Imagine that you are given the task of getting an executive team, board members, and staff leaders of a large organization to agree on a significant creative endeavor. Further, let's assume that this venture is something as sizable as creating a new brandmark and positioning line — essentially a new face and voice for the organization.

How much controversy could there be over the color of the new logo? It couldn't really be that difficult to get a group of professionals to see eye-to-eye on the font or tagline ... or could it?

Let's face it: it's hard enough to get coworkers to decide where to go for lunch, no less a new image for their organization.

"There is a lot at risk when you have a litany of concerned stakeholders," acknowledges Kristen Rantanen, Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs at a large nonprofit organization. "Everyone is coming from a slightly different place and everyone expects to see their perspective in the final product."

And while giving into the hopelessness of your situation won't help your cause, creating a clear and simple path that encourages people to champion your development efforts will. Ms. Rantanen agrees, having recently gone through such a process with Paragraph in rebranding The Jewish Employment and Vocational Service (JEVS).

"We are in the midst of a capital campaign, and we know that our brand needs to fully reflect what we offer," added Ms. Rantanen. "The only way to do that was to go ahead with a new brandmark and positioning line."

The challenge Paragraph faced, then, was to overcome the misperception that JEVS provided employment and vocational services solely to the Jewish community. The truth is, JEVS serves people from all walks of life with a wide variety of successful programs that include, but are not limited to, employment and vocations.

But how?

Step One — Involve the stakeholders early on

Our first step in changing the identity of the organization was to understand who they are, what drives their unique passion, and determine if internal and external audience perceptions match the image that the organization projected. We gathered this information through interviews with the executive staff and board members, and visited various JEVS facilities to witness programs in action. We also researched staff needs through a series of small group meetings.

Though the temptation to dive into the design process was great, it was far more beneficial to develop a clear understanding of the organization and its needs at the onset of the project. This enabled our conversations to be focused more on concept and less on tactical execution details such as color and font.

Step Two — Identify concerns and obstacles

What we learned in our interviews was that while members of the organization admitted that the name JEVS may mislead people into thinking that its services were limited to the Jewish community, there was a great deal of opposition to changing the name entirely.

The executive team was wary that a name change could alienate government funders while the board was concerned that the change might be misinterpreted and upset the existing Jewish donor base. The staff worried that a change would cause confusion among individuals in the various programs.

"Our name carries more than 60 years of equity with it, and while we understood that it wasn't necessarily on target, we couldn't just throw away what we've built," added Ms. Rantanen.

So, Paragraph pondered, is there a way to change the name without changing the name?

Step Three — Find common ground

"We evaluated each group within the organization and discovered what it is that they contribute," explained Ms. Rantanen. "We asked ourselves, 'What does it mean to be JEVS and have all of these various services under one umbrella?'" This approach helped us find common ground in JEVS commitment to those the organization serves.

Each group in the organization is dedicated to helping the individuals they serve become contributing members of the community and/or live as independently as possible given their physical or mental challenges. All agreed that inspiring hope among the individuals that they serve was important, but making that hope a reality was the ultimate goal.

These shared beliefs became the foundation of a message platform that identified key points to communicate to each audience. Thus, we were able to provide peace of mind to the executives, board members and staffers by first agreeing on what the new image would communicate — what the message is — rather than what it would look like.

Step Four — Use creativity to communicate the message

Once we honed in on this shared message, the next step became relatively easy: it was time to design a new brandmark and positioning line for JEVS. While concerns such as color, font style and word choice are always subjective, the chance that the design concepts and taglines we presented would be entirely off target were significantly minimized because we had a clear target to hit.

For this assignment we landed on the tagline "Making hope happen" and a brandmark that is both open and warm without losing the professional nature of the organization, which assures that JEVS is run efficiently and effectively.

And then there was that small problem of changing the name...

Our solution was, as promised, change without change. The Jewish Employment and Vocational Service (JEVS) became JEVS Human Services. This new name gives a far more accurate depiction of organization's is current services while remaining recognizable to funders and individuals who have been connected with JEVS in the past. It also intercepts the questions, "What does JEVS do?" and "What does JEVS mean?"

The board unanimously approved the new name, mark, and positioning line in early May — after a few rounds of revision and refinement of course — and the full rollout begins mid-June.

The executive team and staffers can't wait.

Step Five — Give credit where credit is due

JEVS Human Services is a great organization serving nearly 17,000 individuals annually. Our thanks goes to the team we worked with and all those who took the time to contribute to this project, especially those who collaborated with us to overcome the challenges of "creative by committee".