Day 1

Introductions, Learning objectives and Agenda

Personal Best, Professional Best

Participants do an exercise based on their impressions, and then discuss “first impressions” and how wrong they can be, but how pervasive they are

You and your self-esteem

First impressions

What are your supervisor/manager values

A large group discussion about expectations and the importance of understanding your role in the organization. The discussion then moves on to organizing your workspace, and planning your work, so you can prioritize

Your role

Planning and prioritizing

Working as a Team

The group put together a jigsaw puzzle, with the underlying message that we all have a role to play and we work interdependently as a team

The team of two

The office team

Taking Control of Communication

The group defines communication, and identifies the barriers that must be overcome, with an exercise to illustrate how easy it is to misinterpret messages. They then determine what they can do to improve communication in their organization

Barriers to communication

Questioning techniques

A large group discussion of the advantages of open questions, some examples of good open questions we can ask, how we can probe, and an exercise for finding common ground

Probing

Active Listening

An exercise, followed by a discussion of active listening techniques

Non-verbal Communication

An exercise to demonstrate the different ways one’s body language can be interpreted

The Written Word

This is a discussion, followed by exercises to illustrate the key elements of good written communication—the clear, concise, complete, correct formula

The four c’s of communication

Punctuation pointers

Comma faults

Spelling

Proofreading

Review of the day

Day 2

Reconnect

A group exercise to elicit feedback and focus the group on the topic

Dealing with Difficult People

A large group discussion about the people who annoy us and whether we might be contributing to the problem

Dealing with criticism

using curiosity when you meet genuine criticism and the “fogging” technique for manipulative criticism, with some opportunity to practice these techniques

Managing other people’s anger

Large group discussion of warning signs and ways to deal with the anger, followed by an exercise, completed in pairs, of ways to deal with difficult people

Connecting with People

Discuss the acronym SOFTEN, and then the six steps suggested by Dale Carnegie for winning friends and influencing people, with two exercises to demonstrate ways to do this - a short exercise to get people energized

Problem-solving in the Workplace

Large group discussion of the six steps to problem-solving, followed by team discussion of some of the common problems participants face in a workplace setting, and their responses, with feedback

Stress Options you can use right now

Participants work in teams, as music plays in the background, to list those things they do to aggravate stress and those things they do to alleviate stress, and what changes they are prepared to make, so their stress is more manageable

Review

each participant is to write down 3 characteristics of an effective support person, and through a process of exchange, elimination and consensus, the group should arrive at the top three characteristics for anyone in support to possess

Personal Action Plan

Evaluation

Suggested Reading List