Bristol Community Health

Bristol Community Health Strategy and Launch Film

The Challenge
The Solution
The Results

BCH had a disparate workforce of circa 1,600 employees working across the city of Bristol and surrounding catchment. The sheer number of employees, their geographic locations and the shift patterns they worked meant launching the new strategy, purpose and behaviours in a unified way was going to be challenging. However, and perhaps more importantly, we had to embed and follow up the messaging, the expectation and to be sure that every employee understood their part in the new strategy, the role they’d play and how it would be delivered. And, to do that, we had to equip he managers with the tools and the process to be able to do that.

So, with a Strategy, our Guiding Principles and a set of emotive films to reinforce why the employees come to work every day, we had what we knew were relevant and authentic assets to build on. The launch presentations in local cinemas provided a great platform from which we could engage the managers to engage their teams back in the workplace. From there, and with a clear cascade programme in place, one that would ensure the strategy and new guiding principles were embedded in the organisation, we developed and designed a series of ‘Meetings in a bag’. A fresh approach to what had gone before, that gave the Managers the confidence to own the cascade of messaging, make sure actions were implemented and, critically, provide an outlet for feedback.

Firstly, ensuring consistency of messaging and to make sure that everyone was clear on what was expected of them and where the organisation was headed was key and well understood. People got it in terms of alignment to the strategy as well – why it was important right here, right now and how it was translatable to each employee in their daily roles, wherever they worked in BCH. The purpose identity (‘Making Lives Better’) truly resonated and was both memorable and clear to employees. Not only did staff subscribe to the new strategy, they actively participated in bringing new and better ideas for further positive change. These were often little things, close to the Service User, but when multiplied made a significant difference to outcomes and ways of working.