--- title: "Speak to Me Normally: social anxiety at work, in VR" description: "Speak to Me Normally: PTR's VR title that puts you inside social anxiety at work, designed from lived experience and run with a facilitated debrief." canonical: https://peopletechrevolution.com/xr/ptr-vr-library/speak-to-me-normally --- [XR](https://peopletechrevolution.com/xr) / [PTR VR Library](https://peopletechrevolution.com/xr/ptr-vr-library) # Speak to Me Normally A VR title that puts you inside the experience of social anxiety at work, designed from lived experience, so the feeling is felt from the inside rather than described from the outside. The staff room, from the learner's place. A colleague leans in to speak. ## The meeting, felt the way an anxious colleague feels it Most people know a colleague who goes quiet in meetings. Few know what the room feels like from that seat. Speak to Me Normally puts you in it. The emotional turmoil people with social anxiety often endure is what the title is built to convey, from the inside rather than described from the outside. ## What changes for your organisation After the headset comes off, colleagues talk about how they speak to each other, which is the point of the title. A check-in at the desk. ### A team that talks differently A team cannot change how it treats an anxious colleague until it has felt what its usual way costs. This title gives a whole team that feeling in the same session. The debrief turns it into agreements about how the team speaks, asks and waits. ## Seen from the inside The scenes are first person. The person opposite is close enough to read, and the answer cannot be put off. An interview, from the chair that dreads it. Starting a conversation in the staff kitchen. A hybrid meeting turns towards you. > "Our ethos from the beginning has been about co-designing solutions alongside people with lived experiences." Simon Lowe CEO, People Tech Revolution. [SAE University College, 2018](https://sae.edu.au/insights/brisbane-studio-redefines-conversation-on-ageism/) ## How a session runs The title runs between 4 and 10 minutes, with dialogue choices inside the headset, and PTR delivers Library sessions with a facilitated group debrief. Some features need an internet connection; the Library collects no personal data, though it may collect app-improvement and analytics data. A group takes turns in the headset. Running the same moment again, quietly. Talking it over with the facilitator. ## Designed from lived experience Speak to Me Normally was designed from lived experience of social anxiety. It sits within PTR's Equal Reality VR suite, alongside Everyday Inclusion and Finding Common Ground. A standing conversation, rehearsed in place. ### Choices you make in your own words Inside the headset the learner picks from dialogue choices, so the scene answers the way a real colleague would. That is why the title works as practice and not only as a perspective: the learner has to speak, and hears what happens next. ## The rooms where speaking up is hardest Remote check-ins, mentoring sessions and branching conversations: the same discomfort shows up wherever a colleague has to find the first word, at any age and with any need for support. A remote check-in. A mentoring conversation. Choosing what to say next. An older woman rehearses what to say. Guiding a resident who uses a cane. ## The rest of the Library The other Library titles, each built for one conversation, and the PTR pages that put them to work. [Everyday Inclusion. Unconscious bias, microaggressions and intersectionality, felt first and then discussed.](https://peopletechrevolution.com/xr/ptr-vr-library/everyday-inclusion) [Finding Common Ground. Discrimination in a customer-facing workplace, and what a team does about it.](https://peopletechrevolution.com/xr/ptr-vr-library/finding-common-ground) [Lift VR. Leaders answer a sensitive request in their own voice.](https://peopletechrevolution.com/xr/ptr-vr-library/lift-vr) [Mind Shift VR. Glass Ceilings and Inclusive Perspectives, set in virtual workplaces.](https://peopletechrevolution.com/xr/ptr-vr-library/mind-shift) [Immersive training and roleplay. How PTR builds practice for the hard human moments.](https://peopletechrevolution.com/training/vr-training-and-roleplay) [Workplace and enterprise. The sector where the Library runs most, and the conversations it covers.](https://peopletechrevolution.com/work/industries/workplace-enterprise) Want to bring Speak to Me Normally to your own team? [Open the contact form](https://peopletechrevolution.com/xr/ptr-vr-library/speak-to-me-normally#contact) Ask our CEO Simon Lowe’s Digital Twin a question ## Sources Each source, linked to the original. ### [Brisbane studio redefines conversation on ageism](https://sae.edu.au/insights/brisbane-studio-redefines-conversation-on-ageism/) SAE University College, 2018 The interview the quote above comes from, on co-designing with people who have lived the experience. ### [Everyday Inclusion: built with Cornell University](https://peopletechrevolution.com/work/case-studies/everyday-inclusion-cornell) People Tech Revolution How PTR delivers Library titles with clients, including the Etihad Airways and Metro Trains programs. Related PTR work Related PTR work - [Etihad Airways: cabin crew inclusion](https://peopletechrevolution.com/work/case-studies/etihad-cabin-crew-inclusion) - [Metro Trains: gender equity](https://peopletechrevolution.com/work/case-studies/metro-trains-gender-equity) - [Workplace & enterprise case studies](https://peopletechrevolution.com/work/case-studies/workplace-enterprise) - [The PTR VR Library](https://peopletechrevolution.com/xr/ptr-vr-library) - [Try it in the browser on Labs](https://labs.peopletechrevolution.com/)