Launching new cultural commitments for a large municipality
When the City of Edmonton unveiled new cultural commitments to its 12,000+ employees in 2018, iilo helped to organize a fun and engaging day-long event to bring the commitments to life.
Communication design challenge
Over 12,000 City of Edmonton employees work together to make life better for Edmontonians. In 2018, the city launched a new set of cultural commitments (Safe, Helpful, Accountable, Integrated, and Excellent) to inspire their shared effort. As employees work in diverse environments and across different shifts, a creative approach was required to meaningfully engage the employees around the new commitments.
As one of the project management leads, iilo co-owner Madelen Ortega helped to plan and execute a full-day event at the Edmonton Convention Centre, with learning and fun in mind. Alongside booths that showcased the cultural commitments, and delicious food, an improvisational theatre troupe engaged participants through humour to explore the meaning and actions behind each commitment. The programming was repeated several times throughout the day, so employees could participate within their varying work schedules. Madelen also collaborated with multiple city departments to ensure the event messaging was inviting to all employees, whether they worked behind a desk or served the city in the field.
Outcomes
The unique design of this launch event successfully engaged 6,000+ city employees within one day and served as a stepping-off point for ongoing culture building at a large municipality. The variety of activities made conceptual organizational values meaningful on an individual level. Through the creative and thoughtful execution of this employee engagement event, the City of Edmonton demonstrated its true commitment to fostering a strong, positive work culture.
