Examining the beliefs, attitudes and feelings towards change of C-suite managers at UK businesses and those of their employees.

1. Change is coming
How to energise your
employees and drive
meaningful difference

2. Using primary research, creative
communications agency We are Vista has
uncovered differences of opinion that exist
between these groups about business strategy
and ambition; commercial strengths and
weaknesses; and staff motivation.
Overall, the responses point to expectations of
substantial business change in the short-term,
but a noticeable lack of preparedness at all levels.
Conflict around business confidence and
motivation is evident.Younger workers seem keen
to roll up their sleeves, helping employers achieve
their goals; older generations take a dimmer view
of commercial change and ambition.
The result? A snapshot of how UK enterprise
feels about business transformation today
against a backdrop of economic uncertainty.
From storytelling to strategy, We are Vista helps
organisations overcome business-critical barriers
to change and achieve outstanding results.
This report examines the
beliefs, attitudes and feelings
towards change of C-suite
managers at UK businesses –
and those of their employees.
Executive Summary

3. Independent research consultancy Censuswide
conducted two surveys on We are Vista’s behalf.
Similarpairsofquestionswereposedsimultaneously
to separate,nationally representative online panels
of C-suite members (100 in total) and consumers
(1,000) in summer 2018.
Change is continual, undeniable. It seems like
the only constant in these times of shifting
financial and political circumstance.
In business, just as in our day-to-day lives as
consumers, we must prepare as best we can
for change coming down the tracks.But change
comes in multiple shapes and sizes.From digital
transformation driven by the adoption of new
technologies to meeting the new demands
of a young workforce, organisations must be
ready for anything. Common changes and
requirements include:
–– New leadership (helping teams navigate
through change)
–– Mergers and acquisitions (developing an
overarching narrative)
–– Digital transformation / migrating systems
(re- and upskilling)
Too often, there’s a gulf between change the
boardroom deems vital and how employees feel
about it. As our survey of separate C-suite and
workforce contingents reveal, major differences
exist in beliefs, attitudes and motivations around
change, strategy and ambition. Many managers
have misgivings about the direction their
organisation is taking.
The research describes a problem for UK plc.
Inertia and distrust live in the perception gap.
How can business leaders hope to steer a clear
course towards positive outcomes if employees
aren’t on board with their proposals?
At We are Vista, we believe changing the way
people think and behave at a business is crucial
to drive positive and effective action,with improved
results the output. We call our framework for
success the Mindset Model, and it’s set to
revolutionise the way companies approach
change; overcoming negativity and fear to
align employees with strategy and ambition.
Change is difficult - but it doesn’t have to be
downbeat. We think the future’s exciting, and
we’re ready to help your organisation make
the most of it.
Methodology Introduction

4. Analysis:
Employer and employee attitudes
Our survey shows some stark
differences between boardroom
beliefs and workforce worries.
There are five main insights.
We believe they must set the
agenda for any new strategy
to be acceptable at all levels
of your business.
Insight One:
Change is coming...
isn’t it?
There’s a puzzling perception about the
amount of change that’s set to happen at
UK businesses. Just 53 per cent of C-suite
respondents expect a very or quite high level
of change, and an even smaller number of
employees (49 per cent) feel the same.
That only half of all respondents, regardless
of their seniority,aren’t anticipating great change
at a time when the City nervously awaits Brexit’s
consequences is mystifying. More managers
(17 per cent) than employees (11 per cent)
expect no change at their organisation during
the next three years.So,what’s behind this belief?
There are two possible explanations. One is
an ostrich mentality, a resistance to change
manifested by ignoring external factors.A second
answer is that some C-suite respondents believe
it would be risky to alter course when so much is
happening externally.
Meanwhile, among employees, younger
respondents think change is more likely than
other demographics. Forty-two per cent of those
aged 55-plus believed very or quite high change
was due, compared with 52 per cent of 25 to
34-year-olds. This points to younger staff being
more open to change than their more experienced
counterparts, who - as we’ll see below - might
have much to lose through the forces of
business transformation and automation.
Takeout: We’re surprised expectation of
change isn’t higher. The C-suite should
constantly monitor macro-economic factors
- not least Brexit. It’s understandable that the
wider business doesn’t have much insight -
16 per cent don’t know how much change to
expect - so it’s a board’s responsibility to have
its fingers on the pulse of change.
The C-suite must help its workforce understand
incoming issues that will affect the business by
carefully communicating that change, framing it
in the positive light of opportunity and bringing
people along for the ride.
Top tip: connect with the wider world
Navel-gazing is easy. Businesses are busy
- time is taken up with staff, customers,
product and operations. But external focus
is a necessity. Employers and employees
are all citizens and consumers, too.
We advise our clients to bring a changing
world inside the walls of their business,
helping employees understand the forces
affecting their customers’ lives. A key part
of this is framing an organisation’s story
in the customer’s terms. What impact are
your employees having on their lives? That
could be explaining customer advisers were
responsible for helping 100,000 families get
a new home, for example, rather than saying
they collectively sold that number
of mortgages the previous year.
Helping employees visualise the effect of
their work enables them to take ownership
and make better decisions.

5. Insight Two:
Who’s ready for change
Anticipating change is one thing.Being prepared
for it is another. Our survey found a sizeable
majority of our C-suite respondents believe their
organisation is very (24 per cent) or quite
prepared (58 per cent) for change.
There is a gender gap in the boardroom on this
issue, however. While just 12 per cent of male
bosses feel unprepared, the figure rises to one
in five women when combining responses for
“not very prepared” and “not prepared at all”.
It’s quite impressive that nearly three quarters
of employees think the business they work for is
prepared for change - particularly in the context
of expected change, mentioned above. Twenty-
four per cent of employees do have misgivings
about preparedness, however, compared to
only 16 per cent of the C-suite.
The most sceptical group is Baby Boomers
(respondents aged 55 and over). Twenty-nine
per cent of them are convinced their paymasters
won’t cope with change, more than any other
group. Again, this anxiety-based belief may
reflect the types of change going on: digital
transformation won’t be easy for an age group
used to more traditional ways of doing business.
If the process makes their skills obsolete, they
may struggle to find work elsewhere.
Takeout: The C-suite is bound to know more
about strategy than wider business. They can
thereforefeelmoreconfidentaboutbeingprepared.
Butthereareconsequencesofnotcommunicating
this confidence to the wider business. This is
where purpose comes in [see box].
A well-informed workforce feels empowered
to act, knowing what decisions to take and
how they can play their part in the organisation
achieving its end goal. The C-suite might make
fewer, big decisions, but employees collectively
make many more at every touchpoint.
For example, a customer service agent might
be more motivated if they’re sure their decision
is the right one, in the interests of the business
as well as the customer. Think an employee who
feels within their rights to compensate a person
who has had a bad customer experience; as
opposed to having to ‘escalate’ the problem,
which can add to customer frustration.
Top tip: prepare with purpose
Don’t underestimate the power of clearly
stating your mission. Successful CEOs,
from Sir Richard Branson at Virgin and
Paul Polman at Unilever to Microsoft’s
Bill Gates and Apple’s Steve Jobs, have
led their businesses with a clear vision,
making employees want to join their journey.
Purpose is perhaps an overused
business buzzword – but it’s crucial to
an organisation’s development and growth,
preparing people for change. It gives
everyone involved something to aim for,
whatever their role. Lack of purpose has
a detrimental effect on individual decision-
making, motivation and productivity as
a whole.
For example, our research reveals that Baby
Boomers are less aware of change and less
ready for it. But don’t dismiss them – give
them purpose. Their experience at your
business and elsewhere in their working and
personal lives is invaluable. Allow them to
share their stories and wisdom with younger
people. Listen to their concerns about new
technology and help them adapt. Don’t
just take their desk phone away and put
an iPhone in their hands, enable them to
understand its potential.

6. Insight Three:
Time to determine your ambition
Ambitionisvitalforbuildingmoraleandmomentum
at any organisation. It’s surprising, then, that our
survey reveals a greater sense of ambition among
employees than the C-suite. Some 70 per cent of
staff feel their business is very or quite ambitious,
compared to 63 per cent of the top brass.
Not only is C-suite sentiment outstripped by
employees’, but the fact that a third of managers
rate their organisation as “not very ambitious”
or “not at all ambitious” is concerning. If a
board hasn’t got a bold strategy, how can the
workforce be expected to strive for success?
In our experience,the most ambitious businesses
are clearer on the direction they’re taking and
how to get there.That needs to be signalled right
from the top if it’s to reach all levels of the business.
As before, C-suite men are the boldest, with
almost a third (31 per cent) describing their
strategy as very ambitious, compared to just
a fifth of women.
There’s a more even split in positive sentiment
between male and female employees. However,
one in 10 workers admit they have no idea what
their employer’s ambitions are. Extrapolated
across larger workforces, this becomes a
significant figure.“Don’t knows” rise to 13 per
cent of those aged 55 and over. A quarter of
Baby Boomers also declare their organisation
unambitious, further signalling this group’s
dissatisfaction as seen earlier.
Takeout: There’s an ambition vacuum at a larger-
than-expected proportion of UK plc.This matters,
because any business not focussed on meeting
goals will get stuck fighting fires. Growth will be
difficult. Ambition – vision – doesn’t have to be
agonising. It just needs to be clear to the entire
business, attainable and worth striving for.
A traditional financial business in transformation
might proclaim it wants to be the UK’s biggest
digital bank by 2020, for example. Everyone
knows where they stand and can work towards
making the dream a reality.
Top tip: tell tales everyone will listen to
Storytelling might sound like a marketing
cliché. But it works for consumers; why
shouldn’t it be a successful employee
engagement strategy? Staff motivation and
confidence stem from knowing what the
business is trying to achieve.
It can also be a great way of reaching
groups within an organisation who may,
for whatever reason, feel disaffected.
The corporate narrative can be tweaked to
suit ambitious millennials, stressed Gen X
and jaded Boomers, for example. But the
overall message will remain the same – an
organising thought for each and every team
member to gather around.
It’s not a quick fix. Getting everyone
aligned to a clear and bold ambition can
take a great deal of time and resource.
Maintaining the message throughout that
time using a regular drumbeat of creative
comms - just as brands continually speak
to their consumers - is vital. We’ve even
found it reduces employee attrition rates.
The result is less time and budget spent on
recruitment and training, more on reaching
your business goals.

7. Insight Four:
Why motivation matters
Three-quarters of the C-suite - who, as we’ve
seen, are less positive than employees about
ambition - believe employees are motivated to
help the business achieve their goals. Yet the
figure drops to less than two thirds (64 per cent)
of staff who were asked the same question.
Moreover, a total of 37 per cent of employees
revealed they weren’t motivated (including those
who answered “don’t know”). That compares to
just 12 per cent of C-suite members who claimed
their workforce lacks motivation.
There are also generational differences. People
taking their first steps in the world of work,the 16
to 24s, are the keenest with 68 per cent saying
they are very or quite motivated compared to 25
per cent who aren’t. Among 45- to 54-year-old
employees, 57 per cent feel motivated but 43
per cent don’t.
Alongside this perception gap there’s an issue
around measuring motivation. Some 13 per
cent of C-suite respondents - rising to 17 per
cent of women and managers aged 25 to 34 -
admit they have no idea about motivation levels.
Takeout: Leaders shouldn’t view their workforce
as a homogeneous group.Different mindsets
reveal
different motivations,and this is the type of detail
that’softenoverlookedbyorganisations.Onereason
for that is employee engagement sometimes
amounts solely to a business-wide survey that
doesn’t tell the whole story unless leaders scratch
beneath the surface and heed the detail.
We asked participants a separate question
about their understanding of their role in the
wider business strategy. Overall, 14 per cent
of C-suite managers - and 21 per cent of
women in the boardroom - can’t say whether
employees know of their place in the machine.
Furthermore, a fifth believe staff don’t know.
The same proportion of employees claim not
to understand how they could help the overall
strategy: 16- to 24-year-olds have the greatest
awareness, those aged 45 to 54 the least.
It’s a mistake not to understand the level of
motivation in your firm or the nuances between
agegroups.Successfulchangeisbasedoneveryone
pulling in the same direction. Unmotivated staff
won’t feel like going the extra mile.
Top tip: motivation begins with understanding
Cleverly devised employee feedback
programs will tell you a lot more about their
sentiment and motivation than a quick and
dirty annual survey. You need to get under
the skin of what inspires and offends each
demographic, and respond with tailored
communications.
Staff incentives are an extension of this.
Straightforward financial rewards such
as commission don’t appeal to everyone.
Others appreciate peer recognition,
experiences or soft bonuses such as duvet
days. Each individual is different, and your
employee engagement strategy should
reflect that.

8. Insight Five:
A message for the leadership team
We asked respondents to list the main strengths and weaknesses of their business:
Top five strengths
Top five weaknesses
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
None
Internal culture
Unique product/service
Leadership
Efficiency/productivity
Customer service
C-suite
50%
27%
25%
22%
18%
7%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%
None
Profit margin
Productivity
Brand
Leadership
Customer service
Employees
33%
22%
22%
19%
18%
14%
C-suite
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%
Efficiency/productivity
Commerciality
No unique product/service
Poor profit margin
None 29%
27%
19%
17%
13%
Employees
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%
Innovation
Poor profit margin
Internal culture
Leadership
None 31%
21%
19%
12%
12%

9. Thereisacertainlevelofconfidenceinrespondents’
organisations,with three in 10 overall saying they
do not see any weakness in the business.
However, there are some contrasts to be found.
One in seven employees believes their organisation
has no demonstrable strengths.While lower than
those who say there are no weaknesses, it’s still
twice the amount of C-suite respondents who
believe their organisation lacks any key strengths.
TheC-suiteismainlyproudestoffinancialoutcomes,
although it does recognise customer service as
a key strength.
Company culture is one of the biggest concerns.
This highlights a lack of communication from the
top; staff not knowing the firm’s plans for the
immediate future.
Unsurprisingly, leaders scored leadership
among the top three strengths – though only
a quarter mentioned this as a crucial factor.
The fact that employees score leadership
at a similar level is reassuring. However, the
workforce also rate leaders as the second-
biggest weakness, suggesting a disconnect
at more than a fifth of organisations.
Takeout: Lack of belief in leadership stems
back to lack of purpose and strategy at the
top – or at the least, a vision that is poorly
communicated to the workforce.
Guidelines on employee engagement are
changing, which may help. The Financial
Reporting Council recently unveiled a fresh
UK Corporate Governance Code which cited
as its top update:“Workforce and stakeholders:
there is a new Provision to enable greater board
engagement with the workforce to understand
their views. The Code asks boards to describe
how they have considered the interests of
stakeholders when performing their duty under
Section 172 of the 2006 Companies Act.”
It’ll be interesting to see how corporations
adopt this new advice. Regardless, it’s critical
to fully understand where your workforce thinks
your business is lacking as well as areas where
they believe it’s performing well.
Top tip: let influencers in on the strategy
Don’t treat culture and internal communication
as an afterthought. Make it a priority. Vision
is vital; making it happen takes blood, toil
and tears.
Consider who the influencers are within teams
at your organisation – they don’t all sit in the
boardroom, they could come from any team.
Culture must be nurtured, and people
who are popular among their colleagues
are a great place to start. Treat them as
ambassadors who can help others navigate
change. Give them a chance to help set
out your purpose, vision and the route to
getting there, as well as testing ideas with
them before rolling these out to the wider
organisation.

10. C A S E S T U DY
Lloyds Banking Group
By the side of Britain’s best bank

11. It all started with a conversation. From there,
we built trusting relationships with leadership
teams, understanding the mindset at the heart
of the organisation, and gaining the insight to
move behaviour at scale.
Initial connections transformed into strong
partnerships across every department and level,as
we translated beliefs, attitudes and feelings into
a future vision – one powerful enough to deliver
results with lasting impact.
Through a multi-channel campaign, we engaged
everycolleaguewithLBG’scorepurpose,galvanising
their people to come together, and ensuring
everyone understood their part to play in the
bank’s exciting future.
Working with stakeholders, agency partners
and leaders across the whole organisation, we’ve
combined knowledge and passion to inspire and
connect every channel and audience. And this is
just the start.
We’ve been collaborating
and creating with Britain’s
biggest bank since 2007,
playing a crucial role in arguably
the greatest modern-day
transformation of any financial
services company.
The journey so far

12. A new vision for the Group
Over more than a decade, we’ve built a
trusting relationship with LBG and their partners,
working closely to develop three transformative
strategies and communicate them meaningfully
to 60,000 colleagues. We’ve created excitement
and engagement around LBG’s Helping Britain
Prosper purpose, refining the vision and inspiring
belief with a landmark event designed to reach
every colleague. Our support for LBG’s journey
back to privatisation has seen the Group return
£21bn to the taxpayer, posting their biggest
profits in over a decade.
Turning strategy into belief
Our work with LBG has seen us successfully deliver
three strategies, developing multiple campaigns
and activations to support the objectives of each.
We clarified goals, targeted the most effective
channels and refined content to create impact
at scale.
As we delivered LBG’s first strategy, we worked
with stakeholders to understand the Group’s
people, ethos, direction and challenges.
Collaborating with world-leading management
consultants,McKinsey,we delivered a meaningful
campaign to evolve LBG for the future.
The second strategy was built to redefine LBG’s
purpose: Helping Britain Prosper. We helped
refine this purpose to stretch beyond profit,
implementing culture change, regaining public
trust, and reaching every client, colleague and
community.
Unveiled in March this year, the third strategy
is LBG’s biggest and boldest. We worked in
collaboration with LBG to launch a game-changing
vision based on transformation,digitisation,group
capabilities, and a leading customer experience.
Landmarkmomentsandmilestones
Rebuilding the bank
Every stage of every strategy has seen us deliver
memorable moments, high-revenue results and
engaging brand experiences for LBG. We’ve
collaborated across our full-service capabilities
to bring the Group’s vision to life.
Following the global financial crisis of 2007/08,
Lloyds had to change to survive.With our support,
they reconstructed the bank,streamlined ways of
working and simplified systems and processes
from the merger of HBOS and Lloyds TSB.
We united 5,000 leaders with a full-service
spectacular at our first ever One Group Convention,
generating 100% board satisfaction.This included
full venue and delegate management at London’s
ExCel Centre, logo and identity development,
graphic design, print, AV and full exhibition build.

13. Evolving the culture
In 2014, we helped LBG embed meaningful
culture change,as they redefined their purpose
with the launch of Helping Britain Prosper
(HBP). We designed the identity and launched
the campaign, evolving HBP into the Group’s
central reason for being.
We collaborated with LBG to deliver a Group-wide
inclusion and diversity creative communications
campaign, designed to shift attitudes and show
thebenefitsforbusinessperformance.TheGroupis
now highly rated by Stonewall for LGBT employees,
with an openness to discuss issues like mental
health, domestic abuse and flexible working.
In 2015, LBG celebrated 300 years of Bank
of Scotland, 250 years of Lloyds Bank and 30
years of Lloyds Foundations – and a new charity
partnership with Children in Need. We ensured
the whole Group felt engaged and proud,
communicating a compelling story to 60,000
colleagues. The result? The best engagement
scores since the banking crisis.
Transforming the group
We brought together LBG’s three distinct Retail
brands – Halifax, Lloyds Bank and Bank of
Scotland – with a new narrative around the
branch network strategy.The narrative engaged
colleagues, educating them about how ways
of working would need to evolve in line with
changing customer behaviour.
Having returned £21bn to the taxpayer – plus
a shareholder dividend and £900m extra – LBG
posted their biggest profits in a decade, with
internal metrics revealing 99% of colleagues
believed in and were committed to their roles in
Helping Britain Prosper. We supported LBG on
their journey back to privatisation.
We worked closely with LBG’s senior stakeholders
and internal comms team, collaborating with
external agencies, adam&eveDDB and Rufus
Leonard,to communicate the most recent strategy
across the Group.The result was a game-changing
live event, delivered to 12,000 colleagues across
six venues – setting the scene for the future of HBP.
There was an interactive expo, VR headsets, a
life-size board game,live streaming opportunities
and technology displays to bring the strategy to
life. The next phase of the campaign is now live,
continuing to communicate the strategic story
with impact across every channel.

14. These opposing forces cause obstacles on the
road to change. To overcome them, business
leaders must heed the beliefs, attitudes and
feelings of their workforce. Only then will positive
individual actions generate outstanding results.
We are Vista has developed the Mindset Model
as a framework for understanding these critical
factors and taking staff on the journey to permanent
change.Here’s what we put under the microscope.
Our survey results are further
evidence that employers
focus on figures; employees
care most about emotional
investment.
We are Vista’s Mindset Model
BELIEFS ATTITUDES FEELINGS ACTIONS RESULTS
Beliefs: Hardwired and hardest to change. These
are employees’ core emotions about the place
they work - including faith in their leaders - and
the wider world they live in. They underpin pretty
much everything a person thinks and does.
Attitudes: We rate employees’ attitudes on a
negative to positive scale, so the study is rooted
in psychology and strength of feeling. This can
be a revelation for the C-suite, framing how the
business needs to change and how goals can be
achieved.
Feelings: These can be changed. It may take
time, but altering perceptions is possible, leaving
organisations free to set sail towards a more
positive future with everyone on board.
These first three stages help organisations to
understand the wider mindset and influence
interventions that can be made. This will more
than likely be a creative strategy for a series of
internal campaigns promoting your narrative.
The upshot is hundreds and thousands of actions
that create brilliant experiences for people,
painting your business in a good light and making
employees feel great, too.
Actions: What do you need individual employees
to do to drive the business forward? This is often
a strategy that will empower every member of
staff to make the right decisions.
Results: Whatever you want your business to be.
We usually start by discussing this stage, then
map the preceding four factors to plot a course to
the desired results. Often that involves some form
of change, from behaviour to sales growth.

15. Technology is driving a huge round of digital
transformation. The next wave of change will be
an essential response to Brexit, with businesses
forced to adapt as Britain settles into a new
pattern of trading.
How organisations are dealing with that change is
a mixed bag,according to our survey respondents.
Not all of the C-suite is comfortable with new
strategies; not all staff are motivated to play their
part in effecting that change.
Whether or not your business is expecting great
change, this report raises important questions.
Is your leadership ready to drive your strategy?
How can your business goals be communicated
effectively, motivating your entire workforce?
And what must you do to create greater harmony,
closing the perception gaps between management
and staff?
Your employees can be your greatest asset and
strongest advocates, propelling your organisation
to a brighter future, open to change rather than
fearing it. Are you ready to listen to them?
There’s no doubt change
is coming to UK plc.
Conclusion
Taking steps is easy, standing still is hard

16. Confidentiality
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and intellectual property intended for review by the
client.
Consequently, this material may not be copied,
distributed or shared with third parties without the
express written consent of We are Vista Limited.
This confidentiality should also be respected
throughout any subsequent concept development
stages to ensure that no potential competitive
edge is lost when entering into any discussion and
negotiation with other third parties.
Copyright
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We are Vista Limited.
Accordingly, We are Vista Limited retains
full ownership of this material until the
client appoints We are Vista Limited upon
terms and conditions to be jointly agreed.
Upon such an agreement, We are Vista
Limited shall transfer usage rights to this
material subject to final contract detail.
Contact
Daniel Dunn
daniel.dunn@wearevista.co.uk
+44 (0) 8448 470 230
+44 (0) 7977 017 505
The Timber Yard,
115a Drysdale Street,
London,
N1 6ND
5-6 Carlton Mills,
Pickering Street,
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