Oh no, another corporate training day!

- We want our staff developed and we want them trained.
- But we don’t want them too developed and too trained – they might leave to better themselves elsewhere.
- We want our staff to think for themselves and make decisions, but we don’t want them interfering and questioning management decisions.
- We want our staff empowered…but we are not quite sure what we want them empowered to do.
- We want our staff to communicate better….so they listen to what they are told.
- We want our staff to time manage, stress manage, get a good work life balance…and work harder.
- We’ve sent our staff on equal ops, manual handling, workplace safety, ergonomics, risk assessment and some team building nonsense. We now want to do something different.

Staff training can be a horror show. Attendees of staff training events tend to fall into two broad categories – the contemptuous and disinterested, and the people who see training as a good way to get a day off. A corporate trainer’s lot is not always an easy one and they know exactly the conversation that happened just before they got the ‘phone call from HR:

“It’s that time of year – we need to send them on staff development. What shall we get the fools to do this year?”
“Equal ops?”
“Done that.”
“Team building? We can send them into the car park to build stuff out of junk!”
“They started fighting with the sticks that time.”
“An away day on the monkey ropes?”
“We can’t get insurance for that, not after last time.”
“Crazy golf?”
“Ugh!”
“What about that idiot who does motivational speaking? He can do time management and worklife balance and stuff. That should tick a few boxes all in one go.”
“Perfect. Get me the idiot’s number!”

Metaphors of Movement (MoM) is so different as a corporate event, we know that it catches people’s interest quickly, stimulates discussion and creates fun. MoM enables people to hear language and communication in a different way and opens up communication between people that previously may have been closed owing to personality differences, perceptual differences and personal bias. People often report that the effect of the MoM experience enables them to truly listen for the first time.

For details of consultancy and bespoke training, please contact:

Andrew T. Austin (West Sussex, UK) – 07838 387580, email: nlp@hotmail.co.uk