Issues anticipation and narrative risk

Narrative risk work is run by the Desk, our research team of nine in London. For each client it produces two things. The first is an issues register: the stories that could plausibly be told about the client, how likely each is, how much harm it would do and what the client could do now to make it less likely or less harmful. The second is a set of profiles of the people most likely to tell those stories.

A profile covers a journalist, analyst, campaigner, academic or online commentator who has written, or is likely to write, about the client or its sector: what they have published, whom they cite, how they work, what they have asked other organisations and what they are likely to ask next. Clients use them to prepare for interviews, to decide who should be briefed and how, and to understand why a particular question is being asked.

Everything in a profile comes from published or publicly available material. We do not obtain private information, we do not use pretexts, and we do not monitor anyone’s private communications or private accounts. Profiles are reviewed every six months and closed when the matter they support is closed. People whose work we cover can find out how to ask about it in our privacy notice.