This course was very helpful and I have learned some useful skills, particularly how to actively listen.

Going through each component of communicating at work and the roles we play was very helpful. The video helped to get the message home and it was entertaining too.

I loved this course and got so much out of it.

The detail about personal styles of communicating was really interesting and now I know my own style and the styles of other people in my department I’m sure I will be a better communicator.

Introduction

Individuals, teams, departments and organisations stand or fall on their ability to communicate clearly and accurately. Effective communications are vital to the successful outcome of everything the department or organisation wishes to achieve. This course focuses on how communications in the workplace may be improved and enhanced. It identifies the six roles everyone plays as communicators at work and pinpoints the techniques that may be employed in each role to enhance communication and deepen understanding.

Particular emphasis is given to improving listening skills which, when deployed, enable listeners to accurately identify the real message. Attention is also given to the role of personal interactions in communications with emphasis on identifying and understanding our own communication style and how it may be integrated with the personal style of others in the workplace. The course is centred on an interactive PowerPoint presentation; a workbook; a dramatized case study on video and exercise sheets. The style is open and participatory.

Course Content

• analysing a short case study on the consequences of miscommunication
• examining communication methods —what works best in what circumstances
• identifying four communication styles and assessing your own predominant style
• demonstrating how to interact with other communication styles in the workplace
• learning how to improve our skills in the six different roles we play as either communication deliverers or receivers when:
  • writing or reading
  • speaking or listening (on the telephone)
  • speaking or listening (face-to-face).
• improving our listening skills
• improving our questioning and probing skills
• viewing, discussing and analysing a dramatised case-study of communications failure within an organisation.

Course Outcomes

After completing this course, participants should be able to:

• communicate their messages more effectively
• understand other peoples’ communications accurately
• know how to question and probe for clarification and deeper understanding
• be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of their default communication style — as well as those of others within the organisation
• be more effective in building interpersonal skills
• be better able to identify when the words don’t go with the ‘music’
• engage in more focused communication
• match their required communication style to the situation
• be assertive rather than passive or aggressive
• possess a greater ability to handle difficult situations.

Benefits to Your Organisation

• The course may save your organisation much of the time, money, effort and frustration that arises out of poor inter-personal communications within and between departments.
• The course may save senior executives having to rescue projects that are failing or missing deadlines through project-team members’ misunderstandings and poor communications skills.
• The course may reduce inter-personal issues between staff and reduce the need for arbitration and counselling by managers.

Benefits to You

• You are more likely to get your message across and to have it accurately understood.
• You will be able to understand your own default communication style, as well as those of the people you work with.
• You will know how to adapt your communication style to suit the occasion and how to adapt it to the default style of the people with whom you work.
• You will have improved listening skills.
• You will have the ability to listen for what isn’t being said.
• You will have improved questioning and probing skills.

More Details

For further details, please contact John.