Major clients have requested change and change management programs for their organisations. Problem. They expect the consultancy to work out what the problem is, design the program and deliver it. Senior management will not be involved. However, if senior management is not involved, staff will treat the exercise with passive resistance and cynicism. Challenge.  How do we get senior management to understand that they must be the leaders of the change process and the change management process?

Solution. Tell them a story. A story they will relate to emotionally, and in which they will imagine themselves to be the protagonist and will put themselves into the imagined position of being change leaders.

Problem.  How will they continue to access that memory and the associated emotional charge that will lead them to keep acting upon it after the initial event?

Solution. Give them a token to take away; something that is not expensive but which will have emotional significance for them. They won’t throw it in the dumpster when they get home. They’ll put it on their desk and when they look at it they will be reminded of the message.

What will the story be and what will the token be?  What is it these people do with their surplus emotional energy?  They sail competitively. They think of themselves as captains. Tell them a story – and give them a token – which is about sailing in troubled waters and major environmental change following on an undersea earthquake. The captain must take charge.

What will the tokens be?  Two hundred Raku-fired ceramic ocean-going Polynesian trading canoes with a story of a voyage that goes wrong.

Choose the event for delivering it with care and flair. A major dinner. A private tour of a blockbuster art exhibition with personalised commentary that focuses them on art as a response to change. Seduce, challenge, and delight them.