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Craft of Communication is a new kind of training company for Managers and Executives who wish to develop their Communication Skills. The company was set up by John Abulafia, the international theatre and opera director. His experience and skills are the bedrock of this new method of training. He is now in great demand as a Management Trainer, Executive Coach and expert in Communication Skills in both the private and public sectors.



Running Meetings & Facilitation Skills


What you learn.

There are Four Modules

Module One: Working From Neutral

The key running a successful meeting is a specialised variant of High Status, called Neutral. This allows a Leader (Chairperson or Facilitator) to vary their status up and down at will as the meeting develops. For example:

  • At the start of a meeting the Leader will need to be High Status to call the meeting to order and announce the agenda. Then,
  • they will slightly lower status to ask questions in as way that makes the group feel their opinions are welcome. But,
  • when listening to answers it is important for the Leader tyo get their status just below that of the person answering.

All this is taught by role-playing meetings. Throughout the training, everyone has a chance to play the role of Leader.

Module Two: Creative Use Of Questions

Participants learn how to guide a meeting by using questions in a flexible, subtle way. Using questions encourages participation, good listening and keeps the group’s energy high. The participants explore the Seven Kinds of Question.

Using role-play, participants learn how each produces different kinds of information and establishes subtly different relationship between the questioner and those answering.

Module Three: Advanced Neutral & Creative Interventions

Advanced use of Neutral helps the Leader to facilitate discussions. This is a highly creative technique taught to Theatre Directors. It enables them to plant ideas in such a way that groups or individuals feel they have discovered them. It also energises meetings so that working in a group makes individuals far more creative than if they were alone.The key is for the Leader to intervene at key moments to either:

  • Change the Team’s relationship to the problem, or
  • Change their own relationship to the Team.

It is a characteristic of the psychology of groups that whenever the Leader initiates this kind of change it re energises the discussion. In turn this enhances the creativity of the group both collectively and individually.

All these are explored in role play. Participants are given lists of both kinds of relationship-changes.

Module Four: Dealing with Conflict & Difficult People

Working from Neutral helps Leaders to deal with conflict. They are able to move the conflict: it can cease to be an issue between individuals and become something on the table that needs to be discussed. Using Neutral can achieve this when the conflict is between the leader and another person or an entire group.

The same technique can help a leader or facilitator to deal with the various individuals who can make meetings difficult and unproductive. These are:

  • The Side Talker
  • The Discussion dominator
  • The Know-all
  • The Chronic Devil’s Advocate
  • The Interrupter and/or Heckler
  • The Person asking obvious, redundant or over-detailed questions
  • The Person who is difficult to hear or understand
  • Those who show obvious lack on interest
  • The Sleeper
  • The Low energy group
  • The Late arriver & early departer.

This course is designed to help you to

  • Start and run meetings with maximum authority and efficiency
  • Run meetings in a manner that is both authoritative and enabling
  • Keep control of the agenda without stifling discussion
  • Manage q & a sessions
  • Facilitate discussions to ensure maximum creativity
  • Manage conflict within groups and teams
  • Deal with hostility towards yourself
  • Develop the collective and individual creativity of teams
  • Challengesand stimulates a team by creative use of questions
  • Deal with individuals who subvert or disrupt discussions
  • Win round team members whose attitude is negative
  • Involve team members who have previously with drawn from discussions.





Client Feedback 1:

"Thank you, once again, for a great training. I put my newly acquired techniques to the test at the meeting on Friday and, much to my delight, they worked!. In the past, they've barraged me with questions. This time, even though we had a longer session, and some really important issues to discuss, it was a discussion of equals, not a badgering of the young lady in front of the screen.”

SUZANNE WOODALL, Principal, Kurt Salmon Associates




Client Feedback 2:

I’ve already had feedback from your session, and heard very positive things. Stephen used your input to good effect facilitating a meeting with the Care Group later that day. Su spoke positively about her session (not something she always does very readily!), and Sarah said you were marvellous and had helped her a lot …just what she needed, given the meetings she has to run, a big help, worth taking the day out for! All in all it sounds like you were very well received. as I expected having had the benefit of your input myself!

TINA HARRIS, Director Isle of Wight Health Care Trust




Client Feedback 3:

“John - all I can say is you've hit the spot! I think spontaneity is absolutely the issue in running meetings. It all made (and still makes) a lot of sense and I feel these facilitation techniques meet my needs. Thanks again.”

MARK RICHARDSON: Smith & Nephew.




On learning new things:

If I am told, I may forget.
If I do, I will remember.

Lao Tze (9th Century Chinese poet and philosopher.)