STORYTELLING
A Department Leader Commissions an Internal “Annual Report” to Champion and Streamline Her Team’s Critical Role
Challenge
In many organizations, the first kudos go to the sales organization or the divisions that service and support clients – without comparable recognition to the support functions that enable the entity’s success. This was the case confronting a functional leader at one of the world’s most recognizable consumer goods and services companies. She oversaw Security – but the under-recognized function could easily have been the departments dedicated to HR, IT, Compliance, Business Continuity, Administration or Environmental Health & Safety. “How can we communicate the value of our work to our colleagues, at every level,” she asked. “Every day, we silently and invisibly drive the efficiency and effectiveness of their work. I want to champion the great results coming off our team – and also help our internal customers recognize our value and help us do an even better job to help them.”
Action
We worked with this client’s internal team to draft, design and publish an internal Annual Report that “told the program’s story” and explained the function’s business value and its contribution to the core operational activities, service lines and capabilities that drove the company’s financial performance and brand reputation. We positioned the short publication as a multi-year ‘look-back’ that described the arc of the program’s evolution and its significant milestones, challenges and successes in serving as a ‘silent partner’ to the business. We also emphasized the client-service ethic it asked of every member of its global team and featured select ‘heroes’ outside of the function whose collaboration had helped drive powerful business outcomes.
Impact
This publication turned heads, internally. Board members and executives on the management team referred to the report by name. Members of the functional team at every level – across countries and domains of expertise – referenced sections of the publication for various operational reasons. And ten months later, the leader commissioned us to start drafting the next year’s annual report.