Communication Skills with Sutton Day Nursery
Sutton Day Nursery was experiencing some challenges with staff collaboration and teamwork. This sometimes led to misunderstandings and tension.
Knowing that improving communication among their people would lead to better outcomes for both the team and the children in their care, Laughology’s Victoria was invited to spend half a day with the entire team exploring communication styles and team building.
Victoria focused on three main messages within the morning's session:
- Understanding communication styles and stress responses - Victoria led an interactive workshop to help people understand that we lean into different communication styles in times of stress, such as fight, flight, flock or freeze. Groups discussed what this would look like and how, once recognised, we can change our thoughts and behaviours.
- Practicing active listening - Victoria led exercises to improve active listening skills, such as pausing, asking clarifying questions, and recognising non-verbal clues. She had team members work in pairs to have conversations while consciously focusing on listening.
- Giving each other space and recognising that communication is hard, with each person bringing a host of communication patterns based on their beliefs, values and memories. Victoria encouraged the team to see each other in a new light and recognise that people change each day.
After the session, the team at Sutton Day Nursery reported feeling more aware of their communication tendencies and better able to adapt their style to work more effectively with colleagues.
It was great to hear that engagement in the session had been particularly high and that the team felt more positive as a direct result of the learning.
If you’d like some support to improve your team’s communication skills, reach out to our Doug – doug@laughology.co.uk - and he’ll be more than happy to talk through how we can help.
