We were lucky to catch up with Rande Atcherson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Rande thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

I’m a practitioner of organizational change management. This field requires helping people manage through any organizational change, whether it’s changes in technology, process or people. I employ a standard change methodology to help organizations achieve their strategic goals and objectives. These efforts are critical if organizations want to sustain change and growth.

This is certainly the standard role of any change practitioner. However, what sets Speak for a Cause apart from the industry is our intense focus on the people. We believe that true change happens from the inside-out, which shifts our perspective on how we think, believe and ultimately behave. We believe this is the secret sauce to any organization undergoing business transformation, recognizing and valuing the person behind the employee badge. The individual must show up heard, healthy, and whole in order to take an invested interest in any significant business process, people or technological changes. We also believe that change happens at a micro (individual) level, before change happens on a macro (organizational) level. This is what makes us unique, we approach our work with a people-centric, organizational mindset.

Our approach involves bringing the right people in the room to help build sustainable solutions. We work with change managers, business process experts, communication strategist, project managers, business writers, training developers and even creative artists and behavioral health specialist to help lead people through organizational change. We are truly powered by and for the people, and that’s what make what we do different from the industry standard.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have always been passionate about working with organizations to help get their cause and mission out to the people. Since a very young age, I’ve considered myself to be a community communicator or a messenger for change, standing in the midst of pivotal moments where change would be necessary.

I recall growing up in a strict religious organization where any change outside of the religious norm was seen as “outside the will of God” thus being wrong. Communicating a message that engaged in conversations about sex was unheard of and unacceptable in that environment. With all the known adversity and resistance to change, I presented a campaign to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS by dispelling myths and uncovering truths about sex and HIV that plagued the underserved Black and Brown communities. At age 16, I found myself directly at the intersection between worldly issues and the church. The year was 1996, and access to the internet and the information we have available today was still fairly limited, and the church was still change resistant surrounding conversations about sex. For the church, sex before marriage was strictly prohibited and considered a sin in the eyes of God. So, HIV was nothing more than a punishment for sin. Regardless of the fact, myself along with a few dedicated youth from the church were able to successfully show the value this initiative would be for the forward movement of the church. The church had been struggling with youth involvement and needed some ideas on ways to keep the younger generation engaged. I partnered with the Prince George’s County Health Department, Metro Teen AIDS (a local HIV/AIDS resource facility for teens), and other local health clinics to raise funding for HIV educational efforts and to develop a lasting partnership with the church and the county’s health department.

As a creative, I leveraged spoken word poetry, music, dance, and other creative content to add color to a dark conversation. Without any experience in developing partnerships for change, I was overwhelmed with a turnout of over 200 community stakeholders at the church’s awareness concert, where we held health screenings, provided access to HIV/AIDS resources and raised over $1,000 to support the County’s educational efforts.
My first community outreach was deemed a success! I knew from that night exactly what I wanted to do with my life’s work. I wanted to be a positive influence and an advocate for change, using my creative talents to boost interest and support in the mission of organizations that help people become better.

From then on, I spent time developing in this area personally and professionally. I formalized my love for communicating messages by attaining the degree and certifications necessary to have the textbook understanding of how to drive organizational change, but it was my hands-on work that added the most value. I gained experience by leading several non-profit boards and working with community leaders and small businesses to provide my brand development, strategic marketing and communications, and change management industry experience to achieve organizational success. In 2016, I made my work for the community official and founded Speak for a Cause LLC, a change management agency dedicated to working with state and local governments, local nonprofit organizations, community leaders, and minority-owned businesses. Through Speak for a Cause, I partner with organizations that improve the lives of everyday people. Our change management practice adopts the industry leading Prosci methodology to drive change initiatives and we lean on our experience to help achieve organizational success. Using change management analytics, tools and best practices, I help organizations implement new technology, products or services to better serve their clients and stakeholder. Our training and communications expertise are the drivers behind our approach to delivering value to stakeholders. My work with partners is also centered in developing strong brands to engage the community. Utilizing branding guidelines and principles, I facilitate the process of identifying the client’s unique image, look and feel, and messaging strategy. I aid organizations with building a strong digital presence through website development, marketing collateral, video production, social media management, event planning, and marketing platform support.

I am most proud of the fact that we are a change management consultancy that dedicates its entire mission to focus on causes and projects that positively impact and influence change. During Covid, I helped an out-patient mental health organization successfully transition to a virtual service model under an intense working environment and quick turnaround times. My thought-leadership helped the organization sustain its current services as well as enhance access to mental health care. This is the “why” to what we do and the reason we will always be of service to the community.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

First, I consider “clients” to be “partners”. We join forces to help move missions and causes forward. I believe that this shift in nomenclature gives a sense of commitment, collaboration and unity towards a common goal. Setting the tone with my partners up front is key to staying in touch and fostering brand loyalty. I foster brand loyalty by building the trust that keeps the relationship alive during difficult times. One way I build trust is showing up in every interaction as authentic as I can be. I make it a point to communicate with openness and transparency and work with unwavering ethics. Along with building email campaigns to say “happy holidays” or “happy birthday” I add more of the “human touch” to stay in touch. This means picking up the phone just to ask “How are you doing today?” “Is there anything I can help you with?” I do things like visit my partners in their office to have a quick coffee break and engage in casual conversation, or simply send a quick friendly text message. These micro interactions are just as (or arguably more) important as the grand gestures we make to win the business.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Perfection is a myth. Things will never be “perfect”. Growing up in a religious environment where I had to show up under a facade of perfection created an unrealistic expectation on myself that I had to overcompensate for my seemingly imperfections by working harder. That mentality also spilled into my professional and entrepreneurial life. I worked hard on every project I led in the pursuit of striving for perfection. Though these projects yielded great results and received several accolades, it came at a cost and at times that cost was the stress and anxiety of not being good enough, and people pleasing for fear of letting people down. I would often tell myself that I could have done better if only I worked harder, if only I would have added an additional channel to my communication plan, if only I held one more meeting to go over the scope of work, if only I would have recited that spoken word piece a little slower, if only I didn’t forget to check my margins on that graphic printout- if only, if only, if only. I had become super hard on myself trying to achieve perfection. After realizing that regardless of how hard I worked, there might be obstacles I’ll have to overcome. I learned that I have to be okay (mentally and emotionally) with things not going as I expected them to go. I believe that nothing happens by accident and all things have purpose, even the missed opportunities, opposing views, and closed doors.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.speakforacause.com
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/randeatcherson

Image Credits
Insana Collins