Driving behavioural and cultural change through communication
Chad Rogerson
Snapshot of Nationwide
Largest building society in world
Founded 173 years ago UK only
Members700+ branches
and sitesColleagues
A burning platform…
• New CEO
• New strategy
• New organisational structure
• Greater competition – resurgent and new
• Shifting customer expectations
How do we evolve our culture to remain competitive?
The cultural challenge
Creativity
Curiosity
Bravery
TARGET BEHAVIOURS
Complacency
Comfortable
Fear
UNDERLYING BLOCKER
?COMMUNICATION RESPONSE
Changing how we communicate to evolve our culture
THINKSmall
&
Experiment
Challenge the status quo
Story tell behaviours
Don’t give all the answers
Leader role models
Don’t take ourselves too seriously
FIVE COMMUNICATION PRINCIPLES
A case study - meet Arthur Webb…
Creating the Arthur Webb Challenge Cup
A campaign with a simple concept….• Recreated the Cup
• Tied to PRIDE / Annual Awards
• Teams of up to 8
• 12 month challenge - series of judging rounds
➢But designed against our new communication principles to drive behavioural and cultural change
Challenge the status quo
• Unique tone and style – gorilla marketing approach
• Confront ‘brutal facts’ about the theme of each year
• Not another ideas scheme - colleagues deliver change projects themselves
Creativity
TARGET BEHAVIOUR
Complacency
UNDERLYING BLOCKER
Don’t give all the answers
• Set the challenge each year (e.g. efficiency) but no funding or guidance on ideas/projects
• Provide collaboration tools (e.g. Yammer, Teams) but no support forming teams or finding sponsor
• Freedom to innovate but teams have to navigate Nationwide processes & governance themselves
Curiosity
TARGET BEHAVIOUR
Comfortable
UNDERLYING BLOCKER
Story tell behaviours not outcomes
• Arthur used as a role model
• Story telling focused on celebrating learning / failure more than the success of teams
• Scoring weighted towards the ‘how’ rather than the ‘what’
Bravery
TARGET BEHAVIOUR
Fear
UNDERLYING BLOCKER
Leader role models
• Leaders play role of sponsors and judges through rounds of competition
• Focus on coaching colleagues involved and recognising right behaviours
• Personal leader stories focused on their career learnings from being brave and making mistakes
Bravery
TARGET BEHAVIOUR
Fear
UNDERLYING BLOCKER
Don’t take ourselves too seriously
• Humour used to disarm fear – Arthur’s iconic moustache and cheeky style/tone
• CEO and ExCo seen in comic light through campaign collateral and creative
• Annual Arthur launch film – has become a must watch ‘event’ each year
Bravery
TARGET BEHAVIOUR
Fear
UNDERLYING BLOCKER
Exceeding all expectations in first two years
232 teams with 1,333 colleagues participated over first two years
Analysis against our annual survey found participants were:• 8% more engaged• 11% more likely to say they were able to have a go and innovate• 10% more likely to say they had freedom to make decisions• 10% more likely to have taken action to improve efficiency (Year 1)
Over £2 million of efficiency benefit delivered in Year 1