let the branches twist and turn. We let it bloom and bear fruit.
Like our gardens and trees around our homes, our communication doesn't grow wild. We tend to it. Sometimes we step back and change something. We make mistakes, we have periods that are great successes and ones we wish would have worked better. On occasion we have to start all over again.
When we know how to nurture our communications, we can't help but grow. Growth is how we build community, relationships, customer bases. Our communications become like a canopy of leaves, providing information like shade.
That's why we grow boldly. No plan is alike. No strategy is the same.