Overview

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Clear communication is a skill that many assume they have but can prove elusive in times of crisis. The good news is, like many other skills communication can be practiced and improved, whilst lessons can be learnt from any corporate sector or through (sometimes difficult) personal experience.    Leadership is dependent on unambiguous communication and can be enhanced with practice and the application of a few simple principles, a splash of empathy and a fair measure of common sense. This course examines several real-life examples of ‘less than good’ communication inflicted on the Author during his career and gives the delegates a chance to practice communicating in a safe and friendly environment.

The premise of this course is that our brain and thus our conscious mind has a habit of protecting itself against other peoples’ ideas, rather like the human body’s immune response. The key assertion of the session is that if you can identify the metaphorical barriers being put up by the people you are communicating with, you can in time adopt methods and techniques that ensure you breakthrough those barriers and deliver your message in a consistent way.

Communication is of course a two-way process and should ideally be enjoyable and as the course unfolds there will be plenty of opportunity for interaction and discussion in a friendly environment. In fact, when David recounts some of his own experiences of being ‘communicated at’ you may well find yourself nodding in a cathartic/sympathetic way as he talks about some of the communication gaffes he has been on the wrong end of! At the end of the course you will have a new perception of the terms ‘cascade failure’, ‘sheep-dip’ and ‘super-awesome’ and a very clear understanding of why whoever invented the term ‘burning platform’ should be put on one……!

All public courses are available as in-house training. Contact us for more information.

Learning Objectives

The session has an overall objective of making your personal communications more effective. It will also allow you to:

  • Understand the Five Barriers to effective communication and how to overcome them
  • Recognise the usual suspects that kill your communication effectiveness
  • Understand the different types of communication required for different circumstances
  • Understand the qualities of effective communication
  • Understand how to use language to create positive and inclusive messages
  • Construct a communication plan that engages rather than outrages
  • How to cascade information effectively
  • How to manage that most difficult of communication events; the feedback conversation
  • Recognise things you should never say unless you really, really mean it

Course Outline

Introduction

  • What is the purpose of communication? Group discussion to allow for sharing of ideas.
  • The brain’s role in communication success or failure
  • Introducing the barriers to effective communication:
    • Lack of clarity
    • Lack of apparent benefit to recipient
    • Lack of impact
    • Lack of respect
    • Lack of call to action
  • How to break through those barriers by:
    • creating clarity
    • Ensuring recipients are interested and stay interested
    • Adding impact
    • Ensuring your audience feels respected
    • Creating a call to action
  • Examining the usual suspects that ensure communications fail; Bias, Time, Tone, Language and Staging
  • The keys that unlock powerful communication
  • Getting the audiences attention and breaking down barriers
  • How not to do it – epic fail bingo
  • Understanding the different types of communication and when/where they should be used
  • Planning a communication campaign
  • Cascading communication
  • Things you should never say
  • How not to do it – the impending doom scenario

Exercises

Delegates split into small groups of 4-6 and are given a communication scenario to consider. The scenarios are:

  • Announcement of company restructure
  • Announcement of good yearly results
  • Announcement of potential redundancies
  • Announcement of actual redundancies

NB: Delegates are free to create the specific details within their groups as it is the messaging style and context that is important to this exercise rather than the specifics of the content.

Exercise 1: Delegates use either a prepared event/example or one from their own experience to do the following within the group:

  • Discuss their own experience and feelings regarding the scenario
  • Identify the primary audience and analyse what they may be expecting to hear
  • Construct their own message based on session material above
  • Playback to entire group
  • Discuss and feedback

Exercise 2: Construct a communication plan from example chosen by the group

  • Delegates create a plan to manage the communication of their chosen example
  • Delegates discuss and identify potential risks and mitigation actions of their plan
  • Playback to entire group
  • Discuss and feedback

Summary and Course Close

Who It's For

Anyone who works in change/transformation programmes or who speaks at conferences who needs further insight into the art of communication. Also suitable for those who deliver organisational change and transformation programmes.

Speaker

David Beckham

Principal Consultant

ChuDo Consulting

David Beckham has spent his career working in Financial Services, initially at Norwich Union then subsequently with Aviva. His career began in policy administration then moved into IT and he has been a Business Analyst in different guises since 1995. A founding member of the Business Analysis Practice he later had two terms as the Practice Lead. He worked on numerous large change programmes and was heavily involved in building the capability of Business Analysis within the organisation over the last decade. He has regularly presented at the European BA Conference and has had several articles published on Business Analysis topics. Despite being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in 2010 at the age of 43 David continues to be a passionate advocate of the profession and the benefits it gives to organisations everywhere. Since 2015 David has regularly spoken on the positive power of change both on a professional and personal basis. David left Aviva in 2019 after 33 years to start his own consultancy.

Fees

  • 1 day
  • £695
  • £695 + VAT (£139) = £834
Group Booking Discounts
Delegates
2-3 10% discount
4-5 20% discount
6+ 25% discount

Cancellation Policy:
Cancellations must be received in writing at least two weeks before the commencement of the seminar and will be subject to a 10% administration fee. It is regretted that cancellations received within two weeks of the seminar date will be liable for the full seminar fee. Substitutions can be made at any time.

Cancellation Liability:
In the unlikely event of cancellation of the seminar for any reason, IRM UK’s liability is limited to the return of the registration fee only. IRM UK will not reimburse delegates for any travel or hotel cancellation fees or penalties. It may be necessary, for reasons beyond the control of IRM UK, to change the content, timings, speakers, date and venue of the seminar.

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