8 Responses

1. Julie Hay
   … is one of THE exponents of TA for development in the UK. Check out her book ‘Working it out at work’. She’s got a conference on Dev TA in a couple of months if you’re really into it. Mostly attended by TA counsellors. It could be worth you doing a ‘101’ course by way of boning up on it.

   I’ve used life scripts in career development workshops as a way of exploring self-limiting beliefs, and there’s the ego states model that pops into most courses on comms and/or dealing with difficult people.

2. TA & Julie Hay
   Hi Stuart
   as peter mentioned Julie Hay IS THE (was??) person to be trained with. I attended her ‘last’ public 101 course.

   She has recently gone into retirement but can be pursuaded to run more programmes.

   I would highly recommend her & her methods as appropriate for training soft skills.

   A great tool for the kit!

   Mike Morrison

3. TA and training
   Stuart
   Pre-dating Julie’s book was another excellent one on TA and training by Dave Barker -worth a look.
   I have use TA for many years mainly in connection with relationships, communications and self development. Whether you use the OK corral, the constructive rectangle, states or whatever, it is a good working model or framework. But, like any psychological theory, it is only as good as your ability to bring it to life and relate it to real issues.
   Graham

4. My thoughts on TA and training
   The theory of TA ego states of adult, parent and child are used in training for health care workers to explain how communication between worker and patient/client/relative, and worker and worker, can become contaminated when there is anything other than adult state to adult state communication. I echo Graham O’Connell’s views, especially with regard to ensuring that trainees understand how the abstract theory relates to concrete experiences in the workplace. I haven’t any experience of TA theory being used in training outside health care but surely it is relevant to everyone who needs an understanding of communication in the workplace, especially when communication is difficult. I would say that an understanding of TA theory is helpful to everyone in their daily lives. How often does one see contaminated (even toxic) communication within families, communication difficulties that can be better understood, explained and ameliorated using TA state theory?

5. TA in Facilitation
   Hi Stuart

   I included a session on TA in a Facilitation Skills course. Frances and Roland Bee have written a great book “Facilitation Skills” ISBN 0-85292-733-9 available from CIPD that includes a chapter on it. It concentrates on the relationship between facilitator and group/individuals and what ego states are useful in facilitated sessions.

   Other than that, I agree that it crops up in many communication skills courses.

   All the best

   Jenny

6. Julie Hay’s Books
   I recommend the following Julie Hay Books:

   TA For Trainers

   Working It Out At Work

   http://www.smallwood.co.uk/acatalog/Smallwood_Publishing_Julie_Hay_85.html

7. TA101 course
   I recommend Rosemary Napper’s TA 101 course – I learned so much from her and the people attending. She is on Napper@TAmatters.com

   We use TA in Assertiveness, Management, Time, Stress – any programme looking at interactions with people!

8. TA – good for customer care related skills
   I love it. I know lots of other posts are directing you to resources, etc, but I would like to add that I use TA in a customer care course (learning from the customer). It’s a half day course, with lots of case studies and team based role plays.

   It’s one of our consistently high scoring courses and is one that people still talk about. The key success? It makes people reflect on their own behaviours as well as recognising others!

   So, in answer to your question, yes TA is great… the caviat I’d put on that is don’t tell them it’s TA, not until the end… you’ll put them off.