How to talk to a large organisation

By Tom Hickmore

Are you ready for fast, high impact culture change? https://nicemedia.co.uk/services/drama-for-change/

In my previous article, I explained why story is so important for managers. Story is a tool that has evolved as humans have evolved to bind us together in large groups. Story is one of the key reasons that homo sapiens is the dominant primate. Story is the water in which our thoughts are swimming. It’s the very stuff of human perception.

Let’s get the party started

Coming into a new organisation is like travelling to a foreign country and joining an enormous drinks party. There are currents running through this place of in-jokes, hierarchy, and desire. It’s tough to fit in, let alone manage this shindig.

The atmosphere that runs through an organisation, the story that weaves around and binds it together, is powered by the staff, not the management. Meantime, staff look to you as leaders to guide the narrative. What’s needed is a respectful way to participate but not to dominate.

Just the facts

When there are pressures from compliance to get stuff into people’s heads, to protect the organisation from those failures that can cost it most dear – like IT breaches, health and safety failures or harassment cases – it can feel right to bear down with clear, box-ticking directives. Facts feel so sturdy, undeniable and safe.

But our brains register a factual challenge to our belief system in the same way as a physical threat. As Chip and Dan Heath say in Made to Stick, ”The problem is that when you hit listeners between the eyes, they respond by fighting back. The way you deliver a message to them is a cue to how they should react. If you make an argument, you’re implicitly asking them to evaluate your argument — judge it, debate it, criticise it — and then argue back, at least in their minds.”

On the other hand, story circumvents the brain’s defences against change. It bypasses the analytic part of the brain.

Party animals

To return to the party metaphor – when you meet new people, the easiest way to put them at their ease is to ask about their lives. This is your way into the big narrative to make sense of what’s happening in the room.

In a large organisation, a Drama for Change project starts this work with focus groups, listening to the private stories that people are telling themselves. Why is compliance poor? How do people justify it? Stories that define the group’s attitude to a workplace problem or concern. There will definitely be some behavioural problems in the mix. And the focus groups – conducted confidentially by outside observers – also uncover small but significant practical ways management can improve things for staff.

The focus group output is a mish-mash of complaints, anecdotes, and insights. But it’s the best raw material you could wish for to create a story that gets people focused on what’s important.

Making a drama from a crisis

We take this raw material and use it to make a video drama. The real pressures that people feel around an issue are used to articulate the workplace conflicts that are always bubbling under.

Now the problem has been made objective, and when shared, it becomes like watching a relatable TV show. Something people love to talk about: this talk is the basis for a campaign around the dramas. There are posters, trailers, and a staggered release of drama clips on the company’s social media or in live events. Wherever we can legitimately expect to stimulate conversation.

You’ve disrupted the narrative with a narrative of your own. But one that speaks the audience’s language. It bursts into the party and demands attention.

When you watch a drama of a character facing a challenging conflict or dilemma, you can’t help but think of yourself in their shoes. You think about how you might solve the problem if you were them. You think in and around the problem.

Down the line, we follow up with Gogglebox-style videos in which staff react to the scenarios, which are also shared, super-charging the discussion.

Encore!

Now the organisation is alive with the issue the campaign is focussing on. And you have successfully joined in and led the narrative.

The impact of this intervention is strong, and it provides opportunities for you to run with it. Those dry trainings that weren’t getting traction are suddenly more interesting. Your stimulating discussion offers innovative answers to the problems you’d not considered. Your staff are beginning to feel empowered as problem-solvers.

What workplace problem would you like to apply Drama for Change to?