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"You could see a range of thoughts and emotions scudding across the faces of the delegates. Initially they were taken aback, but this was soon overtaken by recognition and laughter."
Jenny Lynch
Co-founding Director - Bi-Jingo
Jenny Lynch
Co-founding Director - Bi-Jingo
How imposters, jesters and thespians
brought a Calyon conference to life…
If you work for an investment bank, you go to a lot of conferences: big ones, small ones, techie ones, thinky ones, talky ones, hurrah-for-a-new-product ones…
It's hard to get excited about your ninth conference in just one month (or to keep off your Blackberry for five minutes) even if you work for a fast paced investment bank like Calyon.
Calyon is the result of a merger between the Investment banking divisions of Crédit Agricole and Crédit Lyonnais. With 15,000 staff and operations in over 60 countries, the bank is a major player in the marketplace.
Post merger in London, the business identified a number of priorities including:
Janet Hitchen, Communications and HR Project Manager and the pioneer of this project, explains: "People who are in the right frame of mind are highly creative. Our objective was to create a conference that would stir things up, energise everyone and provide a platform for truly creative team thinking."
This is where experiential learning gurus, Bi-Jingo, came in. Working closely with Calyon they created a conference that delegates would never forget…
Take one conference
The conference started with a moment in the spotlight for all delegates. As the delegates arrived, they were grabbed for an interview with a spoof television reporter – "Tell us – why do you think Calyon is so successful? Who are you hoping to speak to today?" The surprises didn’t stop there - the sight of a competitor 'spy' being dragged from the building assured most delegates that this conference might just be worth switching off the Blackberry for…
As the formal presentations began, the real fun began. Bi-Jingo created a 'side bar' pair – two actors who commented loudly on the presentations, mirroring the thoughts of many of the delegates. Whilst being loud and funny, the duo's comments were also spookily accurate; designed to 'send up' many of the distinctive cultural markers in Calyon and highlight some of the issues Janet's team were seeking to overcome.
Jenny Lynch, Bi-Jingo client director and project inventor, observes: "You could see a range of thoughts and emotions scudding across the faces of the delegates. Initially they were taken aback, but this was soon overtaken by recognition and laughter."
Once a few feathers had been ruffled (in the nicest possible way) Bi-Jingo added a creative twist to a traditional team building exercise. Before the audience broke into smaller work groups, all 90 delegates took part in a mini 'personality styles' workshop to explore the impact of their own style, and the value of diversity within creative teams. Actors were used to show how people of different 'personality colours' interact together and the delegates had the chance to redirect the action in order to make it more productive. Now in the right frame of mind and feeling nicely creative, the groups settled down to work on some pre-identified key business issues.
Finally, each group presented its ideas back to the whole delegation, using actors to illustrate 'before and after' behaviours. The audience was fully engaged for a total of eight presentations and key messages hit home with impact. "Loud, funny and very telling!" was how one delegate summed up the exercise.
The barrage of ringing (but ignored) mobile phones was completed drowned out by the energetic activity…
Do try this at home
Taking such a quirky approach is not without risk. But if a large and usually-sensible investment bank can derive great benefit from this kind of initiative, then other organisations should not feel daunted by the challenge.
Hitchen and Lynch formed a working group of stakeholders to keep the project centred on the business’ needs and within its appetite for risk. The team members were senior enough to have deep insight and influence in the business, but operational enough to be able to take real action and move the project forward. This team was vital before the event in ensuring the plans were acceptable to the mainstream business and during the event in reassuring delegates around them with a positive reaction to the activities.
Bi-Jingo's Lynch explains: "This wasn’t an initiative Calyon took on lightly, but by building trust with the relevant stakeholders from the beginning, we knew we were on the right track. A great deal of time was invested in the detail and ensuring the whole performance was highly credible. I think we mitigated almost all the risk – without letting the cat out of the bag before the event!"
Big top or big flop?
Clearly, an unforgettable conference experience is payback in itself – but what about the tangible business impact, once the actors have left and the fun and games are over?
Hitchen says: "We experienced a fantastic take up for the working groups which have spun out of the conference. These groups are the key to unlocking the potential of the two newly merged organisations, so to have so much enthusiasm, energy and activity is excellent."
Each working group left the conference with a clear action plan to execute, supported by a project sponsor and project leader. Since the conference itself, these actions plans have been coming to fruition within Calyon with clear business benefits including:
brought a Calyon conference to life…
If you work for an investment bank, you go to a lot of conferences: big ones, small ones, techie ones, thinky ones, talky ones, hurrah-for-a-new-product ones…
It's hard to get excited about your ninth conference in just one month (or to keep off your Blackberry for five minutes) even if you work for a fast paced investment bank like Calyon.
Calyon is the result of a merger between the Investment banking divisions of Crédit Agricole and Crédit Lyonnais. With 15,000 staff and operations in over 60 countries, the bank is a major player in the marketplace.
Post merger in London, the business identified a number of priorities including:
- a closer working relationship across the management team
- greater team working and less silo-ed activity
- a strong sense of identity and confidence across the merged business
- effective working groups to tackle specific initiatives and opportunities
Janet Hitchen, Communications and HR Project Manager and the pioneer of this project, explains: "People who are in the right frame of mind are highly creative. Our objective was to create a conference that would stir things up, energise everyone and provide a platform for truly creative team thinking."
This is where experiential learning gurus, Bi-Jingo, came in. Working closely with Calyon they created a conference that delegates would never forget…
Take one conference
The conference started with a moment in the spotlight for all delegates. As the delegates arrived, they were grabbed for an interview with a spoof television reporter – "Tell us – why do you think Calyon is so successful? Who are you hoping to speak to today?" The surprises didn’t stop there - the sight of a competitor 'spy' being dragged from the building assured most delegates that this conference might just be worth switching off the Blackberry for…
As the formal presentations began, the real fun began. Bi-Jingo created a 'side bar' pair – two actors who commented loudly on the presentations, mirroring the thoughts of many of the delegates. Whilst being loud and funny, the duo's comments were also spookily accurate; designed to 'send up' many of the distinctive cultural markers in Calyon and highlight some of the issues Janet's team were seeking to overcome.
Jenny Lynch, Bi-Jingo client director and project inventor, observes: "You could see a range of thoughts and emotions scudding across the faces of the delegates. Initially they were taken aback, but this was soon overtaken by recognition and laughter."
Once a few feathers had been ruffled (in the nicest possible way) Bi-Jingo added a creative twist to a traditional team building exercise. Before the audience broke into smaller work groups, all 90 delegates took part in a mini 'personality styles' workshop to explore the impact of their own style, and the value of diversity within creative teams. Actors were used to show how people of different 'personality colours' interact together and the delegates had the chance to redirect the action in order to make it more productive. Now in the right frame of mind and feeling nicely creative, the groups settled down to work on some pre-identified key business issues.
Finally, each group presented its ideas back to the whole delegation, using actors to illustrate 'before and after' behaviours. The audience was fully engaged for a total of eight presentations and key messages hit home with impact. "Loud, funny and very telling!" was how one delegate summed up the exercise.
The barrage of ringing (but ignored) mobile phones was completed drowned out by the energetic activity…
Do try this at home
Taking such a quirky approach is not without risk. But if a large and usually-sensible investment bank can derive great benefit from this kind of initiative, then other organisations should not feel daunted by the challenge.
Hitchen and Lynch formed a working group of stakeholders to keep the project centred on the business’ needs and within its appetite for risk. The team members were senior enough to have deep insight and influence in the business, but operational enough to be able to take real action and move the project forward. This team was vital before the event in ensuring the plans were acceptable to the mainstream business and during the event in reassuring delegates around them with a positive reaction to the activities.
Bi-Jingo's Lynch explains: "This wasn’t an initiative Calyon took on lightly, but by building trust with the relevant stakeholders from the beginning, we knew we were on the right track. A great deal of time was invested in the detail and ensuring the whole performance was highly credible. I think we mitigated almost all the risk – without letting the cat out of the bag before the event!"
Big top or big flop?
Clearly, an unforgettable conference experience is payback in itself – but what about the tangible business impact, once the actors have left and the fun and games are over?
Hitchen says: "We experienced a fantastic take up for the working groups which have spun out of the conference. These groups are the key to unlocking the potential of the two newly merged organisations, so to have so much enthusiasm, energy and activity is excellent."
Each working group left the conference with a clear action plan to execute, supported by a project sponsor and project leader. Since the conference itself, these actions plans have been coming to fruition within Calyon with clear business benefits including:
- A new employee referral scheme
- Increased communication channels between the product lines and client-facing teams
In addition the credibility of HR and Communications internally has grown, illustrated by greater take-up on activities such as Discover Calyon, a regular series of internal seminars aimed at disseminating knowledge of the bank's products across a wide audience.
The moral of the story? When you need to make an impact in a business, don’t be afraid to try something new today…
If you are interested in how this approach might provide similar benefits to your own organisation, please contact Jenny Lynch.