Live virtual or classroom delivery
Complete communication
programme
Bespoke modular training
Great communication is the lifeblood of the modern workplace, influencing success in almost every aspect of our working lives, from collaboration and decision-making to staff engagement and performance management.
Most of us feel we communicate pretty well, but common habits, hang-ups and misunderstandings can undermine our interactions, especially those that involve disagreement. Fortunately we can all learn to be clearer, more influential and more assertive communicators. With a little effort we can transform the quality of our conversations and relationships at work.
The Complete Communication Programme is comprised of six stand-alone training sessions, each exploring ways to improve a particular kind of workplace interaction. With the right choice of modules and tailored content, we can help you create the perfect programme for your staff. The training is delivered live by an expert trainer, either in the classroom or online.
Please get in touch to request a quote and more details, or to arrange a call with one of our consultants.
About the sessions
Workplace communications are rich and diverse, and include everything from chats over the water cooler to formal presentations scheduled months in advance. Furthermore, many of our interactions are now mediated by technology, from video conferencing to email. We need to be able to flex our approach to accommodate a wide range of situations and formats.
So, each module of the Complete Communications Programme considers a particular type of interaction in depth, addressing key challenges and providing practical, relevant advice to help maximise the communication ‘signal’ and minimise the ‘noise’.
But as well as skills, confidence is also a vital aspect of communication success. This is particularly true in areas like conflict and performance management, disagreement, and interactions with senior colleagues. So the sessions also explore ways to manage emotions and the tone of discussions to maintain control and professionalism at all times.
Every module includes opportunities to discuss experiences, swap ideas and tips, and to build some practical experience using new skills under the guidance of an expert trainer. Delegates also get access to post-course learning resources and email coaching if required.
Classroom or virtual delivery
The Complete Communication Programme can be delivered either in the classroom or as live, virtual training. In either case, sessions are delivered by an experienced tutor, with plenty of interaction, discussion and practical exercises.
Virtual modules are 120 minutes each and delivered via Zoom, Teams, or your preferred platform. In the classroom, two modules can be delivered per day – morning and afternoon.
Module content
We know that your requirements will depend on your sector, the roles, experience levels and seniority of the delegates, as well as any previous training undertaken. So we work with you to design training that meets your needs head-on, whether that be a single module or a comprehensive programme spanning a range of topics.
Below are outlines of the content of the six core modules. Each can be further adapted to meet your group’s needs, and additional modules covering other topics can be included on request.
Session 1:
Influencing when you're not in charge
- Unpicking the dynamics of effective influence
- The power of great listening
- The impact of body language on your communication
- Recognising and using voice tone and ‘colour’ in your interactions with other
- Using WIIFM to better impact your colleagues and stakeholders
- Understanding what different people are motivated by
- The seven types of power and how they are used by you and others
- Identifying your influencing style
- Recognising how your influencing style helps and hinders your ability to influence
- Flexing your influencing styles to better connect with others
- Understanding and responding to others’ points-of-view
- Status and shaping others’ opinions about you
- Creating your own influencing strategy
Session 2:
Handling challenging conversations
- How to set clear expectations, including knowing when to say ‘no’
- Using a model for problem solving during tricky conversations
- Handling difficult attitudes and strong emotions
- Selecting the appropriate approach when providing difficult feedback
- Identifying how to remain assertive and in ‘adult’ mode
- How to spot what happens when your buttons are pressed and how to manage this
- Increasing your emotional intelligence
- Ensuring your conversations are always constructive
- Managing resistance from the other person calmly
- Handling tricky conversations on the phone and face-to-face
Session 3:
Meetings and collaboration
This session can adapted to office-based or virtual/remote contexts
- How to engage meeting attendees
- The role of the chairperson
- Creating consistent protocols for running a meeting
- Setting clear purpose, outcomes and agendas for meetings
- Using different software to achieve collaboration, idea-generation and problem solving in virtual meetings
- Maximising the benefits of synchronous and asynchronous collaboration
- Ensuring everyone is involved, seen and heard – whether joining a meeting from home or office
- Using meetings to drive things forward
- Creating ownership and accountability of tasks arising from meetings
- Holding productive discussions during virtual meetings
- Listening to what’s not being said
- Ensuring greater engagement and effectiveness
- Manage dynamics including challenging conversations / people
- Understanding the value of social capital
- Maximising social capital inside and outside of your organisation
Session 4:
Appraisals and performance reviews
- Why bother with appraisals?
- Identifying what makes a good appraisal for the line manager and appraisee
- Exploring the link between appraisals, emotional intelligence and employee engagement
- Using appraisals to focus on the team and organisation’s purpose, priorities, values and behaviours
- Making an appraisal ‘person-focussed’ rather than just ‘task-focussed’
- Overview of the appraisal process and the performance development cycle
- Preparing for an appraisal
- Setting specific, measurable and time-bound objectives
- Assessing performance objectively
- Addressing training and development needs
- Giving and receiving feedback
- Tackling poor attitude and behaviours
- Focusing on the person’s growth and development, as well as performance
Session 5:
Coaching skills for managers
- Understand the benefits of coaching skills in a leader’s toolkit
- Use coaching to bridge the gap between performance and potential
- Recognise our tendency to jump to ‘fix-it’ mode and how to avoid it
- Use the Push / Pull continuum to determine when to be direct and when to use coaching skills
- Use powerful coaching questions
- Set goals for coaching conversations
- Provide honest, fair and constructive feedback
- Use a range of coaching skills to build competence and confidence across your team
- Learn to use the 4-stages of the GROW model to build problem solving / decision-making skills in your team
- Use the GROW model for ‘coaching in the moment’, as well as longer conversations
Session 6:
Harnessing the power of diverse thinking
- Key research into the value of disagreement
- Understanding the difference between constructive and destructive disagreement
- The important role of positive disagreement in coming to better decisions at work
- Using cognitive diversity to improve decision making and performance
- Using skills to disagree with individuals
- Using a proven tool to disagree productively in teams to make better decisions
- Identifying and improving on your natural disagreement style
- Identifying and accounting for others’ personalities when disagreeing with them
- Insights into the role of emotional intelligence around disagreement
- Identifying ways of shaping a culture of positive disagreement in your team
Can’t see what you’re looking for above? We can also include sessions on a range of other communications topics, including presentation skills, negotiation, conflict management, sales skills and customer service. Just ask us for more details.
Additional learning support
As well as the training itself, delegates’ learning is supported by access to an online portal that includes additional curated resources such as videos, articles, book suggestions and recaps that help cement and build on their training.
We also offer individual email coaching support to anyone who needs help applying their learning for up to six months after completing the programme. Optional follow-up training sessions can also be organised to maintain momentum.
Our trainers
Our trainers are expert practitioners and consultants, with many years of experience delivering impactful training across a broad range of organisations and sectors. All are experienced in virtual as well as classroom delivery.
Sally Prescott
Sally has years of experience supporting organisations to deliver exceptional service, leadership and communications. She is a qualified coach and is licensed to deliver a wide range of training programmes. Whether through classroom or virtual training, Sally's energy, knowledge and experience have a lasting impact on those she teaches.
Kate Jennings
A highly experienced trainer, coach and consultant with a commercial background in product development, Kate is our Lead Consultant, and has worked with clients in the UK, Europe and US to develop and deliver classroom and virtual professional skills programmes.
Joanna Markham
Joanna developed her vast knowledge over a long career as an academic and senior leader in industry. As a consultant she has worked with some of the world’s biggest companies, helping develop the leadership and communication skills of people ranging from new starters to CEOs.
If you have a group of managers who could benefit from the Complete Communications Programme we can work with you to adapt the content to your needs and can deliver the training to a schedule that suits you.
Participants can join a virtual training session from the office or from home, and can take part in their own teams or departments, or with a mixture of colleagues from across your organisation. Classroom deliveries can be arranged at a venue of your choice.
Fees depend on the number of participants, the number of modules you want to include, and the extent of any design work required.
Please contact us to find out more and to obtain a quote.
About us
Cambridge Exec is a boutique learning consultancy made up of a select team of specialists in workplace wellbeing, communications and people-oriented leadership and management. We deliver training and coaching, and conduct research and analysis that supports your people-centred workplace culture.
For twenty years we’ve been helping organisations ranging from small startups to international brands to build their people’s capacities, enhance wellbeing and boost engagement and productivity at work.
