To make cultural change tangible through new forms of communication and participation

Relocations are a major driver of change – both in business and in private life. When the moving van is soon at the door, some things simply go faster. The WBM Wohnungsbaugesellschaft Berlin-Mitte had to use this momentum. How can we make the best use of the time between two moves to promote the cultural change that WBM is undergoing? This is the task for CBE DIGIDEN.

But first things first: Imagine that your employees are based at two locations in Berlin and in surveys, the majority express the desire to all work together under one roof. In the current headquarters in the middle of Berlin-Mitte, which, however, is too small for everyone in its current layout… Impossible? The real estate experts at WBM find a solution: The employees from the headquarters move to temporary quarters for around a year and a half, during which time the headquarters will be expanded and made future-proof – in new, bright rooms with modern equipment and IT. Then the employees from the interim quarters will move into the new headquarters together with their colleagues from the second location.

What will the collaboration look like in the future?

CBE DIGIDEN is supporting WBM in the internal relocation communication and has developed a key visual that focuses on the future joint headquarters and the claim (M)EINE WBM, which summarizes the cultural target image. For constant, transparent information about the upcoming moves and especially for the exchange between each other, CBE DIGIDEN is designing, creating and programming a mobile microsite: convenient to use on the desktop and usable on the smartphone like an app. Every employee can post independently and visibly for everyone, ask questions and even initiate surveys. Or simply find out about the upcoming moves and give likes. Since internal communication has previously been done via Lotus Notes, the microsite will become a learning space for the introduction of a later social intranet. An in-house poster campaign “For packers/For packers/For unpackers” supports the registration of colleagues on the microsite. The number of registrations exceeded expectations just 24 hours after the launch and shows the relevance, as well as the interest and courage of the employees to visibly exchange ideas. A very practical approach was taken during a clean-up day, which served to raise positive awareness of the topic of moving and offered practical suggestions, assistance with digitizing files and time to reduce the folders and work materials in the workplace. The ambitious goal is: a maximum of two meters of shelf space for files per person.

How can this interim period be used to continue to grow together as ONE WBM?

The WBM 2020+ target image describes the corporate culture as a learning organization. The task is to make this cultural change noticeable in the meantime through new forms of communication and participation. A focus group is set up across the WBM in terms of age, gender, work area and length of service and, at the first meeting, expands its tasks to include a feedback group and change multipliers. The WBM has set out to become one, and further ideas for the next two years of relocation communication are already being developed and implemented.