Training
Ground Floor Co-CEOs Richard Lam and Tahirih Vejdani teaching a workshop for the Association of Acting Coaches and Educators in 2023. Photo by Manon Bourgeois.
Learn new skills and add new tools into your practice
At Ground Floor, we are pleased to offer training related to our core focuses of conflict management, collaborative tools, and empathy building in the workplace. Our trainings are designed to be practical explorations of the interpersonal dynamics we encounter at work. Trainings can also be flexibly designed for the specific needs of your organization, exploring topics and tools that are relevant to you.
Some of the workshops we have offered in the past include:
Conflict Management Training
In this session, we outline the predictable patterns of conflict that form between people who work together. We look at the root causes of these cycles, and discuss a number of methods for identifying them as they happen. Then, we talk about how to address and resolve conflicts when they do occur. This session is suitable for any group of people who work together.
De-Escalation Training
This session is designed to help public or client-facing workers who may experience high-conflict interactions. We talk about the psychological and physiological systems in the body that cause people to escalate interactions in the moment, and give a systematic "map" of a de-escalation with concrete objectives at each step of the interaction. We also discuss how organizational policy can support workers in these interactions. This session is suitable for call centre or box office workers, front of house staff, educators, or anyone else who deals with the public.
Creating A Room Agreement
This session digs into the practice of creating a room agreement. A room agreement is a series of collectively created guidelines for collaboration that articulates the individual and collective needs of the group, the values the group aspires to hold, and the ways they wish to engage each other if those values are not met. In this training we discuss all of the aspects of creating a room agreement, what their function is, and why they are important. We also discuss the practicalities of using and maintaining the room agreement once it has been created. This session is suitable for arts professionals, educators, and anyone who wants to strengthen their practice in leading groups of people.
Request a custom workshop
If you have a specific need that's not addressed by our existing workshops, but which falls into our area of practice, we would be happy to discuss creating a workshop to address it. You can contact us to discuss what you need and how we can be of service.