National Geographic series ‘Brain Games’ fascinated me in regards to human behaviour and what we can learn from its insights. The research is interactive, encouraging television viewers, often along with a handful of live volunteers, to engage in visual, auditory, and other cognitive experiments, or “brain games“, that emphasise the main points presented in each episode. The parallels between an individual’s life experience and that of the collective in a company are everywhere. The human element is being able to correlate every day human behaviours with that of the company collective.
As Bridge’s Creative Director and a behaviouralist, in this series of articles I am on a quest to discover the magic formula that allows humans and brands to coexist to create an amazing company culture. In this ever-changing environment, I endeavour to find commonality that will translate into a strategy of ‘must-haves’ and a list of ‘must-dos’ that will ensure a seamless transformation of your Living Brands. My aim is to study the human element and the constants in organisational change. Follow me over the next weeks when I revisit the ‘Living Brand Project’ reflecting on trqansformation in my personal live changing my diet and fitness regime over 30 days. To me, the ‘Living Brand Project’ is an umbrella that allows us to delve into the human element with an open mind and without limitations. Looking at organisational change through the lens of a personal transformation, the premise of the project is that companies behave like humans because they are driven by humans.
As Bridge’s Creative Director and a behaviouralist, in this series of articles I am on a quest to discover the magic formula that allows humans and brands to coexist to create an amazing company culture. In this ever-changing environment, I endeavour to find commonality that will translate into a strategy of ‘must-haves’ and a list of ‘must-dos’ that will ensure a seamless transformation of your Living Brands. My aim is to study the human element and the constants in organisational change. So, for 30 days, I drastically altered my diet and introduced a new exercise regime to track daily what it felt like to be immersed in a transformation as part of the ‘Living Brand Project’.
“Companies are driven by humans, so therefore they behave like humans.”
The parallels between an individual’s life experience and that of the collective in a company are everywhere. The first 30-day challenge was a real-time experiment.Each day of the 30-day ‘Human Element’ experiment brought new challenges and opportunities to better understand how a company can feel as it moves through an engagement programme. This next phase will break into four parts; exploring the parallels found between a week in the experiment and a quarter in an organisational culture transformation. Change does not happen overnight, and by identifying the human face of change we can better understand how to create change programmes that not only motivate our people, but also offer long term, sustainable solutions. The magic formula starts with identifying the key trends that can offer positive change and the pitfalls that can move us off track from our desired outcomes. The human element is being able to correlate every day human behaviours with that of the company collective.
Change does not happen overnight, and by identifying the human face of change we can better understand how to create change programmes that not only motivate our people, but also offer long-term, sustainable solutions. The magic formula starts with identifying the key trends that can offer positive change and the pitfalls that can move us off track from our desired outcomes. The human element is being able to correlate everyday human behaviours with that of the company collective.
As Bridge’s Creative Director and a behaviouralist, in this series of articles I am on a quest to discover the magic formula that allows humans and brands to coexist to create an amazing company culture. In this ever-changing environment, I endeavour to find commonality that will translate into a strategy of ‘must-haves’ and a list of ‘must-dos’ that will ensure a seamless transformation of your Living Brands. My aim is to study the human element and the constants in organisational change. So, for 30 days, I drastically altered my diet and introduced a new exercise regime to track daily what it felt like to be immersed in a transformation as part of the ‘Living Brand Project’.
“Companies are driven by humans, so therefore they behave like humans.”
Having worked on several major transformation projects across a range of sectors, from hospitals to five star hotels, I became fascinated by the parallels between an individual’s journey and that of a business. I began to see similarities – no matter what the organisation or sector. The starting point of these projects varied massively; however, once the transformation process began, the people involved followed common patterns of behaviour. To further explore my hunch about a link between business and human behaviour, I began to delve deeper into the trends in engagement and how these impacted on shifts in the culture mindset.
To me, the ‘Living Brand Project’ is an umbrella that allows us to delve into the human element with an open mind and without limitations. Looking at organisational change through the lens of a personal transformation, the premise of the project is that companies behave like humans because they are driven by humans. One could argue that we are always changing, so a state of flux is the only real constant. Bridge’s first real-life, people-based social experiment, started in April 2017 and ran throughout the summer. On a mission to find parallels between one person’s journey and that of a business, my aim was to find commonality by overlaying my experiences with that of an organisation going through a clear and detailed change programme.
Companies and brands exist in both a virtual state and in a living state. The success of an organisation is dependent on these two states having a matching projected personality. For years, the team at Bridge has been using the term ‘Living Brands’ as representative of all employees of a business. It was in the early years that we began to look at the intrinsic link between brand values and customer promise, and how best to link these to an employee’s commitment and service delivery. This is still the case, and terms such as ‘employee engagement’ and ‘customer experience’ have become part of the vernacular for HR in most companies. Now is the time to look beyond, to the future of the human element in business transformation. What really drives the emotions that make up a company’s DNA?
The parallels between an individual’s life experience and that of the collective in a company are everywhere. The first 30-day challenge was a real-time experiment, and with hindsight I admit that it could have done with some more detailed planning – but hey: this is real life and real business. As every great leader knows all too well, it is easy for people to sit on the sidelines and judge without getting their hands dirty. Two of my favorite films are Indiana Jones and The Matrix. As a leader, some days I feel like I am living both of these films simultaneously: with the creative adventure of one, and the complexity of the other. I believe that with the collaborative efforts of great business minds we can conquer this challenge together. It is time that we put a little more grit and risk back in business and try new ways of exploring employee engagement. To truly understand any environment, we must first immerse ourselves in it, experience it first hand and then reflect on all the emotions and behaviours that drove the outcome. I also not-so-secretly love a good film set in an American High School. We might have swapped the school cafeteria for a boardroom, but there are many parallels to be drawn between company culture and films like Mean Girls – we have replaced cliques with departmental silos and bullying with a positional management style.
As part of the ‘Living Brand Project’, the Bridge Team will reach out to business minds at all levels of an organisation – from shop floor to the boardroom – to assist with more real-time challenges and to develop practical people solutions. Too often as companies, we promote our values as a testament to what makes our company or culture stand out. I like to think of the Bridge values as something that we all share. Values that will not only drive this project, but should be the foundations for all people who participate. In my mind: Pushing Creative Boundaries, Sharing Knowledge Openly, Inspiring Collaborative Energy, Celebrating Uniqueness Aways and Keeping it Real and Fun are the foundation stones for all business. As the ‘Living Brand Project’ unfolds and explores other parallels, we will be reaching out to many individuals to see how these and other values drive their success.
Each day of the 30-day ‘Human Element’ experiment brought new challenges and opportunities to better understand how a company can feel as it moves through an engagement programme. This next phase will break into four parts; exploring the parallels found between a week in the experiment and a quarter in an organisational culture transformation. Change does not happen overnight, and by identifying the human face of change we can better understand how to create change programmes that not only motivate our people, but also offer long term, sustainable solutions. The magic formula starts with identifying the key trends that can offer positive change and the pitfalls that can move us off track from our desired outcomes. The human element is being able to correlate every day human behaviours with that of the company collective.
A week after the ‘main 30-day’ part of the #LivingBrandProject, Dale reflects on the challenges of sustaining transformation, both personally and in business.
“Sometimes we have to move and shake with our businesses in order to find what is right for our employees and the business, creating a clear structure between those two worlds.”
As one chapter closes, another one begins. As the day came to an end, it was a great opportunity to look objectively at the entire project. From the original goals and desires for the programme during its inception, to the many touch points along the journey. I did have one milestone and that was to wear a favourite shirt that had not fit for a few years. If there was any measure of success to me, that would have been it. Yet that of course is not the level of insight that is required in a company transformation project. This leads me on to my ending parallel; how do you measure success? There will always be the quantitative and qualitative measurements that are in place, but never forget to just step back and do your own measure of success by simply asking: how does the organisation feel? After all your efforts and at the end of this phase of the journey, take time to appreciate just how far you have come and what this stage of success looks, sounds and feels like. Having worked on several large transformation projects, there are moments of success that will never be truly measured and can only be felt through your personal intuition.
As the end of the first 30 days is near, the team came together today to give additional support and motivation. We did a group fitness class with Tom, which turned out to be a real blast. The snapshot video is on our FB – so for a giggle, I recommend taking a look. This brings me on to today’s parallel: the power of teamwork and the importance of having one common purpose and goal to rally around. This project has not only allowed me to become more focused and driven, it has done the same for many in the team. We all create the world in which we live, and if you wear a frown, do not be surprised when others stop smiling around you. The energy of not just the leader, but all of the team is in constant churn and it is key to continuously feed it with positive intent and activities that bring the team together and allow them to be real and fun. It is also key for the team to have extrinsic motivators and a higher purpose that they rally around outside their normal tasks. This could be charity work or a transformation programme – it is all about inclusion and direction. Once the team has this focus they will often take this autonomy forward and begin to openly share their own knowledge and become participants in the future of the project.
It is so amazing how much difference one day can make in our motivation and how just the day before I was inspired by the energy of others and today I really needed one day to ‘just be’. I decided to totally take the day off and shut myself away from the world; put on a few good movies, do all those loads of laundry that have been piling up and get on top of a few things. I always find days like this a dichotomy: one side of me loves the slow, non-directional pace, and the other side gets a little bored and is guilty to not be making the most of my Sunday. However, it is the latter that is of interest in this parallel. It is important for leaders to pace themselves and be more forgiving of themselves when they need to jump off the treadmill for a few minutes. The day was interesting in the so much as I was still fully committed to the programme and with such a clear no-cheat rule, I could relax in the fact that this meant healthy food and no alcohol – contrary to those lazy Sundays in the past that easily turned into snack-attack days. It is important for all people to find their space and be comfortable to ‘just be’; not judging this time through the eyes of others. It also gave me time to reflect on many of the key learning points that we have explored as a team over the last 28 days. I also realised that no matter how different the days can be they are all working in their special way towards the final outcome.
I made a conscious choice to use this day to push my boundaries a little more and take the advice of Tom and do an extra personal training session over the weekend. Today we really pushed it out, and I have to say I felt better for it. The need to reframe constantly is key to the success of any project, and the exercise did seem to help. It is great to be around such a driven and motivational spirit like Tom. It is key at this stage to take the energy of others and make it your own. The temptation to just allow this to roll on through and get to the end is tempting, however Tom also has a vested interest in his part of the project, as my fitness success is his success. This is something that we must always remember in any transformation project as we may all work collaboratively to reach the overall goal, but each individual driver will have goals that are intrinsic to themselves.
