Relate Differently
RELATE DIFFERENTLY
People are complicated.
That’s rather the point.
Relationships become interesting when we stop trying to simplify other people.
When we listen beyond the words. Stay when emotion enters the room. Get curious about resistance. And make enough space for disagreement without rushing to make it disappear.
Practical, experiential learning for people who work with people — because how we relate changes what becomes possible between us.
RELATIONSHIPS ARE THE WORK
Working with people means working with what happens between people.
We listen. We misunderstand. We connect. We react. We make assumptions. We become defensive. We avoid. We push. We withdraw. We occasionally surprise ourselves.
None of that sits outside the work.
It is the work.
Relate Differently develops the capacity to notice what is happening — in the other person, in yourself and in the space between you — and to work with it more consciously.
Not by learning the perfect thing to say.
By becoming more able to listen, stay curious, remain present and respond differently when the relationship gets harder.
Interested in how these capabilities show up in leadership? Explore Lead Differently →
FOUR WAYS TO RELATE DIFFERENTLY
What happens between us matters.
These experiential relationship skills workshops each start somewhere different — with how you listen, how you respond to emotion, how you work with resistance, or what you do when disagreement remains.
Take one as a standalone workshop. Combine several. Or experience all four as a developmental journey in relational practice.
01 / LISTEN
Listen Differently
You are part of what you hear.
Listening is often taught as something we do to another person: pay attention, notice their words and tone, paraphrase, ask questions.
But listening is also shaped by the person doing the listening.
Our experience, assumptions, culture, beliefs, expectations and biases all influence what becomes available for us to hear — and what we miss.
This workshop moves beyond active listening towards actively listening: to the words and what sits beneath them; to emotion, metaphor, silence and context; to the wider system; and to ourselves as part of the listening process.
Because changing the way you listen can change the relationship.
One-day experiential workshop · Listening, presence and awareness · Practice and reflection
02 / STAY PRESENT
When Emotions Enter the Room
Emotion isn’t the problem. Avoidance is.
Emotion doesn’t stop at the door when we arrive at work.
Anger. Anxiety. Tears. Excitement. Defensiveness. Silence. Frustration. They enter conversations, meetings and relationships — and they create responses in us too.
We might rescue. Reassure. Fix. Defend. Withdraw. Reach for the tissues. Try to make the moment smaller.
This workshop explores another possibility: stay.
Learn to notice what someone else’s emotion evokes in you, regulate your own response and remain curious about what the emotion might be revealing — without needing to diagnose it, fix it or make it disappear.
Because when emotion enters the room, you don’t have to make it leave.
One-day experiential workshop · Emotion, presence and response · Real situations and practice
03 / LISTEN
Working With Resistance
What if resistance isn’t something to overcome?
Resistance can be frustrating — in other people and in ourselves.
We push. They push back. We explain harder. They become more entrenched. And before long, two people are defending positions rather than discovering what is actually going on.
Resistance often protects something: a value, a belief, a need, an identity, a sense of safety or something we’re not yet ready to lose.
This workshop develops the ability to notice resistance without immediately fighting it; to recognise what it evokes in you; to get curious about what might sit underneath it; and to help create movement without forcing it.
The question isn’t only What is this resistance protecting?
It’s also:
Given what is true now, what is possible?
One-day experiential workshop · Self and others · Curiosity, agency and adaptation
Working with organisational change? Explore Leading Through Change →
04 / STAY WITH IT
Stay With the Tension
Not all tension needs to be resolved. Some tension needs to be heard.
When people disagree, we often want to make the discomfort disappear.
We smooth things over. Find a quick compromise. Stay silent. Or do the opposite — double down, defend our position and stop listening to anything that might disturb it.
But disagreement can contain important information.
This workshop explores what it takes to speak when something needs to be said, listen when another person’s position challenges your own, and remain in relationship long enough to discover what sits beneath the disagreement.
Understanding doesn’t require agreement. Empathy doesn’t require capitulation.
Sometimes the outcome isn’t we agree.
It’s:
We understand what matters. We’ve said what needed saying. And we know how to continue from here.
One-day experiential workshop · Disagreement and conflict · Speaking, listening and staying
TAKE ONE. TAKE SEVERAL. OR TAKE THE JOURNEY.
Four workshops. One relational practice.
Each ‘Relate Differently’ workshop stands alone.
Together, they become something more.
LISTEN → FEEL → RESIST → STAY
Across the four workshops, participants develop their capacity to listen more deeply, remain present with emotion, work constructively with resistance and stay in relationship when perspectives differ.
The complete pathway can be experienced as a closed cohort, with space between workshops to practise in real relationships, bring the learning back to work, reflect on what happened and return to explore it together.
Four workshop days · Practice between sessions · Reflection and integration · Certificate of completion
HOW WE LEARN
You can’t learn relationship without being in relationship.
There will be theory. Models can give us language for things we experience but don’t always know how to name.
And then we’ll put them down and work with what actually happens.
Expect conversation, experimentation, practice, reflection, feedback, real situations and the occasional uncomfortable moment.
Because relating differently isn’t something you understand and then possess.
You notice. You practise. You get it wrong. You notice something else. And you try again.
NOTICE. LISTEN. STAY. RESPOND. RETURN.
Not a formula. A practice. A way of being.
WHO THIS IS FOR
For people who work with people.
You might be a leader, manager, coach, facilitator, HR professional, consultant or someone whose work depends on conversations and relationships.
You don’t need a particular role or level of seniority.
What matters is that your work asks you to listen when you don’t immediately understand, stay present when emotion appears, work with resistance rather than simply push against it, and have relationships capable of holding difference.
Relate Differently workshops can be joined individually, experienced as a complete pathway, or brought into an organisation for an intact group or cohort.
Working with a team rather than a cohort of learners? Explore Team Coaching →
START WHERE YOU ARE
What happens between you and other people?
Perhaps you want to listen differently. Perhaps there’s a conversation you keep avoiding. Perhaps resistance keeps appearing. Or perhaps your team needs to get better at disagreeing without disconnecting.
You don’t need to know which workshop you need.
Tell me what’s happening — and we’ll start there.