Corporate Training

Griffin is marshalling its unique creative resources in the service of business. Our approach to communication training is derived from the methods we apply in making great theatre. We can help you better meet your business needs in the crucial areas of:

  • Presentations to boards, senior management, conferences
  • Pitches
  • Leadership
  • Sales and negotiations
  • One-on-one training

Why does theatre offer corporate training?

Theatre is all about story telling.  Actors use the body and voice to make people believe in what they are saying and doing. Writers use the structures and devices of classic story telling to keep an audience fully engaged for two hours.  Theatre is the art of persuasion. 

What is different about what Griffin offers?

  • Griffin is a theatre company in the business of telling new stories. We build fresh, feisty, contemporary theatre experiences from scratch – stories that move, inspire and stay in the mind.
  • We have an intimate theatre – a space designed to foster the highest levels of creativity – which is situated close to the heart of the city.
  • Our trainers are top actors and writers whose extensive experience in the theatre and other performing arts media is matched by their experience in the corporate sector.  They know how the riches of these worlds can inform each other.

Program One:  Pitches and Presentations

Perfect Pitch

A half-day course designed to help people feel more empowered and to modify and take supported risks with their presentations (using PowerPoint or otherwise).  The focus is on building color into the participant's voice and promoting a relaxed but focused physiology, both of which are essential to delivering a persuasive message.   The aim is to build a more potent, persuasive and dynamic story.

Presentation Power 1

A full-day course which thoroughly examines and develops all the principles of persuasive communication:

  • Focused and congruent body language.
  • Vocal power, including breathing awareness and rhythm, pitch and volume variation.
  • Considered use of emotion.
  • Visual sensibility.
  • Story awareness (including structure, meaning, and theme.)

Presentation Power 2

A full-day course for those who have completed Presentation Power 1, or who consider themselves competent but want to build their skill levels or instill more risk in their work.   The exercises will be more challenging and demand a more subtle employment of the principles explored in Presentation Power 1.

Program Two:  Fundamentals

Sometimes it pays to focus on a single aspect of the communication architecture.  These specialist half-day courses are designed to build skill levels in the three key primary tools of communication…Body, Voice and Story.

Body:  tuning in with your message

Your body tells a story, whether you realise it or not.  Sometimes it's not the story you want it to tell.  You might be excited about what you're talking about, while your body communicates tiredness or disinterest. That can mean the difference between success and failure. 

These sessions show you how to keep your body not only in tune with your message, but how to develop it as a front line instrument of persuasion.   These sessions will share ways to put you in a ‘state of readiness' in a boardroom or while making that important pitch.

Voice:  the pathway to persuasion

We've all heard people speak who put us to sleep.   Often, it's not to do with content, but with manner.  The message is grey and unconvincing because the speaker does not possess a full stock of vocal tools. 

This course shows you how to add colour to your voice so that you can surprise and entice, how to fill a room so that people are compelled to listen, how to better phrase and shape your delivery so that we are arrested by the important ideas.  It will also deal with controlling your breath in order to overcome performance anxiety.  No more sweaty palms, dry throat and shaking notes.

Story:  the shape of things

Everything is a story.  Since the ancient Greeks, the best stories have been structured in ways that keep us on the edge of our seats, waiting for what's next.  At the simplest level, stories have beginnings, middles and ends.  But what about great openings, or surprising turning points, or building to a climax, or leaving us wanting more?  The twist, the set up/pay off, the progress of the ‘controlling idea'? 

This course will unfold the elements of great story telling and provide insights into harnessing these elements in the structuring of successful pitches, proposals and speeches.

Program Three:  Something Different

Role Playing

Workplace communication is often so product and results focussed that the means to the very important end is often shy of scrutiny.  It might be that there is a lack of feedback processes, or that executives find feedback so challenging they don't employ it at all.  Role-play is extremely useful in meeting these challenges.  Our actors and writers can help you develop scenarios – through scripted scenes, improvisation and role play - that will provide a fun and non-confrontational way to approach difficult questions or complex encounters.

Rehearsal Technique

You've spent six months writing documents and working with your partners on a pitch or a bid, but the true differential between competitors is, in reality, only slight.  Your success comes down to how your team ‘presents' on the day.  What processes can we use to maximize your chances and minimize mishap?  Rehearsal is the actor's stock in trade – in the theatre, our effectiveness depends on it. This course provides participants with principles, structures and strategies for rehearsal and applies it to business presentation.

Writing

Sometimes a great speech can change the course of history.  Lincoln, Churchill, Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jnr., Gandhi.  Ever wondered what makes a great speech?  In this session, we'll pull apart some key speeches from history and see what make them tick.  In the process, we'll uncover some tips for writing a great speech.

Theatre Thrills

Sometimes playfulness is a powerful means to building teamwork and cultivating positive communication practice. This fun offering is our more lateral way of triggering insights and cultivating communication skills. Small groups will actually create a short performance from scratch.  Building out from a stimulus – it might be a newspaper article or photograph – the group assigns tasks and creates a response.  Some might act, while others source music or props or maybe write or direct.

These are fun sessions, great for team building, creative thinking and leadership development. 

TESTIMONIAL

"Gadens' first involvement with Griffin trainers was at a retreat for our senior associates, where a day was spent learning basic dramatic techniques and improvisation to enhance their confidence in presentations.  We were so happy with this experience that we engaged 10 trainers from Griffin for our whole firm retreat (240 people!) to be taught more about breathing, improvising, singing and generally working as a team to turn the unknown into successful performance.  It doesn't take much imagination to see how readily these skills translate into the work environment, and the Griffin approach is a truly entertaining and inspiring way to learn."
Michael Bradley, Managing Partner, Gadens Lawyers.

For fee structure and more information:
Please contact info@griffintheatre.com.au