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Introducing the immersive experience which uses theatre techniques & social psychology to uncover what residents think of climate change mitigation initiatives.
What is The Strategy Room?
The Strategy Room (TSR) is an immersive policy-making simulation for groups in local communities.
During each simulation run, participants are invitied to sit around a table where they engage with ‘postcards from the future’ via electronic tablets. These postcards are video clips – set several decades from now - which detail everyday people’s experiences of low carbon policies being rolled out.
Each session, participants engage with two of three themes: domestic heat, travel and food. These were selected on the advice of net zero experts, who chose them for their real-world potential to acheive large emissions reductions.
With the help of a facilitator, participants share opinions on climate policy measures and debate whether they would work in their area, before ultimately voting to indicate their level of support.
All of this information is captured (anonymously) on a bespoke data-gathering platform which then provides tailored and detailed information for a local council tasked with reducing emissions.
Who is this for?
The Strategy Room was designed as a tool for Local Authorities to understand their commmunities' support for different measures that can help lower carbon emissions.
The simulation allows people to imagine adopting low-carbon behaviours, but (even more powerfully) it enables decisionmakers to change the structures they operate within so that the individuals living in them can adopt low carbon lifestyles.
For example, instead of convincing people to give up their petrol car, it’s about offering an integrated transport system where low-carbon transport is more convenient and cheaper.
The Strategy Room collects anonymised, aggregate data about participants demographics, circumstances and values. This provides a useful level of granularity for decisionmakers: for example, it allows them to discern whether a policy is unpopular because people don’t trust government to deliver it, or whether it is genuinely disliked.
Participation to date
Between May 2022 and March 2023, 639 people took part in one of 66 sessions of TSR. These sessions took place across 12 local authorities in England.
One early user of The Strategy Room was Lambeth Council, who fed back that: “The experience has really helped local people to better understand what solutions are available, and the benefits and drawbacks of those solutions. We'll be continuing to use TSR to shed light on the public’s support for sustainable ways of travelling, heating and eating.”
The experience has really helped local people to better understand what solutions are available, and the benefits and drawbacks of those solutions.“
Participants also fed back how well the structure of The Strategy Room worked for them. A resident in Southend told us that they formed “more honest, considered answers” by having “multiple occasions to debate with others and vote.”
Ultimately, The Strategy Room is the first project of its kind, and it will take time to see how the data gathered for each local authority translates to policy decisions that in-turn enable low carbon behaviours.
Project partners
This project is delivered by digital studio Fast Familiar, the UCL Climate Action Unit and the Centre for Collective Intelligence Design at NESTA.
The design & delivery team has expertise in narrative design, group facilitation, creative technology, neuroscience and psychology, and the specific scenarios in TSR were produced through a 6-month process of co-creation with three local authorities and their residents to make it relevant for the intended audience.
