Every day your story doesn't resonate,
you're missing an opportunity.
We help enterprise leaders communicate strategic moves in a way that employees, customers and partners can trust.
Messaging that meets the moment
A strategy only works if target audiences take action. Employees have to work differently, customers have to stay and engage, and partners and stakeholders have to get behind it. Whether they do often comes down to whether they trust what they’re being told.
We work with enterprise leaders on the communications behind their biggest moves: mergers, technology migrations, new operating models, market repositioning. Our approach is straight and tailored to each audience, from before the first announcement to the day the change takes effect and beyond.
The results are measurable: Customers activated in days instead of weeks, sales teams rallying around a new customer strategy, and a transformation timeline cut in half, keeping industrial knowledge and culture intact.
What we do
Big strategic moves succeed or fail on whether people trust the communications behind them. We work with enterprise leaders across four areas, each built to give employees, customers, stakeholders and partners straight answers they can act on.
Consulting services
For leaders who need to know where trust stands before a major move, and what it will take to build it.
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Strategy development and implementation support
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Communication audits and measurement evaluation
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Stakeholder analysis
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Omni-channel engagement strategies
Change communications
For leaders steering a major shift where people need straight answers, not spin.
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Organizational change
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Mergers & acquisitions
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Technology migrations
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New business strategy
Internal communications
For leaders who want employees to hear the truth from the top and see their place in what comes next.
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Executive communications
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Executive thought leadership
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Corporate culture development
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Internal comms content
External communications
For leaders who need the market and their customers to trust what the organization says, including when the pressure is on.
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Brand messaging and content development
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Thought leadership and storytelling
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Customer communication programs and journey mapping
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Crisis communications
Who we are
Our story
That idea, connection as the common thread, is at the heart of how we work.
Major strategic moves, like a merger, a technology migration or a new operating model, succeed or fail based on whether people trust the communications behind them. AI and new platforms promise efficiency, but overreliance on them too often results in generic messages that don’t resonate and give people little reason to trust what they’re hearing. Good communication is built on a consistent, honest voice that connects with the human experience.
After years of partnering with leaders and teams through change, growth, and complexity, we created Common Thread Studio to help enterprise organizations move from inefficient, fragmented communications to strategies that are both efficient and human.
We help enterprise leaders communicate major strategic moves in a way that employees, customers, and partners can trust. We cut through jargon and shape clear, straight stories that explain what’s changing, why it matters, and how people fit into it. The results are trust, engagement, and retention: the common thread that helps people move forward together.
About the founder
I’m Katy Griggs, Founder and Principal of Common Thread Studio. At my core, I’m a communications leader with a passion for excellent storytelling. Over 25 years, I’ve built communications teams for highly matrixed, global companies and provided strategic counsel to senior executives.
With a background at tech and finance companies like U.S. Bank, Elavon, Cox Automotive, Sage and more, I have a track record of handling complex, high-stakes projects. I connect the dots across business lines, so that employees, customers, and partners receive communications they can trust.
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Success stories
Customer journeys
Worked with senior leadership teams across a global Fortune 500 company to develop a more efficient customer onboarding experience through communications. This helped the company save more than $500k in revenue for each day the average activation wait time was reduced.
Business transformation
Partnered with leaders to re-align product-based team members into customer-centric teams. Worked to drive employee engagement and alignment, helping to cut expected transition time in half and retaining team members with deep industry experience – leading to increased customer satisfaction.
Technology transition
Led several multi-year technology transition campaigns to safeguard employee, customer and partner payments environments, leading to 70-100% adoption rates, better customer experiences and reduced call volume into customer care.
Integration communications
Developed messaging to harmonize 20k employees across three affiliated hospital systems, streamlining efficiencies and highlighting the quality of their benefits programs at the same time – bringing down costs over time.