👋 Hello, I'm Giles
I help organisations communicate more like humans do: briefly, clearly, creatively.
I’m a writer, editor, coach, consultant and trainer.
email: giles (at) usethehumanvoice.com
phone: 07939 127917
twitter: @gilest
blog posts at: gilest.org
Case studies
Services
- Blogging for teams - Training to get teams started with open communication.
- Team coaching / training - Further help for teams who need to communicate their work to others.
- Content audit - An independent review of your website and other content, with high-level recommendations for change.
- Content prototyping - How could your website change? How much simpler could it be? Let’s quickly make a simple new version of it to find out.
- Walk it through - You, me, our walking boots, and time to think. Let’s talk through your communication problems and see what conclusions we can reach. Our goal for the day: clarity.
People saying nice things
“If you need words and/or someone to steer the creation of words, hire Giles soonest. He’s the best.”
– Russell Davies
“I think Use the human voice was probably the best money Cydea spent last year.”
– Robin Oldham
“The great thing about Giles is that he has lasting impact. I still see echoes of Giles in good @gdsteam behaviours years after he left, and the people he worked with have taken those lessons with them even after they moved on as well. A genuinely transformative person.”
– Simon Everest
“Giles does words, ideas, teams, culture ++”
– Rod McClaren
“Hiring Giles is a good investment, as both I and the I’m A Scientist team would attest.”
– Shane McCracken
“Giles is a genius with words, making complicated stuff easy to understand.”
–
Tom Loosemore
“If you need someone who writes like a dream and who is both brilliant and a complete joy to work with: hire Giles immediately.”
– Janet Hughes
“Hire Giles, you won’t regret it. Storyteller, creative leader, gentleman and scholar. He was an essential person in making GDS so famous.”
– Tom Dolan
“If I ever get a dog, I’m calling him Giles Turnbull.”
– Maggie Mason
Selected clients
Public sector:
Defra, London Borough of Hackney, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, HM Land Registry, Department of Work and Pensions, Department for Education, Essex County Council, Scottish Government, Government of California, Welsh Government Centre for Digital Public Services
Private sector:
Content Design London, Juno, Bulb, Public Digital, Cydea, Caution Your Blast, Difference Digital, DrDoctor
Non-profit:
Doteveryone, Comic Relief, I’m A Scientist, EdTech Hub, UNCDF Policy Accelerator, Citizens Advice, Catalyst
👇️ Selected projects...
I like email
Honestly, I do. The best way to get in touch is with an email to giles (at) usethehumanvoice.com.
Or feel free to call me any time on +44 (0)7939 127917.
You can find me on Twitter @gilest
Read blog posts at gilest.org
Content basics for beginners
This was a fun, rapid-turnaround project. Alastair Lee from Panda asked me to contribute to a content training syllabus for the Catalyst Definition Programme, designed to help small charities and non-profits learn about digital ways of working.
After some back-and-forth, we settled on short videos as an ideal format. I rehearsed some lines, created some slides, and hit the record button on a series of one-take, partly-improvised short talks.
You can see the results on YouTube.
My films explored the basics of content design as a discipline, then looked at ways for small teams to write and edit together.
A hub for learning
EdTech Hub is an extraordinary, inspiring and heartwarming project and team.
I’ve had the pleasure of working closely with members of that team, finding ways to simplify important messages, grounded in academic research, without diluting the academic rigour behind them.
The team work extremely hard, and the whole organisation has changed its focus and remit in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Working alongside them is an honour and an education. I’ve learned about education for Syrian refugee children in Lebanon, deaf children in Pakistan, and rural communities in Uganda. Work that opens my eyes and makes me very conscious of my wealth and privilege.
Coaching in content design thinking
I’m a Scientist is a terrific project, connecting school children to real scientists using simple online chat rooms. Children get to ask the scientists about anything - not just the science, but about what it’s like to be one, or become one. Children get to see that scientists aren’t stereotyped boring nerds, but real people with real lives and real senses of humour.
Project director Shane McCracken asked me to help the team re-think its website content, which was over long, repetitive, and quite hard for newcomers to digest.
I worked with the team to help them think about user needs, to dramatically shorten and simplify the content on most pages, and ways to use simple web UX techniques to channel different audiences towards the information they need.
“Hiring Giles is a good investment, as both I and the I’m A Scientist team would attest.”
– Shane McCracken