The Brief
Moving into a leadership role for the first time is exciting, but it also brings with it a set of unexpected pressures. How do you manage this without overwhelming your audience with information?
The Solution
Pair emotional, engaging content with direct, practical information that’s all easily accessed within one single online resource, available at the point of need.
Background
The Approach
Research had shown that new leaders at BP felt unsupported in their transition into leadership, and that making a successful transition is extremely important to the overall productivity of a company and that very often this is not well-managed.
BP’s objective: Reduce the time to competency for all new leaders joining BP.
Through workshops and guided sessions, we mapped out the key messages that BP wanted to communicate through the portal. Organising the IA into three categories that would make sense to a new leader – Becoming a Leader, Managing Yourself and Managing your Team.
The next step was to conceptualise ways to bring all of the material and ideas to life. We divided content into three main types: Practical tips (text copy and stylised infosheets), Guidance and advice (films and stories) and Concept content (animations and interactive graphics). We then applied a little ‘surprise and delight’.
A leadership resource
Available at the point of need – this resource would support leaders when they needed it the most. Rather than forcing them to sit through hours of eLearning, we instead chose to create a web portal, that allowed leaders to control the flow of their own learning experience.
Rich interactive info sheets delivered practical advice and guidance in appealing, easy-to-absorb ways, often supported by beautiful illustrations and interactive graphics. This was enhanced by using rich media to provide emotive content that helped to drive engagement.
Can corporate films stir emotion?
Common Leadership Challenges
Consider for a moment the unsaid messaging behind traditional corporate talking heads films: we know best; you’re on your own; do what we say. Instead, we wanted to focus on storytelling, allowing viewers to emotionally connect with an idea, rather than listening to lectures.
We devised a series of impactful scenarios that set about bringing to life a series of common leadership challenges, told through the eyes of a newly transitioned leader. Helping viewers understand that they are not alone provides emotive support and encourages trust in the content. We then paired this relatable & emotive content with direct practical advice about how to best overcome these common leadership challenges.
Interpersonal Impact
Understanding the subtle nuances of non-verbal communication is essential to becoming a successful team leader. We created a suite of lighthearted films that looked at interpersonal impact and its effect on your team. We engaged the RADA In-Business team to help add inject life into the films and help make them stand out.
Designed to engage the viewer, the films were embedded into the site with supporting advice and guidance.
Avoiding common leadership mistakes:
It was recognised that people new to leadership tend to make common – and avoidable – mistakes. Understanding how to recognise these pitfalls can help save time and energy, and help leaders develop more effectively. How do you help leaders in BP to avoid making the same leadership mistakes as their predecessors?
Taking inspiration from Rube Goldberg, we created short, humorous 3D motion graphics that summarised the eight most common leadership mistakes in 20 seconds or less. We married the content with humour to ensure we captured and held our audiences attention.
Real time feedback
The portal was coupled with a feedback app, that allowed leaders to request anonymous feedback from their team, using it to help improve their leadership style. Nudge technology was also integrated to send out habit changing challenges to our new leaders, encouraging self reflection and continuous self development.
Impact
- An average dwell time of over 6 mins
- Site received over 130,000 unique visits since launch
- A 65% return rate.
- 5740 leaders have downloaded the non-mandatory app
- Over 50% of those who downloaded the app are actively using the feedback functionality.
