How Do You Use Effective Communication and Consultation Techniques

When you are starting a new project you will need to be able to use all of your communication and consultation techniques to get it done. You may not have to use them all, but you should be ready to. The easiest thing you can do at this stage is to set up a plan for how the project is going to go ahead and what things you will need to do as a manager in order to proceed as the project moves forward. The more complicated the project is the more in depth the plan needs to become, and the more people need to see the plan. If it becomes very complicated your team may all want to work on plans for each of their parts in the project so that everyone knows what needs to happen. These will change as problems come up in the project, but that is one of the roles of communication.

As the project is being planned it may become obvious that you will need to consult with someone outside of the team to let them know what is happening and how it is going to happen. When you do this you should identify for them the scope of your project, how it will affect them, anything they may need to do or provide you with in order for you to continue, set out the appropriate methods for this to occur with an option for feedback from both sides on how this is working out. This kind of consultations usually happens in the workplace where there is a sensitive project and a share holder, or a client will need to be notified and kept up to date on the progress of the project.

When problems occur, because there are few projects that can go off without a hitch here or there, the most important thing is to let the appropriate people be aware of what changes are being made without sounding like it is a question or a decision you can change. Stay cool, calm, and answer any questions they may have. If you have a hard time having these kinds of conversations, look for someone on your team with customer service training who can help with the discussion. Allow them to give you feedback as part of the discussion and you may decide to change something based on ideas that are presented to you.

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Dale Carnegie Principle #23: Call attention to people's mistakes indirectly.

Dale Carnegie Principle #22: Begin with praise and honest appreciation

5 Tips for Conducting a Successful Team Presentation

Now more than ever, business professionals are being asked to give presentations with teams. Everyone on your team must hone their presentation and preparation skills for these types of team presentations to be effective. Professional team presentations involve thorough planning, smooth transitions, logical sequencing of subject material, and the ability to create a coherent professional message. Here are 5 steps your team should follow in order to have a successful presentation.

1) Powerful Opening - Open up with a bang. You want to immediately engage your listeners and set the tone for the presentation. Make sure to plan your statement carefully and deliver a startling statement (statistic or fact) that you can drive home with sincere appreciation.

2) Introduction - After your opening, you should always briefly overview your agenda for the presentation and introduce all the members of the team. There are two different ways you can go about your introductions. The team leader can briefly introduce each member of the team and their respective role in the project, or each person can briefly state their own name and what their role will be in the project.

3) Handoffs - Part of your preparation for the presentation should go towards planning your handoffs. A poor handoff may slow down the flow of your presentation and confuse the audience. To help ease the transition, you should keep to a strict time frame for each speaker and use verbal cues to indicate that the next speaker is coming up: "In a minute, Bob will tell us how the timeline will work." As a presenter, make sure you are listening so that you hear your cue.

4) Team Question and Answer Session - An effectively facilitated question and answer session will leave a lasting and positive impression on your listeners. It is important in a team presentation to plan and prepare for this session. Take some time to predetermine which questions/subjects of questions will be answered by which team member. Also, determine a cue that will let your team members know to add on to your point.

5) Close with an Impact - It is important that you end your presentation on a high note. The closing of your presentation will reinforce the message you want your audience to take away with them. You want to have one person, typically the leader, close for the team. At the conclusion of the closing, make sure that you efficiently gather any materials and equipment that you used.

Dale Carnegie Principle #21: Throw down a challenge

Management Training Myths: What Doesn't Work

The history of management training and various work ethic philosophies that have gone along with it and evolved through time demonstrate various perspectives and approaches to training management staff. In addition, they demonstrate the changing orientations toward dealing with employees that have occurred in recent decades. Interestingly, the greatest changes have occurred in the last couple to few decades and represent an increase in respect and support for various staff levels. Years ago there was an extreme power differential between management and support staff, however recent trends demonstrate that eliminating these hierarchies in attitude creates a more positive work environment.

With this and other discoveries, there have been great changes in management training program philosophies. Certain myths and historic beliefs about how to appropriately train management and consequently treat staff have been uncovered and are no longer in place. These earlier beliefs are now considered to be destructive to the well being and success potential of a company, and changes in approach to training and staff treatment have demonstrated strong growth in the companies that affect it.

Micromanaging may be appropriate in certain, though uncommon, contextual situations, though as a general rule is ineffective and results in a frustrated and stagnant workforce. In addition, training management to engage in insulting correctional behavior is also counter to productivity. A supportive and communicative manager has been seen as weakness and ineffective leadership in the past, though this was based on stereotypes that are not comical. It is important to train management in positive communication and delegation skills, and the attitudes and practices of early 20th century training are recognized as destructive and sometimes in appropriate. One of the most noticeable of the beliefs that has been eliminated is the myth that men are smarter and more capable managers than women. There are many others that are similar in pattern and intent.

Dale Carnegie Principle #20: Dramatize your ideas

Staying on Top of the Change Process

Engaging workplace change can be an unpredictable experience, because processes and people evolve in diverse ways as they undergo change. No two individuals will respond in exactly the same way to workplace changes. In the same way, identical changes implemented in multiple areas of an organization can produce distinctly different outcomes. Here are some tips to show you how to stay on top of the change engagement process, by thoroughly preparing for it, while allowing for various outcomes. These tips allow you to take a structured approach to organizational change, and still maintain flexibility.
Motivation for Change
Change begins at the point where the organization finds a motivation for change. Sometimes external issues drive the change, like reorganizations, management changes, relocations, or acquisitions/mergers. Other times internal forces drive the change, such as upgraded technology, expansions and growth, or continuous improvement.
Analyze the Situation
As the organization becomes progressively more motivated to change, leadership undertakes a thorough analysis of the risks and opportunities associated with the proposed change:
• What are the potential gains in undertaking the change?
• What are the costs?
• What are the risks of making the change?
• What are the risks of not making the change?
Plan the Direction
Once the determination is made that opportunities outweigh the risks of making the change, a plan is developed for change implementation. Many organizational change initiatives fail because of lack of careful, thorough planning. In this step, the stage is set for the ultimate success or failure of the change. Key elements of the plan must include:
• Planning for the impact of the change on individuals who will be most affected.
• Planning for the impact of the change on the systems within the organization that will be most affected.
• A step-by-step plan for integrating the change into the organization.
• A review plan to measure the success of the proposed change.
Implement the Change
Depending on the type and scope of the change, implementation within the organization may be gradual or abrupt. Changes such as layoffs or acquisitions often are implemented with little prior warning, while staffing, reorganization, or technology changes may be phased in over a period of time. The team’s most critical role in this step of the change process is to maintain open, honest lines of communication with each other.
• Define individual responsibilities.
• Announce and launch the change.
• Adhere to timetables.
• Promote the anticipated benefits of the change.
Review the Direction
Once change has been implemented, you monitor the outcomes of the new structure and system. As team members in a changing work environment, you can’t assume that the change will evolve exactly as planned, or that every individual affected by the change will react as anticipated. Your role is to observe review checkpoints that will reveal whether the change is working as anticipated and is producing the desired results.
• Establish ways of measuring results.
• Communicate criteria for successful change outcomes.
• Coordinate the gathering and measuring of change effects.
• Inform key team members consistently during the review process.
Adopt
When the change implementation has been reviewed and found to be succeeding as planned, the change is adopted, and becomes part of the new organizational norm. The review process is not terminated, but it transitions to the ongoing monitoring of the changed systems and relationships within the organization.
How well is the change meeting planned outcomes?
How well have I adjusted to the new status quo?
What aspects of the change have not met expectations?
What is my role in making those aspects more successful?
Adjust
If the review process concluded that the change is not working as planned, adjustments need to be made to the change implementation. Assuming that our change analysis and plan have been executed accurately, we ought to be able to adjust the implementation of the organizational change in order to achieve our desired results.
• Determine where the outcomes are falling short of your plan.
• Engage key individuals in determining adjustments that need to be made.
• Keep the lines of communication open with everyone involved.
• Make adjustments to the review process as well as the change implementation.

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