Summer Sessions

Discover the hidden secrets of this career-critical leadership skill.

Then, deliver the course to your teams and spread the benefits.

Steve McCann

Judy Rees

How to have Better Conversations

Accenture

EBSCO

National Audit Office

Frustrations, conflicts, and unproductive conversations at work constantly impact our productivity, innovation and happiness. This course addresses workplace communication challenges head on, and providing simple and practical strategies that can help. Expect the unexpected: the programme draws attention to aspects of communication that are often overlooked. It might even challenge key parts of your everyday practice. This 6 x one-hour course has proved successful in a wide range of settings, enhancing information flows and relationships within and between teams, and with clients and service users. NEXT LEVEL: If you're keen to introduce Clean Language to the people you work with, you can pick up and apply this tried-and-tested approach straight away. The session scripts are free for you to use under creative commons licence once you've attended the classes.

Communicate more effectively with these counter-intuitive techniques 

Agile coaches, trainers and facilitators who want to deliver the benefits of Clean Language in organisations using an off-the-shelf format

Leaders who need to have more intentional and productive conversations with colleagues, delivering richer levels of mutual understanding

Members of cross-functional teams who want genuine connections with colleagues, especially under time and budget pressure

Anyone who takes a client brief in a professional context and needs to ensure that they understand what is really wanted

Social impact professionals who seek to deliver results through networks, multi-agency collaborations and with volunteer stakeholders

This course is for...

What you’ll get out of this course

A clearer focus on projects and tasks, what needs to be done and how these might be achieved together

Clarity

Fast learning, improved ideation and innovation because we can challenge each other safely

Robust solutions 

Better collaboration and accountability to ensure things get done well

Improved teamwork

Team and customer relationships improve through greater understanding&nbsp;and respect for&nbsp;other people's views and experiences

Better relationships 

Simply, more stuff gets done in less time because we can cut out the time wasted due to misunderstandings

Higher productivity

We support people to work at their best and have the conversations that encourage reflection and development

Resilience

These skills can be used beyond the workplace: think better conversations with family members, including children

Better conversations at home

If you have groups and teams who'd benefit, you can pick up this course right off the shelf. All session scripts are available for you to use, free of charge, under creative commons licence

Deliver this course yourself

How do your thoughts and feelings affect your conversations? Our thoughts and feelings - what we call "state" - can have a huge impact on conversations. By the end of the hour you’ll be able to identify, name, communicate your state clearly and realise the impact that it has on conversations before they even start.

Module 1: State

What are you making up when you are in a conversation? The human brain is an incredible thing. The level of detail it can invent in the absence of, or sometimes even in spite of evidence is staggering. You’ll become aware of assumptions you and others may unconsciously be making and explore their potential impact on your communications.

Module 2: Assumptions

How do you bring meaning to a conversation?﻿Although we may not realise it, we all bring our personal history, emotions, expectations and more into our communications. You will understand how you bring meaning to your conversations and that impacts communications.

Module 3: Context

How can you influence a conversation? Discover how a few simple questions combined with a new way of listening can instantly defuse conflict and get to the heart of any issue without emotions and assumptions muddying the water.

Module 4: Listening with curiosity

How can you respond and communicate your views? One kind of conversation where frustrations and misunderstandings are common is where feedback is given and received. In this module we will explore a simple and effective way to approach feedback, taking what we have learnt about state, assumptions and context into account.

Module 5: Feedback

Course syllabus

<ul><li>Want Better Conversations in your organisation? <a href="https://www.impactbasis.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Aug-23-How-to-have-Better-Conversations-8.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Download our brochure &gt;</a></li></ul>

Please note that US clocks go forward during this period

Tuesdays and Thursdays during March

5, 7, 12, 19, 21, 26 March 2024

Course schedule

Arabic Language Community Facilitator, INEE - Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies

What people are saying

Meet your trainers

This course builds on live workshops and hands-on projects

Active hands-on learning

You’ll be interacting with other learners through breakout rooms and project teams

Interactive and project-based

Join a community of like-minded people who want to learn and grow alongside you

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About this course

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