Soft skills training the fun way
I help teams improve communication, collaboration and creativity using theatre and improvisation techniques and simple online tools.
Engaging employees online
Discover games and tools for maintaining energy and engagement during remote work
Online meetings are often less effective, as their participants have more distractors and easily disengage. Work relations suffer due to a lack of chance encounters and dedicated chat spaces. Speakers have difficulty feeling the energy of the virtual room and knowing whether people are actually listening to them.
You will discover games and simple online tools that you can use to increase energy, nurture collaboration and inspire creativity online.
Soft skills through improvisation
Boost creativity, nurture collaboration and/or develop effective communication within the team.
Teams most often experience conflict and low efficiency due to a lack of communication, trust and psychological safety.
Improvisation exercises help develop collaboration, co-creation and communication in a fun and light way.
Each exercise will lead to a reflection on your team's barriers, strengths and opportunities. This will help you work in an environment with less conflict and a friendlier atmosphere.
Public speaking made fun
Feel comfortable with your body, voice and structure when giving speeches or presentations.
Public speaking feels stressful and overwhelming for most of us. The question is whether the stress paralyses or energises you.
Carefully picked theatre and improv exercises will help you feel more relaxed, become more persuasive and confident.
We will exaggerate, role-play and work on body language and voice across scenarios that are novel for you.
Why use theatre and improv techniques?
Improvisation teaches you skills needed for the future of workforce. The proficiency of thinking and coming up with solutions and responses beyond that which is rule-based is a key skill for success in 21st century business according to the Institute for the Future.
Improvisation teaches you to adapt to novel situations, to listen to your partner(s), to quickly come up with ideas, and to be courageous and take risks. It engages your mind and your body. It shows you how to operate in constantly shifting circumstances. Applied improvisation and theatre approaches take the tools and skills developed in theatre and comedy and use them for non-theatrical purposes.
No wonder improvisation and theatre training are often used in business training environments in the USA and the UK, even by Fortune 500 companies. Improvisation is taught in MBA courses at Stanford, MIT and Duke. Studies show that improv’s low-stakes training increases the likelihood that team members will feel comfortable communicating in a variety of work situations.
My experience in psychology and theatre allows me to use improv tools in a self-developmental context. I readily notice group and personal needs. I work with what each person finds most challenging and useful.
Read more about my method, see references and descriptions of example activities.
What skills are developed during workshops?
self-confidence
creativity
active listening
adaptability
cooperation
body awareness
conscious use of voice
What people say?
"Maja brings a certain energy to the room, making you just want to do it. She is extremely engaged in facilitating the process and the exercises are real fun! And then you discuss what you learned, and it turns out it actually applies to everyday life."
Anna, Siemens
"My job involves pitching ideas to my team on a weekly basis and it has been a constant source of anxiety. Maja's exercises in body language where I was able to exaggerate in imaginary scenarios allowed me to embody a new sense of power and confidence."
Klaudia, Bain&Company
"At first I said no way, I'm not going to read the text as if I was a military officer, it's pointless. Maja's non-obtrusive encouragement made me give it a go, and here I was talking with more confidence than ever, louder, faster, without a stutter. Love the method!"
Jan, workshop for Fundacja Polska Debatuje