About The Workshop:

Need for the Workshop: There is a definite way of responding to complex situations in one’s day-to-day work-life so that situations, relationships, work environment and consequently the performance of one’s organization improves. It is not enough to know the importance of interpersonal communication skills, listening skills or interpersonal skills; looking at a river won’t make you cross it!

Human beings are like the gears of the social machinery.  Inadequate  or inferior lubrication is  detrimental  not only for the health of the individual gear but also for  the machinery. Skills for interpersonal communication provide the necessary lubrication.  Different   kinds   of  reasons  are   traced   in   an organisation for a  poor or reduced productivity such as low internal as well as external customer satisfaction, friction among  employees, wrong decisions, loss of man-hours due  to unforeseeable  stoppages.  But if we care to probe a  little deeper,  we  shall  find  that at the  roots  of  all  these seemingly     different     causes     lie     just      one mother-cause—poor communication/listening/interpersonal skills!

Communication is not what we intend to say or what we actually say; it is what the listener gathers.  Unless the listener desires to listen, or is capable of listening efficiently, communication cannot take place. Poor listeners are a liability for the organisations that employ them, the people they work with, or the family members they live with. How often we spend time on things which were not to be done or were to be done in a different fashion, only be­cause we do not care to listen the instructions properly. This results in loss of time, money, material, profits, self-esteem and confidence. It is indeed a gross wastage of human-potential if the development of listening skills is neglected.

Apart from being ill-equipped to be able to listen effectively, for want of necessary training, many among us continue to remain emotionally deaf and dumb, ceaselessly failing to understand the emotional environment, and/or to employ ways to transform the emotional states of self and others suitably. The ability to communicate correctly at the right time, using  the  right  means  and to the  right  people  and in the right way is  the backbone of effective management.  No  organisation which is beset with problems  of  poor interpersonal communication among its employees or with  the external customers can hope to make profits. The success of today’s  manager depends  very heavily on his ability to communicate  to  all those  concerned  about what is expected from  them  and  to gather  new ideas, solutions to various problems, views  and experiences from these very people.

As  we  grow,  our  responsibilities  as   a communicator   increase  manifold  and  we  find  our   abilities inadequate to meet the challenge.  At the top of  the  organisations and  the leaders  in  any field are the  people  who  are  better equipped  to  meet this challenge, by virtue  of  their  superior communicating abilities--intra and interpersonal.  One, whom the organizations allows to climb the hierarchical ladder without equipping him with the corresponding level of expertise in these skills, could prove to be a disaster for the organization. It is akin to flouting the basic safety norms such as wearing a safety helmet at the shop floor.  Considering the fact that how many organizations fail to foresee this need before the disaster actually takes place makes it even riskier for the organization, because we, as managers, tend to fall in line with what we see others doing or not doing. 

How this workshop is different from others on the subject: This power-packed workshop is partly based on Anil Bhatnagar’s thoroughly researched book "Water The Roots' on the subject, which has been adjudged by the Indian Society for Training and Development as the second best to be published (among all categories—the first prize was awarded to a book on computer software)  in the country in the year 2001-2002.

This workshop bears a stamp of class and is not among the ordinary run-of-the-mill workshops on the subject. It hits the nail on the head and straightaway goes to the root of problems relating to interpersonal communication/skills and transforms the participant into a powerful communicator. The workshop unearths the blocks that keep one from becoming the effective communicator one has the potential to be through beliefs questionnaires and bulldozes them through powerful role-playing and auto-suggestion exercises. Apart from this, the workshop utilizes the latest and the most effective tips and techniques available on the subject anywhere in the world.

The participants feel the difference in their level of confidence with which they can face life after attending this workshop. Others can easily distinguish such a person from those who have not been as fortunate!

Contents:

(The time spent on each of the following topics can be suitably modified depending upon the depth of the coverage and objectives intended. For example, a one-to-two-days workshop can be arranged each focusing separately and solely on presentation skills, on listening skills  or on interpersonal skills or any other focused objective. All the following subjects in a comprehensive workshop can be covered in a three day workshop to apprise the participants of the very basics of communication in a very wide but general context) 

1.    Basics

• The invisible connection that binds us all together.
• Why people need to communicate
• The basic goals of communication;
• Ineffective communication: the mother of all problems.
• The factors that influence communication
• Common reasons for breakdown of communication/relationships.
• Understanding the communication as a hexagonal cycle
• Eight essentials of effective communication.

2.    Developing the art of self-briefing before starting any transaction: Register the possibility of a communication, review the necessity and repercussions, and remind the possible pitfalls. Greeting with the presence of heart and spirit

3.    Listening

• Listening with patience and concentration: Overcoming impatience to speak, listening with concentration, establishing rapport.
  
  
• Listening with ears: How can you master the seven infallible secrets of developing effective listening skills.
  
  
• Listening with eyes: The secrets of body language and how they can enrich you as a communicator.
  
  
• Listening with heart: What does this actually want? Why is he saying what he is saying?Are you listening only to the words, or to the feelings as well? Seeing your conduct from the eyes and heart of the other person.
  
  
•  Listening with uncommon intelligence i.e. Metaprograms: Discovering the way the other person’s mind works and what motivates him and what does not. Considering the kind of person you are talking to: auditory, visual or kinesthetic.
  
  
• Seven infallible secrets of developing effective listening skills.

4.    How can you make your communication precise and powerful?

• Empowering your words: Do you speak words or merely sounds? What is the difference? Words have power behind them; they are merely sounds if they lack this power. Who has taken away this power from you? How to restore this power in your words. Empowering your diction.
• Preciseness: Do your words confuse or paint distinct and well-focused pictures in others’ minds? Learning to use your five fingers to remind you of the strategies to be precise in your communication. Replacing weak and fuzzy words in your vocabulary with power-packed definite words.
• Presence of mind: Using questions instead of instructions. Asking the right questions from yourself and the other person. Knowing what you are promising and what obligations it will pull you into. What level of communication is it presently? How to take iot further deeper?

5.    Concluding the transaction: Evaluate and give yourself a second chance to ensure a perfect finish.

6.    Mastering the Challenges in Communication

• Handling negative responses and difficult people.
• The art of persuading without offending. Using communication skills to ask. Dealing with resistance and overcoming objections. How to get undivided riveted attention from others.
• How to convey and receive negative feedback.
• Resolving Conflicts
• Negotiating

7.    Developing great relationships

• Common reasons for breakdown of communication/relationships:
• Factors that affect relationships: Empathy, acceptance, sincerity, understanding, sharing, mutual respect, being positive, unassuming.
• Six levels in our conversation and the two of them that we normally avoid, which in fact matter the most.
• Four powerful strategies/tracks to remember while communicating.
• Do your words hurt or heal? Using communication to make bridges instead of walls. How to develop an army of loyal followers. Developing immediate rapport with the other person.  How to give commands that will always be followed. How to speak in a way that spells magic on others.
• Learning to be assertive and responsive.
• Developing immediate rapport with the other person

8.    Vehicles of Communication:

• ‘How to communicate while on phone’
• ‘Communicating through e-mails’
• Written communication
• Meetings

9. Public speaking and presentations:

1. Identify Objectives, gathering information, arranging under headings, editing, checklist
2. Rehearse (before the event day and on the event day but before it) and Visualizing
3. Gain attention,
4. make the audience ready and begin
5. Convey the message
6. Clarify
7. Conclude
8. Follow up

Objectives:

After the workshop, the participants shall have learnt how to use the best of the skills and strategies in interpersonal communication/listening/inter-personal skills like an expert. They will also realize how little were they surviving with earlier.