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The Diamond Dance A couple of weeks ago I was leading an exercise during a rehearsal with my latest Improv adventure, Upstairs Improv. In this exercise, people are placed in a diamond formation, like this, all facing in the same direction. They then have to move around the room as a group, with the person at the front leading. So when they are . . . → Read More: Lead Boldy, Follow Ardently May 16th, 2012  Comments are closed  Blog  followership, groups, improvisation, leadership, teams, teamwork I was thrilled and delighted earlier this year to be invited to run two Improv workshops at UNESCO in Paris, as part of a series of development events for staff from the Culture Sector. It’s great to know that more and more organisations are beginning to understand and appreciate the skills and learning that Improv can bring to the workplace. The workshops proved popular, . . . → Read More: Furnishished with Expectations March 22nd, 2012 Leave a comment Blog facilitation, fun, games, geography, improvisation, learning, room layout, training, workshop Last year we brought you vital Elf and Safety Training. This Christmas Let’s Talk offers you guidance on the hot legal issue of the moment – The Santa Clause! Make sure you are fully prepared as the party season gets underway – this latest drafting of European/Laplandish legislation could have a profound implications for your organisation. This festive training day will cover such crucial . . . → Read More: The Santa Clause! As I wrote in my previous blog entry I have unexpectedly been involved in directing a second piece of theatre recently. Last week saw the sell-out performance of a great one-woman show written and performed by the very talented Tonya Joy Bolton of ICU Transformational Arts , and directed by yours truly. And what an interesting and stimulating journey it has been. I first met . . . → Read More: Why Values are Priceless December 2nd, 2011 Leave a comment Blog collaboration, directing, integrity, mentoring, theatre, values It’s been 11 years since I hung up my spurs as a professional theatre director, and refocused my working life as a trainer/facilitator/consultant. Since then I have been asked many times whether I missed the theatrical life, and had any plans to stage a return. My answer has always been a steadfast and happy “Nope!” The multitude of things I do now . . . → Read More: And that’s why they call it a Play… October 30th, 2011 One comment Blog creativity, directing, fun, improvisation, learning, play, success, theatre, training Recently I have been rolling out some customer care training for a national retail client. Rather than bring their staff into central venues, the company decided to hold the training in each branch, in the evening, after work (pizza provided!) As the branches are all different sizes, sessions are held with groups as large as about 20, and occasionally as small as 3. . . . → Read More: Another big, fat, useful, mistake… September 30th, 2011 Comments are closed Blog creativity, customer care, fun, learning, play, rollout, training, workshop Last week saw the first ever “Fear of Flying” course, and what an inspiration it was! I had advertised it as a “Presenting for the Terrified” course. I am approached countless times by people who want to tell me how much they dread having to speak in public, how they wake up sweating at the thought, and of their experiences of shaking, mumbling, blanking, and . . . → Read More: Nothing to fear but fear itself…. August 20th, 2011 Comments are closed Blog achievement, breakthrough, fear, presentation skills, success, training, workshop At the risk of giving the impression that my life consists only of parachuting, and that I do no work at all, I feel the need once more to write about a recent skydive experience. I spent last week at a training camp in Spain with my primary team, who have just moved up to the “big boys” league of AAA in 4-way formation . . . → Read More: Champions – Skydiving and Otherwise (pt. 2) June 5th, 2011 Leave a comment Blog achievement, breakthrough, champions, coaching, learning, mentoring, skydiving, success, teams, training  Over the Easter break, during all that glorious sunshine, I was having fun being a skydive cameraman, jumping with and filming a team that is learning to compete in 4-way Formation Skydiving – a discipline within the sport which comprises 4 skydivers turning a series of pre-determined shapes in the air during a timed 35-second freefall. It takes excellent freefall flying skills, clear mental . . . → Read More: Champions – Skydiving and Otherwise (pt. 1) Right up to the moment it all went wrong, I had been feeling pretty pleased with myself. Because it had been a really tough brief, yet it all seemed to be going so well. I had been asked to create an experiential workshop on customer care, and deliver it, solo, as a participatory session for 140 people! I had serious doubts at first as . . . → Read More: Set your phone to ‘stun’ March 19th, 2011 One comment Blog engagement, facilitation, learning, mobile phones, training, workshop In a burst of seasonal benevolence my client, a jovial bearded gent named Mr Kringle, has generously decided to make places available on an upcoming Elf and Safety training day. He has commissioned this refresher course primarily for his own very small workforce, but is now happy to offer the spare capacity to anyone involved in the Seasonal Philanthropy industry. Topics covered will include:- safe gift . . . → Read More: Elf and Safety Training! The undisputed highlight of a training course this week was the moment when half the delegates disappeared! Far from worrying that something had gone wrong, I knew in that instant that everything was fabulously on track. Research, not to mention all my personal experience, re-affirms that the best learning takes place when students are in an open, curious and lively state, more concerned with . . . → Read More: Dude, where’s my delegates…..? December 10th, 2010 Leave a comment Blog breakthrough, facilitation, fun, games, learning, training, workshop I am currently delivering some training for Heart of Birmingham Teaching Primary Care Trust, as part of an excellent project to improve public health. The idea is to recruit people who are active in the community – youth workers, religious leaders, voluntary group co-ordinators, ESOL teachers and the like – and get them to help promote particular important health campaigns locally. The hotel venue for this . . . → Read More: Getting the geography right November 9th, 2010 Leave a comment Blog facilitation, geography, learning, room layout, training, workshop I’ve just got back from a 3-day conference in Amsterdam of the Applied Improvisation Network. A gathering of about 200 people from all over the world, who use Impro not just for entertainment, but to bring about social, personal, political or organisational change. Now, if you’ve read my page on Improvisation, you will understand that training in theatre Impro promotes and nurtures a number . . . → Read More: Fun but far from Frivolous September 29th, 2010 Leave a comment Blog conference, fun, improvisation, learning, training, workshop I am currently working as an associate to another training company, which is helping one of our major utilities with a massive IT rollout. The new system, which is costing hundreds of millions of pounds, will replace a host of incompatible and crumbling legacy systems, some of which date back more than 20 years, with a modern, streamlined, fit-for-purpose corporate platform. The change and . . . → Read More: Hearts and Minds Box of Frogs has been meeting for 6 months now. There are around a dozen regular attenders, and about another 20 or 30 who drop in occasionally. We’ve been talking for a while now about performing in public. Because it’s one thing to amuse ourselves, it’s another to stand up in front of a real audience and see if what you do has any . . . → Read More: Whistling in the Light July 14th, 2010 Leave a comment Blog fear, fun, improvisation, learning, presentation skills, training, workshop Updating this website has been an ongoing back-burner project for most of this year, but finally was moved to the front ring of the cooker this month. I had a fairly clear idea about what I wanted, but none on how to achieve it. So I started looking around. The first person I spoke to, a sole-trader freelancer, wouldn’t even quote an hourly, daily . . . → Read More: DIY or (Wo)Man who can? During the summer months, I spend most of my weekends skydiving. More specifically, I am a skydiving cameraman. Even more specifically, I specialise in being a cameraflyer for competitive Four-way Formation Skydiving teams. I won’t bore you with fine details of what this entails – if you are really interestd you can find out here. But, briefly, each team of four skydivers is trying . . . → Read More: Is your team a rock band? Presenting with Passion – Elected Members, Coventry City Council This was a first – I was asked to work with Elected Members of the council. I have often worked with employees and officers of Local Authorities, but Coventry have had the great idea of offering personal development courses to it’s elected Councillors. This was a cross-party group of attendees, and I’m pleased to . . . → Read More: Yah Boo Politics A recent event has reminded me of the importance of clearly setting up the framework within which I operate. I was invited run a taster session by the Organisational Development department of a university, for a group of participants who were by and large postgraduate members of the lecturing staff. Early in the session it became clear to me that I was facing a . . . → Read More: What Exactly Do You Mean When You Ask Me To ‘Just Be Myself’? Presenting With Passion course at TRW Cooper Standard Automotive At the end of the session, somebody asks me “This is all very well, but we only dealt with upbeat topics. What if I have to deliver bad news, such as redundancies?” I replied “The fact is, the challenge is identical. The task is still to take your audience on an emotional journey. In . . . → Read More: Bad News Presenting with Passion course. The participants are 14 young people from all around the world, on their Graduate Training programme. Working with a multinational group is interesting. Half the group do not have English as their first language, although all have an acceptable level as English is the working language of the business. I have to remember to speak more slowly and clearly than . . . → Read More: Breakthrough Presenting with Passion – Telford and Wrekin District Council The first part of a Presenting With Passion day usually consists of a series of games and exercises around fluidity and ease of speech. I do this for fun and energy, and also to give people the confidence that they actually can speak without preparation and notes. One or two of the games I . . . → Read More: Fear and Demons | ||||||
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