Case Study

“This process was so well-received that ‘Visual Dialogue’ became BAE’s standard way of engaging with strategic issues.” Andrea Adams – Director, HR

The challenge:

“Our annual employee opinion survey showed us that less than half of our workforce understood the strategy of the business. We needed to achieve a measurable shift in that understanding. We were changing what we offered and pioneering a brand new way of business. If people don’t get why you’re doing things they won’t do it. Up until then we’d done quite a sophisticated job communicating our strategy but it wasn’t working.”

Delta7’s response:

“Julian interviewed most of our board and talked to a range of people in different parts of the business, including key stakeholders and customers as well as the pioneers on the military bases who are already starting to do this work.

The first milestone was a meeting at which Delta7 reflected the board’s story back to its members. We then engaged the Chief Exec of BAE who was initially upset about things in the picture and felt that it wasn’t addressing issues seriously enough. Over time, however, he came round to this way of doing it and was a strong advocate of making sure all the key stakeholders had a chance to shape the picture. By the time we finished, he was confident to tell the story to his senior team as if they were employees and supporting them to cascade the process down to their teams in turn.

Outcomes:

Across the business people left sessions feeling positive. For many it was the first time they had been given the chance to discuss and make sense of the strategy. This process was so well-received that ‘Visual Dialogue’ became BAE’s standard way of engaging with strategic issues. We won the Chairman’s gold award for innovation with this process because wherever you were in the business, anyone could go up to the picture and tell the story.” 

Andrea Adams – Director, HR

Survey results: