Born from a feeling...
…that the status quo is no longer fit for purpose
Our story is just like yours. As leaders; workers; parents and humans we struggled to be content with the outdated rules of work that stopped us being our best selves. So we quit and decided to change the rules.
We set out on a mission to change this, not just for ourselves but for the leaders and staff out there who want the world of work to be more digitally enabled, more progressive and more focused on purpose.
Together Digital is a social business that helps organisations build more meaningful, purposeful and rewarding relationships with their audiences, workers and society. The world is changing exponentially: political turmoil; digital disruption; changing demands from a digitally native and impact oriented younger workforce. We’re on a mission to help as many organisations as possible, before it’s too late.
Our social business model
- A portion of private sector rates support struggling social organisations.
- Our associate model allows us to provide excellent non-profit fees.
- We bring in talented, indie specialists who charge a fair rate.
- Fee structure favours long term support over short term profit.
Our partners
Liam Cahill
Founder and Partner
Liam is a strategist, speaker, self-confessed ‘wildling’ and the founder of Together Digital in 2009. He has a background in digital technology, systems thinking, org strategy and all things health.
Liam previously co-founded an impactful, nationally respected social enterprise that supports the NHS to improve care around medicines and prescribing. Over the years, he has advised a range of nonprofits, health systems and Healthtech startups, and held NED roles in non profits.
“I am passionate about reshaping organisations to be fit for what comes next. I love putting great tools in the hands of enthusiastic people, empowering and nudging them to do great things. I am a leader who serves staff, and believe that everyone can be engaged and empowered at work, no matter their age, education or background.”
David Rushton
Technology Strategist
Dave ran a digital agency for ten years, working with a range of clients spanning multiple sectors including health, social housing, local government, manufacturing, and finance. During this time, he led on the conceptualisation, design and delivery of numerous large-scale web, mobile, data, cloud, and digital transformation projects. More recently he was ‘Head of Technology’ for a non-profit organisation, where he drove a number of key innovations across web, data, cloud and e-learning.
“I love exploring problems, particularly those that can be solved through technology. Working with clients to deep dive into the issues that are hindering their organisation, devising effective solutions, and uncovering new opportunities along the way are some of the most enjoyable aspects of my role at Together Digital.”
How we work
If you want traditional consulting, with cookie cutter models and reports full of jargon, frameworks and concepts that you don’t really understand and struggle to implement please stop reading. We’re not for you. If you want established innovators who join you on a journey to meaningfully change and improve your organisation, whilst having fun along the way, then please read our code:
We live-work by the new work manifesto
We want to love work, to learn at work, to be proud of what we achieve and have the chance to do it well. We want work to make us better, not worse, we want the rewards of creativity, friendships, fulfilment and knowledge to make work more than financial compensation. We want life-work balances, not the other way around. We intend to live up to the promise of technology, efficiency and flexibility.
We commit to understanding our own inner engineering for effectiveness and we question conditions, clocks or cultures that do not get the best out of us. We will break the tyranny of e-mails, meetings, to-do lists and any other anachronistic trappings of an old way of working: if they don’t work for us, and we won’t stop until we’re judged by our output, not our input.
We believe that all relationships should be citizen led
We believe that the mindset of the ‘consumer’ is out of date. We will challenge the language and mindset of consumerism that in turn will help us develop more interactive and mutually respectful relationships between people. We believe that organisations are at their best when they think of the different kinds of ‘citizen’ that they engage with.
We undertake to remove the labels that restrict the relationships inside and outside of your organisation, instead seeking to find common goals and ways to participate within the emerging ‘new power’ methods of facilitative collaboration, using great digital tools to build citizen networks.
We celebrate ‘the hustle’ above all other skills
We celebrate and appreciate the art of strategically, intuitively and instantly improvising in a positive way. We champion creative solution finding and positive problem solving based on available facts the moment of opportunity and the power of practiced intuition.
When indecision is not an option, when change is constant and nothing is normal we’re proudly comfortable to rationally and rapidly develop, test and implement solutions on the spot. We learn from our mistakes, even if we don’t celebrate them, and use them to make making up better.
We take happiness and fun seriously
We take happiness seriously, and give deep happiness the place and importance it deserves. We seek happiness as a strategic driver for success, productivity and creative output, but also as a strategic objective in and of itself.
We do not believe that happiness is a nice-to-have, we believe it is a need-to-have. We make happiness a starting point, not just a endpoint; and part of informing the decisions we (and you) make about your present and future. We endeavour to champion that happiness is symbiotic with great work, great relationships and great impact.
We do believe that fun can be an excellent tool for building relationships with all of your ‘citizens’, and that creation is at its best when it’s fun. We try to ‘bring in the fun’ whenever we can.
We’re into fluid and responsive strategic planning
In such an unpredictable world, we don’t believe the static format of the ‘plan’ is the best structure for the fluid future of our organisations, projects, dreams and schemes. We believe in a motivating manifesto that outlines a clear vision supported by a concise-but-responsive roadmap with agile measures of accountability.
We believe that strategy should be collaborative and inclusive within organisations, including our own. We neither promote nor deliver static ‘plans’ for only a narrow audience or moment in time, only for it to gather dust in an inbox ignored and unused. Success to us is helping people to own new ideas and ways of working, and feel empowered to change them as the world changes.
We support and practice extensive transparency-as-a-strategy with your customers, beneficiaries and stakeholders, to openly evaluate success, failure and future scenario planning, building loyalty and participation.
We see diversity as a driver for success
We believe in diversity of thought, background, experience and understanding as a driver of competitive advantage, creativity and productive cultures. We who desire to create projects, products, content and campaigns for the future, know the importance of reflecting the future we want to see, one of interconnected, collaborative, communicative and creatively colliding cultures.
We commit to recruitment that opens doors to more than the usual suspects, we will go the extra mile to find the talent that might not have found us. We commit to accepting that we all have prejudices, and then commit to actively challenging them.
We believe everything should be data and insight-driven
We’re digitally native and data driven, and believe intelligence should be sitting on the tips of our fingers, not stuck in a dusty box or locked cupboard. For us data should be used, and then combined to make more data, and we challenge protectionism and data hoarding. Viva la transparency revolution.
Principled In practice
The principles above aren’t just noise, they’re rules we believe, adhere to, and help our partners explore. We only work with clients who buy into our philosophy, and on projects that align with our mission.
We practice what we preach and use our first-hand experiences, good and bad, to help enrich the work that we do with you. As we grow and learn we will test these principles so they fit our values as our own organisation changes.
In our work with you, we’ll draw upon many ideas and frameworks that inspire us, testing and tailoring approaches to help you to experiment, evolve and excel.