Peggy Revell
Free workshops to improve communication in the workplace are being offered to the community by the local Valley Adult Learning Association.
The first of these is slated for Saturday, Jan. 31, and runs from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. at the old CN station.
Participants also will be provided with a free lunch.
All that’s required is for participants to pre-register before Jan. 29 so organizers know the number attending, explained VALA administrator Barb Duguay.
She explained the idea for the program came after VALA ran a workshop last year about improving communications.
“So we thought why don’t we incorporate it into workplace communications?” Duguay remarked, noting workplace training is part of VALA’s mandate.
“Because a lot of people have a lot of barriers and challenges out there communicating in the workplace,” she stressed.
The Ontario Trillium Foundation gave VALA a grant of $31,700 to run eight of these workshops over the next two years free for the public.
While VALA already has approached the local Women’s Business Network to get a group of people to attend the first workshop, Duguay said all residents are welcome to come out.
And if Jan. 31 isn’t a good day, three more workshops will be held in the area, she added.
In the second year of the program, VALA also will be travelling to Dryden, Kenora, and Thunder Bay to run the workshops.
“Literacy is more than just reading and writing,” Duguay stressed, noting it covers a wide spectrum from math literacy to computer literacy.
“So now we’ve expanded into workplace literacy,” she explained. “How do people keep their jobs? What ways can we help them be successful in the workplace?”
“I’d have to say that oral communications is one of the most under-rated forms of communication,” said VALA instructor Kim Redford. “People think, ‘Oh, I can speak, and therefore I’m wonderful at it,’ but it’s not true because you’ve got so much background and there’s a perspective, and you’re always hearing and speaking from your own paradigm.
“What [you] intend to say isn’t necessarily what [another person] is hearing,” she stressed. “So there’s always that gap there between what we say and what we mean, and what other people are hearing and taking from that.
“It’s surprising how much conflict could be avoided, or how much more effective we could be, if we could communicate more effectively.”
As such, the objectives of this workshop are to “build self-awareness, facilitate abilities to share thoughts and feelings, refresh listening and responding skills, journaling through illustration, [and] deeper understanding of improving working relationships,” Redford said.
“The workshop is a little bit of ‘Oprah,’ a little bit of ‘Dr. Phil,’ and a whole lot of personal growth,” described Duguay.
For those who’ve ever had problems in the workplace, Duguay encourages them to come to the workshop since they can gain new ways of listening and responding to challenges faced with an employer or others they come in contact with.
“[The program] will help them manage and enhance their skills relating to others, even if they feel that they communicate well,” said local artist Valerie Larson, who has partnered with VALA for the project.
“There’s still some self-awareness, where they can be more aware of their strengths, their weaknesses.”
For example, one of the skills that will be improved upon at the workshop is increasing your vocabulary to describe thoughts and feelings, and to become more articulate and specific, Larson explained.
“If something at work is making you mad, well, pinpoint it more specifically,” Larson cited as an example. “Are you frustrated? Are you overwhelmed? Why are you mad?”
People attending also will get to flex a bit of their artistic muscle in one section of the workshop being led by Larson.
Visualization exercises will be used, where people have to convert an idea that they’re thinking on to paper to communicate that idea with somebody else, she explained.
“It’s a way of expanding their thinking skills and their perceptual skills.” Larson noted. “It’s also a good way to get your point across to others because the majority of us are visual learners.”
“It’s lots of participation, it’s a lot of group exercises, there’s a whole lot of communication, the group will be talking,” Duguay added. “It’s a hands-on workshop.”
For more information or to register, Call VALA at 274-3553.
