Craft of Communication’s theatre-based techniques have proved to be popular and highly effective in helping Managers and Executives to develop their Communication Skills. Set up in 2002 by John Abulafia, the international theatre and opera director, we now have over 130 clients in 53 sectors. The disciplines of Performance, and a deep understanding of the psychology of Audiences, Leaders and Teams, provide the bedrock of our training - whether we are working with groups or one-to-one.
Client List: Private Sector
Accountancy
Aegis, Grant Thornton, RSM Robson Rhodes.
Arts
Arts Council of England, Hayward Gallery, South Bank Centre.
Beauty
L’Oreal.
Banking
Barclays, Coutts, Deutsche Bank (Germany), JP Morgan, Lloyds Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland.
Brewers
Coors.
Catering & Vending
Bunzl.
City
London Metal Exchange, The Profile Group.
Construction:
Bovis Lend Lease, Breyer Group, James Dawson, ISG, Sunley Group.
Consultancy
Accenture (UK & France), Kurt Salmon Associates (UK, France & Germany) , Leading Minds (Beirut & Saudi Arabia), Matchett Group, PDN, Proudfoot Consulting. QA-IQ, TSO, Whitmuir Consulting.
Defence
Qinetiq.
Education
Central School of Speech & Drama, University of London, Queens University, Belfast.
Electronics Contractors
T. Clarke.
Environment
Environment Agency, Natural England
Energy Suppliers
BG, Centrica, Homeserve, Inenco, National Grid Transco, Petrom (Romania), Shell Petroleum. Total GP. Yukos Oil (Russia).
Engineering
Fenner PLC (UK & US), Mouchel Parkman, Waterman PLC.
Financial Services
Man Financial.
Flight Control
Eurocontrol
Food & Drink
Coca Cola, Masterfoods, Saxby, Tulip.
Furniture
Herman Miller, MFI.
Health Insurance
HSA Healthcare, ISO Healthcare.
Health Suppliers
Fresenius (Italy), Smith & Nephew.
Health
British Heart Foundation, Diabetes UK, Healthcare Commission.
Health & Household
Boots PLC, Unilever
Home Improvements
Kingfisher PLC.
Housing
Richmond Housing Trust.
HR Outsourcing
Hewitt Associates.
Industrial Safety
Halma.
Insurance
HSA Healthcare, ISO Healthcare, Old Mutual PLC (in UK & Capetown), Oval Group.
Insurance Underwriters:
Beazley, Lloyds Underwriters.
Internet Providers
Thus PLC, Yahoo.
Internet Marketing
eBay, Play.com
Investment Services
Barclays Global.
IT
ACSN, Cisco Systems, Energis.
Marketing
Flow Interactive, The Future Foundation.
Manufacturing
Fenner PLC, Zotefoam.
MBA Courses
Birkbeck College, Bournemouth University, University of Edinburgh, Birkbeck College.
Media:
Channel 4, Walt Disney, CNN / Turner Broadcasting, Rawrip, Sky Television.
Office Rentals
Workspace.
Pest Control
Rentokil.
Pharmaceuticals
Goldshield, Reckitt Benkiser.
PR
Brandhouse, Federation of Image Consultants.
Project Management
Grainger PLC, Quintain, Shaftesbury.
Retail
BHS, Budgens, Morrisons.
Risk Management
Lloyds Underwriters.
Science & Technology
Anglo Scientific.
Service Management
Serco.
Sportswear
Helle Hanson (Oslo).
Telecoms
BT, O2, Virgin Media, Vodafone.
Transport:
Leith Ports Authority, London Crossrail, Tubelines.
Web Services
Flow Interactive.
Client List: PUBLIC SECTOR
Central Government:
Ministry of Defence, Department for Transport, Environment Agency.
Police
Lothian & Borders Police, Norfolk Police.
Local Authority
Islington Council, North Yorkshire County Council, Portsmouth City Council, Stevenage Council.
NHS
Isle of Wight NHS Trust. Winchester NHS Trust.
OUR NEWEST CLIENTS & LATEST PROJECTS:
STAMMERING: how Craft of Communication can help:
THE KING’S SPEECH has brought to public attention how debilitating it can be to stammer.
We have found that stammering is a problem for a significant minority of executives. Companies are often unaware of the issue because people who stammer (stammerers) have had to become adept at disguising it. That, however, sets up all sorts of tensions in the body, which can lead to health problems such as chronic pain.
Our Associate, Molly Greenwood, has a BSc (Hons) in Speech and Language Therapy and an MA in Voice Studies. Part of her work is with adults who stammer. Molly likens the stammer to an iceberg.
“The tip of the iceberg is what the outside world sees and hears: blocks, repetitions or prolongations of certain consonants, averted eye-gaze or habitual body movement to help ‘get the words out’ Beneath this are that individual’s thoughts, emotions, experiences and hidden behaviour around their particular stammer.”
In the film, Bertie’s stammer was obvious to everyone. However, some people have what is termed
a ‘Covert Stammer’. In this case, the speech difficulties are not obvious to the outside world. Those with a covert stammer often have a particularly large vocabulary so they can quickly think of a different word to replace one they think they might stammer on if said aloud.
Whether an individual’s stammer is Overt or Covert, those who stammer deal with huge amounts of anxiety around speaking which can affect their relationships and how they manage at work.
The film shows how a purely medical approach to stammering may be insufficient because it fails to acknowledge the expressive components to voice. Working in a free playful way, as Logue does,
can help people access fluency much more quickly.
Logue pioneered this approach. Today, speech therapists like Molly help people who stammer along the path to physically freeing the voice and so finding ways of being more fluent.
OUR NEWEST CLIENTS & LATEST PROJECTS:
We now have 132 clients in 53 sectors.
In 2010, we won twelve major new clients: e Bay, Centrica, Serco, Play.com, Hewitt, Tulip, Bunzl, Rentokil, The Environment Agency and Petrom, the Romanian Oil company. In December alone, we won two major London-based property companies: Shaftesbury and Quintain.
In January 2011, we were asked by Bovis Land Lease to create two programmes. The first is designed to enhance Presentation and Communication skills throughout the company. The second programme is designed to help the company’s Bid Teams to increase their success rate when they pitch for new projects.
In addition, our long-standing clients, like L’Oreal, Unilever, the South Bank Centre, Coors, Kurt Salmon Associates, Qinetiq, Workspace, British Heart Foundation and Cisco Systems continue to ask us to run workshops or work one-to-one with their senior executives.