Inner Activation Creativity lies within the organization itself.

The Inner Activation Team at Dentsu Inc. Business Design Square (BDS) operates with the mission of "driving change from within (inner) to positively transform business and management." This time, we asked Jun Ebata of BDS to discuss this initiative, which tackles management challenges through a unique approach.

Addressing the "Internal Organizational Challenges" Faced by Executives

BDS, guided by the vision "Creating a future worth loving, together with companies," has advanced numerous projects with executives and senior management. Through this work, we've observed that many companies are grappling with "internal organizational challenges."

"They haven't developed the people needed to transform the organization."
"The vision developed with the future in mind hasn't permeated the front lines."
"The founding spirit is being lost amid changing times."

Many executives grapple daily with these internal organizational challenges as major management themes. "Inner Activation" is the program we developed to solve these challenges using an approach unique to Dentsu Inc. BDS has been implementing Inner Activation for about ten years, including the period when we operated as the Future Creation Group, the predecessor to our current division.

The defining feature of Inner Activation is "moving people to move the organization." That's why the word "activation" is in its name.
And what I've come to realize through working on projects with several companies is that "Dentsu Inc.'s creativity and execution power are highly effective for organizational activation!"

The Era Where Workers Are the Subject: How to Motivate People and Organizations in the With-Corona Era

The relationship between people and organizations is shifting to an era where employees are the subject. To align with societal changes, companies must develop resonant messages while understanding their employees' intentions and feelings, and provide opportunities for proactive action.

Image of the timeline of change for people and organizations. Advancing toward an era where "working people" are the subject

Society has undergone significant changes due to the spread of the novel coronavirus. As telework adoption rapidly expanded and online communication increased, organizations and work styles have also transformed.

Many people likely experienced the rapid blurring of boundaries during the pandemic—between home and workplace, inside and outside the company, business activities and external pursuits. For instance, those whose work centered on telework saw the line between work and life dissolve. The previous loose distinction where the workplace was work and home was life has vanished. Life has become one where the ON and OFF switches change rapidly, like "turning on the rice cooker after finishing work, then returning to work a second later." Work-life balance has broken down, creating what could be called a state of "work-life chaos."

This is one of the workstyle changes brought about by the pandemic, but some of these changes will persist even after COVID subsides. At Inner Activation, we constantly observe such societal shifts and the evolving nature of organizations and workstyles, exploring the question: "What does it mean to activate an organization from within?"

We are publishing " Inner Activation in an Era of Blurring Boundaries: Considering Organizations and Work Styles in the With-COVID Era" on note. Please take a look.

A note dialogue exploring organizations and work styles in the With-COVID era
https://note.com/dbds/n/n3a05c2358159 

The Strength of Taking Responsibility for "Moving People"

We've delivered our Inner Activation program to dozens of companies, and our partners consistently value how we "accompany them until employee behavior changes." It's obvious, but no matter how well-defined the strategy, if people don't act, the organization itself won't change. What we prioritize is operating with the responsibility to "activate people" (i.e., drive change). To move people and transform organizations, our Inner Activation program incorporates the following characteristics:

● Creativity that sparks shifts in awareness and behavior
Reforms that are merely correct won't move people's hearts. Therefore, our Inner Activation programs design touchpoints that make people think, "I just can't help but do it!" or "It's stuck with me without me realizing!" to create concrete changes in awareness and behavior. We consciously inject the "creativity that moves people" cultivated by Dentsu Inc., whose livelihood is communication design, into the very core of the organization.

● Tailored to Each Company
The approach to moving an organization varies greatly depending on industry, scale, history, and employee characteristics. What matters is not providing measures that work averagely for any company, but measures that work specifically because they are tailored to that company. When working with one company, we verified employee characteristics and the effectiveness of measures, thoroughly refining visual communication while implementing the strategy. We design the best approach – one that resonates specifically because it's for that company – based on interviews and on-site observations.

● Sustainable Reform, Not Fleeting Change
This team does not consider fleeting changes to be true results. We aim for a goal where people keep moving and the organization continues to change for the better. To achieve this, we focus on providing a PDCA framework for regularly measuring effectiveness, producing at a pace that maintains reform momentum, and establishing a self-sustaining system that continues to function even after the Dentsu Inc. team departs. We feel that Dentsu Inc.'s strength—its relentless, driving leadership—truly comes alive when reform is sustained without stopping.

This relentless focus on "moving people" may be our distinct strength, differentiating us from approaches like internal communication, internal branding, or organizational/HR consulting.

The Five Approaches of Inner Activation

Inner Activation comprises five main programs. We determine "where to start" and "where to focus" through dialogue with the client company before proceeding.

Issue Capturing: "Identify and structure the core challenges that truly need solving."

Addressing peripheral issues one by one won't transform an organization. We believe pinpointing the root issues is crucial. To do this, the process of uncovering genuine voices and core truths from the frontlines is vital. We conduct interviews with executives, managers, and frontline employees across diverse ages and sections, synthesizing the findings into a "Challenge Structure Map." This map serves as a strategic roadmap for planning initiatives to drive organizational change, while also providing a tool to visualize the organization's state and conduct regular monitoring.

"Issue Structure Map" Concept (Sample)

i-Visioneering "Articulating the organization's desired future state through an engineering mindset."

"Visioneering" is a coined term combining Vision and Engineering. It refers to rigorously validating whether a verbalized vision can function within the organization and refining it into resonant language. The "i" stands for "inner," representing the "I" of each individual. As an organization pursues transformation, articulating "How should I act?" creates a catalyst for each employee to take action. In Inner Activation projects, copywriters often participate as members to develop language that resonates within the organization.

Activation Design "Implement concrete measures to change individual actions."

Beyond developing initiatives that stimulate the senses and shift awareness and behavior, we also build self-sustaining mechanisms to ensure these initiatives continue. We consciously plan for lasting reform, not just a flash in the pan. We also develop the "Employee Journey," akin to a customer journey for employees, to hypothesize and plan when and what initiatives will be most effective.

Dialogic Analysis "Generate dialogue from PDCA and discover the next opportunity."

Many companies likely have reports from employee surveys over 100 pages long sitting unread and neglected. What matters is a living "report" that sparks dialogue within the organization. This approach revisits the strategic map based on project effectiveness analysis results, then iterates through PDCA cycles focused on next steps like "how to refine the project."

Project Leading "Facing challenges together and accompanying you to the goal."

Maintaining motivation for internal projects spanning months or years is challenging. We've seen many companies lose momentum when projects, initially launched under the president's direct oversight, face resource shortages due to employees juggling multiple responsibilities. Leveraging our extensive production experience, we support project advancement—from schedule management to implementation and verification—even when plan changes and unforeseen issues arise.

Flexibly combining these five approaches and customizing them to the optimal form for each company is another hallmark of our team. While we couldn't cover everything here, we have a wealth of proprietary tools, workshop programs, and listening methodologies developed specifically for each approach. Among the companies we've partnered with through Internal Activation, some have continued for over five years.

Many organizations now aim to become innovation-driven entities, or are accelerating transformation—often spurred by factors like the COVID-19 pandemic. In such times, isn't there an increasing need to "create people who drive organizational change from within and pursue reform"? We will continue refining our approach so that "Inner Activation" can be a powerful ally in this endeavor.

Contact: inner-activation@dentsu-bds.com