Fortunately we don’t have a PR firm, so they can’t tell us not to write things like “this firm is a bit of an accident”.

But truth is, it is. Through various quirks of timing and events, we ended up asking “Could there be a need for a private diplomacy firm?”. It turns out there was. And a group of clients hired us (and guided us) to provide negotiation, mediation, and facilitation support to them. And then to teach programs on how to do these things.

So that’s all we do. Help clients negotiate. Help them navigate through conflict. Help them build partnerships. Help them reach agreements.

Sometimes it’s negotiating one-to-one. Sometimes it’s negotiating with a whole category of humans. But the philosophy and techniques - whether we’re consulting or teaching - are the same as have been true for millennia. There’s nothing new in what we do, we simply focus on the thinking and had discipline in the execution.

Whether an analyst, negotiator, mediator, governance expert, designer, or film-maker, the measure of success if the same: did we move the issue forward?