Thanks, hello everyone - my name is Vanessa Walker and I am Change Communication Lead.

You have done a bit of listening so far, so for this next bit i need you to join in!

We’ve heard from Carolyn and the OBR sponsors and the exciting plans of how we will get to 2020.

We are embarking on a journey to a place that is very different from where we are at now – not for the first or last time - change is ahead!

The strategies we have heard today put people at the heart of what we do, and will require teams to think, work, act and behave differently.

Throughout history great leaders have adopted a strategy to gain buy-in, get others on board by describing a vivid idealised description of the desired outcome.

That strategy is the a compelling vision, it must be realistic, credible and attractive to gain buy in,
MARTIN LUTHER KING here understood this, using dynamic, descriptive language to stir emotions and appeal to hearts and minds

I'm not sure this version would have made the halls of fame quite like his 'dream' speech!

supporting the vision is the narrative - again a future focussed statement of intent, mainly talking about the desired state rather than the current one, but nonetheless realistic and based in fact.

For over 27,000 years since the first cave drawings were discovered, telling stories has been one of our most fundamental communication methods.

And for good reason, it works – stories are easily recalled and retold – our brains are hard wired to tell stories : a story broken down into it’s simplest form is a connection of cause and effect, that’s exactly how we think.

The 2020 strategy needs to be simplified into a compelling narrative to explain why we are doing it, this is especially vital for those who will be delivering it. Engagement with the strategy is vital to it's success.

I found lots of statistics about project failure rates, but the one that struck me was that 57% of projects fail due to a breakdown in communications - so what's going wrong? -

Behaviour change is not easy, but of course it can be done - try this quick exercise

That exercise is a great way to illustrate the power of getting the medium right when delivering information

A recent study by Princeton found that personal stories and gossip make up over 65% of our conversation, it can only make sense to use the most appealing method we can to get everyone on board

Scientists have known for a long time that when we tell stories it can put your whole brain to work, but more excitingly, the Princeton study goes further saying that when we tell stories to others that have helped us shape our thinking and way of life, we can effect the same changes on them too!

In short, the brains of the person telling and listening to a story ‘synchronise’. Marketing companies use this technique to tap into our desires and show us aspirational lifestyles that we feel we can achieve through buying certain goods and services – powerful stuff!

So what we need to do is find our shared story and help put the strategy into action……..

We will use the output from this session to gather content for our vision and narrative

This next activity is called ‘Read all about it’

We are going to create a headline from the future - it’s December 9 2020, you’ve just woken up - on your doorstep is today’s copy of the Brent Observer and there on the front page is a story about Brent Council – what does it say?

For the first part of this session you have 15 minutes to come up with key phrases that describe the type of organisation we want to be, what we want to have achieved and crucially the difference it has made to the people in Brent.

Ok the final part of this activity is to create your front page – you have 5 Minutes then we will go around the room to get each team to read out their headline.

So what we need to do is find our shared story and help put the strategy into action……..

We will use the output from this session to gather content for our vision and narrative

This next activity is called ‘Read all about it’

We are going to create a headline from the future - it’s December 9 2020, you’ve just woken up - on your doorstep is today’s copy of the Brent Observer and there on the front page is a story about Brent Council – what does it say?

For the first part of this session you have 15 minutes to come up with key phrases that describe the type of organisation we want to be, what we want to have achieved and crucially the difference it has made to the people in Brent.

Ok the final part of this activity is to create your front page – you have 5 Minutes then we will go around the room to get each team to read out their headline.