Duncan Stevens Gets 35 Bvlgari Colleagues Collaborating Beyond Their Silos

With Duncan Stevens, behavioural psychologist, keynote speaker and best-selling author

"The keynote was truly inspiring, offering practical, real-life strategies that we can immediately apply to our day-to-day work—we left the session wanting more! Followed by the workshop which was both fun and engaging, giving our team the opportunity to brainstorm new ideas, strengthen our collaboration, and think more strategically about the future."

Jessica Bugeja

Human Resources Business Partner at Bvlgari

OUTCOME 1

A shared view ahead

35 colleagues left with a shared view of the future and a clearer plan for collaborating to get there.

OUTCOME 2

Ideas worth sharing

Colleagues began to see collaboration as a way to sharpen good ideas, not a step that slows them down.

OUTCOME 3

Real-life strategies

Practical strategies from the keynote that colleagues could apply to their day-to-day work straight away.

THE CHALLENGE

Bvlgari needed its teams sharing ideas across functions, not guarding them inside their own.

In a fast-moving luxury market, good ideas at Bvlgari often stayed inside the department that had them. The HR team brought around 35 colleagues from across the business together to change that, and they wanted the day to feel worthwhile, not like another meeting on the calendar.

They asked Duncan for a keynote that would show how collaboration works in practice, followed by a hands-on workshop where colleagues could brainstorm together and think ahead about the future.

DUNCAN’S SOLUTION

A collaboration keynote and a hands-on workshop, built around Bvlgari’s teams and their ideas for the future.

Before the day, Duncan spoke with the HR team to learn how colleagues worked together, where ideas got stuck and what they’d want to walk away with.

He opened with a 45-minute keynote on collaboration, using on-stage behavioural psychology demonstrations to show why teams do better work together and sharing strategies colleagues could use straight away. A 90-minute workshop followed, where mixed groups brainstormed new ideas and planned how to strengthen their collaboration.

THE RESULT

Colleagues who left with practical strategies, fresh ideas and a stronger way of working together.

Bvlgari’s team came away with real-life strategies they could apply to their day-to-day work, and they left wanting more. The workshop stayed fun and engaging, gave colleagues room to brainstorm new ideas and helped them think more strategically about the future. In the survey, 97% of colleagues said they’d recommend Duncan.

The audience survey below shows how the session landed with the people in the room.

Want your teams collaborating across functions? Check Duncan’s availability or explore his Beyond Collaboration keynote.

THOUGHTS FROM DUNCAN

Collaboration starts when people feel safe enough to share half-formed ideas.

In luxury, everyone’s protecting something: a brand, a standard, a reputation. That’s admirable, but it can turn into a habit of keeping ideas close. So I keep the room light and the tasks small, so colleagues can share early thinking and see how much better it gets when someone builds on it. Then the workshop turns that spark into a plan.

Bvlgari’s team were warm, curious and generous with their ideas, and I enjoyed every minute with them. I’d love to work with them again.

HOW BVLGARI'S COLLEAGUES RATED DUNCAN'S COLLABORATION SESSION

97% of Bvlgari’s colleagues would recommend Duncan, and 99% are extremely or highly likely to use his takeaways. The words they used most to describe the keynote were engaging, inspiring and relevant.

Survey of 35 Bvlgari colleagues, completed straight after the keynote and workshop.