About Resound Training & DevelopmentOur Story, Philosophy & Founder Gill Brabner FCIPD
For over 20 years, Resound Training & Development has pioneered drama-based learning and forum theatre to transform how organisations tackle their toughest conversations.
Gill Brabner FCIPD
Founder & Director, Resound Training & Development
Master facilitator, writer, director, and learning designer with over two decades of experience helping organisations talk about what matters most.
Watch: Introducing Gill & Resound
A brief personal introduction from Gill on why drama-based learning changes conversational habits.
"Many participants said it was the best training they had ever undertaken. Gill expertly facilitated the events and was very skilful in deploying her knowledge of the subject matter and the needs of our organisation."Pete Feldon, London Borough of Enfield, Adult Social Care
Why Resound was founded
Making the workplace a better place, one conversation at a time.
I'm Gill Brabner, founder of Resound Training & Development.
I established Resound in 2004, but the story of why I do this work goes back much further, to a theatre visit when I was 17.
The play that changed my life
When I was 17, I went to see Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.
It's a play about a man struggling under the weight of expectations, work and a life that is falling apart.
I recognised something of my own family in that story.
My dad had worked for a bank in the City of London. He'd been struggling with his mental health since I was nine.
One day, he broke down in tears in front of a customer.
His colleagues carried on as though nothing had happened.
The following day, he saw a psychiatrist. It marked the beginning of the end of his career.
But what happened at work wasn't the whole story.
There was stigma outside work too. Neighbours avoided our family. People crossed the road rather than speak to us.
As a child, I saw what happened when someone was struggling and the people around them didn't know how to respond, or chose not to.
Then, at 17, I sat in a theatre and watched another family experiencing something that felt painfully familiar.
For the first time, I realised we weren't alone.
Other people had experiences like ours.
I came out of that theatre feeling different. I felt that something could change.
I wanted to challenge the silence, the judgement and the behaviour that had hurt my dad and our family.
And I wanted people like him to have a voice.
That was the beginning of a decision that has shaped my working life.
I would find a way to use the power of theatre to make the world of work a better place.
Why the story still matters
My dad had worked for the bank for 36 years.
Before him, his father had worked for the same bank for 40 years.
Between them, that's 76 years of service.
And when my dad needed support, the response he experienced was silence.
I've never forgotten that.
Organisations invest enormous amounts of time and money in recruiting, developing and retaining talented people. Yet the way people are treated in everyday conversations can undermine all that investment.
- A manager who doesn't listen.
- A colleague whose behaviour goes unchallenged.
- An employee who is afraid to speak up.
- A difficult conversation that everyone keeps avoiding.
These things matter.
They affect people's confidence, their relationships, their performance and sometimes their willingness to stay.
I wanted to do something about that.
From a theatre seat to Resound
That early experience eventually led me to discover forum theatre.
I recognised its potential to help people explore difficult situations, understand different perspectives and see the consequences of their behaviour.
Unlike conventional training, forum theatre doesn't simply tell people what they should do.
It brings a situation to life.
Professional actors create realistic characters and conversations. Participants can question those characters, challenge what they see and direct the actors to try different approaches.
They discover that the words we choose, the assumptions we make and the way we respond to other people can change the course of a conversation.
And they can explore all this without having to perform role-play themselves.
In 2004, I established Resound Training & Development to bring this approach into workplace learning.
More than two decades later, that belief in the power of theatre remains at the heart of what we do.
What Resound does today
We design and deliver experiential learning that helps people develop the human skills needed to work effectively with others.
Our work includes:
Forum theatre workshops
Interactive, actor-led workshops exploring workplace conflict, difficult conversations, performance management, inappropriate behaviour, organisational change and other workplace challenges.
Actor-led corporate training
Realistic workplace scenarios brought to life by professional actors, giving participants opportunities to examine behaviour and explore more effective approaches.
Corporate role-play
Professional role-players supporting learning programmes, assessments and opportunities to practise challenging conversations.
Leadership and management development
Practical learning experiences that help managers build confidence, exercise judgement, communicate effectively and support their teams.
Business simulations
Immersive organisational challenges involving realistic information, difficult decisions, competing priorities and, where appropriate, challenging conversations with professional actors.
Our approach to learning
There are plenty of ways to give people information.
But information alone doesn't always change what happens at work.
People can attend a course on giving feedback and still avoid a difficult conversation.
They can understand the principles of inclusive leadership and still make assumptions about colleagues.
They can know that certain behaviour is unacceptable and still struggle to challenge it when it happens.
That's why we design learning experiences that go beyond simply explaining what people should do.
We want participants to become actively involved, question what they're seeing, consider different perspectives and explore the consequences of their decisions.
Our approach is built around a few important principles:
Learning should feel relevant.
We use realistic workplace situations that reflect the challenges people actually face.
People need opportunities to think.
We don't assume that every difficult situation has one simple answer.
Emotions matter.
The way people feel influences what they notice, how they interpret events and how they respond.
The learning experience matters.
We want people to remember the situations they've explored and draw on that learning when they return to work.
Learning needs to lead somewhere.
We help participants identify practical approaches they can apply in their own roles.
Working with Resound
We work with HR, Learning and Development and organisational leaders who want to address real workplace challenges.
Sometimes that's part of a wider leadership development programme.
Sometimes it's a specific problem, such as managers avoiding performance conversations, conflict between teams or concerns about inappropriate workplace behaviour.
And sometimes an organisation wants to create a learning experience that will make people think differently about the way they work together.
We start by understanding the challenge, rather than assuming that another training course is the answer.
Then we work with our clients to design an experience that fits their people, their organisation and the outcomes they want to achieve.
UK-wide & Global Delivery
We deliver learning face-to-face and virtually, working with organisations across the UK.
"They are simply the best I've ever worked with. Their modern, outside-the-box approach has made such a difference."Beata Szarka, A2Dominion
Still driven by the same purpose
Resound has changed and developed since 2004.
The world of work has changed too.
But the reason I do this work hasn't.
I still believe that people deserve to be heard, treated with dignity and given the opportunity to do their best work.
And I still believe that theatre has an extraordinary ability to help us see the world through someone else's eyes.
That belief started when I was 17.
It's why I founded Resound.
And it's why I still love doing this work today.
Gill Brabner FCIPD
Founder, Resound Training & Development
Get in Touch with Resound
Let's talk
If you're looking for a different approach to workplace learning, or you're facing a challenge that conventional training hasn't resolved, I'd love to hear from you.