Laughology returns to Starbucks for the next brew of brilliant leaders
After the success of last year’s pilot, Stephanie Davies, our Head of Happiness and CEO, was invited back to deliver the second cohort of the Starbucks Accelerated Leadership Programme. What started as a collaboration idea is now steadily becoming part of Starbucks’ leadership pipeline, with the company expanding the offer to all identified new leaders across the Starbucks franchise family, too.
The programme sits within Starbucks’ Level 3 Management Apprenticeship and blends the behavioural science that underpins Laughology’s work with the practical realities of running a fast-paced retail environment. Workshops cover growth mindset for leaders, embracing change, leading with happiness, building resilience and motivation, and presenting self with credibility.
Stakeholder management plays a central role, particularly for those preparing to run their own stores, where the job description includes everything from inspiring a team at 6 a.m. to handling the occasional flat white-related crisis. Designed to align with Starbucks’ approach to developing new leaders, the programme is delivered in partnership with Corndel Leadership.
Following the overwhelmingly positive feedback from the first cohort, Starbucks has increased numbers for the second and is already considering further expansion. The content fits squarely with the organisation’s values and behaviours and is helping managers embed best practice in communication, motivation, culture and performance. In short: exactly the kind of leadership that keeps teams engaged and customers loyal.
Team Adamson sharpens their edge with a Laughology tune-up
Stephanie Davies was invited to return to work with Team Adamson, a group that first completed theirInsights Discovery profiling a year ago and has since grown both in size and ambition. With new members joining and responsibilities shifting, the team requested a half-day refresher to ensure their communication and decision-making remained as sharp as their performance outcomes.
The session revisited how they communicate with one another, how they give feedback and – crucially – how they feed forward. With a small team, these behaviours matter more than most. High performance isn’t simply about delivery; it’s about maintaining a working environment where people feel able to challenge, collaborate and occasionally disagree without derailing the relationship or the work.
The group explored how they make decisions together, how they agree and commit, and how they disagree agreeably – three deceptively simple actions that often distinguish effective teams from exceptional ones. Feedback suggested that the tools and techniques will be particularly useful in internal meetings and in managing key stakeholders. Several members commented that the workshop has given them the clarity and confidence they need as they accelerate into 2026.
Building resilience and psychological safety with Avove
Lead Happiness Consultant Dave Keeling loves a roadshow (antique or otherwise), so he was thrilled to be asked to contribute to his second Avove roadshow of the year. Avove are a utilities company providing infrastructure and engineering services for the private and public sectors, and this roadshow went all over the UK, starting in Glasgow, finishing in Belfast, and introducing all those that attended to Laughology’s FLIP It Thinking model.
The 75-minute session was designed to support the company’s tagline, ‘Work Together Safe Together’, and to encourage the teams to explore techniques to build resilience. It also provided tips, tricks and techniques to enable everyone to have a more positive impact on those around them, create an environment of psychological safety and be more aware of their own wellbeing.
The session explored (in a variety of ways):
- Fast/slow thinking – how to slow down to catch up
- Circle of control – how to have greater impact and build confidence through action
- CQ +PQ=IQ – the art of collaboration
- The power of words – how to make what we value centric to our decision making
- Magic questions – to give your brain a break and explore different perspectives
- The art of thriving, not surviving – how to ensure we’re at our best
The sessions were lively, interactive, and full of laughs and hi-vis jackets. Fingers crossed, Dave will be getting this show back on the road soon!
Presentation Skills Training with Vodafone
This month, Laura Drury was invited along to Vodafone’s Speechmark office to facilitate a presentation skills course. She worked with people from various roles, all wanting to hone their communication skills when delivering to larger groups.
As an organisation with a great reputation for connecting people through broadband, they wanted to ensure they connected with each other, too, through the power of speech. Which is exactly the cheesy tone you want to avoid if you want your presentation to be engaging… Arriving in the morning (to an already festively bejewelled office), Laura joined the Vodafone group for the first half of the day, so they could put the tools they had learned into practice in the afternoon. They were to prepare a message they could share back with their wider teams.
Initially, they discussed the behaviours that the most effective speakers use, and which of those each of them already possessed and could build on. Next, they looked at the various ways in which audiences receive messages; whilst some want the facts and data, others are more interested in the bigger picture, or in how the outcome will be reached. How can you ensure your message will resonate with everyone?! Whichever your preference as a listener, we also looked at how story is a powerful way to do that very thing and the best way to create one.
As well as discussion, there were lots of our signature activities to demonstrate the learning but also enabling the practical application of it. Most of the presentations the group deliver are virtual, so many of the tools focused on how you maintain engagement when you’re online, as well as face-to-face.
The main takeaways from the session were how to build confidence and engage positively, and how to create the message and structure it best. NIT Pick is a model which enables the speaker to consider what is ‘Necessary’ to include in their message, what might be ‘Interesting’ for the audience to hear and what is ‘Trivial’ and therefore can be ignored from the start.
This is an incredibly useful tool which enables you to structure your message, edit out unnecessary material, and highlight areas you can build upon. It was also a brilliantly interactive one that the group worked on collectively, could have a go at in the room, and used for creating their messages in the afternoon session.
Before Laura left, each of the group considered which technique stood out to them most and ‘tattooed’ it on their hands (how else should they remember?!), to get them started on their message creation and delivery, after some much-earned pizza for lunch.
If you want to dust off your presentations and give them some shine, contact Doug – doug@laughology.co.uk– and he’ll be happy to talk you through how we can help.
