Formed at the end of 2013, Dramatic Developments has developed The Human Firewall – to raise security awareness in effecting behavioural and cultural change in the workplace by using storytelling and performance. The Dramatic Developments’ team have backgrounds in security, business training, theatre, education and television.
Mike Carter is a director of the company with over 20 years’ experience of working in theatre and education. He says “People have always used stories and dramatically enacted them to make meaning out of their lives, to show the consequences of mistakes and imagine better ways of living. At Dramatic Developments, we use drama as an approach because it allows us to see ourselves and to reflect on current practices, thus we’re empowered to make improvements – together. Using theatre allows groups of people to see the need for change, imagine that change in action and then to enact change for real.”
With human error cited as a major contributory factor in the vast majority of security breaches, chief information security officers (CISOs) are looking for innovative ways such as Dramatic Developments – The Human Firewall to complement existing computer-based training programmes as a way of safeguarding their companies and customers.
Mike Carter says: “Stories always carry ‘messages’ through which we can learn factual information, but we also learn about the complexity of human interaction and behaviour, the experience of facing up to consequences of actions and the small changes that can make a big difference, and that’s essential for behavioural improvements and cultural change to occur.”
Such ideas are already gaining currency in the world of data security, with websites such as The Analogies Project (founded by Bruce Hallas) highlighting the part that stories and analogies can play in provoking new ways of thinking about security, making abstract concepts more meaningful and enabling security messages to stick.
Dramatic Developments adds that Mike Carter is a new contributor to The Analogies Project, with an article published (21/08/14) on the challenges that Generation Y bring to security in the workplace. But, as with all the articles on the site, this is a subject considered through a very particular lens, in this case ancient Greek theatre and the story of Oedipus. “The article makes the point that the Greeks made it compulsory for citizens to watch theatre because they understood its positive and lasting impact on the behaviour and culture of a society.”
Visit The Analogies Project: http://theanalogiesproject.org/the-analogies/king-oedipus-y-generation/.
