Methodology

Behaviour Change
Methods Rooted in
Our Unique Approach

E-learning ticks the L&D box. We change how teams actually think, decide and act, with the data to prove it.

Updated October 2026

The Sidestream method in three steps: diagnose, rehearse, embed Three numbered circles in a row. Step 01, Diagnose, Assess and Align: which behaviours need to change, agreed with you before anything is built. Step 02, Rehearse, Simulation and Role-Play, marked as the core step: realistic scenarios with professional actors, practise the real behaviours under pressure. Step 03, Embed, Feedback and Transfer: personalised feedback, reflection and transfer into daily work. Sidestream's own method description, not a research finding. 1 STEP 01 · DIAGNOSE Assess & Align Which behaviours need to change, agreed with you before anything is built. 2 STEP 02 · REHEARSE Simulation & Role-Play Realistic scenarios with professional actors. Practise the real behaviours under pressure. 3 STEP 03 · EMBED Feedback & Transfer Personalised feedback, reflection and transfer into daily work. THE CORE STEP Sidestream's own method description, not a research finding. The Sidestream method in three steps: diagnose, rehearse, embed Three numbered circles, one below the other. Step 01, Diagnose, Assess and Align: which behaviours need to change, agreed with you before anything is built. Step 02, Rehearse, Simulation and Role-Play, marked as the core step: realistic scenarios with professional actors, practise the real behaviours under pressure. Step 03, Embed, Feedback and Transfer: personalised feedback, reflection and transfer into daily work. Sidestream's own method description, not a research finding. 1 STEP 01 · DIAGNOSE Assess & Align Which behaviours need to change, agreed with you before anything is built. 2 STEP 02 · REHEARSE Simulation & Role-Play Realistic scenarios with professional actors. Practise the real behaviours under pressure. THE CORE STEP 3 STEP 03 · EMBED Feedback & Transfer Personalised feedback, reflection and transfer into daily work. Sidestream's own method description, not a research finding.

How a Sidestream programme is built. Diagnose what needs to change, rehearse it with professional actors, embed it in daily work. Rehearsal is the core step; the other two make sure it changes the right thing and that it lasts. The six phases of a full engagement, from first call to measurement, are on the client journey page.

Sidestream's own description of its method, not a research finding.

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The Training Iceberg

Most L&D Only Sees
The Tip

The four levels of training impact (Kirkpatrick, 1959) form an iceberg. Above the waterline sits everything most organisations actually measure: did they enjoy it? and can they pass a quiz? Below sits everything that matters to the business: did anyone change how they behave? and did the result move?

Most L&D programmes never go below the waterline, not because the levels are unknown, but because reaching them is genuinely hard. This is precisely where Sidestream operates.

Level 01 · Reaction The Biased
Post-Event Survey Smiley sheets that measure mood, not change
Level 02 · Learning Short-Term
Memory Test Knowledge checks that fade within days
Level 03 · Behaviour, Where We Operate Behaviour
Change Evidence-based cognitive tools that genuinely shift how people think and act
Level 04 · Results, Where We Excel Immersive
Simulations Visceral experiences that go under the skin and stay there
1 2 3 4
01
The Biased Post-Event SurveySmiley sheets that measure mood, not change
02
Short-Term Memory TestKnowledge checks that fade within days
03
Behaviour ChangeWhere we operate, cognitive tools that shift how people act
04
Immersive SimulationsWhere we excel, experiences that stay under the skin

↓  Most L&D stops at Level 1–2.   Sidestream goes deeper.  ↓

The Problem

The Training That Nobody Learns From

Every year the budget gets spent. A slideshow goes up. A box gets ticked. The employee clicks through it on Friday afternoon. Something goes wrong on Tuesday, and someone shrugs, "But they passed the module."

The content wasn't wrong. The training failed because nobody felt anything, and that's the part most consultancies skip. See what works instead.

Real change happens when people engage, get challenged, and act. Harder to design, and the only thing that actually shifts behaviour.
The moment behaviour change clicks, close-up of intense focus

Research Foundations

Organisational Psychology
and Behavioural Science

Sidestream, co-founded by organisational psychologist Ben Laumann, applies the study of how people behave at work to one question: what makes a new behaviour show up on the job? Our answer rests on five decades of peer-reviewed behavioural science, put to work in a context most consultancies cannot reach: live, theatre-based simulation. The team behind the method is introduced on our about Sidestream page. Every intervention draws on the frameworks below.

Framework 01 · Evaluation

Kirkpatrick's Four Levels
of Training Evaluation

Donald Kirkpatrick's 1959 model is still the gold standard for measuring training impact: Reaction → Learning → Behaviour → Results. Our iceberg is built on it. 93% of organisations collect satisfaction data, but only 30% can turn learning data into business decisions (ATD Research, The Future of Evaluating Learning and Measuring Impact, April 2025, n = 277), yet only Levels 3 and 4 predict business outcomes. How to measure behaviour change →

Source: Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, Evaluating Training Programs (4th ed., 2016)
Framework 02 · Psychological Safety

Edmondson's
Psychological Safety

Amy Edmondson's (Harvard) construct, "a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking", explains why some teams learn from mistakes and others bury them. Google's Project Aristotle later identified it as the #1 predictor of team performance across 180 internal teams. Our simulations rebuild it through enacted experience, not posters. Read more about psychological safety training →

Source: Edmondson, Administrative Science Quarterly (1999); Google re:Work / Project Aristotle (2015)
Framework 03 · Behaviour Change

COM-B Model &
Behaviour Change Wheel

Susan Michie's (UCL) framework defines behaviour as a function of Capability, Opportunity and Motivation. Cited in over 11,000 peer-reviewed studies, it is the foundation of UK Public Health behaviour-change strategy. Our diagnostics map every intervention to a specific COM-B target. The COM-B model explained →

Source: Michie, van Stralen & West, Implementation Science (2011)
Framework 04 · Experiential Learning

Kolb's Experiential
Learning Cycle

Real adult learning moves through four stages: Concrete Experience → Reflective Observation → Abstract Conceptualisation → Active Experimentation. Our immersive events deliberately drive participants through every stage in a single session, something e-learning literally cannot do.

Source: Kolb, Experiential Learning (1984, 2nd ed. 2014)
Framework 05 · Mastery

Ericsson's Deliberate
Practice Theory

Performance gains come from focused, feedback-rich repetition, not exposure. Anders Ericsson's research on world-class performers showed specific, immediate feedback in realistic conditions is what separates elite performance from average. Every Sidestream simulation is engineered for deliberate practice.

Source: Ericsson, Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise (2016)
Framework 06 · Memory

Roediger & Karpicke's
Testing Effect

Active retrieval beats passive review. Roediger and Karpicke's landmark study showed that being tested on material increases long-term retention by 50% compared to re-reading. Our scenario-based simulations function as continuous high-stakes retrieval, which is why the learning sticks.

Source: Roediger & Karpicke, Psychological Science (2006)
Kirkpatrick's four levels rise from reaction and learning to behaviour and results; Sidestream measures observed behaviour at Level 3, three to six weeks after delivery and again at around 90 days, and Level 4 where the brief allows Four steps rising from left to right on a common baseline. Level 1, Reaction: Did participants like the training? Post-training satisfaction surveys or smile sheets. Level 2, Learning: Did they acquire knowledge or skills? Post-training assessments, quizzes, or skills demonstrations. Level 3, Behaviour, the yellow step with a pink tab reading Sidestream measures here: Did they change their behaviour at work? Observational data collected in the actual workplace; three to six weeks after delivery and again at around 90 days. Level 4, Results, dashed outline: Did the behaviour change produce business outcomes? One or two specific downstream metrics; Level 4 where the brief allows. Measurement commitment: Sidestream's own method description, not a research finding. Source: Kirkpatrick, J. and Kirkpatrick, W. K. (2016), Kirkpatrick's Four Levels of Training Evaluation. KIRKPATRICK'S FOUR LEVELS LEVEL 1 REACTION Did participants like the training? Post-training satisfaction surveys or smile sheets LEVEL 2 LEARNING Did they acquire knowledge or skills? Post-training assessments, quizzes, or skills demonstrations LEVEL 3 BEHAVIOUR Did they change their behaviour at work? Observational data collected in the actual workplace three to six weeks after delivery and again at around 90 days SIDESTREAM MEASURES HERE LEVEL 4 RESULTS Did the behaviour change produce business outcomes? One or two specific downstream metrics Level 4 where the brief allows Kirkpatrick's four levels rise from reaction and learning to behaviour and results; Sidestream measures observed behaviour at Level 3, three to six weeks after delivery and again at around 90 days, and Level 4 where the brief allows Four stacked cards, Level 4 at the top and Level 1 at the bottom, each with a black step bar that widens with the level. Level 1, Reaction: Did participants like the training? Post-training satisfaction surveys or smile sheets. Level 2, Learning: Did they acquire knowledge or skills? Post-training assessments, quizzes, or skills demonstrations. Level 3, Behaviour, the yellow card with a pink tab reading Sidestream measures here: Did they change their behaviour at work? Observational data collected in the actual workplace; three to six weeks after delivery and again at around 90 days. Level 4, Results, dashed outline: Did the behaviour change produce business outcomes? One or two specific downstream metrics; Level 4 where the brief allows. Measurement commitment: Sidestream's own method description, not a research finding. Source: Kirkpatrick, J. and Kirkpatrick, W. K. (2016), Kirkpatrick's Four Levels of Training Evaluation. KIRKPATRICK'S FOUR LEVELS LEVEL 4 · RESULTS Did the behaviour change produce business outcomes? One or two specific downstream metrics Level 4 where the brief allows SIDESTREAM MEASURES HERE LEVEL 3 · BEHAVIOUR Did they change their behaviour at work? Observational data collected in the actual workplace three to six weeks after delivery and again at around 90 days LEVEL 2 · LEARNING Did they acquire knowledge or skills? Post-training assessments, quizzes, or skills demonstrations LEVEL 1 · REACTION Did participants like the training? Post-training satisfaction surveys or smile sheets

Sidestream measures observed behaviour at Level 3, not the smile sheet. Level 3 as the minimum, Level 4 where the brief allows.

Source: Kirkpatrick, J. and Kirkpatrick, W. K. (2016), Kirkpatrick's Four Levels of Training Evaluation. Measurement commitment: Sidestream's own method description, not a research finding.

The COM-B model: Behaviour happens when Capability, Opportunity and Motivation come together Three stacked fields join with pink arrows into one black field labelled Behaviour. Capability, physical and psychological: the physical and psychological capacity to act. Opportunity, physical and social: the external factors that make the act possible. Motivation, reflective and automatic: the internal processes that drive the act. All three must be present for a behaviour to occur. Source: Michie, van Stralen and West (2011), Implementation Science. Redrawn by Sidestream. THE COM-B MODEL CAPABILITY Physical · Psychological the physical and psychological capacity to act OPPORTUNITY Physical · Social the external factors that make the act possible MOTIVATION Reflective · Automatic the internal processes that drive the act BEHAVIOUR All three must be present for a behaviour to occur. Source: Michie, van Stralen and West (2011), Implementation Science. Redrawn by Sidestream.

Behaviour (B) happens when three conditions come together: Capability, Opportunity and Motivation. Each splits in two (physical and psychological, physical and social, reflective and automatic).

Source: Michie, S., van Stralen, M. M. and West, R. (2011), Implementation Science 6, 42. Full text on PubMed Central. Redrawn by Sidestream.

The Business Case

L&D's Hidden ROI

£1,700
Average UK training spend per employee in 2024, making method choice critical (DfE Employer Skills Survey 2024)

For ambitious organisations and high-performing teams, the question isn't whether to invest in development. It's whether your method actually moves Levels 3 and 4. See how we work with companies →

Our Philosophy

Three Core Principles

Where organisational psychology, management science and immersive theatre meet.

01
Active Doing, Not Passive Viewing

Change comes from lived experience, not passive viewing. Our simulations test real behaviours in real time, creating visceral moments no e-learning module can replicate.

02
Immersion Fuels Innovation

Transformation demands immersion, not observation. High-stakes scenarios rooted in behavioural science and theatre, where people experiment and evolve under real pressure.

03
Sustainable Change, Not Short-Term Gains

Lasting change isn't a quick fix. Evidence-based psychological tools, behavioural reinforcement and strategic follow-ups turn insights into habits that stick.

What Participants Experience

Inside the Simulation

Take Ownership of Their Actions
No passive observation, every participant's choices shape what happens next in the scenario.
Test Behaviours Under Pressure
Realistic, high-stakes scenarios reveal how people truly behave, not how they say they would.
Gain Real Insights Into Themselves
Participants discover how they respond as individuals and teams, often in surprising ways.
Learn to Adapt and Collaborate
As conditions evolve, so must the team, building the adaptability and trust that real-world challenges demand.
Participant actively engaging in Sidestream immersive workshop

The Numbers Behind the Method

What the Research Shows

d=1.08
Effect Size vs Video
rehearsal vs instructional video, blind-rated
Our 2020 UCL study, n = 57
#1
Predictor of Team Performance
psychological safety, of 5 dynamics
Google re:Work / Project Aristotle (2015)
70%
Of Transformations Fail
to meet stated goals
McKinsey Transformation Research
$10T
Lost Annually to Disengagement
global cost of low engagement, 2025
Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026
Effect sizes from the 2020 UCL study: rehearsal against video (d = 1.08) and against slides (d = 0.75), with the 0.8 convention marked Two horizontal bars on a Cohen's d axis from 0 to 1.2. Practice versus video reaches 1.08, practice versus slideshow reaches 0.75. A dashed vertical line at 0.8 marks the value conventionally read as a large effect. Slideshow and video did not differ significantly from each other, p = .838. Source: Laumann (2020), UCL, n = 57, rated blind by two independent assessors. EFFECT SIZE, COHEN'S D Practice vs video d = 1.08 Practice vs slideshow d = 0.75 0 0.4 0.8 1.2 conventionally a large effect Slideshow and video did not differ significantly (p = .838). Source: Laumann (2020), UCL, n = 57, unpublished, rated blind by two independent assessors.

Rehearsal against the two passive formats, as Cohen's d. Randomised 2020 UCL study by co-founder Ben Laumann, n = 57: delivery of the SBI feedback model, rated blind by two independent assessors. The rehearsal condition was an online coaching session of at most 20 minutes with a role-play coach, so the study tests the principle behind the method, not today's programme. No percentage is quoted because the study reports effect sizes, not percentages.

Source: Laumann, B. (2020), Active vs. passive L&D: differences between modalities for effective L&D in communicational competence, PSYCH0056, University College London, unpublished. Cohen's d = 1.08 (practice vs video) and 0.75 (practice vs slideshow); slideshow vs video not significant, p = .838. Full account and limits: our research page.

Our Work Has Been Recognised

Independent recognition from the CorpComms Awards and a Goldsmiths commendation: immersive experiences drive measurably deeper change than any passive method.

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"The judges loved the 'creative approach' to building awareness, describing the event as 'well executed' and 'an excellent mix of theatre and immersive.'" Helen Dunne, CorpComms Awards Panel

In summary: our behaviour change approach

Our behaviour change approach starts where most L&D stops. Built on Kirkpatrick's four levels, COM-B, deliberate practice and immersive simulation, the method targets Levels 3 and 4, observable behaviour and results, rather than reaction and recall. Every intervention is anchored in peer-reviewed behaviour-change science, not buzzwords. For HR and L&D teams planning a programme, see our behaviour change training guide.

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