How We Created an Employee Movement, Not Just a Message

Context - How We Got Here

As the world knows, Docusign has recently transformed to become the Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM) Company. Many elements were simultaneously created and launched to make this happen: a new category, new products, a new platform and a new brand, all of which were brought together via elevated, cross-company collaboration and new ways of working. No easy feat.

Let's face it: at the heart of any company transformation is its people. You can design the most efficient processes and the most compelling products, but without rallying and empowering the humans behind them, business outcomes will never be fully realized.

To that end, as part of the internal IAM Program, we stood up a Talent & People Readiness Workstream spearheaded by Iesha (O'Deneal) Berry and Megan Miyamoto and change managed by Adilah Ibrahim Kelsey Brooke Barringer, M.A and me. Tanya Faddoul and John O'Connor also greatly contributed to the strategy and success of the delivery.

Guided by Iesha and Megan's leadership, the team and I looked inside out on:

• What do our people need to think, do, and say differently in order to be ready, willing, and able to embrace our evolution while honoring our past?
• How can we create an immersive journey to foster equitable understanding, excitement, and sense of involvement for everyone on Team Docusign, not just those intimately involved with the program?
• What are the unique impacts for each role and org driven by IAM and how do we create and execute a right-sized and right-timed change management plan to support them?

"Upon taking a deeper look at what needed to happen and with whom, we recognized that a more involved experience was required to move the needle with our people. We had to create 6,000+ ambassadors of our new direction. Messaging alone wouldn't suffice - we had to create an engaging employee experience." Iesha Berry, Chief Talent & Diversity Officer, Docusign

??? Building the IAM Champion Experience

Early on, we all agreed that we had to engage both the head and the heart to turn belief in the purpose into action in delivering the promise. There had to be accountability and involvement at every level and across every function. We wanted to focus less on the "what" and more on the "how" and "why" to make it relevant and cohesive for everyone in the company. All of this was done in close collaboration with our Internal Communications and Enablement teams.

So, enter in the ?IAM Champion Experience?.

Recognizing the wide gamut of contextual product and company strategy knowledge across the company, we created four experiences that, when combined, provided clarity of purpose and a sense of ownership. We wanted to bring everyone along the journey with intentionality.

We also engaged a network of Change Sponsors in each function and region that served as our influencers for their team. The relationship was symbiotic: they would help us bring the IAM Champion Experience to fruition with their teams and we would ensure their feedback and inputs were brought to the Program Team for consideration and action. Win-win.

?IAM Champion Experience Elements?

1?? - IAM Presentation

To bring the "we are all ambassadors" notion to life, the first experience was for employees at every role and level to learn the IAM value pitch and present a set of slides and a unifying talk-track to their manager or team, just as they would to a business contact. We kept the slides and the suggested talk-track high-level enough for anyone to get behind and encouraged people to make it their own.

?? Why?

• The presentation format unearthed natural dialogue and conversation that wouldn't have happened otherwise
• Enabled learners of all styles (auditory, visual, social, solitary) to partake in a multi-sensory experience by learning and then presenting a corporate pitch
• Empowered each employee, from Engineering to Sales, to have a consistent and approachable talk-track to have around-the-table conversations with their friends, family, and contacts

Because presenting was not a natural muscle to some, we built a custom Employee (and Manager) Toolkit that walked through presentation pro-tips, how to practice presenting, and more. This Toolkit easily became one of the most referenced documents by unique viewers at the company.

2?? - IAM Certification

Partnering closely with the Learning & Organizational Development Team, we created a self-service certification module that dove deeper into Docusign's evolution, customer value and platform components as a fast-follow. Shoutout to Alyssa Penner and Rachel Sirr for this world-class work.

?? Why?

• We were able to capture and keep attention by using a cohesive yet diverse mix of media (video, diagrams, imagery) combined with distinct sections by subject
• Employees were able to ensure real-life comprehension of the material thanks to the knowledge comprehension questions at the end which focused on real-life scenarios rather than a Control+F correct textbook answer. For example, a question asked "If one of your LinkedIn contacts approached you and asked if the company is no longer doing X, what would be the best response based upon what you just learned?"
• IAM Certification completion was tracked at the individual level and a Leader Dashboard held managers accountable for their teams

3?? - IAM Amplification

We introduced IAM and our new Docusign brand to the world at the Momentum Event in New York, NY in April, and continue to do so across our international regions. Immediately following this, every Docusign employee received an "IAM Amplification package" with internal elements to update (new email signature, Zoom backgrounds, desktop backgrounds, and more) and internal elements (Linkedin banners, LinkedIn posts, social posts and more).

?? Why?

• Employees shared their Docusign and IAM pride internally and externally which naturally ignited a source of energy and excitement both within our internal teams and our external communities. It gave new meaning to "what's this about?".

4?? - IAM Activation

It took the collective effort of everyone in the company to get to the GA IAM Launch in May. Many nights and weekends were spent perfecting every detail, from GTM strategies to feature code testing. We knew there had to be a special event to celebrate this monumental milestone and genuinely thank our people for their heroic effort day in and day out.

Brought to life by the leadership of Yancy Widmer and Stephanie Ryan (Syvertsen) and our amazing Workplace Experience Team, IAM Activation events were hosted both in-office and remotely.

?? Why?

• In-office events blended further evangelizing the IAM solution and value with moments of celebration and fun to foster the feeling of community, connection, and recognition. Remote events included in-region executives hosting a celebratory lunch/dinner and toast with employees nearby.
• Events such as the IAM Adventure Quest offered Docusign/IAM trivia, puzzles, and riddles which maximized our knowledge share while offering an element of fun and tangible engagement.

??Hindsight: What We Learned & What You Can Take Away

• Employees who are empowered to own their engagement path and story are more committed to the outcome: We enabled employees with a suggested talk-track and set of slides for them to share the company message and we encouraged them to make it their own. The energy they put into practicing and customizing their message created energy and a sense of ownership and involvement.
• Tangible details make all the difference in building trust: We initially received some employee feedback that the IAM Presentation lacked depth - employees wanted to see more hands-on use product use cases, platform demos, and more. Wile these details were intentionally omitted to create a presentation everyone could rally around, we followed up with detailed intranet pages in plain language which included live demos, a global roadmap, interoperability details and more. We paired these pages with a Slack channel that guided employees on how to get their questions answered via custom workflows which first presented info to them based on their top of mind subject with an option to request additional support from the team. Change management is all about continually gathering feedback so the strategy and approach can be adjusted in real time and course corrected if applicable to meet the needs and desires of employees.
• A "just-right" blend and balance of time and activities both solidified the journey and met the moment: We intentionally planned the IAM Champion activities over four months which gave enough time to drive awareness and launch preparation but also engaged the right activity at the right time: we practiced messaging, we learned, we shared, we celebrated. The longer-term journey kept the excitement and energy going while ensuring no one felt over-tapped.
• Healthy, executive-led competition drove higher than expected training completion rates: Our Executive Leadership Team actively engaged their teams to complete the IAM Certification and the Change Team regularly shared completion rates by org. Our leaders were active in driving healthy competition - one VP even died her hair green after a promise to her team if they were the first to 100% completion! This visible, vocal sponsorship of a company-wide certification lead to a higher than expected training completion rate.
• Consistent, recurring, and relevant updates via Slack drove employee engagement and involvement: Our team shared regular updates on Slack about the development and launch of IAM - we took a transparent-first approach and shared curated details on marketing, product, engineering, pricing/packaging details. This inside-out trust and visibility drove higher than average Slack reactions and post sharing.
• Curated and custom resources by role empowered employees to be take confident part in the IAM Champion Experience : Recognizing the diversity of roles involved in the company-wide initiative, the Change Team built dynamic toolkits for both ICs and Managers which contained key to-dos and to-knows. These toolkits offered compelling content that contributed to a feeling of confidence and ownership of the now: how to best present a company message, how to practice for a presentation, manager tips for facilitating a dialogue on our new company direction and more. The content was kept fresh and updated based on where employees were in the IAM Champion Experience. Hundreds of employees were on these docs at a time and to this day the template is leveraged for other wide-scale changes.

All in all, the IAM Champion Experience created an employee movement, not just a message.

The possibilities are endless when you have an intentional focus on engaging both the mind and the heart. ?? ??