One of the challenges and rewards of working with a company like Result CIC is the variety of people you come into contact with. Why should a variety of people be a challenge?

Because Result CIC is made up of a team of people who are as diverse as those they seek to support through their work. As such, whether it’s through social, physical, language, mental or other barriers, communication can sometimes be a work in progress.

In an attempt to ease communication amongst the Result CIC team, we’re having a brief course in signing. Jane is deaf and her first language is English. For external meetings we usually have a lipspeaker on hand who silently repeats English to make it lipreadable. But less than half English words are lipreadable so Jane's lipspeakers add elements of BSL to support meaning and make lipreading less tiring.

As in most developing relationships and friendships, the way you communicate together eases the more you get to know each other. And when something like a language barrier plays a part in this, being comfortable to have a go makes all of the difference in the world at breaking down barriers which might be there as a result of the potential embarrassment of getting things wrong.

Each fortnight we have a two hour lesson with our BSL teacher Lizzie covering basic stuff like the alphabet, numbers, concepts of time, and key words which are used daily in conversations. We’ve also had the chance to each learn words specifically useful to our own work and life. So, for me, knowing how to explain that I work in marketing and most of my skills are to do with digital or online marketing is a very useful tool. 

As a learning organisation we believe in using our resources to develop ourselves and our skills. The impact it has on us as a team is considerable and provides skills which are beneficial outside the confines of Result CIC in the wider world.

That’s a reward well worth the challenge.