PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Supercharge your team for success! These programs engage staff in immersive experiences with guided practice that will transform your workplace. We offer a variety of interactive WORKSHOPS & SEMINARS and live, Interactive PERFORMANCES.

The SAPPHIRE will support your learning goals with: 

• INDIVIDUAL GROWTH & TEAM-BUILDING:We create a low-risk environment for attendees to experience difficult real-life situations, working together to explore the challenges and move towards positive resolutions. Individual creativity and group problem-solving are both engaged, with a strong emphasis on effective means of interpersonal communication.
• PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE:We know that adults learn best by doing, and behaviors only change with practice. Our training achieves lasting change for your team through immersive, experiential learning that appeals to widely diverse styles.
• LONG-LASTING IMPACT:Our training goes deeper than PowerPoint presentations or topical discussions.  We use experiential teaching styles to establish learning goals, foster vibrant dialogue, and develop the strategic thinking skills that lead to best outcomes. Attendees often remember our training years and decades after experiencing it.
• RESOURCES & TAKE-AWAYS:Our programs are packed with practical suggestions that invigorate and energize participants and are immediately applicable. Everyone will walk away from every session with valuable resources and ongoing learning opportunities to extend the educational experience.
• CUSTOM CREATIONS:All programs are tailored to fit your organizational needs, work environment, schedule and parameters. Don’t see your particular topic…? We can work with you to create a customized learning experience to fit your specific needs.

The Sapphire offers interactive WORKSHOPS & SEMINARS and interactive PERFORMANCES led by engaging facilitators.  Don’t let your next staff training be just another staff training! Give your team an entertaining learning experience event that will resonate long after the training itself.  Your staff will thank you for providing creative, unique training unlike anything else they’ve experienced!

WORKSHOPS & SEMINARS

Facilitators lead theatre-based games and exercises to teach the established learning points. The workshops provide fun, meaningful experientials that can be directly applied in the workplace.  Individual creativity and group problem-solving are both engaged, with a strong emphasis on effective means of interpersonal communication and experiential learning.  Short introductions to concepts are followed by multiple participant experiences, then wrapped up with reflection and rehearsal on applying the learning in work and life.

• READERS THEATRE[On-site Workshop; Up to 30 participants.] Collaboration, consensus-building, listening and strong communication skills are strengthened in this arts integration workshop where your entire team takes center stage in rehearsal and performance of a work-related short play.  LOOK for more info about READERS THEATRE on www.IndyArtsEd.org!
• LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT[On-site Workshop; Up to 30 participants.]
  Effective leadership requires a wide array of interpersonal skills that must be adaptable for each moment and opportunity.  Creating a safe environment through our process allows attendees freedom to stretch from their normal habits to try novel approaches, strengthening skills of effective leadership communication.
• BRAIN BREAKS[On-site Workshop; Up to 30 participants.]
  Current neuroscience shows that just 90-seconds of activity shift periodically throughout the day can mitigate the physiological effects of stress in learning and in the workplace. Breathing techniques, physical stances and theatrical exercises help the body recover from daily stresses even when available in only small bursts. This workshop teaches the fundamentals of separating the mind from the body through breath, balance and brain breaks, while learning how to reintegrate them with active but contained exercise techniques applicable to all ages. Leave the workshop with takeaway exercises and printed materials with tips and techniques for creating brain breaks.
• LISTENING and the LOST ART of CONSENSUS BUILDING[On-site Workshop; Up to 30 participants.] This workshop highlights diversity and inclusion by focusing on listening to the diverse voices around us. Highly interactive, this workshop provides not only the latest evidence and information about the benefits of diverse learning environments and workplaces, but also clear and executable exercises for improving various types of inclusion. By starting with the skill of listening to accept rather than to respond, participants find ways to set aside personal and unconscious biases and improve communication and instruction techniques.
• AVOIDING BURNOUT BEHIND the SCENES[On-site Workshop; Up to 30 participants.] Youth workers and educators are pulled in a million different directions while trying to focus simultaneously on students, parents, community members, administration, standards, and more! We created this workshop to help bring back the first-day passion and balance necessary for success, without sugar-coating the challenges.
• IMPROVE with IMPROV![On-site Workshop; Up to 30 participants.] This interactive, high-energy workshop utilizes the techniques of theatrical comedy improvisation to teach communication and relationship skills. Listening actively, thinking quickly, applying mindfulness to stressful situations, and building relationships comprise the focus of this professional development workshop. Takeaway games for all ages included.

PICTURE THIS for Professional Development

Professional improvisation actors portray real-life scenes customized for each audience, then facilitators guide a two-way conversation between the audience and the characters, exploring the issues and navigating difficult conversations. The PICTURE THIS process allows participants to directly engage with challenging subjects in a safe, low-risk environment.

KEY TOPICS for Audiences of Teachers, Educators and Youth Workers:

• Communication & Conflict Resolution:  Empathetic listening, understanding voice and body language, and de-escalation techniques are stressed for better working relationships.
• Diversity, Equity & Inclusion:  By fostering healthy dialogue about differences in race, ethnicity, gender, ages, religions, sexual orientation, political views, backgrounds, personalities and more, we help move audiences along from tolerance to acceptance and towards truly valuing diversity in the workplace.
• Managing Change:  It’s been said that the only thing constant is change. Attitude and communication skills are vital in navigating both big and little changes in life and work.
• Workplace Violence: Raising awareness, identifying early warning signs, and knowing how/where to report are all critical to prevent situations from escalating.  We partner with topical and tactical experts to offer further training in handling critical events.