Fill your heart with love today
Don’t play the game of time
Things that happened in the past
Only happened in your Mind
Biff Rose
You might be familiar with this Biff Rose song from David Bowie’s recording. It’s a beautiful idea. If we can let go of things and move forward, a world of possibility is open to us. But people’s identities are tied up with stories. Stories of past events that are hard to escape.
Story and conflict
“People fight over the imaginary stories in their mind (…) this is what most conflicts in the world are about. Which is also good news because if conflicts are about objective things the only way to end them is with violence. But if conflicts are about the stories we believe, there is a chance, at least in some cases, to just talk about it and perhaps change the story.”
Yuval Noah Harari
It took my mother 40 years after World War II to form a close friendship with a German woman. She found it hard to see Germans as regular folk after living in Nazi-occupied Denmark.
The more stressful and difficult a situation, the more embedded the stories we construct around it. And the harder it is to unpick and re-write those stories.
Stories in the workplace
Similarly, the toughest behavioural problems in the workplace have a tangle of stories holding them in place. Naturally, having a good understanding of story is useful when managing this.
What are some of these tougher managerial problems? Enforcing workplace norms – one person’s banter is another’s harassment. The resistance you feel when trying to get people to do something perceived as counterintuitive, like health and safety best practices. Mergers and acquisitions bring various changes, and buy-in is hard to find. I’m sure plenty more spring to mind.
If you want to change someone’s ingrained behaviour, you have to change the story they have used to rationalise their behaviour. And rather than just take someone’s story away, it’s better to help them build a new story.
Controlling the story
The way I do this is to find out what people’s stories are around an issue and then create video drama that encapsulates the conflict at the heart of the problem. The video is shared, and we ask people to talk about it.
Ideally, the drama presents a dilemma – a decision for which there is no one correct answer.
Here are some ideas for where we might find workplace dilemmas:
- Two company values coming into conflict, such as work-life balance vs. high productivity
- Trying to keep safe while keeping to time
- Maintaining good relations with former colleagues while being cautious about company secrets.
Dilemmas are core to any watchable drama.
- In the Shawshank Redemption, Andy Dufresne must choose between exposing corruption and maintaining his safety.
- In The Matrix, Neo must choose between accepting the truth about reality (the red pill) or remaining in blissful ignorance (the blue pill). His decision shapes the fate of humanity.
- In The Dark Knight, should Batman break his moral code to stop the Joker’s violence or adhere to his principles at any cost?
These movies showcase moral grey areas, leaving viewers pondering their actions in similar situations. It is a film’s dilemma that resonates long after the credits roll.
The exact same thing that makes a good drama is also the key element needed to engage people in deep contemplation of a workplace issue. And the more challenging the issue, the more dramatic it is. So, drama really is an amazing tool for unpicking a tricky workplace challenge.
The drama effect
We share a video drama that peaks at a point of decision when the protagonist must decide upon a dilemma. Viewers naturally ask, “What would I do in that situation?” We now have imaginative engagement with the problem and invite discussion.
Discussion of a dilemma, a dilemma framing everyday decisions, breaks down one story associated with behaviour and builds a new story to fit a revised behaviour. The drama is the key, offered in good faith as you ask people to consider its meaning. Then, allow them to work it through in a supportive environment.
Have you experienced this effect in your workplace? Not necessarily from a video.
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