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Description
“Business Communication” has become a phrase overwhelmed by expectation and
disappointment. Business leadership values good “communication.” Job
descriptions insist on it: “Excellent communication skills required.”
Yet miscommunication is more often the norm. Conversations are misunderstood,
presentations fall flat, important information goes unread, emails run amok—all
are symptoms of the problem. Add to that the difficulty of cross-cultural
communication between people of many native languages and very different
experiences, and the challenge of communicating well is significant.
In this two-day workshop participants
undertake improvements in all four areas of communication:
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Listening
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Speaking/Presenting
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Writing
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Reading
Special emphasis is typically in the area of presenting—a difficult area for
many technical professionals.
The workshop helps participants gauge their audience, sequence ideas, prepare
slides and written materials, and (most importantly) listen to their audience,
answering the all-important questions:
What do they need to know?
and
What do I expect my audience to do?
When speakers (and writers) don’t answer those questions, presentations (and
documentation) lack focus, become cluttered, overcomplicated, too wordy,
imprecise, difficult to fathom.
Improved communication = Improved bottom line
There’s a hard dollar return on good communication: Time wasted (in poor
presentations, for example) translates to real cost. Two examples: (1) Poorly
communicated technical specs result in more time spent on questions and answers
afterward; (2) Boring, verbose status updates leave people asking “Huh?” instead
of knowing what to do. These are costly communication problems.
Benefits
Participants in the Technical Communication Workshop will learn how to:
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Be confident, capable
presenters
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Assess the audience and
reach them, whatever their level of expertise
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Optimize visual materials
(slides) and documents
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Help audiences really
engage with presentation material
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Create using “best
practices” for organizing and structuring
-
Scale material for
technical and non-technical audiences
-
Engage readers with a
fresh approach to technical material, clearly imparting ideas and information
-
Persuade
audiences & readers—including building consensus, addressing resistance
Instructor:
Susan de la Vergne
About the Workshop and the Instructor:
W hat Participants
Have Said
"Fresh approach to an old
subject!"
-
Randy Langford, Project Manager, Providence Health System
"It directly related to
applicable work communication."
- Carol Clark, Mentor Graphics Corp.
"Excellent content and
knowledgeable instructor. I liked the presentation style. A '10' on a 1-10
scale!"
- Prashanth Nujetti, Sr. Systems Engineer, Menlo
Worldwide
"Susan is a fascinating
speaker with an incredible ability to read her audience and respond to diverse
individual needs, without ever loosing focus."
- Dr. Antonie Jetter, Portland State University
Workshop Overview
The workshop is divided into
four sections:
(1) Listening (2 hours)
(2) Audience and Objective (2 hours)
(3) Writing (2 hours)
(4) Presenting (9 hours)
(1) Listening is the underpinning of all good communication. It’s an
undervalued skill and a difficult one. Using respected research in this area, we
talk about “the three levels of listening” and their relevance to writing and
speaking, particularly in the context of more complex business and technical
material. We explore, too, how people from different cultures “listen” and how
to take into account differences to improve understanding across groups.
(2) Audience and Objective apply equally to written material and
presentations. Understanding what people know, how they might respond, or are
responding, to what’s being delivered is a critical first step in establishing
effective communication. Participants learn ways to assess an audience’s
knowledge level and disposition, then how to apply that knowledge. They learn,
too, some important considerations when speaking to audiences from different
parts of the world, how to recognize how and why some forms of communication are
more (and less) effective with individuals from certain parts of the world.
(3) The Writing portion of the class addresses the challenges unique to
the writing-averse among technical professionals—audience, persuasion, voice,
presentation, as well as a bit of a language tune-up, rich in tips uniquely
relevant to technical subjects. We focus on the written deliverables specific to
technical professions (product evaluations, proposals, design documents, RFP’s,
emails, presentation hand-outs, technology strategy documents, how-to materials,
and more).
(4) Presentations rely on all of the above—listening, audience
assessment, objective, structure and sequence, voice, persuasion techniques—and
in this longest section of the class, participants learn to develop
presentations from scratch (using situations in a case study), applying best
practices for structure and organization. We combine their materials with live
coaching to help them apply the recommendations to a presentation. They then
have the opportunity to present to the class. (Note: No video cameras are used
in this workshop—an approach that it generally preferable and effective with engineering/tech
audiences. Feedback comes from class members, much as feedback in “the real
world” comes from peers, colleagues, and managers.)
Contact us
for more information.
Our Guarantee
If for any reason you
are not satisfied, write to us within 30 days after the
workshop and return the course materials and we'll arrange for you to receive a full refund -
hassle-free!
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