The Challenge

INVOLVE’s challenge was to enable and equip 3,500 People Managers to involve their teams in BA’s new Story, wherever they worked and whatever their role or physical environment.

The challenge was not simply to communicate a strategy.

Managers needed to be able to tell the Story in a simple, motivating way, help colleagues understand what it meant for them personally, and create enough flexibility for the programme to work across offices, operational environments, airports and locations around the world.

The Solution

INVOLVE worked with British Airways to turn a complex transformation story into a simple, involving activation programme that managers could use with their teams.

A simple narrative

BA’s 100-year history — including its highs, lows and changing context — was distilled into six simple chapters.

The narrative recognised the journey colleagues had already been on, while creating a clear and motivating picture of what could come next.

The aim was to give managers something they could genuinely understand, remember and retell, rather than another corporate strategy presentation.

Bringing the Story to life

INVOLVE then designed and delivered a series of half-day activation events at Twickenham Stadium, reaching more than 3,000 managers.

Each chapter of the Story was brought to life through a different emotional and participative experience.

These included:

• an Escape Room-style challenge
• a collaborative activity built around a scale model of an A380
• a live-created 3D Best of British gallery
• a high-energy gameshow
• a specially created BA rap, written and performed live

The purpose of the creativity was not entertainment for its own sake. Each activity helped managers explore the Story, talk about what it meant and experience a very different style of colleague engagement.

Turning 3,500 managers into an activation network

Each of the six chapters became a practical team “game”, supported by Train the Trainer sessions, physical activation kits and facilitation guides. A digital version for BA-issued iPads meant managers could run the experience anywhere in the world, with outputs shared across the organisation.

Extending the approach

The same involvement principles were then applied more widely across BA, including a customer service day for every colleague and a redesigned first-day experience that immersed new starters in the Story from the outset.

The Results

The programme generated record levels of uptake, with managers requesting additional kits and some areas creating permanent spaces using the materials so teams could continue engaging with the Story.

The approach gave BA a practical way to activate a consistent narrative across a highly diverse workforce, while allowing managers enough flexibility to make the Story relevant to their own teams.

It also helped establish a more human, participative style of colleague engagement — moving away from traditional top-down communications and towards experiences people could actively take part in.