L&D TV VIDEOS

In the post-mortems of the 2024 US Presidential election, one accusation rings out repeatedly: that the wealthy, college-educated leaders of the Democratic Party struggle to speak the language of the working-class people they aim to represent. Trump, on the other hand, speaks in a way that resonates with that audience.

Julia knew the culture wasn’t right. As a new HR manager in a legacy male-dominated organisation, she’d already noticed some examples of everyday sexism that made her feel uncomfortable. It’s not that there was a bad attitude at the top, but with what she’d seen, combined with her knowledge of the evidence that formal reporting rarely works to reveal bad behaviour, she knew an intervention was needed…

A few weeks back, I reviewed a book – The Social Brain – by Tracey Camilleri, Samantha Rockey and Robin Dunbar. It takes Dunbar’s academic research and theory about the evolutionary psychology of how human groups work and, focussed on the co-authors’ knowledge of large organisations, applies it to the working world. I love that book, but I’m the kind of guy who really appreciates a VERY high-level distillation of principles to work by. So, I thought I’d return to the book and see how well I could achieve this.

Toxic culture looms large right now. The headlines are full of toxic masculinity and the abusive behaviours it has led to. And of politicians behaving toxically – breaking laws, denying wrongdoing, and promoting policies designed to win headlines rather than improve things. In the meantime, the UK has recently seen the CBI, the Metropolitan Police and the Department for Education all accused of having toxic cultures. The Australia Parliament House is under scrutiny following reports of sexual harassment and assault. In the US, video game company Activation Blizzard is facing accusations of widespread discrimination and harassment against female employees.

This newsletter focuses on my review of the recently published book The Secret of Culture Change, which is about top-level management’s use of stories in culture change. I was excited to read this book as it is one of the few I’ve found that methodically links organisational culture change with story and storytelling. My ideas about culture change are predominantly bottom-up, while theirs is top-down. But, as you will see, things are never that simple.

In our world of fast-evolving technology, film and television remains a powerful force in shaping culture, sparking conversations, and driving social change. From the early days of cinema to the Netflix era, we have witnessed the profound impact that storytelling on screen can have on people’s thoughts and emotions. Nice Media has taken this to the corporate world with its innovative video drama/ campaign combo Drama for Change, empowering large organisations to address internal cultural challenges.

It’s sometimes a challenge to persuade people that Drama for Change is an effective process when, at this stage, we are still to deliver a complete package and harvest the results. Then a project that is pretty much the Drama for Change method came to my attention but in the public sector.

Drama for Change pairs video with storytelling and supercharges it with a powerful campaign. The three elements combine to get teams engaged and active in a workplace culture – working together to improve it. Let’s quickly review each element and then look at the synergy…

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.

Storytelling is a skill often boasted by video companies and HR consultants. But do they really know what it means, or are they just flashing around a sexy buzzword? The harder you look at storytelling, the more elusive its meaning. Is it a sensible management tool, or is it about as useful as astrology? I thought I’d take a run at making sense of story in a single short article. I love a bit of high-level abstraction…