Recently I got to help with a script for a short animated video all about change management. It's one of those ones where a hand draws while a voice explains the ideas being put forward. My job was to complete and polish an unfinished original. The script was formatted as a Word doc with two columns. On the left was a column that scripted what the voice would say - on the right a description of what visuals should match the voiceover.
At one point the script had a space that had been left for describing what good change management training should be like. I often write down why training matters, but the challenge of the second column - turning my thoughts into something purely visual that couldn't last longer than a minute or so on screen was genuinely new and testing.
I'm still not sure if I got it right or not but here's what I wrote:
"We see a figure standing alone. We understand that they are the client. They are joined by a second figure - the change management trainer. The trainer leads the client towards one of those old railway hand-powered carts with the up-down lever for two people to operate.
Together they push and pull the lever and the cart starts to speed up. As the lever moves it reveals two words with each up stroke and each down stroke. The first push reveals "THEORY" and the second push reveals "PRACTICE" and then "THEORY" and then "PRACTICE" and so on. Both people are operating the lever at the same time - its the only way to keep it moving.
As we travel along the track behind the cart it reveals key words written on the rails: "individual psychology", "systems thinking", "how to measure change readiness", "hygiene and motivation factors", "emergent vs directive change", "classic change models", "change impact assessments", "learning anxiety and survival anxiety".
The two people on the cart pump the lever faster and faster and it seems to get easier the more they do it. Eventually the cart build up so much speed that it lifts off the rails and starts to fly. It barely needs the lever any more. We see that cart flying into a sunset marked "outstanding change management"."