Overview

Recognising the value of, and practising, clear and open communication at all levels is the first step to improving performance, whether at an individual, team, management, leadership or organisational level.

We all know this, but why is it so difficult? This unique programme will make it much, much easier for you by giving you a robust framework to use – and the opportunity to practise your skills in a safe, supportive environment.

How to hold effective performance conversations is a highly appropriate topic for the drama-based training approach. This programme makes full use of an expert trainer working alongside two actor/facilitators to deliver a very interactive, fun, high energy day. It is carefully structured to ensure an optimum balance between theory and practise – between listening, watching and doing.

This programme will help you have conversations that deliver tangible results.

Learning objectives

This unique programme will help your people:

• Develop an increased awareness of the way in which the medium affects the message – how quality of voice and the dynamics of telephone calls affect communication and understanding
• Reveal and sharpen their sensory skills, enabling them to accurately ‘read’ customers over the phone and adapt their behaviour accordingly
• Understand and apply a model appropriate to all telephone calls
• Improve their listening and questioning skills to help them achieve the objectives of their calls (whether inward- or outward-bound)
• Learn through practice, practice, practice!

Audience

Managers (at all levels), team leaders and supervisors.

Format

This one-day workshop combines a series of drama-based performance conversation exercises, with powerful forum theatre technique and one-to-one skills practise sessions with every participant.

To ensure an appropriate level of interaction, the programme is limited to 12 participants.

The workshop focuses on creating awareness, developing attitudes and beliefs and embedding newly acquired skills and behaviours as habits. It is highly interactive, very powerful – and great fun!

Special features

For added value, participants should bring their own targets and role description (and/or those of the people who report to them) for use in the exercises.

Honest conversation don’t have to be performance conversations: this programme can be tailored around any type of challenging conversation, whether with colleagues or clients.

The expert trainer and actors

To be announced.

Workshop outline

1 The warm-up

• Welcome to the programme
• Aims and objectives
• Learning diary / action plan

2 Preview

• What is an ‘honest conversation’?
• Why don’t we have them more often? What stops us?
• The cost of not having them.

3 Rehearsal

• Understanding the difference an honest conversation can make
• Actors demonstrate the importance and effects of having (or not having) honest conversations
• Conversations will be humorous and entertaining with relevance to ‘typical’ scenarios
• It will be very clear to the audience that the characters are not saying what they are thinking, ie, not having honest conversations
• The trainer will facilitate audience participation, getting the actors to run through the scenes again. Participants will be asked to influence the conversations and in doing so affect the final result. They will ‘red flag’ or stop the scenes when they think something needs to change. The trainer will ask people what the actor needs to STOP saying/doing and what they need to START saying/doing. The actors will change what they do/say from the instructions of the audience and will improvise what happens as a result.
• This model will be used in the following sessions to demonstrate the learning points

4 Act 1 – The feedback conversation

• A 5-step model for giving feedback
• Viewing feedback as a ‘gift’
• Exercise: Giving performance related feedback
• Dealing with the impact of feedback conversations
• 5 different styles of feedback ­– impact and when to use
• Exercise: Giving feedback in different styles
• Preparing for conflict

5 Act 2 – The expectations conversation

• Using ‘role profiling’ to set clear expectations
• How to set and agree expectations as part of a conversation
• Exercise: A real ‘conversation’ to challenge and question the expectations of a role

6 Act 3 – The targets conversation

• The ‘target cascade’ model – how targets are cascaded through an organisation to ensure they are properly aligned
• Importance of setting goals/targets which are specific, measurable and personally controllable
• How to use ‘SMART’ questions
• Exercise: Identify a non-SMART target and then have a ‘conversation’ to review and challenge the target using the SMART questions

7 Finale

• Honest conversations checklist
• Exercise: Prepare and plan for a genuine honest conversation back in the workplace using perceptual positioning

8 The curtain call

• A final humorous scene from the actors drawing on the key learnings from the afternoon’s activities
• To be developed by the actors over the course of the afternoon
• Group discussion reflecting on the key learning points from the day and committing to change