Dalton Together – Message Triangle – how it all started!

29th September 2020

Cummins has been at their site in St Andrews Road for nearly 70 years and have a world class reputation for innovative technologies specifically in designing and manufacturing turbochargers in Huddersfield. The business has long believed that it has a responsibility towards the community in which it operates and focuses employee community engagement in 3 priority areas namely education, equality of opportunity and environment. Every Cummins employee is encouraged to use at least 4 work hours to contribute to local projects and partners by leveraging their own unique skills that are honed in roles used to delivering results and applying creative ingenuity to solve challenges.

Lucy Bristow is the Capital Manager based in Huddersfield but has been the Community Involvement Team Leader for 3 years representing the company in many community and council led forums in the local region. As a regular attendee of the Dalton Ward Partnership meeting, she first learnt about what was initially being discussed as a ward governance group. With many voices from community organisations, businesses and Councillors contributing to what this group should do and what it should look like, there was a struggle to find focus. Lucy offered to host a workshop on their Huddersfield site to work on a message triangle and mission statement for the group. The process would take everybody’s opinions into account and resolve them into a triangle which best represents what the aims and mission of the group is.

In the end, the process took 2 workshops and 15 people from various community interests contributed 6 hours each to complete the work. It was facilitated by Cummins employee, Michelle Oddy who kept the workshop flowing and the participants motivated. Michelle took everyone through steps to show how the triangle effect simplifies the message so that it stays in the mind but graphically demonstrates that messages on each equal side are all equally important.

The workshop outcomes formed a clear and consistent message for what we now know as Dalton Together. The 3 sides of the triangle that were highlighted were: 1. Speak up for our community, 2. Seize opportunities to build a thriving community and 3. Work together to make a bigger impact in our community. All of these are now utilised by Dalton Together and form the vision of the group.

Lucy said “It has been great to include everyone from the community in this process. Dalton Together was always going to be a group championing the needs of the Dalton Ward so it was important to have diverse voices heard and represented. I personally enjoyed being part of the early formation of the group and will continue to take a keen interest in what it goes on to achieve. I’m also proud of how we can take business processes into the community to make it stronger and more impactful.”