Improving the quality of video drama for learning.

Last Tuesday night, my party stepped into the Leonardo Royal Hotel near St Paul’s Cathedral in evening wear and high spirits – and walked away with five Learning Excellence Awards, three of them Gold. An astonishing result. Though perhaps not so surprising when I stop to consider the quality of the projects we’ve been lucky enough to be involved with. All five awards were for work that draws directly on our Drama for Change methodology—an approach I’ve developed over the years to turn fiction into a catalyst for real-world behavioural change. I’m proud of the work, of course, but even more so of the organisations who commissioned and co-created these remarkable initiatives. These awards are shared wins, and richly deserved.

Recently, I was invited to speak to a group of change consultants and change managers. Now, I’m not a change consultant myself – I’m a video maker. But, having spent my career making films for learning and development, “…I’ve ended up specialising in something that’s very much at the heart of their work: behaviour and culture change. I shared the story of how I developed Drama for Change – a method that uses video drama to shift behaviour in organisations – and why the science behind it is relevant far beyond the world of film…

By now, most people in the UK are aware of the Netflix drama Adolescence, which explores the harrowing subject of online male radicalisation and violence against girls. Writer Jack Thorne said he and co-writer Stephen Graham wanted the programme to be a piece of work that “causes discussion and makes change.” This, of course, is exactly the aim of my own Drama for Change methodology – though within a workplace setting – so I feel compelled to report on the project…