Delivering a training programme that is
exciting, engaging and intelligent

We have worked with npower on a one to one basis with key senior
leaders, in groups of 5 - 30 for workshops and training - and created
events for over 3000 people at their national conference.

npower is a German owned utility provider
with 12,000 staff and 6.5m customers

Events

Their brief was to create an operational staff conference that is different, fresh and stimulating. To create a conference that engages 3000 of their staff, in feedback their staff had asked us not to have a series of “talking heads” in a conference hall. They asked how do we get across our key messages about living our brand values in a fun, engaging and memorable way?

Remember the Confucius saying:

“Tell me something, and I will forget, show me something and I may remember, let me do it, and I will understand”

Working with the planning team on the conference think facilitated a number of creative thinking sessions where the team were encourage to use thinking techniques to break the old rules of what a conference is. We worked on metaphor and enabled the team to explore – what other situations are there were people have to get together and engage in lots of new experiences? Like a trip to the Zoo, doing circuits in the gym or what about a theme park?

Imagine taking all your brand values or key messages you want to convey in a conference and creating a zone of interactive activities to support each one. What would those Zones be called and what activities would be there?

This thinking created some really exiting and fresh thoughts and we went on to create a conference that wasn’t a conference! When is a conference not a boring conference? When it’s a theme park!

The emotional response from the analogy is fantastic: What thoughts and feelings arise when you think of a theme park? Fun – Excitement – Anticipation – Surprise and Learning.

Training

Their brief was to deliver a training programme that is exciting, engaging and intelligent to bond the team and support their aspirations to create great ideas for their customers.

We brought new methods of thinking to the npower team and enabled them to experiment with behaviors and thinking techniques that unlocked new ideas. When you are a focused, busy and a professional person it is often difficult to raise above the issues and invest time to think. It’s a challenge to remain objective and constantly seek fresh perspectives.

We took them out of their environment by conducting the training in external venues like schools and community centers. The teams created new ideas for their customers and also for themselves – new ways of working together to problem solve. Several of the ideas that were developed have gone on to be amongst npower’s most successful propositions. Energised and inspired by their own fresh and creative thinking the team was then challenged to share this new way of working with others – we created viral creative thinking!

Theme park maps were available to show what exciting activities were available in each zone. Each of the npower values was presented in individually themed experiential zones

Everyone arriving at the Theme Park got a passport explaining the zones and asking for a stamp from each zone to encourage guests to visit every zone