# Head office and the field together to rethink life in the residences

> A social housing provider wanted to bring its head office and field teams closer, and to generate concrete ideas. About a hundred staff spent the day in a green setting, alternating between an ideas workshop and an on-site activity. The ideas produced really helped the company move forward.

*Real case, anonymised: the company name is invented.*

- Company (invented name) : Habitat Corolle
- Sector : Social housing, residences
- Size : A few hundred staff, at head office and in the field
- Format : One day
- Audience : About a hundred staff from head office and the residences, many of whom had never met.
- URL : https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/cas-clients/idees-vie-en-residence

## Context

- Field teams spread across many residences, a head office that rarely sees them.
- Varied residents: social housing, students, families.
- Two topics on the table: friendliness between colleagues, and opening up the residences’ shared spaces.

## The challenge

Generate as many concrete ideas as possible on two topics, with about a hundred people, in a day that is also enjoyable. And ideas precise enough to be taken up.

## Design ideas

- **Double-coded badges** : The badge colour gives the working group. The time slot gives the on-site activity. Half the room does the workshop in the morning and the activity in the afternoon, the other half the reverse. Groups stay small and nobody waits.
- **Connect before producing** : Everyone recalls a strong moment at the company and tells it in pairs to someone they barely know. Head office and the field start by listening to each other.
- **From sticky note to sheet** : An hour of work per group: sharing, individual ideas, sticky notes clustered by two “writers”. Then, in groups of four, each chosen idea becomes a sheet: what makes it appealing, what actually happens, for whom, under what conditions.
- **Coloured walls** : Each group puts its sheets on a wall in its colour. At the end of the day, everyone sees everything that was produced.

## Run of show

- Morning · **Welcome** : A double-coded badge: one group, one time slot.
- **Connect** : A strong moment at the company, told in pairs.
- **The ideas workshop** : Individual ideas, sticky notes, clustering.
- **The sheets** : In groups of four: appeal, practicalities, audiences, conditions.
- **The wall** : Sheets posted on the wall in one’s colour.
- Noon · **Lunch** : Together, before swapping roles.
- Afternoon · **The activity** : An activity on site, while the other half does the workshop.
- **Close** : Everyone in front of the walls.

## Deliverables

- Several dozen idea sheets, concrete enough to be taken up as they stood. For example: asking residents which activities would help them break out of isolation, or handing them the running of the common room with a charter and a contact person.
- Ideas that fed the company’s projects on internal friendliness and on opening up the residences.

## Key takeaways

- With about a hundred people, alternating workshop and activity keeps groups human-sized and the day light.
- An idea becomes useful when it says for whom and under what conditions. The sheet does that work on the spot.
- Starting with a memory shared between head office and the field changes the quality of the ideas that follow.

Related expertise : [Collective intelligence](https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/intelligence-collective), [Seminar facilitation](https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/facilitation-de-seminaire), [Seminar design](https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/design-de-seminaire)

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Source: Flow Design, https://www.getflowdesign.com
Contact: victoire@getflowdesign.com, marie-violaine@getflowdesign.com, +33 6 72 15 94 77. Request a quote: https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/nous-contacter. Draft a run of show online: https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/concevoir-mon-seminaire.