It seems that we are finding it increasingly difficult to listen to one another, to truly communicate. Time can drive us apart: generations do not always share the same references, rhythms or priorities. Geography can create distance: headquarters and local teams, remote work and office life, major cities and regional communities. Professions, hierarchies and networks sometimes create invisible boundaries. People tend to work in silos and speak from within their own bubbles, shaped by their own codes, algorithms and convictions. In organisations, just as in society, conversation risks fragmenting into a multitude of monologues.

Division Is the Enemy

Words preserve the memory of what we tend to forget. In Italian, diavolo, meaning devil, comes from the Greek diabolos: the one who divides, who separates people. Its opposite is the symbolon, the two halves of a broken object brought back together as a sign of recognition.

Any organisation undergoing transformation may encounter this familiar enemy. It has neither horns nor a pitchfork, of course. Instead, it takes the form of organisational silos, misunderstood internal communications, projects decided without consultation, or meetings where people hesitate to speak their minds. It gains ground wherever a shared narrative begins to fragment.

Transformation communication therefore has a symbolic role, in the original sense of the word: to reconnect.

Connecting Rather Than Convincing

At o3, we start from a fundamental belief: communication is a driver of progress, provided it brings people together. Progress cannot simply be imposed; it must be shared. We sometimes confuse communicating with broadcasting, explaining with engaging. As long as employees remain passive observers of a transformation designed without their involvement, even the most carefully crafted message will struggle to resonate.

Connecting people means something different. It means creating the conditions in which individuals from different backgrounds can see themselves reflected in a shared story. It means moving beyond a collection of individual voices to build a common narrative.

The More We Divide, the More We Lose Our Sense of Meaning

Luc Bigé, a scientist turned specialist in symbolism, calls for us to “re-enchant the world”. His observation is simple: by constantly breaking everything down into separate parts, we lose sight of what gives meaning to the whole.

This is particularly relevant in the corporate world. The more an organisation divides itself into functions, performance indicators and areas of responsibility, the greater the risk of losing what motivates its people: a sense of purpose. Everyone knows what they do, but the reason why they do it together becomes less clear.

Fragmentation may improve efficiency within individual teams, but it can also create a collective sense of disconnection: a loss of direction, disengagement and the feeling of being just another cog in the machine.

Re-enchantment, in this context, has nothing to do with magic. It means restoring a sense of the bigger picture, rediscovering the thread that connects every individual action to a shared story. This is precisely the power of symbols: bringing together what has become scattered so that everyone can recognise their place within the whole.

The Human Sciences: Understanding the Bigger Picture to Rebuild Connections

To bridge a divide, we must understand what lies on both sides of it. This is the purpose of the o3 Lab: combining Design Thinking, foresight and the human sciences, drawing on the expertise of historians, geographers, ethnologists, semioticians and others.

Why the human sciences? Because communication often divides audiences into targets and segments. While this approach may be useful for delivering messages, it is far less effective at building relationships: it risks reinforcing the very divisions we are trying to overcome.

The human sciences consider people as a whole, taking into account their histories, habits, expectations and need for meaning. Their purpose is not simply to inform, but to understand what holds a community together.

Each form of division calls for a different perspective.

The passage of time that separates generations can be explored through history, helping us reinterpret a shared past to better imagine the future. Geographical distances can be understood through the eyes of geographers, who consider the realities on the ground as well as organisational structures.

Professional identities and workplace cultures can be decoded through ethnology, which examines the practices and codes that shape different groups. And language itself, whether it excludes or unites, is the domain of semiotics.

Before connecting people, we must connect meanings.

Design Thinking provides the methodology; the human sciences provide the depth. Together, they allow us to move from communication that simply explains to communication that creates meaning.

Five Steps to Rebuild Connections

Design Thinking offers a straightforward yet rigorous approach, which we adapt into tailored methodologies for each organisation.

1. Listening. Before speaking, listen. Meet teams, observe their day-to-day experiences, understand their doubts, expectations and the language they use. Empathy helps bridge divides: it encourages headquarters to listen to local teams, senior employees to hear younger colleagues, and experts to consider the perspectives of newcomers.

2. Reframing. Define the real problem together. In a fragmented organisation, everyone experiences their own reality and sees only part of the bigger picture. Bringing these perspectives together helps reconstruct a shared understanding that is both more accurate and more complete. The goal is no longer to persuade people to accept change, but to build a common understanding of the present so that the future can be shaped collectively.

3. Diversity. Bring together people who rarely interact: different generations, professions, locations and perspectives. Diversity becomes a creative resource when people are given the right environment to express themselves.

4. Prototyping. Experiment with formats, messages and rituals on a small scale: a storytelling workshop, a collaborative mural or an imagined map. Embrace imperfection as a way to learn quickly.

5. Testing. Return to participants, observe what genuinely creates connections and make adjustments. Communication moves beyond a purely top-down approach to become iterative, responsive and alive.

From Workshops to Organisational Culture

A successful workshop is not enough. Connections are built over time, through everyday experiences.

That is why we favour learning through doing: a shared narrative becomes meaningful through daily actions, rituals and decisions. By supporting teams over time and adapting our approach to realities on the ground, we help turn strategy into habit, and ultimately into culture.

One Shared Story, a Thousand Voices

Connecting people does not mean making everyone the same.

At o3, we champion the distinctiveness of brands and reject bland, generic communication, where everything looks and sounds alike. The same principle applies within organisations: a shared narrative does not erase differences; it gives them a common purpose.

Like an orchestral score, it allows every instrument to play its own part while contributing to the same piece of music.

Design Thinking does not create this narrative on people's behalf. It allows the story to emerge from them. And that is precisely why it lasts: people are far more likely to stand behind a story they have helped write.