In 1990, I began working as a training actor in addition to my theatre work. I assisted with hundreds of training courses, saw many trainers at work, and by observing them selected the most effective and attractive working methods and techniques. I noticed that some trainers actually contributed to the participants’ personal effectiveness, whereas others did so to a lesser extent.
The drive to be at the helm myself made me take the training to become a communication trainer with BGL & Partners in 2018/2019.
In the past few years, the main focus in my work shifted towards working as a trainer.
I got in touch with Dialogue BV while working as a skills trainer and mentor at the Professional Training for Lawyers, which I had been associated with since 2013. Especially in my role as a mentor, I could zoom in on the individual participant.
Growing more and more fascinated by people, their personal stories and their desire for having more control of certain aspects of life, I decided to take the coach course with Dialogue.
For other clients: see acts & facts.
In 2019, my training courses were graded 9.1 on a ten-point scale.
As a training actor I am the bridge between theory and practice. The trainer and I make up a duo. This collaboration will be most effective, if trainer and actor each operate from their own domain: the trainer ‘knows everything’ and the actor ‘feels everything.’
As a training actor I am primarily subservient to the participant. The trainer and the actor need to ensure that the participants can feel comfortable to reflect on their own practice and experiment with alternative behaviour. I have traditional role play at my disposal, as well as many other working methods. Tailoring the working method to the participant’s learning style is essential. This safe learning environment is of central importance!
A good training actor is not only ‘a supplier of behaviour’, as many training actors introduce themselves to the participants, but is also able to render a role, or a life-like, multi-layer personality. In this way, I, as a training actor, do more justice to the participant’s intractable reality.
A group of participants, preferably in a team, and a trainer. As a trainer, I talk to the participants about their practice: what is the current situation, what is the desired situation? How do we bridge it? Which qualities already present can help with this transition? Both individual qualities and team qualities. What challenges can we formulate together? Which personal challenges, which team challenges? I have extensive knowledge of many models that may serve in this transition as a basic template. Yet, the intractability of daily practice is always at the centre. There are several ways to achieve our objective. In most cases, it is all a matter of bringing the knowledge available at an intuitive level to the surface.
Many working methods are available to me as a trainer to explore the challenges by practical experience and to experiment with new behaviour. A training actor might come in handy in this process.
I often combine myself the roles of trainer and training actor: the ‘acting trainer’. This combination enables me to switch between theory and practice in a flash.
The same principles hold for training and workshops. The difference? Time span, and therefore depth too. A training takes one to three days; a workshop one hour to half a day.
My specialty is training in the field of personal effectiveness and dealing with transgressive behavior. My passion lies with these items.
As a coach, I explore the coachee’s change request together with the coachee in a number of sessions agreed on in advance and establish what change the coachee really requires. We examine the old story and explore the new story. Gradually I check again and again whether the process still meets the wishes of the coachee.
What images does the coachee want to discard? What are the power sources in the old story? How would you tell the new story? Which steps would bring the desired story closer?
In the transition from old into new, I adopt an ‘ignorant’ attitude as a coach and exercise restraint. I hold up the mirror and ask questions, using several methods in the process.
But above all I create a safe bed in which the stories of the coachee can flow. I am convinced that change only takes shape and is only perpetuated in a safe bed.
The new story and the journey to get there are already embedded in the coachee intuitively. I help the participant uncover it and formulate the steps to take – small, feasible steps but steadily onward. I offer support for having faith, once the path has been chosen.