Teaching grads to communicate
The ask
The talent development team wanted someone to run a communication workshop for their graduate cohort. It was part of a multi-day camp: outdoor activities, team building, a handful of professional development sessions. Mine was day three.
What I was designing for
These were graduates, most in their first or second year of work. They'd been raft building that morning. A slide deck on communication principles would have ticked the box, but it wouldn't have done much else.
Three things shaped the approach.
Meet them where they are
Smart people who haven't yet collected the workplace scars that make communication feel urgent. So I used before-and-after examples from real situations: a project update that buries the problem, a forwarded email with no context, a status report that dumps data without saying anything. Each one gave them a pattern to recognise in their own work.
Make it practical
Every principle came with something they could use the next day: how much context is enough, how to anticipate pushback before you hit send, how to lead with the point rather than the process.
Read the room
Day three of camp is not day one. I kept the delivery relaxed, brought chocolate, and built in roleplay so people were doing rather than just listening.
What happened
The session covered concise communication, giving and receiving feedback, harder conversations, and daily habits. The feedback section worked particularly well: graduates could watch each other apply the techniques in real time, which made the learning feel real rather than theoretical.
The team asked me back the following year. Two graduates from the first cohort sent detailed suggestions: add a negotiation component, mention AI tools for drafting, strengthen stakeholder management, tighten the workbook. Specific, actionable, useful feedback, which happened to be exactly what the session taught them to give.
What this shows
One room, a dozen people, a few hours. Understand the people, design for their actual situation, keep it practical, and pay attention to what you learn.