David communicates by signing, and regularly signs to me for a drink and takes my hand, so I go to the kitchen with him to prepare a drink. However, every time we get there, David turns and walks out, showing no interest in me making a drink with him despite my best attempts to encourage him.
But when I visited recently I saw David in the kitchen with Jess, making a drink of squash, grinning widely like I’d not seen him before. Jess had to prompt David three times when he headed to the door, but he responded to her gentle encouragement each time and returned to complete the task by her side.
Jess’s approach was calm, her voice friendly and relaxed, with lots of eye contact in the right places and just enough prompting and encouragement to support David to make his drink. I’ve known David for almost three years and this was the first time I had seen him make a drink from start to finish, or even show any particular interest in doing so. Such a simple thing serves as a reminder that people always have the ability to surprise us and how we must challenge our own, and each other’s assumptions.
David’s communication is usually quite subtle so the huge smile across his face was quite striking to me. This was one of those massive “this is what we come to work for” moments that can be quite rare in our world of compliance, reports and seemingly endless emails.
Barrie Ellis
Area Manager