How can visual storytelling and artistic creativity help employees learn about workplace bullying?

 

Is implementing a project that creatively imagines examples of workplace bullying beneficial? As it is a particularly challenging topic, it is reasonable to treat workplace bullying with special attention, and the anti-bullying message must be easy to teach and work to broaden the viewer’s horizons. After all, we live in a world that abounds with various media images on the Internet and our smartphones, tablets, and laptops.

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Because workplace bullying is widespread, costly, and enduring, efforts have been made to create contemporary visual resources.  The short stories about work also include non-bullying aspects of interpersonal relationships, which promotes the development of soft skills. While this type of skill is often lacking in a market that continuously advantages technical skills, soft skills are becoming progressively more desirable, as they are exclusive to human workers. This fact alone demonstrates that the project is worth the trouble. Furthermore, there are several additional substantive, technical and organizational arguments to back it, which will be discussed further below.

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The Little Stories About Work project was created by blending visual and written forms, mixing visual learning, storytelling, and an imaginative approach to the subject form that adds a value you cannot find anywhere else.

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In general, the integration of visual and verbal modes of expression in a learning context increases engagement, concentration, understanding, and retention. Diversified material stimulates various areas of the mind and incites both hemispheres, and a double message eases comprehension and improves assimilation of the content.

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Some people prefer reading or listening to words, while others would rather watch stories. Little Stories About Work fills a gap for a neglected niche of individuals who prefer images and illustrations, although this resource also meets the needs of other abovementioned groups. In this program, every recipient will receive a piece of verbal and visual information presented in a familiar style while assimilation of the combined content is additionally reinforced through reflection and discussion of the animations.

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We also know from training practice that imaginative material is more interesting and engrossing for trainees. It is not viewed as dull and tiresome as reading materials and traditional lectures can sometimes be.

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Another strength of this program relates to its various technical and organizational aspects. Illustrating a given issue helps break language barriers, which is especially important for international companies. This program will be a useful alternative for individuals having difficulty in analyzing longer written materials. Such training material must be understandable for people at different intellectual levels.

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Using our short movies, learning during training courses and workshops is time effective and, therefore, adequate for today’s requirements.  There is less and less available time at contemporary busy companies and so workers have less free time at home to dedicate to private learning too. People tend to read smaller portions of information and shorter news and articles. Therefore, training that uses short, animated stories can be both quick and effective because humans process images faster than words. Moreover, including an open and relevant discussion of workplace problems makes the training’s message imbued with important and deeper meaning, and yet still concise and easily understandable.

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Creative visualization and artistically designed messages are manufactured to have a stronger impact on learners. An aesthetic sequence of images leaves a long-lasting impression, while other times an oryginal and refined perspective can highlight the nature of the problem. The open and expressive means in this presentation help promote understanding of various facets of different situations, awaken the imagination, and activate the trainees’ creative thinking. Additionally, learners can use a visualization technique by putting themselves in imagined undesired situations similar to those portrayed in the animated clips.

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Since we focus on the thorny issue of workplace bullying, we cannot ignore its emotional dimensions. Deliberately designed stories also evoke emotions and, in effect, they enrich the message. Contact with your feelings about and awareness of this aspect of interpersonal relations at work can help you develop fuller control when facing a similar situation in real life.

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Visual metaphors, strong images, and direct descriptions can have a profound impact on recipient awareness and are easy to remember. Bullying in the workplace is a difficult problem to eradicate, however, using boosted stimuli in training seems to be helpful. This is especially important when a company attempts to change the attitudes and behaviors of employees with certain predispositions toward negative behavior. This topic can be nonintuitive for other employees as well, including victims of workplace bullying, so visual narratives can help demonstrate more detailed relationships between behaviors, their contexts, and their consequences. 

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Little Stories About Work achieves what other programs have not by fusing workplace training courses aimed to develop interpersonal skills with multifaceted and affordable animated stories.