Best Companies Opens Art of Engagement Installation

The Art of Engagement

This exhibition is structured into the same eight separate factors of engagement used to assess businesses applying for the Best Companies to Work For accreditation.
Here, some of the 56 attendees in each session actually get inside the head of a disengaged employee. Each one is given a lab coat to enhance the feeling of experimentation.
The exhibition opens to customers on 22 March and attendance costs £695+VAT from that date.

Best Companies Opens Art of Engagement Installation

Experiential learning

The £1.8m exhibition relies heavily on symbolism and experiential learning to enforce the messages about employee engagement.
In the Personal Growth installation, attendees are invited to take a pot and plant a seed. They can choose from a selection of plants to grow and are given guidance on type of soil and how to care for each particular plant.
They take these pots with them and are asked to report back on the progress of their plant.

Best Companies Opens Art of Engagement Installation

A journey in stages

Each installation has its own thinking area, where attendees can sit and reflect on what they have just experienced. They are each given a journal/exercise book which provides questions to structure their thinking.
Next to the Leadership installation are chairs symbolising how you can expect to be supported by your leaders.

Best Companies Opens Art of Engagement Installation

Multimedia interactivity

The exhibition uses a wide variety of interactive multimedia to keep attendees' attention.
In the Leadership installation, attendies use radio-tagged tiles to alter the balance of a business's commitments, as shown on the video screen.

Best Companies Opens Art of Engagement Installation

Thinking, feeling and doing

In the My Team installation, attendees move around on a mat, tracked by a sensor, to reveal corresponding areas of a picture. Waving your arms around increases the size of that footprint, revealing more of the picture.
Attendees answer a question revealed by the picture to recieve a PIN opening a safe, which contains a reward.

Best Companies Opens Art of Engagement Installation

Applied learning

Some business leaders may be apt to dismiss this exhibiton as a bit of fluff, but there is a serious intent behind it to encourage senior managers to review the corporate culture they are creating within their own businesses.
The whole experience is highly orchestrated and it takes a whole day to go through it.
At the end of the tour, attendees go into meeting rooms where they go through case studies tailored to their own businesses, based on a database of companies built up over ten years.
They have to suggest three ideas to improve employee satisfaction at their chosen company and present those ideas to the whole group of 56 people.