Sidestream Guides: Behaviour Change, Leadership and L&D by Topic

How to Use These Guides

Some things cannot be taught, they have to be felt. The guides do the other half of the job: they explain the thinking, so the rehearsal has something solid to build on. Each guide stands on its own, names its sources and ends with what the topic means in practice.

Pick the topic closest to your question below. Within each topic, the first guide is usually the best place to start.

Behaviour change models and measurement

Start here if the question is how behaviour changes at work and how you would know it had. These guides explain the models we design with and the standard we measure against.

• What is the COM-B Model?
  Capability, Opportunity and Motivation, and how to diagnose which one is missing before you design anything.
• What is Organisational Psychology?
  Psychology applied to work, how it differs from business psychology, organisational behaviour and behavioural science, and how to use it evidence-based.
• Behaviour Change Training
  What behaviour change training is, how it differs from knowledge training, and the design discipline behind it.
• How to Measure Behaviour Change
  A step-by-step method: define one observable behaviour, take a baseline, re-measure, then isolate the training effect.
• What is the Kirkpatrick Model?
  The four levels of training evaluation in plain terms, and why the behaviour level shows whether a programme changed what people do.
• What is the Dunning-Kruger Effect?
  Kruger and Dunning's 1999 finding, and why confident feedback after training can hide a gap in observable capability.
• The State of Behaviour Change in the UK
  Citable statistics on UK behaviour change, culture and L&D, each traced to a named source.

Leadership, coaching and development centres

Guides for leaders, the people who develop them and candidates preparing for assessment. Each one turns a framework into the behaviours you would actually see.

• What is Compassionate Leadership?
  The four behaviours of compassionate leadership in Michael West's framework, with an example.
• What is Emotional Intelligence in Leadership?
  The components of emotional intelligence and how senior leaders develop it through practice and feedback.
• What is Inclusive Leadership?
  Inclusive leadership as a set of observable behaviours rather than a value statement.
• What is the GROW Model?
  The GROW coaching model phase by phase, with the questions a manager can use in a real conversation.
• Coaching vs Mentoring
  The practical difference in purpose, technique and relationship, and how to tell which one a person needs.
• Change Management and Change Leadership
  Organisational change management and change leadership, and what training has to rehearse for change to land.
• What is a Development Centre?
  How a development centre assesses behaviour across exercises and observers, and what participants take away.
• Development Centre vs Assessment Centre
  The key difference between the two formats, the shared exercises and how to prepare for either.
• What is the College of Policing CVF?
  The Competency and Values Framework in plain English: its competencies, its values and how policing uses it.
• Consultancy Skills Training
  Scoping client problems, handling resistance and communicating findings, built by rehearsal.

Culture, psychological safety and speak-up

Guides on the conditions that decide whether people speak, include and perform. They cover the research, the legal duties and the leadership behaviours underneath both.

• What is Psychological Safety?
  Amy Edmondson's definition, its dimensions, and what it takes to build it in a team.
• How to Build a Speak-Up Culture
  The conditions that make people speak up at work and the leadership behaviours that quietly erode them.
• High Performance Culture
  What a high performance culture is, the pillars it rests on and why attempts to build one often stall.
• DEI vs EDI: What's the Difference?
  Why UK organisations usually say EDI, what the equity framing changes, and what effective programmes address.
• What is Workplace Harassment in the UK?
  What counts as harassment under the Equality Act 2010 and what the reasonable steps duty asks of employers.
• FCA Non-Financial Misconduct Rules
  What the FCA conduct rules on bullying and harassment ask of managers, in plain terms.

Teams, workshops and HR

Practical guides for HR directors and L&D leads choosing a format. Each explains what tends to work, what rarely does and how to design for behaviour that lasts.

• Employee Workshops
  The workshop formats that work, the evidence behind them and how to design sessions people still use weeks later.
• Collaboration and Team Building
  Why team building often leaves collaboration unchanged, and how to design sessions that do shift it.
• Team Building Activities for Work
  Twelve exercises in six categories, each with goal, steps, group size and time, and when activities are not enough.
• Communication and Team Building
  Why team communication rarely changes when training targets individuals, and what to do instead.
• Decision Making and Problem Solving
  Decision frameworks, common biases with practical counter-moves, and the group dynamics that derail choices.
• HR Training Consultancy
  The behavioural skills an HR team needs, from difficult conversations to business partnering, rehearsed and measured.

Immersive and experiential learning

Guides to learning by doing: what immersive formats are, where they beat slides and e-learning, and where they do not.

• Experiential Learning Training
  Kolb's experiential learning cycle applied to workplace training, and how to choose a format.
• What is Immersive Theatre Training?
  What the method is, where it comes from and how it differs from role play.
• Immersive Workshop
  How immersive workshops put people inside scripted scenarios with professional actors, and the formats on offer.
• Immersive Learning Platforms and Simulations
  What an immersive learning platform does and where it stops, compared with actor-led scenarios.
• Immersive Training vs E-Learning
  Where e-learning wins, where it stalls and what actor-led rehearsal adds, compared level by level.
• Is Role Play an Effective Training Method?
  What the evidence shows about role play, what it does not, and when it is the wrong tool.
• Real Play vs Role Play
  What each format rehearses and how Sidestream runs both.
• Case Studies Training
  What case-method learning is, the marks of a strong case and where immersive scenarios go further.

Choosing a provider and finding a term

For buyers comparing options, and for anyone who needs a definition quickly.

• Training Companies in London and the UK
  A fair comparison of UK training and workshop providers by category, to help you find the right fit for your brief.
• Glossary of Behaviour Change and L&D Terms
  Short plain-English definitions of behaviour change, leadership and L&D terms, each traced to a named source.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between the guides and the glossary?

The glossary gives short definitions of individual terms. Each guide explains one topic in depth: what it is, the research behind it, how it shows up at work and what to do about it.

Who writes the Sidestream guides?

Most guides are written by co-founder Ben Laumann, an organisational psychologist and theatre director. Each guide names its author and lists its sources.

Do I need to sign up to read the guides?

No. Every guide is free to read on this site, with no form and no sign-up.

How do I turn a guide into a programme?

Bring us the behaviour you want to change. A free consultation turns it into a specific target, a scenario rehearsed with professional actors and a way to measure whether it stuck.