The Brief
People who build networks do well at BP yet networking is often a highly misunderstood skill. BP’s objective was to re-engage employees and help them boost their networking powers.
The Solution
Show people their inner ‘Networking Power Animal’. Introduce a highly engaging (and charming) way to help people to understand themselves, understand others, and make positive steps to improve.
Background
Our Approach
A lot of people will tell you they don’t want to be pigeon-holed, yet many of us secretly love to be defined. It gives us a chance to identify with others by comparing and contrasting key character traits. The many “which Friends character are you?” style Facebook quizzes is proof of that. But, most deliver little genuine insight.
We wanted to draw on the popularity of personal calculators, but add more depth and practical value. We developed an algorithm that could sort people into one of 16 ‘types’ based on four main patterns of networking behaviour. Users answered 50+ questions and received a full output profile.
Networking Power Animals include Gathering Squirrels, Roaming Boars and Abundant Unicorns. Each possess unique qualities. This hook proved irresistible to BP colleagues, sparking discussions on Yammer, animal badge email signatures, and webinars discussing networking approaches.
Impact
The result? The most-engaged piece of content ever at BP.
- More than 10,000 people have discovered their networking power animal.
- The single most viewed learning experience within BP …. ever.
- Social groups organically formed based around power animal tribes, as a direct result of this experience.
- Virtual networking groups organically formed on Yammer and continue to be active since launch over 8 months ago.
- People across the business have started adding power animal avatars to their work email signatures; encouraging further group forming.
This is fantastic, it’s gone viral and now has a life of its own, with people using it for icebreakers at the start of meetings. Results have shown that this is the highest engaged piece of editorial content we have ever had.
MK Learning Consultant, BP