L&D TV VIDEOS

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.

In this newsletter, I review an authoritative text that takes an often overlooked body of scientific knowledge of human societies and applies it to the real world of large organisations. In the development of Drama for Change, my method for impacting organisational culture with a campaign based around a pertinent video drama, I studied the work of Robin Dunbar, the Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at Oxford University, in-depth and clung to it almost talisman-like to help me see the wood for the trees. So, I must confess I felt a little jealous when I discovered The Social Brain, in which Dunbar collaborates with business experts to apply theory to practice.

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.

When we tell someone about Drama for Change, our system for changing organisational culture, the applications that come to mind are usually interpersonal issues such as diversity and inclusion or safeguarding. And while Drama for Change can make an impact there, I’m perhaps more excited by its impact on compliance matters.

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.