Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Have you ever screwed up your courage to propose a project or raise a difficult issue, only to find you’ve been misunderstood?
Or have you ever found yourself thinking you’ve listened to someone’s concerns or ideas, only for them to tell you they feel they haven’t been heard?
When we feel we’ve been really listened to, we feel valued by the listener. Listening effectively can help you to build trust, demonstrate to your team how much you value them and their ideas, and avoid conflict. It can support your ability to lead responsively, confident in your understanding of the concerns and approaches of your team.
This two-hour workshop offers participants a forum to explore reflective listening skills and linguistic profiling, and to discuss some of the barriers we can experience when we try to listen.
During the session you will be given the opportunity to share your experiences and to undertake some simple exercises actors use when analysing subtext* adapted specifically to help you to explore ways you can develop your confidence in your listening skills.
*the implicit meaning expressed ‘underneath’ the words spoken.
Emma Heron is a theatre maker, writer and educator based in Liverpool, England. Originally trained as an actor at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Emma studied Text and Performance at Masters level at RADA and Kings College, joining Edge Hill University as a Senior Lecturer in Drama in 2006. In 2010, she co-founded Theatr Gadair Ddu, a Welsh-English bilingual theatre company based in Liverpool and Rhuthun. Cadair Ddu creates theatre focused on exploring the narratives and experiences of traditionally underrepresented communities in the Welsh diaspora.
Throughout her career, Emma has developed her acting and directing work in parallel with her work as an educator, maintaining a strong commitment to using theatre skills and techniques as tools of empowerment for education and training. A member of the Pankhurst Centre’s Heritage Committee since 2018, until the pandemic Emma was also Artistic Director of Mrs Pankhurst’s Players, Edge Hill University’s feminist theatre collective for female, male and gender non-binary students and recent graduates. In 2019, Emma’s work with Mrs Pankhurst’s Players was presented to Her Royal Highness Princess Ann.
Currently, alongside her work for #WECAN, Emma is researching female histories in the Liverpool Welsh community for the Daughters of Gwenfrewi project, part of Theatr Gadadir Ddu’s Breaking the Stone series, created to explore previously hidden histories of groups often marginalised from the Liverpool Welsh community.
