Air Products is the world’s leading industrial gases company with a strong commitment to saving the planet from climate change. The company is committed to driving the energy transition away from fossil fuels towards clean energy on a massive scale using hydrogen.
With a heritage stretching back 85 years, there is a sense of pride, urgency, focus and determination across the company to make a difference, and it is recognised that individual and collective performance is the pathway to reach the company goals.
The project
I was brought into Air Products to support internal communications activity for a change program moving the company from a system of annual performance reviews to one of continuous performance conversations and feedback.
Our Way of Leading started as a simple statement of fact – “this is how we lead at Air Products” – but the phrase evolved to represent a first mover position across all areas, including performance.
For the change program launch event, I was asked to write and produce an explainer video to set the scene, explain what Our Way of Leading meant, and outline how the new approach to performance management supported the long term goals of the company.
Writing the script
The sense of what Our Way of Leading meant was not written down in one place, so this explainer video became the definitive statement.
To learn the thinking of the organisation, I talked with senior leaders, watched videos of the CEO presenting at international events, and mined project documentation from the change program. I also researched evidence to support the different claims around leading to ensure messaging was anchored in truth.
I was given a long list of key points that had to be covered, so it was quite a challenge to compress everything into a short launch video that would maintain its energy and not become confusing to viewers.
Another constraint was that I could only use existing stock footage from Air Products – there was no way to get anything more.
So as I was writing, I also had to keep a clear map of how the stock footage clips would be used to support the voiceover script.
Outcome
The explainer video was used in the launch event and was very well received. One person commented that “it shows we are one heck of a company.” And the CHRO commented that “the video shows how Our Way of Leading Performance is essential for us to drive a consistent standard of excellence as we work together as one team.”
Following the launch event, the communications team received so many requests for the video that it was added to an internal website for people to download and use for their own events and communication activities.
The language and phrasing was also picked up and used by senior leaders in their own video communications.
Martyn James Bull 