The summer months mean one thing at 3Pillars: TRAINING
This summer we have absolutely packed it in, making the most of the lull in our delivery to spend time together as a team learning, improving and plotting for the year ahead.
We kicked off training season with a roundtable session for the 3Pillars Leadership Community, our team of lived experience experts.
Surrounded by 3Pillars graduates, some of whom we met as far back as 2017, we mined their wisdom on topics like how could 3Pillars have more impact and, at what point whilst working with 3Pillars did you start to notice a change? For some it came down to the moment they felt like they connected with a member of the team, for others it came down to discovering a love of rugby, for many it was the wrap-around support and the hope which 3Pillars gave them. Or as MJ so beautifully put it-
“This place was the beginning of a lot of things for me. I don’t think I realised what 3PP was doing for me until after I had left. Training sessions with Kev, a mentor, the consistency - it all added up towards that feeling of change.”
If the day taught us one thing it was that the nuance and perspective our Leadership Community offer us is totally invaluable - a theme which we would see continue through our summer of training.
With the values of 3Pillars at the forefront of all of our minds, we were all back together soon for a teamwork and values workshop. First on the agenda was finding out each of our unique ‘strengths’ before combining them all together to find our team strengths… It might come as no surprise in our line of work that as a team we scored immensely high on relationship building but what was clear in equal measure was just how diverse a team we are in terms of what we bring to the table.
We had an inkling, but to see it confirmed in numbers and statistics that we’ve got something special going on in our team was pretty exciting.
A few weeks later we all met in sunny Nottingham to re-examine and revamp our 8 week in-custody Rugby Academy programme. What went well? Which bits should we just get rid of? How can we make it even better?
The innovation was palpable. We schemed, we scrutinised, we practiced every step with each other - we laughed, we learned - and it’s safe to say we created the best version of our Rugby Academy to date! We can’t wait to see how it turns out this year. I won’t give away any spoilers but this picture sums it up pretty well…
We weren’t done bettering ourselves yet though! Next up for the 3Pillars team was a truly spectacular communications workshop delivered by the one and only Nicky Perfect, hostage and crisis negotiator turned international communication coach.
Without engagement, connection and eventually, trust - our work would fall on deaf ears. Every interaction we have with the boys and men we work with has the potential to initiate a change in them which could transform their life, or just as easily, trigger them to disengage with us.
After all, it’s often not what we say to someone that they remember, but it’s how we made them feel. Nicky’s training equipped us with barrels of techniques and a whole new appreciation and awareness for how we communicate in every aspect of our lives.
This work on use of language and perspectives set us up brilliantly for our next stop. Joined once more by members of our Leadership Community, and by our lead trustee, Will Mackinlay, we all belted up for the ‘Choice theory and Reality Therapy Basic Intensive workshop’ - in a not so sunny Nottingham.
Based on the premise that every individual only has the power to control themselves and has limited power to control others - Mike chose to frame our interventions through Choice Theory at the inception of 3Pillars. What makes it so compatible? Choice Theory has a truly unique ability to give people agency and autonomy in their own lives - even within the confines of a prison.
We often say at 3Pillars that we are human-centred: there is no such thing as one size fits all when it comes to empowering a person who is in prison to make a change. We are all driven by the things which we hold as important to us and we all hold our own version of reality in our minds and in our hearts, but if we attempt to motivate those we work with based on our own versions, and not theirs, our efforts will fail. Change must come from within us, and Choice Theory techniques help us to raise the awareness in those we work with about what is important to them and what will drive them towards the life that they truly want.
Being 3Pillars, of course we couldn’t really get to grips with this course without some activities thrown in. So, for good measure, we took to the River Trent in double Kayaks to practice our skills on each other…
It feels like we all learnt a new language this summer. A new language to communicate with each other in, to communicate with our participants in, and to communicate to ourselves in. It required a lot of self reflection, but the training constantly pushed our levels of self-awareness and ultimately, this new language has shaped our understanding of the world we work in.
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