About us
The Surgery was founded in 2013 by Paul Cohen and Nick Cordell, built on a heritage of graphic design, brand thinking and digital craft. From brand development, print and sponsorship activations to retail environments and digital experiences, our roots have always been in creating work with clarity, intelligence and unmistakable creative polish.
As our relationships with clients deepened, one discipline consistently drew us in: internal communications. With the insight and encouragement of client and internal comms specialist Sarah Meurer, who later joined our leadership team, we made a deliberate decision to specialise. Carly Murray soon followed, strengthening our strategic capability and helping us shape a rare blend: design thinking and internal communications working seamlessly together.
Today, Sarah has returned client‑side, but her influence runs deep. As part of her legacy, we continue to run Barn to Boardroom – the internal comms event she and Carly launched over a decade ago. Now in its eleventh year, it remains one of the sector’s most valued forums for insight, challenge and connection.
This integration of disciplines has become our hallmark. Insight sharpened by creativity. Creativity grounded in human understanding. A combined practice designed to create communication which resonates and transforms.
We’ve grown intentionally, not exponentially. A 20‑strong team, proudly independent and purposefully lean. Strategists. Designers. Brand thinkers. Writers. Internal Comms specialists. All working side by side to deliver clarity, confidence and meaningful change for some of the world’s most respected organisations.
Our studio sits in a converted barn on a working West Sussex farm, a place with room to think, challenge, create and breathe. It shapes how we work: focused, thoughtful and always curious. A setting that invites fresh thinking and fosters great ideas.
We’re proud of our blue‑chip client list. Proud of the awards we’ve earned. But most of all, proud of the impact we create – work that helps people understand, connect and move forward with confidence.
This is The Surgery.
Independent. Insight‑driven. Creatively led.
Work that works®.
What drives us
Our mission
To create work that works – strategic, insight‑led, creatively crafted solutions that move people and organisations forward.
Why we do what we do
Because when people understand, believe, and feel connected to what’s happening around them, organisations thrive. Clear, purposeful and creative communication changes everything.
What we do
We combine human insight, strategic intelligence and creative craft to deliver internal comms, EVPs, brand, design and digital solutions that align and inspire your people.
How we do it
We listen deeply, think boldly and design with intention. We cut out the unnecessary, focus on what matters and turn complex challenges into clarity – and clarity into action.
AI is transforming internal communications, from content creation and simplification to sentiment analysis and campaign planning. Where are you seeing AI make the biggest difference in communications? For more IC & Al insights visit our website. #InternalComms #AI
Right…let’s talk internal comms audits. No, wait, come back.. internal comms audits rock!
How else can you get an overview of how your comms are received by your people? How else can you truly understand the strengths, weaknesses, and how your people prefer to be communicated with, as well as where they go for information?
Audits are key to unlocking brilliant, engaging comms, they are the building block of your next internal comms strategy.
If you could improve one aspect of your internal communications tomorrow, what would it be?
To read the full blog, and for more insights visit our website.
#InternalComms #InternalCommunications #InternalCommsAudit #CommsAudit #IC
There’s a lot of AI-generated content out there.
While it’s learned that people don’t have 12 fingers, AI output is often easy to spot.
Lazily shoved out without any checks and balances, bad AI can actually be quite damaging. It smacks of a lack of care and attention to detail.
We help teams change that and spot how things could be done differently.
Join us on our Spot the Slop workshop, and in two hours, you’ll be:
• Recognising weak AI content
• Understanding the human edge
• Creating comms that actually work and cut through the crap.
It’s practical, sharp, effective and will leave you with an oo-this-is-so-helpful feeling!
Get on board and chat with our Surgery humans before the machines find out what we’re up to…
Influencing others feels like an even more important critical skill for internal communicators right now.
And while you might not get much input into new SLT-driven policies or business direction (even though you really should) you do have, as an internal communicator, a bit of informal persuasion power to wield.
Here’s some tactics and skills you can deploy to win friends and influence people in your organisation.
What’s your biggest challenge when trying to influence leaders or stakeholders?
To read the full blog and for more insights, visit our website. Link in bio.
#InternalComms #EmployeeEngagement #CommunicationStrategy #InfluencingSkills #ChangeCommunication
AI isn’t just a rollout. It’s a mindset shift.
And most organisations are completely overlooking the human, emotional side of AI adoption.
We’ll help you change that through our AI Hearts and Minds campaign:
• Tackle people’s real concerns head-on
• Build confidence in a human, honest way
• Move beyond awareness to real buy-in
This is how you make AI feel part of the furniture, something to be embraced and welcomed.
We love work that works, so if this is the challenge you’re facing, our Surgery humans are ready to get to work!
Check out the link in the bio to find out more
What happens when you stop using AI just to rewrite emails and start using it to rethink how work gets done?
In this episode, we spoke with Adele McIntosh VP, Internal Communications and Community at Arm, about the realities of AI adoption inside a technology company and how her team is thinking about the future of internal communication.
💡 Using AI as a thought partner rather than just an efficiency tool.
💡 Building an AI-powered chief of staff agent to help manage priorities across email, Teams and other channels.
💡 Starting with a blank sheet of paper to reimagine processes instead of simply adding AI to existing ways of working.
💡 Developing an internal AI narrative that tackles opportunities, skills, jobs, ethics and employee concerns.
💡 Why communicators need to stay curious and invest time in experimenting with new tools.
It`s an honest conversation about the excitement, uncertainty and practical challenges that come with adopting AI at scale.
Link in the comments and available from all the usual places. Take a listen in the link in our bio
Understand and pre- build your audience’s perspective into your campaigns, processes and messages.
With your own AI-powered agent personas, you can:
• Stress-test comms across different audience groups
• Prepare for key moments like town halls
• Keep real audience needs at the heart of everything.
All before you hit send.
Smarter decisions. Better outcomes.
We love creating work that works, so if you’re ready to get ahead with AI, let’s talk. Link in the bio
We absolutely love working on brand identities. They’re the epitome of our mantra, “Making the Complex Simple” because, when they’re executed and supported well, that little mark can say so much about a business.
But unlike a product or service, it’s not always easy to put a value on a brand. Most successful businesses would agree that a strong brand creates real value, but how do you put a price on that before it’s even launched? And what actually goes into creating one?
Well, that got us thinking.
If our job is to make the complex simple, shouldn’t it be easier for businesses to understand what a branding project involves — and what it’s likely to cost?
Of course, there will always be variables. But in our experience, we see the same three challenges coming up time and time again. So we’ve taken a bold step and distilled years of branding experience into three straightforward, fixed-priced packages, each designed around a real business challenge:
Startup – for businesses launching something new
Growth Rebrand – for businesses that have outgrown their brand
Employer Brand – for businesses struggling to attract and retain talent
No mystery.
Just Work That Works®
