Art of Productive Conflict

Art of Productive Conflict is a highly interactive course is for any businessperson who interacts with teams dealing with difficult or challenging issues or wants to enhance their ability to engage in almost any form of interaction skillfully.

OVERVIEW
Most human beings don’t handle disagreements very well…have you noticed?

However, for any community to function effectively: they must work out how to reach agreements, handle
conflict, hear one another, be clear and efficient in their exchanges, and generally be responsive to others in
their spheres of influence.

Throughout the training, whether it’s in-person or virtual, we will progressively build and layer learnings.
We’ll discuss, practice, and integrate feedback around the Realms of Control to positively affect the
interaction.

1) Start with Self

• Identify key strengths and challenges associated with Stress
• Response/Communication Style
• Raise and address any highly charged issue
• Utilize the GYR Model to create a safe structure to open difficult conversations
• Practice with a higher intention or goal, state concern, and set up a process

2) Command your Communication Skills

• Generate clear, memorable, listener-focused communications
• Demonstrate good listening – whether in conflict or not!
• Replace distracting idiosyncrasies with the 5 Effective Behaviors
• Utilize the ART Response Model to handle challenging questions

3) One Conversation and a Time

• Practice delivering a complete courageous conversation, with feedback from the coach and team
• Apply a quick DNA Analysis to increase your targeted impact
• Adjust content/approach to meet various demographics and be more inclusive
• Receive Personalized Coaching Development Plan & incorporate listener input

4) Cultivate the “Intangibles”: Equanimity and Courage

• Identify and develop key supportive qualities as a communicator
• Hone and polish your skills through further practice and coaching
• Deal with nerves, self-consciousness, and shyness from the inside out
• Build trust in your own natural style or brand

Assertive Communication

OVERVIEW:
Assertive Communication recognizes the different communication styles – assertive, aggressive, passive, and passive aggressive – participants learn how to shift and adapt appropriately to the different styles. This course teaches professionals best practices for managing difficult conversations and responding to the passive, passive aggressive styles and aggressive behaviors to maintain the relationship and a satisfactory outcome.

Participants will take an assessment and receive a process for structuring a conversation to be an effective communicator.

• Learn the “ABCs” of assertiveness: Assertive mindset, Behaviors, Challenging situation responses
• How to work productively with passive and passive aggressive styles
• Ways to manage aggressive behaviors and bullies
• Take an assertiveness quiz to identify your strengths and areas to develop
• Apply five steps for preparing and delivering a difficult conversation with confidence
• Say “no” tactfully to a request

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Building Professional Networks and Influence

OVERVIEW:
This course gives you the tools and confidence to build networks that support your career goals and assists you in ways to influence others in your organization.

• To build internal and external networks that affect and accelerate your career.
• To apply active listening techniques that help you influence and network with others.
• To demonstrate how the power of perception and personality styles affects your influence on

• Why Influencing Skills are Important
• Three Circles of influence
• Influence Strategies
• Respect Different Viewpoints
• Ways to Address Others’ Perspectives
• Adapt to Others’ Personality Styles to Gain Influence

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Communicating Across Cultures

OVERVIEW:
Has the world arrived at your door? This course is a must if you collaborate in a global team, serve customers/suppliers abroad, or work with culturally diverse H1B professionals. Learn how people from different cultures approach relationships with managers and team members, reach commitments, view initiative, accept accountability and share information. After this course, you will see how culture can affect motivation and performance. Learn strategies to communicate while building teamwork in an environment in which people of all cultures will excel.

• Gain insight into various cultural approaches to time, information, planning, decision-making, relationships, power and change
• Test your skills to “read between the lines” and increase your insights across cultures
• Apply six tactics to write clear emails to be understood globally
• Learn to facilitate meetings to balance cultural styles and increase participation and inclusiveness
• Learn clarification strategies when you get a polite “yes” too often
• Read non-verbal communication signals and avoid offensive gestures
• Learn techniques to communicate clearly with “global English” and understand accents
• Give feedback that motivates Asians and Europeans
• Identify assumptions about trust and how to build trust more effectively across cultures
• Recognize conflict and how to discuss it when there are different cultural approaches

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Dealing With Yourself and Others in Difficult Situations

OVERVIEW:
In Dealing With Yourself and Others in Difficult Situations we address the age-old question: what makes difficult people difficult? And then we develop techniques for understanding and working with these difficult behaviors. The volatility of today’s market can bring out the best in some people and the worst in others. The truism, “the only person you can change is yourself,” is the key factor in managing yourself and others in difficult situations.  The course deals specifically with toxic behaviors and we look at anger and how to defuse and deal with the strong emotions of ourselves and others.

• Examine change and how to change behaviors
• Notice interpretations of situations vs. reality and how that impacts actions and outcomes
• Understand working styles and potential reactions to conflict, stress and upset
• How to manage anger and negativity and disarm emotional triggers
• Create a MAP – a management action plan for dealing with yourself and others constructively and productively on an on-gong basis

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Effective Communication

OVERVIEW:
Workplace communication is one of the most important aspects of a thriving business. Effective communication is not only about transferring information, but a way to create professional connections and maintain relationships. How we communicate can both build and erode trust and credibility. In this course professionals learn and practice five enhanced communication skills to successfully build trust, rapport and communicate with impact.

KEY TOPICS:

• Start with the end in mind: purpose, intention, and desired outcome
• Know the communication style of your audience so you can customize your communication to
  get the best results
• Avoid communication break down
• Acknowledge and learn how to include different perspectives and opinions
• Strategize your approach to carefully choose your words, tone, and body language
• Learn how to start clear and concise conversations
• Listen Ask, and Respond: LAR exercises
• Deal with pushback and tough situations
• Scenarios to practice skills

Emotional Intelligence at Work

OVERVIEW:
Emotional Intelligence at Work course teaches you to understand and effectively apply the power of emotions to be a better professional. EQi measures the ability, capacity, or skill to perceive, assess, and manage the emotions of oneself, of others, and of groups.

The pre-course assessment and interpretation during the course will provide insight into your current working relationships and help you prioritize areas for improvement.

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Know Your Communication Style and Impact

OVERVIEW:
Learn your preferred communication style and impact along with your strengths and drawbacks. Participants will practice how to effectively build rapport and increase their influence on team members. Working with people demands a deep appreciation of different individual working styles and the flexibility to deal with those differences. By attending this course participants will learn to leverage their communication styles to achieve a positive impact with other working styles.

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Managing Unconscious Bias Through Messaging and Inclusion

OVERVIEW:
Managing Unconscious Bias Through Messaging and Inclusion will discuss the negative impact of micro-messaging and will provide specific actions to create allyship. We will not only look at what Unconscious Bias is, but how it can manifest itself in the workplace in different ways. This course is aimed at raising our awareness to the thousands of messages we send every day that can either value or devalue an individual. While small, these messages can have a macro impact on overall morale and productivity.

Participants will learn strategies to minimize the negative impact of these micro-behaviors and foster an environment where everyone’s voices are heard.

• Define Unconscious Bias
• Discuss how Unconscious Bias manifests itself through Micro-Messaging
• Identify two types of Micro-Messaging: Micro Inequities and Micro-Inclusion
• Discuss personal experiences of Micro-Inequities and the impact on morale, relationships, and performance
• Discuss the impact of Bystander Apathy and the need for Allyship
• Discuss specific actions that can turn Bystander Apathy into Bystander Empathy
• Identify ways to move Micro-Inclusion to Conscious-Inclusion
• Define the four best practices to consistently bring Conscious-Inclusion into the workplace

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Practicing Difficult Conversations

OVERVIEW:
Having difficult conversations with your employees is one of the most dauting tasks managers face. The least resistant path is avoidance which often allows problems to go on and escalates into something far more serious. This workshop gives a simple model to follow that allows participants to strategize, role play, and debrief tough conversations.

• Difficult Conversation SBIC Model
• Connecting the dots from past conversations
• Identifying the facts: when, where, what, who
• Describing the behavior: actions and words
• Thinking through the impact on business, team, and others
• Asking for commitment and next steps
• Dealing with the employee reactions
• Practicing “difficult conversations” scenarios

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Skillful Communication

OVERVIEW:
In Skillful Communication, participants learn a form of – give and take – dialogue including how to respond well to criticism, provide constructive feedback, practice a model for active listening, and speak in appropriate word choice and tonality. Demanding deadlines, changing priorities, unrealistic expectations, unfair treatment… can be challenging on many levels.

In today’s work environment, interpersonal communications can either destroy or build strong partnerships. This course provides best practices on how to be a skillful communicator in challenging situations.

• Understanding the 7 benefits of skillful communication
• Managing the communication noise and barriers
• Speaking: be mindful of tone, word choice, and intention
• Listening actively model: RASA
• Giving positive and constructive feedback model: BIS
• Managing resistance to feedback and defensiveness
• Disagreeing with feedback respectively
• Managing challenging conversations

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Storytelling for Influence: Using Narrative to Connect and Effect Change at Work

OVERVIEW:

Storytelling for Influence offers a welcome reprieve and opportunity to engage work and one another on a new, authentic level. As humans, we gravitate toward the pull of stories. They inspire us, provide clarity, and effect change in our thinking. They are scientifically proven to create connection and build relationships.

If we don’t tap into the power of storytelling, we’re falling short. We’re left in a never-ending world of emails, spreadsheets, documents, and slide decks. Over the long-term, it’s impossible for people to stay engaged and motivated.

Whether in a presentation, meeting, writing piece, or discussion with a customer, stories can have a profound impact and bring meaning to facts, data, and business. In this workshop—through discussion, exercises, and storytelling—you will learn the best practices of developing and sharing stories at work.

• Exploring different types of stories and how they relate to your business
• Understanding the elements of a narrative arc and how to build your own storyline
• Extracting stories from facts and data
• Tapping into both logic and emotion
• Supporting your story with visuals and engaging your audience with memorable messages
• Developing stories that will help you build relationships and boost your business
• Continuing to grow your library of stories

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Strengths-Based Development for Individuals (StrengthsFinder)

OVERVIEW:
Strengths-Based Development for Individuals (StrengthsFinder), individuals will discover their talents and strengths and learn how to develop them for full potential. As a result of this highly interactive session, individuals will be able to name, claim and aim their strengths and formulate a strategy that will put them to work. The Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment, created by Gallup, is based on extensive research of organizations that have successfully unleased human potential to drive bottom-line performance.

• Recognize the value of a strengths-based approach to developing one’s skills and abilities
• Understand the correlation between focusing on their strengths and increased engagement, energy and well being
• Name their Top 5 Signature Talent Themes from their comprehensive Clifton StrengthsFinder report
• Claim their strengths by identifying ways in which they are being used in their current role and articulating their strengths to their manager and team
• Aim their strengths by developing a plan that will leverage them in different situations and opportunities
• Conduct a strengths-based conversation with their manager using a discussion framework
• Appreciate the power of strengths-based partnerships and how to leverage the strengths of others

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Winning by Influencing

OVERVIEW:
“Winning by Influencing” is designed to support participants in creating an empowering workplace in a global/virtual environment. It begins by looking at the external factors that shape how people communicate and interact. And then, by understanding how people tend to ‘fix’ problems, participants can shape their communications to reach others and produce desired results.

The webinar addresses influence at the foundational level: building sufficient trust, using best practices in the “work from home” (WFH) setting, and building cultural intelligence. The webinar then provides a strategic approach and specific tactical actions to produce the highest levels of productivity. The webinar culminates in the participants realizing and practicing the seven steps to influencing in a global/ virtual work environment.

• Influence best practices in the virtual environment
• Build likeability and apply the law of reciprocity
• Create rules of engagement for managing conflict
• Use two proven negotiation strategy models: STP and BATNA
• Make effective requests and float trial balloons
• Build cultural intelligence and influencing in a global workplace
• Apply the 7 steps of influence model for creating win/win in a virtual/global world

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