David Drabble

Areas of interest

As a senior researcher with over ten years of experience and a keen interest in organisational systems, I often work in the health field and on evaluating innovative and disruptive interventions. I have a specialised role in data presentation, analysis, and project management. A sociologist by training, I have a commitment to using sociological theories to understand practices: theories of virtual groups, Bauman’s theory of distantiation, and Bourdieu’s notion of reflexivity are core to my identity as a researcher and consultant. Over the years at the TIHR, I have developed an interest in exploring the epistemological differences between sociology and psychology, and in understanding organisations as psychological entities. I am therefore a PhD candidate at the University of London (Royal Holloway) researching the topic of misunderstandings in global teams. I hope to continue to contribute to the understanding of Sociotechnical Systems in the digital world through study of the interface between technology, organisational culture and emotions in virtual settings. I focus on applying the TIHR’s conceptual legacy in a digital context and have run workshops on this theme.

Approach to my work

I often apply theory of change approaches to a variety of programmes, regardless of their stage of development and chair an internal working group on the Tavistock Institute’s approach to Theory of Change. I have experience and expertise at constructing audit and outcome frameworks, as well as in-depth qualitative and quantitative analysis. As a mixed methods researcher, I have experience in survey design and analysis, unstructured and semi-structured interviews, participant observation, action research, and action learning sets. I have a passion for communicating findings cleanly and attractively to clients and am proficient in the use of Adobe Illustrator, SPSS, Tableau and NVivo.

Recent work

I have worked on over forty projects since working in the Tavistock Institute, including recently as a project manager and researcher for Macmillan Cancer Care (a theory of change evaluation on a systems redesign programme at Imperial College Healthcare Trust), the European Commission (mapping digital inclusion interventions across Europe) and the National Association of Primary Care (managing two evaluations of the impact of primary care navigation in South Lambeth).