Speak Up: Finding Your Voice in the Room

Description

A practical working session for teams who need their people contributing, not just attending.

What happens

The session opens with what happens in the body in the seconds before someone speaks and decides not to. Participants map their own pattern using the Breaking the Silence Quadrant.

They then work in pairs on the specific situation each of them avoids, whether that is a weekly team meeting, a senior stakeholder review or an all-hands.

Anthea teaches two techniques, one for the moment before speaking and one for recovering when it goes wrong. Both are practised in the room.

The final section is individual. Each participant speaks to the group for one minute on something that matters to them. That is the point of the session. The group is kept small so nobody hides.

Built on the A.C.T. framework, a psychology-first approach that addresses what someone believes before it touches technique.

What participants leave with

A named pattern. Two techniques they have used in the room. A plan for the next meeting where it matters. Evidence, from their own experience, that they can do the thing they came in avoiding.

Benefits

• Confidence: built through doing rather than discussing
• Team relationship-building: as colleagues hear what each other has been carrying
• Engagement: with every participant contributing during the session
• Empathy: through paired work on real and personal situations
• Resilience: with a specific technique for recovering when something goes wrong mid-sentence
• Cohesion: as the team leaves with shared language and a shared reference point