How to use drama and storytelling to make change
As I’ve repeatedly reported [https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/royal-race-row-casts-light-diversity-inclusion-tom-hickmore], diversity training has generally done worse than failed; it has had a negative effect. The evidence is there. I’m currently working on anti-racism content, so I was brought back to the challenge of what can be done effectively in the sphere. Interestingly, the answer is the same as all other use cases.
What worked
Interventions such as the design of the hiring process and advancement programmes have been seen to be the most effective interventions in creating a more diverse workforce.
But let’s not forget that these actions have also surely provided the foundations of a story. These are ‘story actions’ that demonstrate a change is here and that it is a serious element of policy. Thus, a story’s actions generate a story that changes a culture.
Story actions
The book The Secret of Culture Change (by Barney, Amorim & Júlio) is about story actions as a management tool. They relate the example of a CEO entering a telecoms company with its government monopoly contract ending. They had to become consumer-focused, service-oriented and less command and control in their management style. The CEO discovered a hidden helpline for senior managers, which he promptly closed. He called the public helpline and got the young employee who picked up the phone to give a presentation to the executive committee on how to improve the service. This led to a successful product relaunch, and the employee was promoted to a management trainee position.
These actions resonated throughout the company, empowering employees to contribute ideas and fostering a customer-first mentality.
Plain old storytelling
Story actions can be complemented and consolidated with some plain old storytelling. Storytelling in the workplace can work to promote your values, values that align with your strategy. Storytelling can be anything from a simple presentation incorporating story elements to a full-blown campaign aiming to get people talking. Our Drama for Change approach uses short video dramas with various promotions to generate discussion.
We need to talk about diversity
Returning to the challenge of diversity initiatives – before we can design something useful, we’d better look at what’s gone wrong with diversity training in the past:
- Corporate virtue signalling can be a complicating factor
- Asking people to challenge stereotypes can merely reinforce these mental models
- Young, white men may feel that just the announcement of a diversity training programme is a threat to their careers
- When employees feel they’re being controlled, they tend to react negatively, so making diversity training mandatory makes it less effective
- Training inspires unrealistic confidence in anti-discrimination programs, making employees complacent about their biases.
So, what’s gone wrong boils down to lecturing, posturing and guilt-tripping people. Which, if you put it that way, seems relatively obviously ineffective.
The principles of storytelling
Interestingly, this is precisely what you mustn’t do with any storytelling management initiative.
The principles of persuasive storytelling are nicely summed up in Lisa Cron’s book Story or Die:
“To create a story capable of changing someone’s mind, there are four stages your protagonist’s worldview must go through, culminating in taking up your call to action.
First: Misbelief
This is the closely held (erroneous) belief that your audience enters with. Simply telling them they’re wrong challenges their self-identity and loyalty to their tribe. It is this belief that’s keeping them from hearing your call to action.
Second: Truth
This is the point you want to make. The story’s events are constructed to show your audience that the belief they think is helping them isn’t; instead, it’s hurting them. It’s keeping them from getting what they want and being who they really are.
Third: Realisation
The event (s) in the story cause your audience to – on their own – question their misbelief. This experience finally allows them to see it for what it is: wrong.
Fourth: Transformation
This is the moment when, having realised that their misbelief has blinded them to what will actually help them achieve their true agenda, your protagonist’s (and, by extension, the audience’s) worldview is transformed. This is what allows them to address the external problem […] – by taking up your call to action.”
To add another layer, a story need not be expected to change people’s minds in one hit. If it’s a resonant story that stimulates the audience, especially with the aid of a campaign, it can be the spark for a thousand informal chats which take the story and run with it.
As cognitive scientist Mark Turner wrote, “Narrative imagining – story – is the fundamental instrument of thought. Rational capacities depend upon it. It is our chief means of looking into the future, predicting, planning, and explaining.”
A real-world project
Presented with a picture of an organisation where black people had found it hard to advance, it was suggested that we produce a dramatic monologue of complaint from a black character. I pointed out this would not be effective against racism. My change to the presentation was to make it of one black man telling another black colleague of his aspiration to advance within the organisation. His friend teases him about his ambition, reminding him of the racist barriers he’ll have to get over. The two friends start joking about it, listing all the things he’s up against and how unrealistic his hope for advancement is. They end up in hysterical laughter.
This simple adjustment to the presentation makes the characters sympathetic and allows us to see the problems from their perspective. It also has the advantage that you can adjust the levels of intensity of its humour and pointedness.
This is a first-stage idea, and it will be tested with the client and audience, but it illustrates a design principle.
Diversity, equality, and inclusion is a story. It’s a story to fight a much worse story, with worse consequences. So, tell the story and tell it properly.
Do you think humour can be appropriate in diversity initiatives?
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