HOW WWYD WAS BORN…
We have great relationships with all our clients, and Adient Plc is no different. Last year they approached us with a challenge: could we make our high impact methodology and toolset accessible to more of their people? They had identified their First Line Managers (FLM) as having particular development needs. The FLMs have the most influence on the workforce; they are critical to the smooth running of their operations and central to an engaged workforce.
Traditional training was simply not going to work. Courses are expensive and would take them away from the line for too long, and time is money. The “Sheep Dip Approach” lacks impact and never delivers new behaviours. They were looking for a solution that would be light touch, repeatable and deliver behaviour change. Above all, it needed to resonate and work for the First Line Managers.
Drawing on all of our experiences we were challenged to develop a solution that would hit the mark on all levels. Our solution needed to:
- Be fun and engaging
- Challenge individuals to think differently and improve their behaviours
- Be cost-effective, flexible and highly customisable to any operation
We explored a variety of prototypes and iterations, testing our designs with a variety of clients from different sectors and role types.
Early feedback was unanimous; our solution would work. Although as you can see from this image, we had some work to do on the design side.
We worked with designers in New York on the design of the current board, voting zones and books (we know we could have found one closer, we just liked their work). We were also lucky enough to be introduced by someone in our network to the Manufacturing Technology Centre, a UK manufacturing research organisation. The MTC designed some of the components and sourced or introduced us to suppliers for the various parts of the game kit, they even manufactured some of the bits themselves. A slight change of pace from the aircraft parts and medical instruments that they normally work on.
With their help, the counters and voting tokens in the final version of ‘What Would You Do?’ are digitally printed, and then mounted on a brass base, while the main game board is actually made from lino, which makes it very tough and strong, yet can be rolled up and stored away.
After testing our prototypes and receiving great feedback, we presented ‘What Would You Do?’ to our clients and…THEY LOVED IT!
We are even developing variations to mix it up!