Perfect for bringing together team or as an away day experience, the Nursery’s Introduction to Improvisation class is experiential learning at its best. Both challenging and fun, this class will build, up-skill and test your team by giving them the skills to create stories together, modelling mutual support and cooperation through laughter. You don’t have to have any acting experience, or even be funny; the Nursery’s team are experts at making even the most nervous of participants feel comfortable and unlocking their inner creative genius.

Over the course of the session, your team will be introduced to the core principles of improvisation and have the opportunity to practice in a positive, supportive atmosphere. Working mostly in groups of 2-4, participants will reflect on their own habits and opportunities for growth, while all the while laughing and bonding with the others in the room.

This class is equally effective for those who have been working together for a long time as it is for new teams.

Time: 1-3 hrs

Content:

• Core improvisational principles (group support, accept and build)
• The mindset of presence and playfulness
• How to accept, embrace and learn from your mistakes

Few of us love change, whatever the context. We grumble, avoid it and hope that the long-anticipated restructure or tech upgrade won’t happen, or that when it does, we will be able to ignore it and continue as normal, turning inertia into a personal coping mechanism.

But change can no longer be avoided: it is the norm. Technology advances faster than we can get used to it and any company which does not respond to unstable market conditions and new working practices will be muscled aside by another more agile one that can. There is no normal any more.

In this workshop, participants are helped to understand their own relationship and responses to change and shown how to rebrand threatening and scary as exciting and dynamic. Through curiosity and openness, participants will learn how to see change as an opportunity for personal as well as organisational growth.

Whether your organisation is planning a change, has just been through one, or is in a constant state of change, this workshop will help nurture an environment of fluidity and responsiveness that will ensure you thrive in uncertain times.

Content:

• Why we are resistant to the new and how we can hack our brains to embrace it
• Learning to let go of old ideas
• Practice in accepting and working with the immediate and the new

Group creation be a huge challenge. Egos, hierarchies and organisational and personal habits get in the way of the fluidity of communication that group creativity requires. Ideation can be a grinding, combative process rather than a delightful one.

In this workshop, the Nursery’s trainers will use a combination of their personal experience in creating improvised shows with an understanding of the psychology of group creativity to enable participants to model creativity in different contexts, reflecting on their habits and blocks to become more present, productive team members.

Participants will learn to shift their attention from the individual contribution to group success, concentration not on individual glory, but the task at hand. This liberating lack of ego ensures quick and effortless results, whatever the context.

This workshop is suitable for individual creatives as well as teams that work together more regularly.

Content:

• Creating an atmosphere of support and creativity, so that all team members are contributing
• Rebranding our experience of success and failure
• The four skills of creativity with guidance on how to develop each one

The old adage goes that at a funeral, most people would rather be in the box than giving the eulogy. Public speaking is above sharks on most lists of worst fears. Many people over prepare in an attempt to control and micromanage the entire experience, and end up dull and stressed in performance as a result.

In this workshop, participants will be shown how to see understand presentations more holistically, removing the fear and pressure that we out on ourselves, enabling participants to stay live and responsive to the situation, whatever question they might get at the end!

Presenters will also learn to understand the biology of stress and performance in a way that will help them to see the audience as a partner and friend in the event. Then, depending on the length of time available, participants will be introduced to the three act structure and shown how to apply them quickly and easily, making preparation for presentations stress free and efficient.

Time: 2-5 hours

Content:

• Status, calm and the biology of adrenaline and cortisol
• Presence and working with the audience
• How to prepare for your presentation quickly and effectively

We all know what stress and fear feels like physically: the sweaty palms, raised heart rate and shallow breathing, but there is also the psychological that comes with it: the inability to think, the knee jerk defensiveness, empty brain or desire to just get out. Fight, flight or freeze. Useful when faced by a tiger, but not when faced by a difficult customer or disappointed manager.

In this workshop, participants will learn to understand the science of stress and adrenaline, helping them to understand how and why these reactions happen and ways to deal with them, both quick, immediate hacks to longer term strategies and attitudes. Armed with this knowledge, they will be put through a series of artificially pressurised environments, from fast happy-fail games to performance-style situations, learning to stay present, engaged and productive where before they would have shut down.

Ideal for groups that are currently faced with wicked problems, or unexpected information, this workshop takes the terrifying and makes it fun.

Content:

• What stress and pressure is and how it works
• How to minimise these effects, both in the short and long term
• Rebranding stress as excitement

Most teaching of listening is in fact teaching people to pretend to listen: nod, make eye contact and use some of the speaker’s words when you reply. Useful, but nowhere near as useful as embracing the power and depth of genuine listening.

In this workshop, participants will gain an understanding of the deep habits of thought that make sure it is really happening. How do we listen to engage, rather than compete? How does listening drive cooperation? And how can we use our listening to inspire others?

The skills learnt in this workshop will help to ensure that all team members feel heard and valued, creating an atmosphere of trust and cooperation that maximises the value and happiness of a team.

Content:

• The habits and attitudes of deep listening
• Noticing who is talking, when and how much
• Varieties in ways of thinking and how to access them