Training programs to be offered in 2012:

Facilitation Skills for HR Managers

Design and Deliver Your Best Presentation Ever!

The Art of Engagement: Business Communication and Etiquette

Effective Business Communication in Health Care Settings

Are You Listening or Just Waiting for Me to Finish?

Maximizing Your Organizational Effectiveness

Coaching Skills for Managers

Create a Positive Customer Experiences

Create a Positive Patient Experience

The Non-negotiable, Irrefutable and Never-Changing Laws of Sales

Below are descriptions and learning objectives for each course. We happily customize courses to meet specific business needs and always begin an engagement by interviewing key stakeholders. Training can be delivered in a variety of formats, including half and full day, multi session development series and "lunch and learn" sessions.

Cooking Up Collaboration

   Inspire your team to greater creativity.

   Reveal the barriers to collaboration and communication among different behavioral styles

   Uncover leadership potential in your team

  Click to Watch the Video       

When you watch a celebrity chef on TV prepare five very complicated dishes in sixty minutes, he’s not working alone. It’s a well coordinated effort among skilled collaborators who bring their best game and together pull off an amazing challenge and win.

Cooking Up Collaboration builds on the popularity of cooking TV programs and integrates lessons of team building, collaboration and process improvement as participants work together towards a mutual goal: making and sharing a meal together. The lesson we strive to convey: to succeed, teams must have the best effort of all participants, collaborating in an open and trusting manner that maximizes the contributions and effort of all involved .With a variety of choices to fit all budgets, Cooking Up Collaboration can be completely customized to your training objectives. 

" Our people loved everything about this but especially that this was a collaborative, not competitive, experience."

                                                                                                                                                               ~ Sammons Enterprises

" Ranked as far exceeding expectations by more than 85% of our people and the highlight of our international meeting"

                                                                                                                                                              ~ McAfee

Locations include:

Miele Showroom in Oak Lawn            Shooting Star Ranch and Retreat in Red Oak     South Fork Hotel in Plano.

NYLO Hotel in Frisco or Irving             Bridge Bistro in the Dallas Design District           Your office or church                                                    

Click here to request a quote and availability

 

Facilitation Skills for HR Managers  The role of Human Resources is morphing from a “rule maker/ rule enforcer” to that of a “consultant/ educator”.  Today’s HR professionals are required to facilitate a variety of meetings and help a group establish its structure, collaborate more effectively,  make high quality decisions, assume responsibility for outcomes all without  taking a position in the discussion.  This full day course provides the opportunity for participants to lead several facilitations. Paired with Design and Deliver Your Best Presentation Ever, it is an excellent two day workshop. At the conclusion of this course, the successful learner will be able to:

• Define facilitation and how it differs from coaching, training, presenting and other group work
• Demonstrate the critical listening skills required of a  facilitator
• Describe and understand the Seven Principles of Group Facilitation
• Describe and understand the Five P’s: Purpose, Product, Participants, Probable Issue and Process
• Describe and understand the concepts of the tool kit, the parking lot, establish ground rules, the role of the scribe and various methods to gather information
• Manage dysfunction and disruption
• Describe and understand the levels of disagreement and how to build consensus

 

Design and Deliver Your Best Presentation Ever.  The audience doesn’t need yet another Power Point presentation. They want a speaker that knows how to grab them in the first 8 seconds and keep their attention with memorable, easy to understand information. This program teaches participants how to improve the organization of their ideas, create a memorable opening, work the stage with confidence and make it all come together for a powerful presentation. Class activities include at least two presentations by participants with feedback from fellow students and the instructor.  We also provide the option of video recording the presentations.  At the conclusion of this course, the successful learner will be able to:

• Understand the role of storytelling in presentations
• Create a presentation with a strong beginning, interesting middle and thoughtful conclusion
• Describe their own presentation challenges and identify techniques to master them
• Understand the importance of executive presence, showing up fully and connecting with the audience
• Describe the POWER formula and use it to create masterful presentations

 

The Art of Engagement: Business Communication and Etiquette This course is designed to assist individuals with everyday tactical communication skills that will get and keep people engaged. Business etiquette today is more than just the professional way we interact with people; it is the key to moving people and processes forward.  In this session, participants will discover how to use a “People Reader” to enhance their ability to understand how best to communicate with others, examine the differences between internal and external clients, and be introduced to the concepts of the golden rule, the platinum rule and reciprocity in communication. At the conclusion of this course, the successful learner will be able to:

• Increase rapport with co-workers and clients using “ The People Reader”
• Learn methods to influence people up, down and across the organization
• Increase personal credibility by building “a trust bank” of frequent high deposits and few withdrawals
• Identify and use active listening skills and self-identify their listening style
• Understand cross generational issues in communication and techniques to address them
• Understand the role and rules of business etiquette in the office, in communications, traveling, at meals, with clients and the benefits and liabilities of communication technology

 

Business Communication in Health Care Settings Today’s patients seek a relationship with their healthcare provider that not only delivers a solution to their medical challenge but a patient experience that is empathetic, unfailingly polite and respectful of their time and privacy.  Yet all too often, their experience falls well short of their expectation. During this course, participants will gain an understanding of how to communicate accurately and professionally with patients in a medical setting. At the conclusion of this course, the successful learner will be able to:

• Obtain accurate information from patients in such a way that the positive intent behind requests and actions are understood to be in their best interest
• Engage patients in conversation in a professional and precise manner
• Demonstrate an understanding of communication differences across cultures and generation
• Describe and use language that is non-sexist, non-racist and non-ageist
• Demonstrate how to speak with respect to people with disabilities and disease
• Understand and employ the techniques of active listening, including paraphrasing, summarizing and clarifying
• Identify and use open versus closed questions to gain better understanding and clarity
• Identify the ten most common grammar mistakes in written and spoken English
• Demonstrate knowledge of telephone etiquette including answering the phone, taking messages and leaving messages for patients and coworkers
• Demonstrate knowledge of email, the rules of “netiquette” and how to write email that projects a professional, positive image that creates goodwill with patients
• Demonstrate how to balance task oriented activity with a communication style that is empathetic and supportive
• Demonstrate presence and mindfulness in the face of busyness and distractions
• Demonstrate nonverbal behaviors in tone, posture, pace and facial expression that eases anxiety and earns trust with patients
• Understand the concept of “the blameless apology” and demonstrate the ability to say,  “I’m sorry” in a heartfelt way to upset or dissatisfied patients without placing blame and show sincere regret that the patient’s experience was not ideal

 

Are You Listening or Just Waiting for Me to Finish? You may be smart, talented and disciplined. But your business success is largely determined by your ability to build relationships with others. Building relationships takes skill, especially listening skills and an ability to uncover mutual self interest. People who listen effectively are perceived as more helpful and tend to exert more influence in organizations as compared to less effective listeners. Paradoxically, good listeners are listened to more than poor listeners.  This highly interactive course starts with a listening quiz and includes numerous class exercises designed to increase understanding of listening and improve listening skills. At the conclusion of this course, the successful learner will be able to:

• Describe the barriers to listening
• Understand and employ the techniques of active listening, including paraphrasing, summarizing, clarifying, reflecting, linking, predicting and drawing inferences
• Understand the difference and employ the techniques of strategic and tactical listening
• Understand the difference between direct versus implied meaning
• Be able to identify and use open versus closed questions to gain better understanding and clarity

 

Maximizing Your Organizational Effectiveness Being successful in organizations requires knowing how to work your internal network. That can be especially challenging when there is little trust, people hoard resources and some of the greatest threats come not from competitors but from within. In this course, participants identify how to break down silos and build internal networks, increase collaboration by building trust across departments and functions, develop their personal brand and be valued as someone with whom people want to work. This is a half day course.  Consider expanding it to a full day using the “Five Dysfunctions of a Team” assessment and either lunch or dinner using our team building program, “Cooking Up Collaboration.”   At the conclusion of this course, the successful learner will be able to:

• Understand the concept of organizational trust and how the lack of it can make the difference between organizations that flourish or wither
• Understand the concept of personal branding and identify their own personal brand
• Understand the benefits of internal networking, how to promote it within your organization and how to leverage the results

 

Coaching Skills for Managers What if your manager could listen for what you cannot hear, help you see solutions that are obscured, could help you articulate possibilities and provide encouragement while you pursue your objectives? How much faster would you see results? Now imagine being that manager. What changes would your team see in you? In themselves?  What would change? Coaching requires managers to shift their mindset from telling, advising, and solving to asking, drawing-out, and promoting self-discovery. In this course, managers are introduced to the concept of coaching and taught a coaching process that will move their teams forward faster. At the conclusion of this course, the successful learner will be able to:

• Understand how to set the environment in which positive coaching can take place and coachees feel both challenged and supported to achieve positive results.
• Understand and employ the techniques of deep, active, generous listening  in the coaching process
• Understand the different types of powerful questions and when to use what kind of question to raise awareness and responsibility for outcomes
• Understand and apply the coaching techniques of presence/mindfulness, creating awareness and the power of suspending judgment

 

Create a Positive Customer Experience Everyone knows the hallmarks of poor customer service: it’s rude, late, disrespectful, incompetent, slow, and defensive.  With the cost of landing a new customer a staggering seven times the cost of keeping an existing customer and poor Internet reviews accessible to every prospect, poor customer experiences can seriously damage the every business.  In this course, we examine the increasing importance of great customer service and how a delivering a superior customer experience adds real value to your business. The goal: making your customer care team the one that your customers like and trust and refer. At the conclusion of this course, the successful learner will be able to:

• Identify great customer service providers in their organization and others
• Employ actionable techniques for improving customer service scores
• Understand the concept of First Time Focus
• Understand and demonstrate the concepts of active and strategic listening
• Understand  how to avoid  errors that result in miscommunication
• Understand techniques for planning for  peak times, reporting errors and break downs in service
• Understand the critical concept of trust in customer relationships
• Employ techniques for involving the customer in solving the problem
• Effectively use problem solving techniques such as atonement, empathy and the “no blame” apology
• Effectively use self-care techniques that recharge energy

 

Creating a Positive Patient Experience Patients know that they can receive about the same services at most medical offices. They are more demanding, more informed and more willing to move on if they don’t get their needs met.  How will you provide the value they seek? By providing a patient experience that is timely, respectful and patient centered.  The cost to land a new patient is 6-7 times the cost of keeping an existing patient and a negative Internet review can cost a practice not only new patients but shake the confidence of existing patients. This course will develop patient service skills, making your team a strategic asset that keeps patients coming back, happy to refer friends and family and a critical part of successful patient outcomes. The successful learner will be able to:

• Identify great customer service providers in their organization and others
• Understand the concept of a First Time Focus
• Understand the fundamentals of patient centered care
• Employ actionable techniques for improving patient satisfaction scores
• Employ the techniques of active listening and identify their own listening style
• Understand how an unprofessional manner erodes trust and its consequences for patient outcomes
• Understand the concept of Emotional Intelligence and how to build their EQ
• Understand  the common errors that result in miscommunication and how to avoid them
• Understand techniques for planning for peak times, reporting errors and break downs in service and the role of continuous learning in career development
• Identify the likely anxiety of the patients they serve, develop a script(s) or key words  to use with those patients, how to manage patient anxiety at key contact points and what responding with sensitivity, tact and compassion will sound and look like
• Methods to reduce office politics, create a team service environment  and the benefits for patients and coworkers
• Effectively use problem solving techniques such as atonement, empathy, apology
• Develop a personal action plan to improve their customer service skills

 

The Non-negotiable, Irrefutable and Never-Changing Laws of Sales  Sales gurus come and go with the wind. Books line the shelves, touting every conceivable permutation of approach. One thing is sure: if you don’t have the basics ingrained, you will never get to the next level. In this course, participants learn the basic laws that drive all sales transactions, regardless of industry, size or product:  What are the Laws?:

1) That No Pain + No Gain = No Sale!

2) Job #1 is to make it easier for the customer to do business with us

3) The key to developing a great business relationship is asking powerful questions and then listening deeply for the answer

4) That without frequent deposits in the trust bank, we risk our customer relationships

5) There are ways to become memorable without becoming a pest.

At the conclusion of this course, the successful learner will be able to:

• Ask questions that reveal the customer’s needs and identify how the product or service can alleviate their pain
• Evaluate the gap between what the organization promises and what it actually delivers to customers
• Use ten powerful questions that move relationships between customer and salesperson from vendor to trusted consultant
• Describe a trust bank and why it is critical to the relationship between companies and their customers as well as among coworkers
• Describe ways to keep in contact with customers that serve the needs of both parties without becoming a nuisance or a burden