Submitted by markibison on
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Dear MT Community,
I've been asked by my boss (managing director) to put together a company-wide presentation on our strategy. I suspect I've been asked as a result of me banging the drum about engaging employees, and because I have a lot of passion for trying new things. I need some help in thinking of ways to present differently.
Traditionally the presentation (presented every year to all employees, ~350, in 9 countries) has been a little dry - PowerPoint, lots of slides, lots of text. There is nothing wrong with the core strategy (24 hour delivery of catalogued components to anywhere in Europe) but we find that it doesn't really sink in and there appears to be a lack of engagement with the process.
I have some ideas but need some help in refining them - I would love to hear from people who have had to present something which basically asks for culture change (the 24 hour thing needs to permeate every department, in everything we do). I know Mark and Mike talk about "what's your visual?" but am finding that a little challenging. I know that I don't want to present reams of numbers / text but not entirely sure how to go about making the process more engaging.
Can anybody help?
Thanks - Mark
Presenting...or implementing?
If senior management expects a presentation to result in measurable change, your task is Sisyphean.
There is no change in "culture" without changes in the behavior of many people. Your presentation will be effective if you can say something like this: "if we achieve 24 hour delivery of catalogued components to anywhere in Europe, each employee will be granted a 10000 Euro bonus."
OK, I admit to being a bit polemical. Nonetheless, You must set a measurable goal for each department, and tie some sort of contingency to that goal.
Until measures of performance, and related rewards, are aligned with the strategy, behavior change is very unlikely.
John Hack
Read John Kotter
The book "The Heart of Change" is in general a really good book on change management. There are also some stories in there about similar types of presentations or change initiatives. One particular example about a parts dealer (I think!) comes to mind, where the presenter went and got some video interviews of clients who were helping to make his case.
-Jeff
John - I think it's worth
John - I think it's worth pointing out that it's more in hope than expectation that the presentation format is being looked at. It will no doubt be one of many steps to get us behaving differently.
I'm not sure about financial rewared though - this is an area I've been giving some thought to recently and I'm not convinced that financial rewards motivate as many people as we might think. My company operates bonus schemes which reward people for individual contributions and I've witnessed a number of examples of dysfunctional behaviour as a direct result. Couple that with research done on blood donations (when people were paid, donations went down) and some of the good stuff in Freakonomics, and it makes me wonder whether money really will promote culture change. Doesn't culture run deeper than that?
Jeff - funnily enough, I took Kotter's book out of my cupboard the other day. I will get reading - particularly keen to try alternative forms of presentation (like the video you mention).
Drive -> Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose.
@markibison
Dan Pink's book Drive would suggest Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose as key motivators, not money. Money works as a disincentive, at least when tasks are at all creative.
RSA Animate video about it here, about 10 minutes.
-Aaron.
Another book
I really like Switch by Chip & Dan Heath, so much that I'm reading it again.
Sounds to me like you need to get buy-in? If so, Switch might give you some new strategies & approaches. I know it has for me.
(And thanks John for the new vocabulary word today. I like that one!)
Why will behavior change?
Money is not a great motivator, agreed. My point was, and remains: So how will you motivate the change? A presentation alone is not enough.
John Hack
I'll get reading...
Thanks for the help all. Looks like I've got some reading to do! Aaron - will watch the video at home (YouTube is a no no here!).
John - I'm in agreement with your second post. At first I thought you were advocating money as the source of motivation which I'm not sure I believe. I'm not suggesting the presentation will be the big thing that moves people - I just want it to be the start of a process, the kindling if you will. Personally I believe that motivation comes from within, and the key to me is about engagement. But I think we can all agree that isn't the easiest thing in the world to address.