Effective Business Communications and Negotiations
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Curriculum
Leadership and Management Skills
Delivery methods
On-Site, Virtual
Duration
4 days
Effective communication—listening, speaking, and reading—is a common characteristic of successful business people. It yields common understanding of goals, tasks, and techniques. It is the basis of productive business relationships, and the basis for negotiating a common ground between people with differing viewpoints and interests. This course covers the fundamentals, enabling the student to hone his or her communication and negotiating skills and thereby become a more effective contributor to the enterprise.
Learning objectives
- Learn the basic concepts of communication with peers, subordinates, and those above you in the management hierarchy
- Establish a process for successful business negotiations that result in a win-win result
- Use effective communications to elicit information through the interview process
- Discuss various communication problems and present their solutions
Who should attend
Managers, staff members, executives, professionals, and anyone who uses communication as a vital asset in accomplishing their business objectives
Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites for this course.
Course outline
- Why Don’t We Communicate Effectively?
- What Are Quality Communications?
- Roles of an Intermediary
- Communication Specialist
- Facilitation
- Mediation
- Explanation
- Information Gathering
- More Than a Communication Specialist
- Speaking for the User
- Potential Problems and Pitfalls
- Suggestions
- Communication Specialist
- Communication
- Forms of Communication
- Styles of Communication
- Components of Communication
- Reasons for Communication
- Information In and Information Out
- Gathering Information
- Presentations
- Conflict
- Dealing with Problems
- Dealing with Bad Behavior
- Negotiation
- Upward Management
- Bases for Good Communications
- Shared Experience
- Common Goal
- Expected Role and Behavior
- WIIFM
- Three Fundamental Questions
- Communication and Information
- Levels of Communication
- Project Communication
- Public vs. Private Communication
- Communication Media
- The Medium Is the Message
- The Importance of Choosing the Right Medium
- Improving Non-Verbal Communication
- Verbal Aikido
- Body Language
- Communication Practices
- Establishing Rapport
- Choosing the Right Words
- Respecting Cultural Differences
- How to Say ‘Yes’
- How to Say ‘No’
- Effective Listening
- Follow-Up
- Interview Approaches
- Customer
- User
- Management
- Three Fundamental Questions
- The Interview
- Five Components of an Interview
- Preparation
- Using the Problem Definition
- Introduction
- Interview Do’s and Don’ts
- SPIN Questions
- Closure
- Follow-Up
- Listening
- Why It’s So Hard
- What to Do About It
- Active Listening
- Hidden Agendas
- Negotiations Defined
- Negotiating with Customers/Users
- Negotiating with Developers
- Negotiating with Upper Management
- Collaborative Negotiating
- Negotiation Preparation
- Research
- Alternative Approaches
- What Can Be Negotiated?
- What Do You Want?
- Visualizing
- Three Fundamental Questions
- Negotiating Approach
- Separate People from the Problem
- Focus on Interests Not Positions
- Invent Options for Mutual Gain
- Insist on Using Objective Criteria
- Summarize and Specify
- Hidden Agendas
- Conflict Resolution
- Outcome Questions
- Politics
- Dealing with Awkward Behavior
- In Your Subordinates
- In Your Peers
- In Upper Management
- In Yourself
- Six Types of Awkward Behavior
- Awkward Behavior Matrix
- Dealing with Awkward Behavior
- Communication Styles
- Assumptions—The Unsaid
- Meetings
- Why Have Them?
- Types of Meetings
- Effective meetings
- Story Telling
- Setting Expectations
- Use of Media
- Dealing with Reactions
- Eliciting Feedback
- Converting Confrontation to Communication
- Influencing Management, Users, and the Development Community
- Why Influence?
- Building a Solid Foundation for Influencing Others
- Five Influence Conditions
- Three Fundamental Questions
- Six Major Influence Strategies
- The Impact of Decisions
- The Functions of Networking
- Upward Management
- What Is Upward Management?
- Why It Is So Hard
- Wearing the “B” on the Chest
- Assumptions that Come with Authority
- Presenting Problems—The Star Trek Approach
- Understanding the Motivation
- Positive Approaches
- Guidelines
