The Bridgerton-style Guide to making your change comms pop

I adore Bridgerton and am I counting down the days until Season 3 is released? YES I AM!

In fact, I’m going again to a Regency-style weekend in the Southern Highlands in May. In full costume… including ball gown, white gloves, and sparkling tiara. 

In preparation, I’ve been taking English country dancing lessons fortnightly AND recently rewatched all of Seasons 1 and 2 of Netflix’s Bridgerton. In doing so, I was reminded of why this television show captured the hearts and minds of so many women - and not just lovely old biddies, but new younger generations who may never have been interested in prim and proper period dramas before.

Let’s take a leaf out of Lady Whistledown’s society papers and borrow the tricks it uses to make the change communications for your project pop:

Add colour, style and texture to your comms

Without a doubt one of the things I love most about Bridgerton is the dazzling bright colours, silky satins, and various accessories of feathers, laces and jewels that lend an air of both fun and opulence to the characters and costumes. Where possible with your change comms, create a brand and theme, use a palette of 3-5 bright colours, and craft a suite of icons, templates and benefits badges to roll out across comms and training materials. 

Celebrate variety and inclusion

The diverse cast of Bridgerton is also a winner and I love creating avatars for key stakeholder groups to use in my change comms. Representation is so important - Season 2 of Bridgerton was the first time I’d seen women of Indian descent being celebrated in a period drama, so be sure to make the avatars for your change as diverse as the Ton.

Write the way you speak

Like poetry, even though Lady Whistledown is a written format, more often than not it’s spoken. Don’t leave the speaking style only to talking points you draft for your change. Write the way you speak across all your comms - including written ones like email.

Keep comms coming regularly

The Ton waits all morning for the next installment of their gossip rag - put your change comms on a regular rhythm, so people know when they’ll receive their consistent updates, news, and maybe even … drama!

Tell stories about the people

As much as your project team is super excited that they configured that web form and ironed out that bug, the nitty gritty technical details of the project delivery are NOT what’s gonna attract the attention of the ravenous Ton of stakeholders and staff in your workplace. Leave the detailed project delivery updates to your SteerCo. Instead, give your employees high-level project milestones plus more of what they want: the real-life ideas, opinions, and experiences of people in the change. This might mean showcasing testimonials from senior leaders, sharing clips of UAT Testers on the system, getting success stories from customers on a new product, service or process, or even profiling key players in the project team. Change truly happens when it gets into the hands of people, so create and document more of those moments and your comms will shine and sparkle like the season’s diamond.

Make it absolutely beautiful

You don’t have to have a Media and Comms degree or a Marketing background like me to make pretty, visual, stimulating comms. And trust me - I’m no graphic designer! So I often leverage the support of Internal Comms and Marketing teams to make sure my change comms are beautifully executed (especially if they’re going to be professionally printed or going external to customers, clients or community!). Canva is a good back up plan, and there’s new AI image and video tools out there that you can dabble with. But personally my preference is to go to the experts in the organisation for what they know and love best. Especially as they can have a lot of fun with you crafting fresh and vibrant change comms, rather than the dry, boring corporate comms so many companies still cling to.

So gone are the days of beige and boring period dramas, and beige and boring change comms. Embrace a Bridgerton-style to make yours pop and keep strong as you wait for more inspiration from Season 3 when it comes out in May.

Lata xx

P.S. We talk a lot of about different tips and tricks for comms in my Leading Successful Change program. Unfortunately, registrations are currently closed as I kick off my March Group Cohort but I’ll let you know when LSC reopens for new students. In the meantime, here’s 4 ways I can help:

1. Grab my free Creative Launch Ideas Guide with 53 ways to bring your Transformation and Change to life: click here to download
2. Download my free Underpaid and Overlooked Coaching Action Guide to change careers with confidence and earn your worth: click here to download
3. Check out my free 6 Ways to Instantly Build Trust video to connect with stakeholders and build relationships rapidly: click here to watch
4. Get my Intro to Change Management webinar to start or step up in your Change career: click here for instant access