OVERVIEW
For thirty years, RadioShack called the 20-story Tandy Center twin office towers in downtown Fort Worth it's headquarters. In 2005, RadioShack moved its entire home office workgroups into a 900,000 square feet $200 million headquarters complex it had constructed on the banks of the Trinity River.
This tremendous organizational shift was met with vigorous resistance at every level from senior management to hourly team members.
OBJECTIVES
A critical part of the change management process was a comprehensive and engaging communication plan. One that would target and address team members fears/uncertainties/doubts, allow them to express their negative and positive opinions and one that would be implemented by all levels of management. The challenge was how to communicate to the approximately 2,400 employees how the new working environment would meet the needs of employees in addition to the company's business needs. Corporate employees needed to be assured that the new campus was designed to integrate state of the art technology in an environment that facilitates and encourages collaboration, efficiency, and innovation.
MEDIA TOOLS
A small flipbook containing all of the information an employee might need to acclimate to the new environment was created and distributed to employees. A DVD of "Workspace Transitions : The Movie" was created and distributed to department directors who scheduled screenings for employee groups. A secondary Facilitators audio track was also included featuring the voices of the move directors who would provide important talking points or takeaway messages to be communicated to employees from the film.
Movie posters were affixed to walls throughout the campus headquarters to build awareness for the film.
A series of short form promotional videos were created and distributed via the employee internal corporate intranet to further build awareness and enthusiasm for the film.
Instead of a traditional talking heads video from senior management, a vision was pitched for creating a story-based movie around the company's communication needs and objectives. Improvisational actor and 4 Day Weekend comedy troup co-founder David Wilk led a mixed cast of professional actors and genuine RadioShack employees and management. The concept was a story that empathized with the employee workgroups and in an entertaining way addressed many of the major concerns they had shared in focus groups.
THE RESULTS
Jina Lund wrote a screenplay story-based around RadioShack's communication needs and objectives that was engaging and informative, one that people actually watched and one that facilitated honest discussions afterwards. Not only were all of the corporate objectives achieved, the project was met with very positive reactions from the team members and senior management; including CEO Len Roberts, who praised the project for its innovative and forward thinking approach.
EXTRAS
"The Workspace Transitions" DVD took advantage of the additional audio tracks feature of the format and allowed for an accessible alternate audio commentary track featuring the project directors elaborating on specific talking points or important takeaway ideas.
WORKSPACE TRANSITIONS w/ AUDIO COMMENTARY
A few snap shots of the cast and crew in action.
