Notice. Pause. Choose: Inside Sheffield Theatres Workshops 

Sheffield Theatres brings together several venues across the city, including the well-known Crucible, home of the World Snooker Championships. Management has recently shifted, a new building has joined the group, and the staff team has grown. They invited Clare from Roots to propose a full-staff workshop to support this transition.

The aim was to support a more relational workplace, grounded in connection and critical thinking. The theatre team spans a wide range of roles and working patterns, often operating across different locations and shift times. This includes volunteers, casual staff and those working part-time, full-time or shifts.

The focus was on unconscious bias and bringing people together in an honest way. Participants were invited to reflect and speak with colleagues, known and unknown, in a way that felt considered and safe enough to be real. The aim was to build trust quickly across a broad mix of people, encouraging connection across day-to-day working life while also deepening understanding of individual bias. The workshop drew on tried and tested relational tools, adapted to the realities of working within Sheffield Theatres.

The sessions ran from February to the end of March, with over 180 people taking part. Clare and the team worked to strip away expectations of traditional corporate training and instead create space for people to connect in ways that felt natural rather than forced. A shared starting point was recognising that unconscious bias is a human shortcut. Our brains make constant assessments, and some of these become embedded to help us move quickly and feel safe. The work focused on slowing things down and unpacking the process into a simple, practical habit: notice, pause and choose.

Activities, conversations and examples were used to show how quickly judgements can form, often with very little information. One activity focused on active, deep listening, highlighting how easily we begin preparing our response before someone has finished speaking. From there, the focus shifted to choice – taking a moment to pause and deciding what to do next instead of defaulting to instinctive reactions. In small groups, participants explored what micro-allyship looks like in practice, using real scenarios, and what it means to step in rather than stand by when someone needs support or acknowledgement.

Notice, pause and choose is simple, but when shared across a group, it can begin to shift everyday experiences. It can change how a Monday morning feels, how welcome someone feels on their first day, and how likely someone is to speak up with a challenging idea. The final activity asked each participant to make a written commitment – one action they would take, one behaviour they would challenge, or one thing they would do to contribute to a more inclusive Sheffield Theatres. These commitments were folded and placed into a small box shaped like a theatre.

The closing thought was simple: awareness alone does not create change. Choice and action do. Bias and reaction are human. Thanks to Sheffield Theatres for stepping into the work, and to every individual who chose to engage with it fully.

This is the work shaping what’s next for the Rekindle Collective – shifting how people think, question, relate and act, where culture is lived day to day.