Listening

One-Stop Shop Staff Trainings

The University of Texas at Austin is currently developing a single, central location for students to receive core resources to support their academic journey. This center, called the One-Stop Shop, will offer assistance for registration, financial aid, student records, among other services. By bringing each of these critical services to one location, One-Stop seeks to remove barriers that students face in accessing the resources they need to feel supported and successful in their university experience.

With the support of Associate Professor Katie Dawson, me and my colleagues I-Chia Chiu, Paul Kruse and Will Kiley collaborated to develop two workshops to train staff members of the new One-Stop team. One-Stop supervisors hoped the trainings would reinforce and communicate the One-Stop’s core values and help staff members troubleshoot student issues and support students from a range of populations. Through dialogue with the One-Stop supervisory team, we discovered that a core need and interest for the trainings was building employees’ capacity for empathy through active listening, which became the focus of our two workshops. As a team of theatre artists, Chiu, Paul, Will and I used our expertise in storytelling and space-making to co-create a rehearsal space for One-Stop staff to both build community and practice active listening with each other.

From this collaboration, I learned:

-When you really listen, openly and curiously, you can discover what someone is actually trying to tell you beyond what their words suggest. When we listened deliberately to the One-Stop supervisors, we tapped into their deeper aims for the trainings, moving beyond “student satisfaction” to reach their key goal of active listening.

-Listening creates space for new ways of working. When Chiu, Paul, Will and I listened to each other’s needs and preferences for collaboration, we were able to develop asset-based ways of working together that played on our strengths and helped us stretch our skills.

-Listening builds community. In the trainings, One-Stop staff members expressed appreciation for being able to hear more about each other and use each other as resources.