“The team development session was excellent and fulfilled a lot of outcomes that the team members had not even considered before attending the workshop. We had previously tried to think of some team building activities ourselves and many of the staff could only come up with weekends away as an option for how this could work. Having the option of doing something locally that only took ½ a day meant that many more people were able to attend at little inconvenience which meant that more of the team could benefit from the development exercises.
The workshop we did was beneficial and really improved communication between team members, people who rarely spoke to one another got a chance to develop communication channels in ways which they would not in general working life. Where our staff work across different sites it’s often hard for staff to communicate face to face and its usually by way of telephone or very formally during meetings.
The arts based activities took the emphasis off work and put it firmly on the team. People were able to open up more and many of the staff commented how it felt like the were able to take a step back from work issues and this meant they could engage with people differently which they could then take back with them when they were dealing with people in a work situation.
The arts based activities took the emphasis off work and put it firmly on the team. People were able to open up more and many of the staff commented how it felt like the were able to take a step back from work issues
St Michaels Support and Care Group
The needs of all the participants were not only met but exceeded, people were surprised at how much they felt they learnt and could then improve about themselves in a working situation. The material and activities were appropriate for everyone and although people were skeptical at first during the feedback people understood that everyone takes something very different and learns something very different from activities.
[Inspirative Arts] were excellent facilitators, working well together and with our group. They joined in with us and also demonstrated activities really well so everyone was clear on what we were supposed to be doing.
Everyone participated in all the activities and never felt unsafe in the environment. Everyone enjoyed the session and got a lot out of it.
I think the workshop we have done will have a lot of benefits to communication in the workplace and also we will look at doing some more workshops in the future to deal with conflict resolution, communication, collaboration and trust as this one was received so well.”
St Michaels Support and Care Group (June 2011)
