In Conversation With…
Obi Abuchi
Obi is a Chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), a Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) Practitioner, and author of The Magic of Monday. As Consulting Director at NKD, Obi leads various teams in designing and implementing digital, blended and facilitated learning and engagement solutions for global clients. He recently presented a webinar focusing on How Digital Solutions Can Drive Behavioural Change.
“The real magic happens when you take an integrated approach based on a clear understanding of how behavioural change actually happens…”
NKD: As an organisation, what has been your journey with digital?
Obi Abuchi: I’ll start by saying this – our passion is and always will be people. We’re obsessed with what motivates people, what makes them tick – how to achieve behavioural change. We absolutely love the idea of inspiring people to do more, dream more, believe more and achieve more than they think is possible.
When it comes to digital, we weren’t always excited about it. Yes, we’re Apple lovers and, yes, individually a lot of us loved using a variety of technologies, but we didn’t fully connect with all the possibilities that it creates, especially when it comes to driving behavioural change.
NKD: Could you elaborate on that?
OA: Our work with some of the world’s leading brands is all about helping them shift their thinking, change behaviour, and transform their performance. Over the years, we felt the best way to do that was via face-to-face interventions. We were designing award-winning programmes. Our clients were experiencing great success with our skills development and engagement solutions, but they began to ask about digital and how to leverage the power of digital within their organisations.
NKD: How did you make digital learning work as a tool for driving behavioural change?
OA: Well, digital was new to us. We were hearing a variety of messages like, “eLearning is drab; it doesn’t excite anyone.” “Yes, it saves us money, but we’re not seeing behavioural changes as a result”.
So, as we began to explore options, we realised it had so much potential. In fact, one of the best definitions of digital we came across was that “Digital is the application of information and technology to raise human performance”. When we latched on to that view of digital, we couldn’t help but get excited.
Ultimately, we wanted to figure out how we could best use it, whilst avoiding some of the pain points and maximising all the gain to ensure it really delivered transformation for an organisation and wasn’t just a wasted investment.
NKD: What do you think some of the main benefits are of using digital solutions?
OA: There are so many benefits. Here are some of the key ones that we share with clients:
- Scalability – you can reach anyone, anywhere, in any language
- Ease of access – you can access it anywhere in the world
- Speed – it can be developed and deployed rapidly, which means you don’t have to wait for a message to be cascaded by middle or frontline management; instead, you can share it far and wide with ease and consistency
- Consistency – using digital solutions allows you to ensure that there are no mixed messages and no confusing language. Everything is as clear and concise as you want it to be, every time
- Flexibility – it is very easy to amend content or messages if there is feedback from learners or specific business changes that need to be accounted for. Previously, you may have had to reprint all the materials, which is not very eco-friendly!
- Cost-effective – generally speaking, it is cost-effective though not always in terms of the initial capital investment, but certainly in terms of the deployment and ongoing use
Now, we wholeheartedly agree with all these benefits, but the impact within organisations varies significantly because they try to implement these solutions in isolation. The real magic happens when you take an integrated approach based on a clear understanding of how behavioural change actually happens.
Click to watch the full presentation and hear Obi discuss how we’ve used digital solutions to drive behavioural change, he’ll also share top-tips and practical ways for you to utilise digital in your organisation.