Most workplace behaviour courses have a history. They've been revised over the years as legislation has changed, new guidance has been published and another case has prompted another update. There is nothing wrong with that. If you've invested time and money in developing a good course, updating it makes far more sense than throwing it away and starting again.

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Unfortunately, Three Landscapes didn't really have that luxury. By the time we founded the studio, many of the most significant changes to workplace harassment law had already happened. We weren't looking at an existing course and wondering where another slide might fit. We were looking at an empty storyboard. In hindsight, that turned out to be a useful place to begin.

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Over the past twenty years I've worked on equality, diversity, dignity at work and sexual harassment training for organisations of every shape and size. Those projects usually followed a familiar pattern. HR colleagues brought their experience. Legal colleagues kept us on the right side of the legislation. Subject matter experts ensured the content reflected organisational policy. It was collaborative, thorough and exactly how those projects should be developed.

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What struck me over time, however, was that the courses almost always started with the legislation rather than with the workplace. I’m happy to concede that Employment tribunals might be fascinating, but they are usually the end of the story, not the beginning.

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The beginning is much less dramatic. Can you think, for example of a colleague who is interrupted so often they eventually stop contributing. What about that one person in your workplace (every business has one) who edges very close to the line, but carries it off with a cheeky personality and forbearance developed over their long career? What about the manager who treats everyone "the same" without noticing that people experience them very differently? Or the joke that’s been repeated for so long that nobody notices one person stopped laughing months ago.

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Those are the actual moments that shape culture and what’s more frustrating is that they're remarkably difficult to capture in a policy document (Could you imagine how long that document would be in your business?).

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That became the starting point for Creating Respectful Workplaces. Rather than asking what legislation we needed to explain, we asked what people actually experience at work and how learning might help them recognise those situations a little earlier. The legal framework remains essential, and the course reflects the latest expectations placed on employers, but legislation became the foundation rather than the headline.

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One design decision probably captures that philosophy better than any other. Throughout the course learners encounter a character known simply as "The Silhouette". We deliberately avoided giving the character a name, age or job title because as I’ve already said in this article, every workplace already has its own version. Sometimes learners picture a former manager. Sometimes they think of a colleague. Occasionally, if the course is doing its job properly, they recognise something of themselves. That makes the learning rather more uncomfortable than judging a fictional character, but probably rather more useful as well.

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The scenarios have been developed in much the same way. They are not copied from individual cases, nor are they built around sensational headlines. Instead, they reflect patterns that emerge when you spend long enough listening to people talk honestly about work. Over two decades I've heard countless stories from colleagues, managers, subject matter experts and clients. Most are unremarkable in isolation. Collectively, they reveal something far more interesting about the way workplace culture develops. Problems rarely appear fully formed. More often they emerge gradually, through behaviours that become accepted simply because they have become familiar.

Perhaps that is where a young learning studio has an unexpected advantage. We were never trying to preserve an older course or squeeze new legislation into an existing structure. We were able to design around today's expectations from the outset, with prevention, judgement and organisational culture sitting alongside the legal framework rather than being treated as an afterthought.

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Although the course has undoubtedly been influenced by the organisations around us in Ryedale, it has never been written solely for them. The businesses here are diverse, but they share something in common with workplaces everywhere. People spend a great deal of their lives together. The quality of those relationships matters, not simply because legislation says so, but because organisations function better when people feel respected, listened to and able to contribute.

Creating Respectful Workplaces is now entering the final stages of development. We are refining scenarios, completing quality assurance and making sure the course reflects the expectations employers face in 2026. We hope organisations find it legally robust. More importantly, we hope they recognise the workplaces it has been written about.

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As the course approaches completion, it has also prompted another question that we believe deserves attention. If respectful workplaces are built through everyday behaviours, where do those behaviours begin?

 

That question has become one of the driving ideas behind our developing education portfolio. Alongside our work with employers, we are beginning to explore learning that supports schools in recognising and challenging harmful relationship behaviours, misogyny, prejudice and unhealthy social dynamics before young people enter the workplace. Teachers are often the first professionals to notice patterns of behaviour emerging. Helping them recognise those patterns, and equipping them to respond confidently, has the potential to influence not only the culture of a school but, ultimately, the culture of the workplaces those pupils will one day join.

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Perhaps that is where this story really begins...