Corporate Training - Workshops

What can we teach your team?

Our facilitated workshops are lead in the spirit of ‘serious fun’ and offer practical skills that you can use on the job. Each workshop targets specific goals and skills, yet they share some common objectives:
- access creativity;
- enhance personal skills; and
- increase confidence.

Here are the most popular workshops we offer.

Each can be customized according to your audience, desired outcomes, timing, and budget. Don’t see what you are looking for? That’s the beauty of theatre – we can create a workshop that meets your communication or performance goals. Just ask!

BALLWORKS: Serious Play that gets Results
Ballworks is a physical workshop for groups to learn about human relationships and your ability to influence them.
Tell me more...

FROM THE CORE:The Physicality of Vocal Communication
Does speaking in public, in conferences, or in intense situations cause you tension? This workshop introduces you to techniques and exercises that will help you connect to and develop your natural voice. Tell me more...

IMPROV YOUR PRESENTATION SKILLS:
This lively, laugh-filled workshop uses the power of improvisation exercises to help participants feel more comfortable and confident when speaking. Tell me more...

THE ELEGANCE OF THE ORDINARY:
We all perform… in business, sports, and the arts. How well we perform depends in large part on how well we manage our physical talents to maximum effect. This workshop addresses three of your common daily activities: standing, walking, and sitting. Tell me more...

THE POWER OF SPEECH:
Engage your Listener. Empower Your Message.
This interactive workshop focuses on the connection between what you say and how you say it. The words you choose and how you deliver them determines how well your message is received by your listener. Tell me more...

TRUST YOUR IMPULSES: Team Building and Innovation
This workshop offers an opportunity to work with and understand the power of spontaneous impulses to build communication within your team and with your clients. Tell me more...

To realize the greatest benefit from our unique training programs, we recommend a follow-up training session three to six months after the first session. This motivates participants to apply what they have learned, knowing that they will revisit the skills and tools. It also reinforces key learnings to enhance their long-term value and usage

For more information about OSSD’s corporate workshops and what we can do for you, contact: Mary Harvey (613) 324-9495 corporatetraining@ossd.ca

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Workshop Details:

BALLWORKS: Serious Play that gets Results
Ballworks is a physical workshop for groups to learn about human relationships and your ability to influence them. The ball is used as a metaphor for relationships with others, as well as communication with yourself and others. It is particularly apt for business and government groups. Think of how you refer to the ball in everyday business parlance: People are ‘on the ball’ (or not); they pass the ball’, ‘drop the ball’, or ‘grab the ball and run with it’. Sometimes they ‘toss the ball into someone else’s court. And, of course, problems can ‘snowball out of control...’

This workshop invites participants to face challenging questions about themselves:

What can I create from this situation?
If I’m good at this, how can I expand my mastery?
If I’m hesitant, what do I have to lose by doing this?

The activities within BallWorks are simple yet demanding. They call forth co-operative and collaborative behaviours, subverting the winner/loser model underlying typical competitive ball sports and business practices. It’s also about communication, with the ball being the content (i.e. whatever is being communicated). Since the ball does what it is told, participants must focus on the process (i.e. how the communication is happening) in order to achieve their intended result.
This workshop is great fun, evoking the joy of childhood play within the context of adult concerns. Who says you can’t have your cake and eat it too?

From the Core: The Physicality of Vocal Communication
Does speaking in public, in conferences, or in intense situations cause you tension? Does that tension cause you to ‘lose the sense of your own voice'? Do you experience vocal fatigue? Does your voice take on strident, nasal, or inaudible tones?

This workshop introduces you to techniques and exercises that will help you connect to and develop your natural voice. You will 're-learn' how to:

breathe,
release habitual tension patterns, and
strengthen your voice's core--the source of your true voice.

You will discover that speaking is a physical event and that how you speak is as important as what you have to say.

Depending on the specific needs of the client, this workshop may include:

core relaxation and alignment exercises in order to free the breath and support the voice;
an introduction to core body-voice exercises of the invaluable Alexander and Feldenkreis Techniques;
awareness and exercises to activate the three main vocal resonators that add more colour and power to your sound;
trouble-shooting time: we will address and target techniques to help solve vocal 'issues' such as nasality, vocal strain, etc.;

Participants will leave with a vocal warm-up to practise on their own, as well as speech drills to ensure that their new-found free voice can be clearly shaped into words.

PLEASE NOTE: From the CoreandThe Power of Speech form a complementary package, ideally with the Voice workshop first, followed by the Speech session.

IMPROV YOUR PRESENTATION SKILLS
This lively, laugh-filled workshop uses the power of improvisation exercises to help participants feel more comfortable and confident when speaking. The ability to express your ideas clearly and persuasively is essential to success in business today – whether you’re addressing a conference of 200, or meeting one-on-one with the boss.

This is a completely interactive experience where you’ll:

Learn by doing;
Practise being present;
Boost your confidence in public speaking;
Improve your listening skills; and
Think faster by not thinking.

Adults are often held back by a fear of ‘looking stupid’ in front of others. You will likely look ‘stupid’ and say ridiculous things during this workshop... and get positive feedback for it! Learn how to trust your instincts, recognize thought patterns that don’t serve you well, and revisit the joy of play.

The Elegance of the Ordinary: Moving with Style
We all perform… in business, sports, and the arts. How well we perform depends in large part on how well we manage our physical talents to maximum effect. Quiet elegance is more effective than flashy showiness. Simple everyday actions, gestures and expressions, executed with economy and grace, assure you of a more positive reception. And while the body and its movements do not necessarily draw attention to themselves in most situations, people do notice.

This workshop addresses three of your common daily activities: standing, walking, and sitting. Each reveals much about your personal and social comfort, your relation to people and objects, and your awareness of the effect you have upon others.

Standing: Feel Tall, Stand Tall
Own your maximum height; allow your body to attain its full length rather than forcing it. A great confidence booster.

Walking: Taking Life in Stride
Walking reveals how you feel about yourself and others, and how you approach the future. In this section, you will develop your own style of walking that accomplishes two things: it will reflect positively on who you are, and enable you to move with ease and attractiveness.

Sitting: Pride of Place
Sitting is an action. Because you sit for long periods, it is important that you do it correctly and consciously. This workshop will show you how to sit better and affect others positively.

You will learn to fine-tune your awareness and the expression in your movement. You will leave with practical information and tools to help you adjust and refine your actions for optimal performance and success.

THE POWER OF SPEECH: Engage your Listener. Empower Your Message.
This interactive workshop focuses on the connection between what you say and how you say it. Your voice is a reflection of who you are and what you want. The words you choose and how you deliver them determines how well your message is received by your listener.

During this workshop, you will:

Gain awareness of the marvellous speech mechanisms--the mouth, jaw, tongue, and resonators--and how to engage them to operate at their best. You will be given exercises to practise on your own.
Learn how to speak 'beyond' the tones of your comfort zone. Most people use a maximum of two or three notes when they speak, which can result in a loss of interest in the listener, regardless of your message.
Learn the emotional power of vowels and the 'percussive' energy of consonants --together, speaking becomes a living event -- for you and your listener.
Be challenged to use a vocabulary that goes beyond the predictable, and sparks further engagement in the listener.
Receive handouts with the above information as well as practise material.

PLEASE NOTE: From the Core andThe Power of Speech form a complementary package, ideally with the Voice workshop first, followed by the Speech session.

Trust your impulses: Team Building and Innovation
This workshop offers an opportunity to work with and understand the power of spontaneous impulses to build communication within your team and with your clients. Through a variety of small- and large-group exercises, you will experience the energy that comes from a group of people working in sync. You will access the creative, playful part of yourself that can bring new ideas to the surface and allow them to flourish without judgement.

At the end of this interactive and entertaining training, you will have a(n):

ability to understand how to put yourself ‘into the moment’,
tools for freeing your imagination in any situation,
increased confidence in sharing your creativity, and
skills for discovering and nourishing new ideas.