Zooming in and out to regain orientation
Creating clarity across a complex content journey in an international digital communications team.
Context
A digital communications team in an international technology company shapes digital stories end to end.
From strategic focus and storytelling to production, rollout and amplification, many teams, roles and systems contribute to what customers finally see.
Work was happening everywhere.
But the bigger picture was hard to hold.
The starting point
During one-to-one interviews, a clear pattern surfaced.
Everyone owned a piece of the puzzle — but no one saw the whole picture.
People knew their step and their tools.
What came before and after was often unclear. Ownership stopped at team boundaries, while organisational tools, project management systems and insight-driven technologies quietly added more complexity instead of clarity.
The issue wasn’t commitment.
It was orientation.
What changed first
nstead of optimising single steps, the focus shifted to the full content journey.
For the first time, the team looked at the process end to end — not to document it perfectly, but to understand how work actually flowed.
This changed the conversation:
teams started to see where their contribution really mattered
handovers became clearer and less personal
questions moved from “who is responsible?” to “what is needed next?”
Ownership no longer felt abstract.
It became situational, shared, and connected to the bigger picture.
What became possible
Clarity created calm.
With a shared overview, decisions became easier.
People knew when to step in, whom to involve, and which tools supported which part of the journey.
Instead of coordinating around uncertainty, the team began collaborating around intent.
Energy shifted from managing complexity to focusing on what customers actually needed.
Why this matters
In complex environments, lack of ownership is often a symptom, not the cause.
Without shared orientation, even the best tools and most committed teams work in fragments.
Clarity creates ownership.
Not through control, but through visibility.
Ownership emerges when people understand how their work connects — before, after, and beyond their own role.
Curious what clarity and ownership could unlock in your content or communication processes?