Clients

Microsoft, American Express, Verizon, Ford Motor Company, Marriott, Nike, Hearst Publishing, L’Oréal, Converse, Seventh Generation, Marriott International, Cemex, Ecovative, Sappi, Bayer Corporation, Medtronic, Pfizer, Discovery Networks International, Audubon, Girl Scouts of America, the Central Park Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, Ford Foundation, Lumina Foundation, Heron Foundation.

CommonWise, founded by Cheryl Heller, brings together pioneering experts in design, corporate and public sector strategy, technology, innovation, education, communications, and measurement who have helped organizations in every industry and every sector grow, fulfill their missions, and measure the results of their efforts: Fortune 50 enterprises, entrepreneurs, philanthropic institutions, public and nonprofit organizations, academic institutions, and governments.

Wisdom, for us, means working across traditional silos and seeing beyond limiting assumptions to help clients meet the practical needs of a profitable enterprise while creating social and environmental value. Wisdom is alertness, paying attention to changes in the world and learning from them. It requires us to get out of our heads and away from our screens; to live in our bodies, using our hearts and senses to navigate the complexities around us, with the courage to imagine and create a resilient future.

Services

People hire us to move from where they are to where they want to be. Our process for helping them do that has a number of essential phases. The depth of each phase depends on what’s required. We subscribe to the rule of sufficiency in nature, “as little as possible, and as much as necessary.”

Scoping the work

Mapping current reality

Articulating a shared, concrete vision that is actionable and motivating

Establishing metrics for success

Communicating at every level to ensure understanding and build relationships

Designing and implementing programs that demonstrate vision and values

Within each of these phases, clients may need to reimagine and reenergize:

Brand and Identity: who you are, what you stand for, how people know you, what they think of you, and whether or not they love and support you. We offer visual and communication design, narrative creation, digital and analog messaging platforms and strategies.

Culture Change: refining or reasserting values, beliefs, organizational traditions and the behavior they incite. Culture is why some organizations win and others never reach full potential. We help clients create cultures of energy and possibility by identifying what’s unique about them, helping all stakeholders find themselves in it, and contribute their best to it.

Research: how we ensure that the opinions and participation of all stakeholders are heard. Learn more at MeasureD

Corporate Social Innovation: more than compliance, it’s tapping into constraints to create opportunities to deliver social, environmental as well as financial value. We have decades of experience helping companies do just that.

Measurement: critical for evaluating progress toward the vision. We use a combination of qualitative and quantitative, measuring changes in human intention, capacity, and behavior that elude traditional quantitative metrics.