Facilitator & Coach: In 2018 I dove into my career as a facilitator & coach, a role that seemed tailor made to my interests and skillset. Merging public speaking, communication, a thirst for learning, I have the pleasure of facilitating learning outcomes, leveraging my acting and feedback skills to help people practice conversations, act in forum theater demonstrations, and connect it all back to practical action steps. As I delved further into this work, I expanded both business and life coaching for individuals and small groups, as well as creating the content for myself and other facilitators.
I have had the privilege of facilitating learning sessions with individual contributors, leaders, and teams across a wide variety of sectors and seniority levels, around the world. As a coach, I have worked with individuals to meet their professional and personal goals, as well as supported small groups of leaders to finesse their skills and enhance team effectiveness. I partner with Learning & Development teams to create custom session content for participants across a variety of topics, as well as write and present Forum Theater demonstrations.
Professional Background: For many years I worked in the financial sector and led a team based in the United States, Canada, and Brazil, with indirect reports based in India. During my tenure as a People Leader I also earned my Green Belt in Lean Management. I have served as a Project Manager working on departmental process standardization, and on cross-departmental and global projects addressing internal processes, systems, and international regulations.
Additional Experience: I bring a unique flavor to my facilitation style, having worked as a professional actor in film, theater, opera, and improv for over a decade. Being able to leverage the public speaking and communication skills from this experience allows me to enhance engagement and collaboration in all sessions I lead. My creative background also proves invaluable as a business and performance coach, having honed key deep listening skills, in addition to years of experience, with expansive knowledge of valuable frameworks and tools.
Community Engagement: Community advocacy and engagement are key to my core values. While working in corporate environments, I was active with many Employee Resource Groups such as the Women's networks and Hispanic & Latino networks, and served on the Board of the LGBTQ and Allies ERG at Standard & Poor's. From 2017-2019. I served as the Treasurer for the Honest Accomplice Theater board, a non-profit educational and advocacy group. As of 2023 I sit on the board of Project My Voice as Vice President, helping our organization bring communication skills and frameworks to underserved communities and youth.
Background and Experience
Cultivating Success Together
My name is Tali de Assis Graham, and I am the owner of Practical Habits Consulting, which is founded on the delightfully simple principle that we are never done learning. Coaching and facilitated learning sessions are all about offering people the opportunity to expand their skills, capabilities, and awareness to better achieve their goals.
And hey, if we can enjoy a laugh while we get there, even better. Who said business couldn’t be fun?
Adaptive Learning Approaches
We all learn differently. Visual learners benefit from seeing information written and illustrated, others prefer to hear concepts described. Some are reflective and want to understand a theory or concept before trying it out, others would prefer to dive in and figure it out on the go. As anyone who’s sat through someone reading a PowerPoint at them, we know passive listening leaves something to be desired. Research indicates that when we discuss new information, or better yet, practice applying it, our retention of what we’ve learned jumps 50-75%!
With our varied learning styles, communication preferences, and neurodivergent traits, we need to collaborate and learn together to work effectively. So, we can adapt, meet ourselves and others where they are. My goal with every learning opportunity is to merge teaching with active discussion and activities, with the intent that people have fun as they learn, and come away with a practical action to build sustainable routines and habits, to enhance their leadership, careers, and lives.
"The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness to learn is a choice."
- Brian Herbert