Home The
Solution		 What CCG Does How It Works Applied
StoryBoarding		 About Facilitated
Group Process

Servant
Leadership

 Servant Leader at Work! About CCG
Consensus Consulting Group can help business leadership and team leaders facilitate meetings reaching consensus through effective management tools such as brainstorming, storyboarding, and other group processes. Consensus Consulting Group can help business leadership and team leaders facilitate meetings reaching consensus through effective management tools such as brainstorming, storyboarding, and other group processes.

TITLE: “Communicating…Without Alienating”

SUB-TITLE:  "Get Your Message Across, While Building and Preserving Relationships”

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

Participants will learn to:

  • View tact and diplomacy as factors that enhance, rather than detract from, effective communications.

  • Establish and maintain a distinct boundary between tactful and diplomatic ‘spin-doctoring’ of a message…and willful distortion that is intended only to deceive.

  • Appreciate and utilize the value of listening as the most valuable first step in any communication.

  • Read and interpret some common cues that will help determine what other parties in a communications loop need in order to reach a win/win outcome.

  • Recognize the essential elements of good diplomacy and use that awareness to incorporate some new behaviors into their own communications styles.

  • Use tact and diplomacy as vehicles for achieving ‘consensus’…which is the only sound foundation for a sustainable agreement or understanding…a  ’win/win’, as it is often called.

DESCRIPTION:

This course is appropriate for anyone who needs to develop an improved sense of confidence in their ability to communicate with others…even about sensitive, controversial, or volatile issues…and not be at risk of doing more harm than good.  All too often, good causes are lost, not because of stakeholders’ reactions to the cause itself, but because of their reaction to the way in which it was communicated to them.  In any communication, there is a sender and a receiver...each with spoken and unspoken needs and expectations about the topic being communicated.  Getting the message across to the receiver is NOT the only important mission during a communication.  The communication will not have been effective unless the majority of stakeholders come away with an ‘O.K.’ feeling about what was communicated.  This, of course, is not to say that everyone will feel wonderful, or even good about what was communicated.  The operant term is ‘O.K’…meaning that everyone’s needs are met to a degree sufficient that all stakeholders can live with the outcome.  That is the basis for what we call ‘consensus’.  Consensus is at the very heart of good diplomacy.  Packaging, or ‘spinning’, messages so that consensus is attainable is critical.  The course includes a workbook for note taking and reference.  The format of the course is based upon:

  • Informal Lecture with Participation by Attendees

  • Support by PowerPoint Slide Presentation

  • Ample Time for Questions, Answers, and Working Examples

Three principal benefits one could expect to result from participating are:

  1. Develop capability to stand confidently before a working group and facilitate a productive meeting.
  2. Learn to use a meeting facilitation tool that taps into the collective wisdom, vision, and energy of the group.
  3. Acquire the fundamentals of using group consensus to build support and energy for change, where resistance might otherwise be expected.

There are no requirements or prerequisites for participation in the workshop.

Workshop Syllabus

Workshop Objective Provide participants with a fundamental understanding of the behaviors necessary for tactful and diplomatic communications that build/maintain relationships and lessen the likelihood of hostile or indifferent reactions.

Workshop Format

 

 • Informal Lecture with Participation by Attendees
• Supported by PowerPoint Presentation
• Ample Time Allowed for Q/A
• Integrates Role-Playing by Participants
• Workbook of Presentation Slides Provided
 
Topics Covered "Take-Away" From Each Topic
Day One  
“Tact” Defined A keen sense of what to do or say, in order to maintain good relations with others or avoid offense.
“Diplomacy” Defined Skill in handling affairs without arousing hostility.
Why Not Just ‘Tell It Like It Is’? Tact is the vehicle for reaching a diplomatic outcome.  It’s not just about getting the message across, but also about the feelings that are engendered by the communication.
How Does Technology Get in the Way? Technology can focus on facts, to the exclusion of the influence that human perception can have upon communications…
It’s Not What You Said That Counts…It’s What They Heard …And human perception oftentimes is the final word on the outcome of a communication.
‘Spin-Doctoring’ and Ethics Taking the time to sensitively package a communication absolutely need not be linked with the intent to deceive.
Communicating is About Listening… First and Always! Listening is the only way to assess the needs of those who will receive a communication.  Listening, in advance, is necessary in order to prepare and deliver the message appropriately.
Empathetic Listening Put yourself in the receiver’s shoes.
Verbal Cues Assessing the needs and expectations of the receiver by what is said.
Non-Verbal Cues Assessing the needs and expectations of the receiver by body language… and by what is unsaid.
Role Playing Examples Practicing difficult communications…with and without the application the principles of good tact and diplomacy.

OTHER FACILITATION WORKSHOPS

| HOME | SOLUTION | WHAT CCG DOES | HOW IT WORKS | APPLIED STORYBOARDING |
| ABOUT FACILITATED GROUP PROCESS | SERVANT LEADERSHIP | SERVANT LEADER AT WORK! | ABOUT CCG | CONTACT CCG |

© 2001-2005, Consensus Consulting.  All rights reserved.
Hosting and Design by Quality Business Solutions