Communication training for researchers, scientists, faculty and staff in universities and research institutes

Focus: know yourself, strategies to bridge gaps

Become a better communicator by knowing your behaviours – and the behaviours of others. This workshop focuses on understanding what communication is, how it works, where it can go wrong, and how knowledge of your own personal communication style can help you develop strategies for dealing with people who are different to you.

Focus: emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence, also referred to as EI or EQ (emotional quotient), is based on the notion that our ability of understand our own emotions and those of the people we interact with is the key to better performance in both our professional and private lives. This workshop is designed to not only help you become more aware of your own emotions and their impact on your performance, but also to identify and adapt to the emotions of others.

Focus: building facilitation skills, meeting management

By following a set of simple facilitation principles and using standard tools and activities, anybody can grow into a confident workshop facilitator. This workshop equips scientists, researchers, and leaders with simple techniques and processes for facilitation so that that they can help groups get more done, faster, and in a way that gets all the voices in the "room" - virtual or otherwise!

Focus: how to initiate and participate in rich conversations

Conversations are an important part of human relationships - both work and social. But working out how to have a good conversation isn't always easy. This workshop is all about how to have conversations, and if you’re already having them, how to have BETTER conversations! We’ll look at 6 beliefs for better conversations, 10 strategies for better conversations, and share ideas about how to start (and end!) conversations. This is an interactive workshop, and participants should expect to converse.

Focus: listening, interacting, engaging

Often, we are so busy formulating what we want to say that we fail to listen actively to others. In this interactive workshop, participants will learn why active listening matters, be introduced to the process of active listening, and have opportunities to put their skills into practice in conflict and non-conflict modelled settings.

Focus: planning, structure, content, delivery

This hands-on workshop is ideal for early-career researchers who are just getting started, and experienced researchers who want to refine their skills and learn tried-and-tested techniques that will help them craft and deliver an effective and impactful presentation at conferences, team meetings, and funding applications.

Focus: poster design, promotion, delivery

Attention is in short supply in our busy world, so this workshop equips participants with an understanding of how to use good design to attract and engage poster audiences. It covers traditional paper-based poster design as well as what to think about when designing posters for digital platforms, and depending on the format, includes modules on session promotion (especially for digital sessions) and delivery.

Focus: slide design

Death-by-Powerpoint (or whatever presentation tool you use) is still very much in evidence in scientific and research presentations. In this practical session, we'll focus on how to design slides that complement your presentation instead of detracting from it. Participants will learn the basics of good design theory, how to visualise data on slides, and how to tell a visual story that holds your audience's interest.

Focus: finding and telling science stories

This fun and practical workshop shows participants why stories work and helps them use narrative and story structures to make their research easier to understand and actionable. You'll learn a handful of useful frameworks, and use our story templates to plan, structure and deliver stories without dumbing-down your message.

Focus: skill building through practice

Our presentation lab is all about helping teams of presenters to get a chance to showcase their talks or presentations, and refine their skills in real-time with feedback from our presentation and speaking experts, and their peers. These workshops can be intense, with rapid learning potential, and are ideal as team builders or as practical workshops before conferences and critical meetings.

Focus: networking skills

Sometimes, it's not what you know but who you know... Our networking workshop for scientists and researchers is designed to help participants understand why networking matters, the different routes for networking in science, how to devise strategies to connect and network, and how to show up as the best version of yourself when a networking opportunity presents itself.

Focus: communicating science, communicating climate change

Communicating science to the so-called "general public" is becoming an increasingly important part of the role of scientists. The challenge is that communicating with non-experts requires a different way of thinking and communicating. Our short workshops and semester-long teaching programmes can help.

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Focus: tailor-made communication training

Do you have a particular set of needs that you want to address? We can work with you to create a tailor-made workshop or training series that incorporates some or all of the different interpersonal and practical communication skills training that we offer. Let's set up a time to speak and explore the possibilities.

Focus: voice, body language, non-verbal communication

Your body speaks even when you don’t say a word. And sometimes how you say it is more important than what you say. In this fun and informative workshop, participants will learn to understand how to recognise non-verbal cues, become more aware of their own, and use their new-found knowledge to improve interpersonal communication in all situations.