I used this material as part of a management course about building an effective team. I used this alongside the module Acts of Recognition. I feel it helped managers to think about how they currently relate to their team members, where there is room for improvement and how this can affect team performance. Useful scenarios which are very relevant to real-life in a busy working environment.

I really liked the use of case studies to explore how rapport works in practice and how easy it is in the workplace to let it slip.

Before we reviewed the case studies, I added in a short exercise where I asked them to work in 3’s. Two people would have a discussion (about what they did last night), the 3rd would be an observer. At first the partner would listen well when in the conversation. Mid-way through they were directed to stop listening. The observer then fed-back about body language, speech patterns, attitude etc and how it affected the conversation.

I found this really helped people ‘get into the case studies’ and imagine how the ‘characters’ felt.