DXC Digital Minds with Katherine Bryant - Influencing Change
Traditionally as we reach this stage in the DXC Digital Minds calendar, we embark on a day of learning with Katherine Bryant, Founder and CEO of The Progress Partnership. Katherine takes our delegates through the importance of using the right skills to influence change – after all, an idea, in isolation, is just an idea. Developing the right skills to achieve buy-in from partners, stakeholders, clients, customers or colleagues, is what really transforms your idea into reality.
The Influencing Change sessions usually take place in the heart of the London insurance market, with delegates dedicating a day away from their usual roles. We work with them as they immerse themselves in workshops and group discussions, and the finale, where they present their ideas to industry experts at the end of the day.
Faced with current challenges, we needed to move this integral session to the digital realm, all the while ensuring the impact and learning was still present along with engagement from our delegates.
The first step was to split our usual one-day session into three smaller ’bite-sized’ chunks. The first ‘Influencing Change’ workshop looked at the psychology of influencing change and ultimately how to gain critical buy-in for your idea or initiative. The tools and techniques shared help our delegates in their current roles too and are already having an impact:
“I have already used the stakeholder analysis chart this morning to present back to my team on a project I am working on. It is so useful. I think this and the 3 C’s is something I will be able to share with my team and we can just easily slot this into our decision making going forward.” - Delegate feedback.
The second session in the series will look at creating the ‘pitch’ to get the stakeholders on board, and finally, the third session will see the delegates presenting – live, by the power of technology, to a panel of industry experts for feedback and tips.
“I’m always inspired by the Digital Minds delegates who represent an incredible cross section of the market. Their ideas are fantastic, but as with any change they can’t bring them to life alone! It’s a pleasure to help them hone their influencing skills; sharing techniques to identify and manage key stakeholders, frame their message within the current context and create a compelling message to gain buy-in will enable them to really make an impact. I can’t wait to see them at the next stage when we will help them hone their pitches!” - Katherine Bryant, Founder and CEO of The Progress Partnership
With most of us spending more time on calls or webinars than ever before, we wanted to ensure that delegates felt engaged, integral and part of the session as much as they would have, had we been able to meet in person. By design the session was full of energy and by utilising a variety of interactive, engaging and collaborative activities – this was nothing like your ‘usual’ webinar.
“Great afternoon with the Digital Minds team, loved the content and the breakout sessions were fantastic, who would have thought this could work so well virtually! - Delegate feedback
Our two-hour sessions started the delegates on their journey to becoming market influencers and taught them the tools and skills to be able to do so with confidence. We’re happy to have received fantastic feedback, with the delegates scoring the session as 89/100 on average when asked ‘how engaging did you find the session?’.
“I thought the session was brilliant, really well prepared and extremely engaging. The two hours flew by which I wasn't expecting. Thank you for organising.” - Delegate feedback.
Not only does the programme develop our delegates critical skills but it’s a unique platform to expose them to diversity of thought. Delegates describe it as a great opportunity to “hear different points of view” and “meet new people”, the DXC Digital Minds community is continuing to thrive, even through virtual sessions.
We’re proud to be continuing the DXC Digital Minds programme through these testing times and are looking forward to continuing our sessions throughout the year, digitally in the first instance and then safely face-to-face in the future.