How to create engaging experiences for Change

One of my very favourite memories was a team conference I attended really early on in my Marketing career.

Let me set the stage:

The conference was being held on the Gold Coast - a prime tourist destination for Australians and international travellers with sweeping beaches, lots of bars and clubs, and theme parks in the hinterland.

We had pretty much booked out the entire Gold Coast casino - probably to fit the hundreds of team members. 

After a full day of exciting conference sessions, we boarded buses and got dropped at a mystery destination. 

When we stepped off the bus - we were at MovieWorld, a Hollywood-blockbuster focused theme park with rides. 

We stepped into the park grounds and saw colleagues ahead of us already on the rides and lining up for more.

We got given drinks and canapes. 

Then movie star characters like Austin Powers danced us down a fairy-lit walkway to a huge area set with wide circular tables to dine under the stars. 

We had a beautiful 3-course dinner.

And then the Temper Trap played live and we partied below the stage until the buses were ready to leave.

It was epic.

To this day, any time I hear a Temper Trap song I think of that experience and it warms my heart and makes me feel so fondly of it. 

Marketers are great at crafting incredible experiences.

They are creative and innovative, and think about every element, not just the technical or informational side.

Most advertising isn't designed to appeal to your brain. 

It's designed to appeal to your heart. 

So how can you bring more of that into your organisational change and help build engagement from the inside out?

Make your change experiences immersive.

You don't need the Gold Coast, MovieWorld, or the Temper Trap. 

You just need to switch on all five senses (sight, sound, touch, taste and smell) and provide a real-life interesting and involving experience. 

Immersion gets the heart and body engaged, and when that's engaged, the head follows. 

Too often I see Change Management focused on the rational, logical reasons why. 

And these neither interrupt, nor win over, your people.

So ask yourself:

• How can I make any change communications, training or events visually stimulating - such as creating a brand or theme for my change? 
• How can I use more sound in my change delivery - such as swapping an email for a 90-second video with amazing music? 
• How can I give my stakeholders and impacted teams hands-on experiences of the change now - such as doing live demos, walkthroughs, real practice, or role plays during my training? 
• How can I bring smell and taste from food and drinks into my change - such as catering during long workshops or treats at launch to sweeten the moment? 
• How can I create experiences to remember fondly because they are exciting, special, inspiring or meaningful - such as taking the team to an interesting location for a briefing, or bringing in a guest speaker or entertainer?

Each of these is a really little thing, but the combination of lots of moments of creativity can make for engaging change.

To go deeper in creating engaging experiences for Change, join my free "Engaging Hearts and Minds" webinar on Wednesday 18 May:

CLICK HERE to register your free spot for Engaging Hearts and Minds

Lata xx