Shirley Gaston

Shirley Gaston

Award-winning facilitator, speaker, experiential learning expert, leadership developer
Harrogate, England, United Kingdom

Shirley has specialised in experiential learning for more than 20 years. She values integrity and honesty and these qualities are intrinsic to her learning programmes. It is important to her to be really approachable and, although highly professional, her overt friendliness and generosity are part of her style. Shirley has worked in training and education for more than twenty years and is a regular speaker and author on the subject of experiential learning. She has a first-class degree in Education as well as a Post Graduate Certificate and Diploma in Professional Training and Development. She also holds numerous psychometric qualifications and has attended many short trainer development programmes as well as providing them herself for her own staff. She is head of an ILM training centre, and specialises in team and leadership development and helping trainers to ‘zest’ up their programmes!

Shirley has specialised in experiential learning for more than 20 years. She values integrity and honesty and these qualities are intrinsic to her learning programmes. It is important to her to be really approachable and, although highly professional, her overt friendliness and generosity are part of her style. Shirley has worked in training and education for more than twenty years and is a regular speaker and author on the subject of experiential learning. She has a first-class degree in Education as well as a Post Graduate Certificate and Diploma in Professional Training and Development. She also holds numerous psychometric qualifications and has attended many short trainer development programmes as well as providing them herself for her own staff. She is head of an ILM training centre, and specialises in team and leadership development and helping trainers to ‘zest’ up their programmes!

linkedin.com/in/shirleygaston/
Languages
EnglishFrench
Topics
communicationleadershipskillsteamteambuildingteamwork
Methods in the SessionLab library
Shirley Gaston

Tower of Power

teamteamworkcommunicationleadershipteambuildingskills

This teamwork activity requires participants to work closely together to build a tower from a set of building blocks. 

The players need to coordinate their actions in order to be able to move the wooden blocks with the crane they have, and this can only be solved by precise planning, good communication and well-organised teamwork.

You may use this exercise to emphasise the following themes and outcomes:

  • In Leadership training: identifying interdependencies in systems, leadership communication, dealing with risk, giving feedback
  • In Team building: communicating effectively, cooperating, being an active listener, maintaining the balance, working with values
  • In Project management: simulating strategic planning, working under time pressure
  • In Communication training: meta communication, facilitating, dealing with different perspectives
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