At first glance, journalism, homicide investigations, policing, marketing, sociology, art, and Organizational Development appear to have very little in common.

Looking back, they were all exploring the same underlying question.

How do we know what is actually true?

As a journalist, Karen learned that facts rarely speak for themselves. The same event could produce very different stories depending on what evidence was gathered, what was overlooked, and how those facts were interpreted.

Supporting homicide investigations with the Metropolitan Police Service reinforced a different lesson. Evidence does not arrive with meaning attached. Good investigators examine multiple sources, test competing explanations, and resist becoming emotionally attached to their first theory.

Working in police communications revealed something equally important. What appeared to be a communication problem was often the visible symptom of something much deeper—leadership, decision-making, conflicting priorities, or organizational misalignment.

Years working internationally in marketing and communications demonstrated that meaning is never controlled by the sender. It is constructed by the audience through context, relationships, experience, and culture.

As an artist, Karen became increasingly interested in how people express themselves beyond words. Creative collaboration revealed patterns of communication, leadership, problem-solving, and decision-making that conventional conversations often failed to uncover.

Studying sociology provided the academic language for many of these observations, deepening an understanding of social interaction, systems, organizational behaviour, and meaning-making.

Looking back, every stage explored a different aspect of the same challenge.

How do people gather evidence, construct meaning, and decide what they believe is true?