By Kris Kurtenbach, Founding Partner
We were told our vision and our desire to do things differently was a fantasy.
Early in the new millennium, when we imagined a new kind of communications consulting firm— focused on education and learning, public engagement-oriented, client-forward—we heard it would never fly. Two firms (one now a competitor and another now defunct) went so far as to say that even having one practice organized that way within a larger firm wasn’t viable.
We decided to try anyway. And, 25 years ago, on April Fool’s Day, we took the leap and started Collaborative Communications Group.
Setting Ourselves Apart
From the beginning, we set out to do things differently from other communications consultancies. First, we positioned ourselves as mission-driven and aimed to show our clients that our emphasis was on their purpose over our profit. We set out to be a seamless extension of our client’s teams and demonstrate daily that our values were aligned with theirs and that their ambitions were our ambitions.
To do that, we created processes to engage deeply and to listen actively and carefully—within teams, organizations, and audiences. Our early efforts focused on intermediary organizations that bridged learning between schools and communities and those that bridged education with workforce and economic development. We emphasized working with clients (on both sides of the aisle) who cared deeply about improving education outcomes, especially for young people and families who need it most.
We positioned communications as the key tool to advance our clients’ strategic focus, to convene stakeholders in enriched conversations and build alliances to accelerate progress, and to articulate positions in ways that cut through the cacophony.
We focused on collaboration as the central mechanism to galvanize and sustain momentum, building partnerships, networks, and cross-sector coalitions with the aim of helping more children, youth, and families thrive.
Unlike many firms, we went beyond traditional media and public relations services. We also emphasized the effective use of graphic and instructional design to ensure that our products were read and served as learning tools. We built capacities in knowledge management to help organizations create, share—and most important to us, utilize—knowledge within their products and events. While most firms focused only on promoting research, we created our own, taking complex data sets and technical language and framing them in more accessible, journalistic ways that helped make them meaningful and actionable.
In all this, we distinguished ourselves not just by what we did but by how we did it. We built deep, trusting relationships with our clients rather than seeing them as a series of transactions. We treated our clients as partners and their work as the raison d’être of our business. We insisted on delivering exquisite customer service.
Adaptation and Growth
Now, 25 years later, we’ve grown Collaborative Communications into the nation’s premier communications consulting firm focused on education and learning.
We’ve worked in every state and a handful of countries. We’ve continued to expand our range of services to include research, data visualizations, knowledge products; brand positioning and marketing campaigns; organizational strategy and learning; and executive and internal communications.
We’ve convened thousands upon thousands of people, from U.S. Secretaries of Education to middle school students, motivated by the belief that the intellectual and social substance of inspiring meetings and convenings can advance effective communications and professional growth.
We’ve supported organizations in building their own communications capacities and in designing their own communications infrastructures. We’ve managed communications staff searches. We’ve won numerous awards, but we created the work to be useful first and foremost.
Fundamental to everything we have done and everything we continue to do is a sense of responsibility to make a meaningful difference—for our clients, for systems of learning, and for the people and communities they serve.
Where We’re Headed Next
Our north star remains helping more children, youth, and families thrive.
This is why we’re continuing to grow our footprint in education and learning, as well as in complementary areas, such as cultural organizations, community-based organizations, nonprofits, child and family health, and workforce development. It’s why we continually push ourselves to understand and embrace the ideas and technologies shaping society today, including how our clients can use AI to work more effectively and brokering edtech solutions in formal and informal learning spaces.
We are struck, 25 years later, by how important civic engagement remains and by the central role of education and learning in the development of individuals, communities, and our democracy. And we are just as committed as ever to help.
