Category: Connection

Are you ready to get digital? How to unlock connection through virtual events

Posted on by Flora Clarke

Virtual events still sound a little futuristic, but they have been happening since 1993, when the world’s first live stream brought us the exciting webcam footage from a coffee machine at the Waldorf Hotel in New York. And yes, you guessed it, millions of people tuned in to watch. If we fast-forward to today, developments in technology and social media have opened the doors to new ways to connect online, from baking tutorials to home-schooling and even Parliamentary debates. We have seen the cancellation of all group gatherings… festivals, sporting events and business conferences, all of which is putting virtual events to the test on an unprecedented scale. 

These mass cancellations also mean that many organisations are having to rethink the ways in which they co-create, engage and connect their employees to their vision, strategy and purpose – without getting together in person. 

And for that, we have good news.

Reflecting on a recent business leadership conference we co-hosted with Phoenix Group, the largest life and pensions consolidator in Europe, it is clear that a virtual conference requires the same care and attention to detail as a live event. This particular conference was meant to take place over two days in an idyllic Scottish hotel with their top 70 leaders, but due to C-19 we had to rapidly adapt it to be run virtually as a dynamic digital experience. By keeping the energy levels up and having a jam-packed agenda, this highly-interactive conference was still filled with networking opportunities, collaboration and breakout sessions. 

It was a very successful two-day offsite, produced and delivered from the comfort of our homes. We were able to break participants into smaller groups for discussions by using the great breakout room function on Blue Jeans. We were able to synthesise and play back live data and feedback to participants in real time. We played inspiring films and presented slides for them in to engage with in a dynamic, pacy way. And we were all able to keep connected in the background using WhatsApp. 

This virtual conference enabled participants to fit in some home schooling, have breakfast, lunch and dinner with their families and it significantly reduced the environmental impact of hosting a large conference of this nature. And we still even had a virtual drink at the end of the second day. 

And so, while many companies are cancelling their conferences, roadshows and town halls due to COVID-19, we ask why? To all those who have their reservations about hosting a virtual event, to those who are worried about the technology or it not being as engaging and exciting or for those who are concerned that you won’t get the great attendee insights that are normally generated at events, then you are mistaken. The impact of the event extended well beyond the computer screen, and the feedback speaks for itself:

  • “A hugely successful remote conference”
  • “Future model for conferences”
  • “Highly engaging and inspiring conference”

The value of face-to-face interaction will never go away, but there are times where going virtual has never been as essential. This is a time when clarity, focus, a sense of belonging and the need to energise and galvanise now-fragmented teams is needed more than ever. Now is not the time to cancel your meetings, but to lean into the virtual world that offers so many amazing technologies that can make a large-scale meeting a truly wonderful digital experience. Don’t be overwhelmed by the technology or push back any key milestones in your calendar for fear of losing impact. Make the connection with your team when they need it most. It really does work.

Is your company ready to get digital?

We can be heroes: how to ‘nudge’ people into action

Posted on by Imogen Wallersteiner

Stay at Home. Protect the NHS. Save Lives.

In these unimaginable times we have all found ourselves living in a strap-line. The government knows that right now, life-and-death action depends on the ability to speak – clearly and emotively – to every aspect of our lives and selves: enmeshed, since lockdown, like never before. The national dilemma is the rupture between our personal and professional purpose – we need to perform our work (and pay our bills) but we also want to save lives. We want to be heroes. And now, this strap-line tells us, we can be. These three neat lines tell us clearly what’s expected of us – but we want to do those things because they make us the hero of the story. By working from home, staying in and changing our habits on a major scale, we are protecting the NHS – and like the NHS workers, who we applaud every week for their true, staggering heroism, we can help to save lives too. 

These implied heroics are no accident. This strap-line – potentially the most critical government communication ever implemented – has been developed with all the behavioural insight of the famous ‘Nudge’ unit that helps us to hack our own human biases to make better decisions like saving for our pensions and looking after our health. And to really get people to take these measures, government communications need to make people care. Employing the effective ‘rule of three’, their slogan is incredibly clear. But on top of clarity, these words incentivise individuals to do their bit. We now know exactly the role we need to play in order to ‘flatten the curve’ – in the words of David Bowie: ‘We can be heroes’. 

Going beyond simply rational information, our intrinsic emotional motivation is being spoken to shift our personal narrative. The Nudge unit uses a framework termed ‘EAST’: make a decision easy, attractive, social and timely. Nudges are a subtle, voluntary and human-centred mechanism of exerting influence. Helping people to contribute through clear, tangible action and implanting nudges that support collaborative and resilient behaviours. Dan and Chip Heath’s analogy of the ‘elephant and the rider’ describes the tension between the rider (our rational mind) and the elephant (our emotional mind). The key is getting the two moving together: something leaders can do by helping guide the emotional and rational minds of their teams. 

Locate the inspiring narrative

Before you achieve collective action – you need to tap into the meaningful narrative. This is the source of the power of our current strap-line. ‘Stay at Home. Protect the NHS. Save Lives’ has tapped into our most beloved national self image – the narrative that means the most, centred around one of our most cherished assets – the NHS. It also harnesses the blitz spirit and sense of collective national values. Leaders won’t have a hope without identifying the foundational narrative – relevant, authentic, meaningful and inspiring – they’re building all their communications from. But if they can, there’s huge power and opportunity 

Action, not just words

In the context of C-19, INSEAD’s Professor of Change, Gianpiero Petriglieri urges leaders to think of ‘holding’ their people: reassuring and affirming their faith in their company. ‘In groups whose leaders can hold’ he writes, ‘mutual support abounds, work continues, and a new vision eventually emerges’ (Harvard Business Review, April 2020). This is a period of prolonged uncertainty, far longer than any of us are used to. Employees need to feel ‘held’ safely – not abandoned to the unknown. As this is a very real hazard of our times. Richard Branson, a brand built on trust and transparency, has created real hurt and distrust amongst his Virgin Atlantic employees by asking them to take eight weeks unpaid leave. Whilst Branson has since apologised for this major misjudgement, the internal damage between his people and their trust in him will take a lot longer to repair. Branson failed to prepare and then subsequently reassure his employees – doing lasting damage in a context where employees will be more attuned than ever to how businesses treat their people in crisis. Long-term anxiety and ultimately disconnection is a likely symptom of this error. 

Find the stories, find the heroes

Captain Tom Moore’s fundraising story has captured our hearts. His story of his remarkable achievement of raising £33million for the NHS taps into something bigger than just the current pandemic. It taps into our memory of the past, WW2 and our collective history. It brings to life the strap-line: that we can be heroes from our own homes. It has circulated organically around the nation and has been amplified by government, which recognises the power of this singular example to reinforce the narrative they’re urging us to embrace. 

Stories like this make narratives meaningful and actionable. They provide the motivation to act, they role model what it means to act, and they sustain our momentum to act by becoming an inspiring part of the conversation around us. By seeding new stories that role model behaviours and make change feel possible, leaders can embed new norms and inspire collective action. When we hear stories that we empathise with, our brains release serotonin and oxytocin, the neurotransmitters of empathy. We connect with them. Jennifer Aaker, a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business says that people remember information when it is weaved into narratives “up to 22 times more than facts alone” (Lean in). 

Words aren’t just saving lives during this crisis, but they are a mechanism that can modulate our fears, pull us back to purpose, and guide us in the dark. For leaders, choosing the right words will be the difference between sinking and swimming. 

With remote-working and increased physical distance from one another, we face the threat of disconnection like never before. And as we are jolted out of normality, mental wellbeing will be thrown off kilter for many. The ‘emotional revolution’, led by psychotherapist Esther Perel, has made great strides in addressing mental health in the workplace, but we can’t let this drop off now. Leaders can’t control the immediate side-effects of this crisis on working life – the strains of a poor home internet connection and disruptive children and pets. However, leaders can perform their duty of care and communicate with their people in new, somewhat atypical ways. 

Looking ahead 

As humans, we are hardwired to create a sense of connection from what was to what will be. Psychologists call this the ‘continuity principle’. We tell stories as our impulse is to create meaning and patterns from chaos, to peer through the haze of uncertainty. As Esther Perel contends, such mechanisms even physically soothe us, they ‘slow down our breath’ and make us ‘attentive’ (FT, April 2020). Interruption can happen at anytime, it might be a global pandemic or it could be the next M&A – any radical change requires people to move quickly. A narrative is a way of helping employees move with purpose, and connect their inner story to the journey ahead. 

Communications and posters alone won’t change behaviour. As a country and as a world, never before have we been connected by such a common purpose. This purpose needs to be articulated clearly, with heart, empathy and grit by leaders. This painful time will pass; and in the interim leaders can begin to build the emotional conditions in their teams and their organisational culture for long-term renewal and resilience.

Make the connection: top tips for running a virtual event

Posted on by Poppy Kearney

We know that connecting people to the journey your business is on is more critical now than ever before. Millions of employees are suddenly working in ways that are disconnected from the life they know and are facing incredible uncertainty and worry that will affect their wellbeing and ability to perform. At times like this, people want to feel like they are contributing to a higher purpose and feel a shared sense of belief in it. People are craving the clarity of what the business journey means to them. 

Pre COVID-19, one way of creating this connection was through large group events for leaders, or in some cases, the whole organisation. We pride ourselves on designing and producing high-quality, inspiring events that become a defining moment in our client’s story. Yet it’s not just face-to-face events that we have become experts at delivering: creative, dynamic virtual events run on digital platforms have been part of our offer for years. Now that more and more people have been tasked with how to run such an intervention, now is the time that we can offer our expertise.

For those used to the power of a beautifully-run event, complete with music, staging, lights, great content, interactive breakouts and all of the bells and whistles that make it spine-tingling and utterly memorable, how do we capture the magic of these events and translate this experience digitally? How do we create a real impact in virtual spaces, where despite the proximity of our colleagues on screen, we feel disconnected?

This week we designed and produced our own Storytellers’ event – to connect our colleagues to the latest episode of our own story, in kitchens and offices from Aberdeen to Essex! Here are seven top tips that we’d like to share:

  1. Break the event into bitesize chunks: at a face-to-face ‘connection’ event one day often feels too short. However, this does not translate virtually, even if the content is the same. Sitting and staring at a bright screen can become exhausting and people can lose interest. Spacing the event into bitesize chunks across multiple days led to a greater, high-impact experience. We chose 60-75 minute daily sessions, and of course our narrative thread tied each session together into one meaningful experience. 
  2. Use the time efficiently by sharing pre-session content: we asked each session owner to make a short introductory film introducing their section of the story, shared across the business the day before it was to be presented. It ensured that people had a chance to absorb the content in advance, leading to the majority of the sessions being filled with meaningful conversations and reflections. Furthermore, because we had captured the key messages on film, we now have a suite of high-quality assets that we can reuse for induction and training.
  3. Don’t skip on the detail: it’s easy to think that a virtual event requires less planning than a physical one. Don’t be led into thinking we are simply recreating the Zoom quiz nights we’ve all be enjoying in isolation! The reality is quite the opposite.  At a physical event there is so much interaction that happens naturally, whether it’s the informal table conversations, the networking or breakout exercises. This all needs pre-planning and huge attention to detail if you want to re-create memorable shared moments, given the fact that both the audience and production team are working apart.
  4. Try different platforms and ways of communicating: Zoom, Teams, BlueJeans etc. all have their strengths and weaknesses when it comes to large-scale interactions. We ended up using them all (on different days) and whilst this may not be practical for most companies, it did help to keep the sessions fresh and different. Each platform has its own communication tools, from breakout rooms and chats to whiteboards and shared documents. We supplemented these with word-clouds and instant polls to create a rich variety of interactions.
  5. Creative exercises worked really well: in the past we’ve enjoyed designing creative ways of engaging audiences in key aspects of their story and bringing in moments of skills-building – from ‘values wheels’ to ‘elevator stories’. We replicated a number of these at our event and found they provided some of the highlights of the week. Unlike a live event, there is nothing stopping attendees from putting themselves on mute, turning off their camera and making a cup of tea whilst you are delivering a business-critical message! The key is to keep the agenda interactive and fun.
  6. Make the magic happen: we know from the feedback of live events that the look and feel of the production plays a critical role in creating the WOW factor, and reinforces the message of the importance of the occasion. So don’t lose this when it comes to a virtual event. It needs to be seamless, dynamic and professional – a really memorable experience with rich content that needs to land and stick with real impact. Think about the look and feel of the slides, the exercise tools, the films and animations. This requires some ‘out-of-the-box thinking’ and dedicated design time, but the impact will be worth it. This also applies to the agenda. How can you make the event feel like an occasion and not just another virtual meeting? In our own session we brought in a surprise guest – a past client who spoke about the impact we had on her organisation. This became a real highlight of the event, and even caused a few colleagues to tear up! 
  7. Ensure you have the right support team: there may not be lights, sound and staging to deal with, but the complexity of producing a virtual event is, if anything, more challenging than a live one (especially given that the production team, like the audience, may well be spread across the country). Simultaneously facilitating, sharing slides, operating polls, reviewing chats, sending teams to breakout rooms, managing participants etc. all requires a competent and well-rehearsed production team. In many ways, as some of the team commented, it took them back to the days of producing live TV.

This is a time when clarity, focus, a sense of belonging and the need to energise and galvanise now-fragmented teams is needed more than ever. Now is not the time to cancel your meetings, but to lean into the virtual world that offers so many amazing technologies that can make a large-scale meeting a truly wonderful experience. Don’t be overwhelmed by the technology or push back any key milestones in your calendar for fear of losing impact. Make the connection with your team when they need it most. It really does work.

The case for connectivity

Posted on by Imogen Wallersteiner

It is 1979. The ‘Walkman’ has just been introduced to the Japanese market. Within three months, its entire stock of 30,000 units has sold out. For a decade after its launch, Sony’s Walkman retained 50% of market share in the U.S. (The Atlantic). Sony had cutting edge tech, bold vision, and the rights to the world’s best-selling musicians. But today we aren’t listening to our music on a Walkman. Instead, it was Apple – a technology brand with no relevant pedigree – that joined the dots to our musical future. Why?

In the early 2000s, Sony fell victim to the consequences of a disconnected business. Following a spate of successes from the 1950s through to the 1990s, Sony was focused on investing, selling and innovating hardware. It had various business divisions creating MP3 players, but they weren’t talking to each other. They weren’t in a rush. They stalled their product launch through fears that people would acquire their music for free; these were the days of LimeWire, Napster and rampant music piracy. So while Sony could see that the transition from hardware to software was happening – and even participate at the front lines of that innovation – it couldn’t join the dots. It was blind to the fundamental nature of the shift. 

With the iPod’s self-contained eco-system, slick interface and intuitive design Apple realised the power of that shift and transformed the industry overnight. 

Connectivity drives performance

The rapid pace of change left Sony Walkman behind. But its message is as true today and more urgent than it ever was. Businesses need to be connected. They need to be agile systems, not lonely units. Today’s complex organisations are not unlike huge orchestras, with an ever-expanding pool of new players, instruments and frantic harmonies. No surprise then that the musicians are playing different tunes. When organisations don’t talk to each other information and opportunity are lost. 

Every orchestra needs to be led by a good conductor. Steve Jobs was no perfect leader, but he was a peerless conductor. He had a vision he could bring the world into, creating a higher purpose for Apple and creating a site of unmatched innovation.

Connect with a narrative 

Elite teams demonstrate the power of a clear goal and common purpose, whether on the field or in the workplace. 

What tool creates connection? Narrative. We’re storytelling animals. We know that the human brain needs context to process information, and people need to feel before they take action. An effective change narration creates the emotional and rational conditions of change by connecting employees to the journey ahead. 

The effects can be monumental. We worked with a large pharmaceutical company looking to boost performance in the midst of a major transformation. Working with the Executive committee, we crafted a narrative that called on the organisation’s people to ‘change the world again’. Coupled with an integrated programme, this narrative set out the foundation of the ‘ownership’ culture where each member of the team could play an essential role. 

But it takes personal connection to bring any narrative to life; and it takes authentic role-modelling to make any leader worth following. That’s why, to launch the narrative, the business’s founder began by telling his own personal story: a powerful story about the power of story. As a young doctor, he had helped a patient through cancer and realised he could change things on a bigger scale by finding cures, not administering them. 

The power of purpose

A year later, during the trial of a drug for a rare disease in Mexico, the research and development team received a call from a desperate mother with a sick child. Living thousands of miles from the trial in Mexico City, it would have taken six months for the drug to get to the child due to legislation. But the team were so moved by the mother’s plea for help, they decided to find a new way to bring help to her. By working together across the business, they delivered the drug to the child. The child’s life was saved. The team were truly inspired by the story, and the purpose it instilled in them moved them to achieve beyond expectations. 

Connect with head and heart 

“No man or woman is an island, entire of itself,” said the poet John Donne in 1624. These words ring true today – everything and everybody are connected, and no organisation or individual acts on their own. Over the previous three decades, we have become a hyper-connected world. Information flows constantly – we need new ways to make constant connections. A company-wide narrative provides a common purpose and a shared foundation to build from; but it is the connection – between collective narrative and personal storytelling, between geographies and expertise, between head and heart – which makes a story-driven approach the key to powerfully connected, high performing teams.