Find out how forum theatre helped one troubled team open up and take action
Act I: The audit – uncovering what couldn’t be discussed
An employee questionnaire had revealed the truth. Cultural tensions simmered beneath the surface of a particular hospital ward. Cross-cultural misunderstandings and hierarchical frictions went unaddressed. Registered nurses felt unsupported when facing racist abuse. Support workers felt disrespected and excluded. Both groups suffered in silence, their mutual resentments preventing the solidarity needed to address patient aggression. NHS EDI training through forum theatre would prove the breakthrough they needed.
Week after week, the same issues appeared on meeting agendas. And, week after week, they remained unresolved. Two years had passed since the audit. By now, the problems had calcified into patterns.
“We knew that we had some difficulty with a team,” explains Jai Jayaraman, East Berkshire Regional EDI Manager. “An audit we’d done some time ago had drawn out some very detailed responses to sensitive issues on the ward.”
Berkshire Healthcare Foundation faced a delicate challenge. Traditional approaches – more meetings, more discussions – weren’t working. Clearly, the organisation needed a different way to address these sensitive issues. A way that would move from continual talking to constructive action.
The strategic objectives were precise yet profound. Create safe spaces for staff to reflect on identified problems. Validate feelings whilst focusing on solutions. Enable teams to identify and own necessary changes. Build skills for active bystander intervention. Co-create improvements collaboratively.
“We wanted to facilitate a solution-focused conversation,” Jai notes, “and to minimise the impact of the types of defensive reactions that are typical when you just talk about problems.”
Act II: The intervention – making the unspeakable watchable
Working alongside our specialist DEIB training consultants, Berkshire Healthcare Foundation deployed an innovative approach to NHS EDI training: forum theatre. Unlike traditional diversity training that often triggers defensiveness, forum theatre creates what TCP calls ‘productive discomfort’ – close enough to recognise, distant enough to reflect. Participants witness the cost of silence when colleagues face discrimination. They see how hierarchical tensions prevent solidarity. Most importantly, they practise intervention in real-time.
The design process began with careful listening. First, the TCP team gathered insights from the audit responses, understanding not just what had been said but what remained unspoken. Then came the challenge: creating a scenario close enough to be relatable yet distinct enough not to be attributable, finding the sweet spot between emotional engagement and defensive triggering.
“We wanted to give them a safe space to talk about the issues they had,” Jai explains. “We thought one way to do that was to replay something in front of them that was perhaps not exactly the same issue but certainly something they could relate to.”
Three professional actors brought the carefully crafted script to life. Participants watched workplace dynamics unfold before them. A senior clinician dismissing a junior colleague’s concern. A cultural assumption creating unintended exclusion. Patterns they knew. Tensions they recognised. But from the safety of the audience, not the vulnerability of participation.
The scene unfolds. Sandra, an experienced black nurse, takes a momentary break after dealing with a difficult situation. Her inner monologue reveals the daily reality:
“You think racism is a thing of the past? Well you’re wrong. ‘Got any bananas?’ someone said to me this morning. ‘Where are you REALLY from?’ – I get that at least once a week. It’s not just the patients. It’s their families too.”
Meanwhile, Terry, a support worker, watches from across the ward: “The nurses think they’re better than us. We’re like their dogs and they just bark orders. I am the minority here. I often feel excluded and I don’t know why.”
When patient Dillon makes a racist remark – “Well, if you think about it, you are lucky to have a job over here in the UK” – and Terry fails to support Sandra, the audience witnesses something crucial: unaddressed tensions enable discrimination to flourish unchallenged. This is racism in healthcare training that doesn’t flinch from reality.
Then came the transformation. The scene replayed.
Active bystander training: practising intervention in real time
This time, participants could shout “Stop!” and redirect the action. One participant suggested the clinician pause and ask a clarifying question rather than assuming understanding. Another proposed the junior colleague use specific examples rather than general complaints. When the scene reached Dillon’s racist comment, participants practised intervention strategies. “Stop! Terry should acknowledge what just happened,” one delegate called out. “He needs to tell Dillon that comment is unacceptable, then check if Sandra’s okay.” Another suggested: “Sandra shouldn’t have to handle this alone. Where’s the team protocol for racist incidents?”
They weren’t defending their own behaviour. Instead, they were solving a theatrical problem. The distance created freedom. In turn, the freedom enabled honesty.
“The team engaged in the ‘Stop!’ exercise,” Jai recalls, “making valid and sensible suggestions as to how the characters could behave differently to encourage more helpful responses.”
Following the performance, expert facilitators guided solution-focused conversations. Participants explored similarities to their own workplace. More importantly, they identified specific actions they could take. The shift from blame to curiosity was palpable. One team member acknowledged how their “efficiency” might be perceived as dismissiveness. Another recognised how their silence in meetings perpetuated misunderstandings.
Act III: The breakthrough – from can-opener to culture change
“Like a can-opener, The Communication Practice’s expertly delivered forum theatre opened up people to talk about their experiences and emotions,” Jai Jayaraman, East Berkshire Regional EDI Manager
The impact was immediate and visible. In less than two hours within a wider appreciative inquiry workshop, two years of unaddressed tension began to shift.
The impact was immediate and visible. In less than two hours within a wider appreciative inquiry workshop, two years of unaddressed tension began to shift. The result demonstrated what NHS EDI training through forum theatre can achieve when precision meets emotional intelligence.
The success lay in the precision of the approach. The script hit the sweet spot – relevant without being inflammatory, challenging without being threatening. Participants engaged without being triggered. They recognised themselves without feeling exposed.
“To be honest, I was a bit nervous about how close to the bone it was,” Jai admits. “They didn’t get worked up. They truly engaged without getting triggered.”
The immediate outcomes were tangible. By the session’s end, the team had identified three specific communication protocols to implement. They established a “pause and check” practice for cross-cultural interactions. They agreed to rotate meeting leadership to address hierarchical dynamics. Within three months, staff reported significantly increased confidence in supporting colleagues during discriminatory incidents. The ward that couldn’t talk about race had become a model for active allyship – and most significantly, teams committed to naming tensions when they arose rather than adding them to endless agendas.
Why healthcare teams prefer live forum theatre to online EDI training
Participant feedback confirmed the breakthrough. Staff appreciated being given the chance to speak in a supported environment. They valued watching dynamics they recognised intrinsically – without having to role-play themselves. And the professional actors? They brought scenarios to life with an impact that online delivery simply couldn’t match.
But Berkshire Healthcare Foundation understood that transformation requires sustained commitment. One workshop opens conversations. Lasting change requires ongoing investment.
“One workshop is successful in opening up people and getting them to talk,” Jai observes, “but if you want real success and change, then it’s about giving the space on an ongoing basis and normalising those conversations.”
The organisation committed to monthly follow-ups. Workshop conversations would become ward conversations. The exceptional would become everyday. Three months later, those persistent agenda items had been replaced with proactive check-ins. The team that couldn’t talk had become a team that couldn’t stop collaborating.
The business case: why addressing tension drives performance
Berkshire Healthcare Foundation’s investment in cultural transformation delivers measurable returns.
- Effective NHS staff retention solutions must address the cultural conflicts that drive talented clinicians away; unresolved team tensions contribute to the £2.4 billion annual cost of NHS staff turnover
- Healthcare team conflict resolution directly impacts patient care; cultural tensions left unaddressed compromise safety metrics and clinical outcomes
- Psychological safety in healthcare teams surfaces problems before they escalate; teams who feel safe report more near-misses, catching incidents before they cause harm
- Solution-focused EDI approaches reduce formal grievance procedures; managers reclaim significant time previously consumed by complaints and investigations
- Emotionally engaged healthcare teams deliver better patient experiences; staff who feel supported consistently achieve higher satisfaction scores
- Active bystander training through forum theatre builds intervention confidence; teams report increased readiness to challenge discriminatory behaviour in real time
The forum theatre methodology addresses healthcare EDI’s specific challenge: high-stakes environments where cultural tensions directly impact patient outcomes. By creating safe spaces for difficult conversations, teams move from defensive positions to collaborative solutions.
Your next scene: from tension to transformation
Berkshire Healthcare Foundation’s journey demonstrates that cultural conflicts don’t resolve through repetition. They transform through innovation. Their approach shows that creating psychological safety isn’t about avoiding difficult conversations. It’s about having them differently.
“I would recommend The Communication Practice to anyone who wants to open up a safe space to have conversations around EDI,” Jai concludes. “For me, the process acted as a can opener, opening up people to talk about other emotions. Where we take it next is up to us.”
The question for healthcare organisations isn’t whether cultural tensions exist; they do in every diverse workforce. The question is whether you’re ready to move from agenda items to action items, from discussing problems to directing solutions.
Ready to transform team tensions into collaborative strength? Our forum theatre methodology doesn’t just raise awareness. It builds muscle memory for intervention. Our active bystander training gives teams the confidence to stop discrimination in its tracks, supporting colleagues under fire, and build solidarity across hierarchies.
Workplace transformation doesn’t happen through PowerPoints. It happens when teams see themselves clearly enough to change, and have the tools to do it. Contact us to explore strategic DEIB solutions built to fit your culture.