How BAM constructed a series of live events to reconnect its people and unleash their potential
New structure, new leadership, new strategy.
As leading construction and maintenance company, BAM, emerged from two years of pandemic lockdowns, the world really did look and feel a different place.
The business, once comprising a number of smaller operating companies, united in 2021 during the pandemic to form the UK and Ireland division. That meant more than a simple reorganisation, it meant embarking on a multi-year transformation programme to unleash its potential.
Nichola Newton, joined the business in 2022 to head up the transformation which is enabling the business to build towards an inclusive, digitally enabled and sustainable tomorrow.
“We’ve newly formed teams, new ways of working, a new senior leadership, a new strategy, needless-to-say there’s lots to do,” begins Nichola. “But we need to make sure we’re doing the right things at the right time and being cognisant of the impact on our people.”
For Nichola, one of the most important early aspects of the transformation was to bring people together, to help colleagues understand the need for change and the importance of bringing it about in the right way. After so much time apart, due to Covid 19 restrictions, Nichola felt having everyone convene in person was fundamental, so it was agreed two in person events would initially take place, as part of an ongoing series:
- The first to reconnect senior leaders with each other and launch the new strategy, and
- The second to connect Transformation Partners, drawn from all levels and parts of the new entity, whose role is to bring the transformation to life for everyone by keeping them informed, engaged and involved.
With live, highly interactive, events a staple of Nichola’s previous roles, this is when she picked up the phone to Axiom.
“I’ve worked with Axiom before and when working at pace like this, I need to surround myself with people that I trust. When you are putting on sizable events, which these were, you don’t want to take a risk, especially when people’s roles in our future success are being discussed. You can’t plan for every eventuality, so if anything happens, I want people who can deal with issues smoothly and keep participants focused on what’s important.”
A number of the Axiom team were called upon to play to their strengths and bring their individual expertise in the full event life cycle of both events – from first contact to lasting impressions. Nichola explains:
“We all worked really well together as a team. Michelle at Axiom came onboard to help project manage with the internal events team I’d created. Chris, Axiom’s Managing Director, and I were working with senior execs to ensure both their messages and how they shared them were impactful for the audience. Natasha joined Chris to co-facilitate, and it was great to see them bouncing off each other as a double act. Natasha also ran a breakout session on storytelling strategy which was fab. Hugh Price, who has been with Axiom since 1996, led the A/V experience. And Axiom’s choice of interactive tech partner, Crystal Interactive, really brought a different flavour to these events. They truly showcased that going back into the room didn’t mean going back in time, as participants used their own mobile devices to interact with the speakers and one another, via a bespoke Event App.”
The event App, provided by Crystal and shaped by Axiom and the in-house team, delivered in three main ways:
- It secured honest input from all participants who were able to offer it anonymously. Not everyone likes putting their hand up in a large group or feels confident offering an alternative perspective to the majority, but that anonymity enables them to contribute. That meant that the Q&A sessions were especially beneficial.
- It gave real-time feedback to senior leaders about the new strategy and whether key messages were landing and hitting the mark. This real-time information enabled speakers to upweight or downplay messages during the event and in their follow up communications.
- It enabled participants to engage and interact with event content, influence the direction of the transformation, and also capture their own actions as they went along.
“All the tech support and the stage sets were very professional, but not flashy,” says Nichola who believes setting an event’s tone is as important as the content, which was another reason why Axiom were also invited to facilitate the event.
“We wanted our events facilitated by people that weren’t emotionally involved in the organisation so that they were impartial,” explains Nichola.
“I’ve seen Chris facilitate before, so I know how professional he is. He picks up not only on the things people say but on their body language and how they engage and are interacting – he just knows how to get the best out of the speakers and the audience alike. I trusted his choice of Natasha to co-facilitate at one of the events and it was great to see their double act. Having Natasha there also conveyed an important subliminal message about diversity and inclusion for us, because construction can be quite male dominated. Natasha’s facilitation and business storytelling session was fab – she was a very welcome, positive, female influence.”
The results
After two action-packed days, with people having travelled from across the UK and Ireland to attend, 97% of participants felt that overall these events were a valuable use of their time.
“I couldn’t ask for a better result than that,” says Nichola. “Some of the feedback we had, especially from the Transformation Partner event, was that participants welcomed the openness and honesty from the leadership team when sharing how things are and why they need to change.”
And the most satisfying thing someone said to Nichola personally because of these events?
‘I came to this event because I was told to. I’m coming to the next one because I want to.’
Axiom is already giving BAM UK & Ireland a hand with their Autumn and Winter 2022 live events – and looking forward to an all-digital event in early 2023. They are also partnering the business to design a bespoke skills development programme, to help Transformation Partners and Leaders continue to speak with confidence throughout BAM’s transformation journey.
The client’s verdict
“I can’t speak highly enough of Chris and the Axiom team and how they support us. I work with those I trust, and Axiom always leave a great impression. Axiom is brilliant at events, facilitation and tech support but is so much more than that. Their people have valuable engagement, communication and development experience, and the training or the collateral they provide can help any organisation.”