Eventually, some of the people who've recently joined from P&G may be transferred to other positions within HR including working on HP's own internal information systems or working on programs for other HP clients. However, the vast majority are still focused on the P&G program, so HP's overall mission and competitive concerns are probably not of immediate interest to many of them. What approach should you take in your presentation to encourage them to care about the concept of the "agile organization" and their individual roles in it?
a. Begin your presentation by immediately asking them what they've heard about the "agile organization" so far. Encourage them to ask any questions before you begin your presentation. This way you can squash any rumors before explaining what the "agile organization" means.
b. Start your introduction with a few recent news items about layoffs in other high-technology companies and then emphasize that in order to avoid that fate, everyone who works for HP needs to embrace the idea of agility. This will scare them into paying attention.
c. Share with them an insider's view of the sales process that Dan Talbott's team used to land the P&G contract, focusing on how the team responded so quickly to the opportunity. It's a great example of agility in action, and this situation affected all of them personally (and many of them probably wonder why HP was able to win the contract when EDS and IBM seemed to most people in the industry as more obvious choices for such a huge project). As HP employees now, they will care about how HP will continue to win big contracts and thereby avoid layoffs, keep providing good benefits, and create opportunities for career advancement.
d. Start your presentation with several short video clips that communicate the idea of speed, such as race cars, rockets, foot races at the Olympics, and a microwave oven cooking a meal in a matter of minutes. From these scenes, they'll get the idea that speed is vital in today's fast-paced world.