Why should you attend?

Communication is key to achieving results. It is a necessary skill for engaging those you lead and for building strong relationships with peers and bosses. Not surprisingly, effective communication is an overarching theme in the Government’s Key Leadership Competencies for managers and leaders.

Whether you manage a permanent team in an organization or lead an ad-hoc team with a specific task, this workshop is for you. It will provide you with a range of communications skills and will help you:

• develop tactics for communicating with the team to lead and motivate, and to manage change
• build effective working relationships within and outside the organization
• connect with colleagues and superiors to align your work with other parts of the organization
• make your audiences aware of what the team’s work means to them
• communicate outcomes and results

What will you learn?

Through presentations, discussion, readings and exercises, this one-day workshop will span the field of communications, covering:

• The role of communications in effective leadership
• Internal communications to mobilize and support the team
• Communicating with and through the team
• Communicating to build relationships with employees, colleagues and senior management
• External communications to serve a range of audiences

What will you take away?

• Presentation slides in the form of a participant notebook
• Useful handouts and exercises
• Certificate of completion to add to your learning portfolio

Professional competencies

Engagement: Working effectively with people, organizations and partners

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Sample Agenda

Activity
Introductions and Workshop Overview
What is Communication? Participants review the principles of communication and discuss barriers to good communication.
Communicating with the Team Participants examine the key components of team communications. They discuss the importance of internal communications to enhance team productivity. In group discussions and exercises, they compare a variety of tools for internal communications, and learn how to tailor their communications to their team.
BREAK
Communicating with the Individual Participants review what the individual team member wants to know from their manager. They practise skills for communicating with individuals, including how to listen effectively and deliver difficult messages. They use an exercise to evaluate their listening skills, and they compare their own real examples of giving feedback to individuals.
LUNCH
Communicating Change Participants learn why communications is critical during times of change. They examine the various responses to change, and consider the communications role of the team leader throughout a transition. They look at a change situation, discuss who will be affected and plan how to manage communications in the team for this situation.
Communicating Across and Up in the Organization Participants learn how to use communications to create effective relationships with colleagues and to build trust with superiors. As a group, they review the principles of communications strategist James Lukaszewski, then discuss how to communicate to the busy boss and be heard at higher levels.
BREAK
Communicating Out Participants study the pillars of effective external communications. They examine the principles of stakeholder communications and discuss guidelines for communications with the media. In small groups, they complete an exercise on planning communications to external audiences.
Wrap-up and Evaluation Participants will complete a short evaluation.

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You continue to offer exactly what government workers need to learn – at the right time!

Workshop Participant, Health Canada

Why should you attend?

Research shows consistently that most organizations do not have a fully engaged workforce, people who care about its future and are willing to invest the effort to make it successful. Equally, there is a significant body of research across industries and countries and from organizations such as Gallup as to the benefits of enhancing the bond between employees, their colleagues and their organization, for example:

• Increased commitment to and alignment with the organization’s goals and strategies;
• Improved overall organizational effectiveness;
• Increased productivity and improved morale;
• Increased trust;
• A community as opposed to just a workforce;
• Improved client service, brand experience and loyalty.

Moreover, employers and managers at all levels are faced with the challenge of retaining and recruiting qualified people as baby boomers retire and the labour market becomes more competitive and complex – multigenerational and multicultural. The costs of not effectively responding to these various challenges are felt in a variety of ways but, ultimately, directly affect performance.

Developing and implementing an engagement strategy provides a systematic means of dealing with the range of interrelated issues usually presented in performance and organizational improvement. But such a strategy must be based on what works, those best practices and approaches, including the key element of communication, known from experience to offer the optimum likelihood of success.

What will you learn?

• Definition and principles of employee engagement
• The business case for employee engagement
• The components and key drivers of employee engagement
• Diagnosing your organization – critical questions and success factors
• The importance of trust
• Techniques and approaches for obtaining employee involvement
• How to measure success
• The key role of and linkages to internal communications
• What works and what doesn’t

What will you take away?

• Workbook with checklists and templates
• Exercise handouts, examples and other material

Professional competencies

• Thinking Things Through: Innovating through analysis and ideas
• Engagement: Working effectively with people, organizations and partners

Who should attend

Managers and supervisors, those working in organizational development, human resources, internal communications, recruitment and retention strategists and specialists

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Sample Agenda

Activity
Introductions and Workshop Overview
Employee Engagement • Definitions • Principles • Linkages • Why is Employee Engagement important? Exercise: Organizational “Health Quiz”
BREAK
Drivers of Employee Engagement • The 12 principles of Employee Engagement • The 10 key questions we need to ask • Trust and other critical success factors • Organizational barriers Mini-exercise: Looking at our own organization – answering the questions.
Why should we care? – The Business Case for Employee Engagement • Employee and organizational needs • Recruitment and retention • Organizational culture • What does research into Employee Engagement tell us? Mini-exercise: Employee engagement challenges.
LUNCH
Employee Engagement – Techniques and Approaches • Getting started • Key steps to success • Best practices • Using Social Media Mini-exercise: Looking at your own organization’s engagement practices.
Measuring Employee Engagement Success • Integration with internal communications • Techniques and approaches • Dealing with the results • Linkages to organizational reputation Mini-exercise: Who measures what and how?
BREAK
Employee Engagement and Internal Communications • Definitions, principles, linkages and drivers • Addressing diverse communications needs • What works and what does not • Tools, methods and activities Exercise: Building an Employee Engagement system for your organizations.
Wrap-up and Evaluation Participants will complete a short evaluation.

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I would like to take the opportunity to thank you again for another excellent course.  I keep returning to the CEC for training as I am continually impressed by the courses, which I find to be relevant, practical, interesting and informative. My experience to date after attending 3 courses is that the instructors chosen are dynamic people who deliver the content in an engaging and accessible manner. As someone who actively pursues professional development and has been to a number of facilities, I truly appreciate this approach and will continue to turn to the CEC.

Workshop Participant

NOTE: Due to its nature, this workshop is limited to 8 participants/workshop.

Why should you attend?

Standing in front of a group of people and presenting facts, ideas and opinions on a specific topic is one of the oldest methods of communicating information from one to many. It’s also a challenge that many professionals face, so having the necessary skill sets is important.

Modern technology may allow us to enhance our presentations with slides, sound and video, but the job of the presenter and the essential elements of how to communicate clearly and effectively remain unchanged.

Whether you’re presenting to an audience of five or speaking to an audience of 500, this course will provide you with the tools you need to succeed. It will:

• Prepare you to approach your presentation with confidence;
• Help you to understand the different needs of different audiences; and,
• Provide you with techniques and tips to ensure you get your messages and ideas across.

What will you learn?

How to:

• Use a step-by-step approach to develop the presentation
• Assess and address the needs and expectations of the audience
• Decide what to include and leave out
• Develop relevant messages that resonate
• Use facts and figures and examples to support your points
• Apply audience analysis – perspectives, needs and priorities – as a key determinant of briefing or presentation content, structure and delivery style
• Identify and craft key messages to be transmitted
• Present technical concepts, information and data at a level appropriate to the audience and event concerned
• Comfortably deliver different types of presentations to different audiences and events, including the unique challenge of online presentations
• Comport yourself in front of an audience
• Apply delivery techniques and use speaking notes and visual aids
• Prepare for specific venues
• Deal effectively with questions – including unexpected questions – from an audience

What will you take away?

• Participant notebook consisting of presentations slides
• Exercises and handouts
• Increased confidence the next time you make a presentation or speech
• Certificate of completion

Pre-Workshop Assignment

Participants are responsible for preparing two different pieces that they will present during the Individual Presentations portions of the agenda.

The first piece should be a presentation, with or without visual aids, that they have already used or will use. Length: 5-10 minutes.

The second piece is a speech that they have already used or will use. If they have nothing appropriate in their own portfolio, they may use a speech prepared for someone else in their organization. Length: 8-12 minutes maximum.

Professional competencies

Engagement: Working effectively with people, organizations and partners

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Sample Agenda

Activity
Introductions and Workshop Overview
Why the Ability to Make Effective Presentations and Speeches Matters: The Role of the Presenter The business case for being able to make effective presentations; the importance of successful presentations to you and your organization.
Planning and Crafting Presentations and Speeches Different kinds of presentations, different audiences, different challenges, same goal. Taking a strategic approach to presentations: audience analysis – who they are, what they want to know. Determining and crafting key messages and the residual message – what your audience will take away from the presentation. Presentation content: what to include.
HEALTH BREAK
Individual (Homework-Based) Presentations Presentations, followed by structured peer review, discussion and instructor feedback.
LUNCH
Audience-Appropriate Language, Venue Analysis, Delivery and Comportment Using plain language your audience understands; knowing the venue in advance and how to prepare; planning your delivery – tone, pace and volume considerations; dealing with questions; comportment, appearance and non-verbal communication techniques.
HEALTH BREAK
Individual Presentations Presentations, followed by structured peer review, discussion and instructor feedback.
Wrap-up and Workshop Evaluation

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You folks have the best materials! I thank you and your colleagues for your continued support. It’s one of the reasons we continue to come back!

Manager, The Canadian Medical Protective Association

Why should you attend?

For you, as for most public servants, effective communications is an important competency and a significant part of your day-to-day activities. Regardless of your position, your communications have an impact on your ability to get the job done, to ensure that your verbal and written messages are well crafted and understood. How you communicate influences your ability to succeed in the workplace and to establish and enhance your relationship with internal and external stakeholders. The impact of your communications is a key ingredient in getting a buy-in for your ideas and your projects and contributes significantly to achieving your business and career objectives. Effective communications make you a credible, trusted and sought after colleague and professional.

What will you learn?

Whatever your specific area of responsibility (Human Resources, Information Technology, Program Management, Finance, Audit and Evaluation , Economic Analysis, Policy or Science) this one-day workshop will:

• help you identify and develop the communications skills, as well as actions and behaviours, that will enhance your capacity to achieve your objectives;
• provide you with practical communications insights, techniques and tools;
• clarify key concepts associated with communicating in the workplace, with clients, partners, colleagues and stakeholders;
• help you formulate solid, and retainable, plain language verbal and written messages; and
• improve your verbal delivery and professional conversations in the workplace

This will be achieved through interactive presentations, discussions, shared experience and exercises.

Who should attend?

This practical workshop will be most profitable for mid-level and senior officers, technical experts, policy advisors and scientists (e.g. PE 4-5-6, AS 4-5-6, CS 2-3-4, IS 4-5-6, ES 3-4-5, CO 2-3-4, PM 4-5-6, FI 4-5-6, etc.), who need to be clearly understood and whose communications have a direct impact on the achievement of their business objectives.

What will you take away?

• Workbook
• Exercises and handouts

Professional competencies

• Thinking Things Through: Innovating through analysis and ideas
• Engagement: Working effectively with people, organizations and partners

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Sample Agenda

Activity
Introductions and Workshop Overview
Understanding Effective Communications “The Seven Cs” of good verbal and written communications. Cognitive limits of communications. Differences between written and oral communications. Understanding our audiences. Use of language for audience capture and conversation. Technical language to technical audience/plain language to others. Using plain language. Understanding messaging from our own and our audience’s perspectives. The basic “Rule of Three”.
BREAK
Active Listening Skills Why is this important? Key elements of active listening skills: • Paying attention • Withholding judgment • Reflecting • Clarifying • Summarizing • Sharing Small Group Exercise: Active Listening Participants will work in small groups to practise active listening skills. Reports from the groups and instructor-led review.
BREAK
Small Group Exercise: Crafting Key and Specialized Messages Participants will work in small groups to develop Branch-specific messaging. Reports from the groups and instructor-led review.
LUNCH
Communicating through Presentations, Briefings and Emails Common reasons why “presentation” go wrong. Differences between presentations, meetings, briefings and conversations. Using a systematic approach to oral and written presentations. Understanding “who am I talking to”, “what’s in it for me” and “what is in it for them”. Rule of Three! Basic principles of effective PowerPoint presentations and briefing. Understanding principles of effective email. Main email elements and how to organize our information from readers’ perspective.
Small Group Exercise: Developing a Presentation Outline Participants will work in small groups to develop a presentation outline. Reports from the groups and instructor-led review.
BREAK
Importance of Trust, Assertiveness and Confidence What is trust and why does it matter? How to build and maintain trust within your team and with clients and stakeholders? How to be assertive – 6 key steps. Difference between being assertive and aggressive. Building your self-confidence. Tips for confident behaviours. Personal SWOT analysis. Mini-exercise: Reina Leadership Quiz
Effective Verbal and Non-verbal Communications Impact of COVID 19 on government communications. Delivering diverse types of presentations of different duration and to varied audiences. Choosing your words and using your voice. Simple and proven techniques for overcoming nervousness and dealing with audience questions. A system and techniques for staying “on the message”. Why are some questions more difficult? Do’s and Don’ts of responding to questions.
BREAK
Small Group Exercise: Anticipating Questions Participants will work in small groups to develop a list of possible questions on the case study subject. Reports from the groups and instructor-led review.
Workshop Wrap-up: Qs and As, Takeaways and Evaluation

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You folks have the best materials! I thank you and your colleagues for your continued support. It’s one of the reasons we continue to come back!

Manager, The Canadian Medical Protective Association

Why should you attend?

The CEC’s workshop on Effective Client Service Communications will provide participants with the knowledge and skills necessary to be highly functioning administrative officers or assistants.

The focus of the workshop will encompass six essential administrative competencies:

• Organization – Effective management, organization, and prioritization of office functions as well as the workday/week/month for people, management and other stakeholders.
• Communication – Clearly conveying and receiving messages to meet the needs of all. This involves listening, interpreting, and delivering verbal, nonverbal, written, and electronic messages.
• Service Delivery – Understanding and meeting the needs of clients. Clients are individuals or groups who use the organization’s or department’s services.
• Technical – Ability to accurately and thoroughly utilize office technology and to demonstrate practical knowledge of information management, e-mail management and privacy protection issues.
• Adaptability – Personal willingness and ability to work in and adapt to change.
• Interpersonal – Working cooperatively and productively with others to achieve results.

What will you learn?

This workshop will focus on the skills required to be an effective administrative, program or project officer with an emphasis on improving your client relations and service delivery. The workshop participants will learn:

• How to develop a client service orientation
• An understanding of relationship management techniques
• Approaches to measuring client satisfaction
• How to build trust through key behavioural attributes
• How to communicate effectively in verbal and written contexts
• Essential skills and knowledge which constitute organizational, technical and interpersonal competencies
• How to address diverse challenges presented by difficult clients

Who should attend?

This interactive workshop will be beneficial to all individuals working in an administrative, program, project, advisory or other related positions or functions in public, private or voluntary sectors.

What will you take away?

• Workbook consisting of presentation slides
• Exercises and handouts
• Certificate of completion

Professional competencies

• Thinking Things Through: Innovating through analysis and ideas
• Engagement: Working effectively with people, organizations and partners
• Excellence: Delivering results

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Sample Agenda

Activity
Introductions and Workshop Overview Instructor and participant introductions. Key elements of the agenda. Overview of administrative competencies.
Client Service Orientation • Definitions: Client Service Orientation, Core Motivations and Progression. • Interacting with clients: client understanding, manner, communications, timelines and responsibility. • Using your knowledge: understanding client viewpoints, determining client needs; responding and building relationships. • Providing support and services: Key actions and behaviours. • Measuring client satisfaction: What to measure and what tools can we use?
Small Group Exercise In groups, discuss and identify a minimum of three (3) specific questions in the area of “perceptions of service experience”, to be part of a bi-annual client satisfaction survey. Capture your results in bullet form and present your conclusions to the plenary.
BREAK
Building Trust: Attributes of Effective Advisory and Administrative Roles • Fundamentals of being credible. • Key actions: Knowledge, liaison, delivering, building buy-in, anticipating and mitigating, understanding and acting on changing contexts. • Effective behaviours: Reliability, tact and diplomacy, listening and learning. • Teamwork and collaboration: Key actions and behaviours and strategies for reducing conflict.
Small Group Exercise In groups, using the provided template, discuss and identify what could be changed or adjusted in your existing client relationships. Capture your results in bullet form and present your conclusions to the plenary.
Being Adaptable: Contextual awareness and recognizing the value of new or modified approaches • Definition and motivation. • Scale and progression – what is expected. • Key behaviours, attitudes and actions. • What is not adaptability! • Links to analytical, creative and active thinking and listening. • Being a change agent.
LUNCH
Written and Oral Communications Key attributes of written and verbal communications: knowledge, skills, behaviours and actions. When and how to communicate with clients and within the team. How to tailor writing and presenting to different clients. Understanding the communications needs of our clients and management.
Small Group Exercise In pairs, discuss and draft an email to a client requesting a meeting to discuss new delays in the project deadline. Please identify the type of information you will need to share with the client during the meeting to get their agreement to the new deadline.
BREAK
Organizational and Technical Skills, Behaviours and Knowledge Understanding of your role, those of others and the linkages to the organization and broader context. Key actions and behaviours. What do we need to know? – rules, regulations, resources, preferences and project management approaches. Planning for effectiveness and efficiency.
Small Group Exercise In groups, and based on your experience, discuss and identify three key organizational processes or procedures, their impact on your work and potential solutions. Capture your results in bullet form and present your conclusions to the plenary.
Qs and As, Wrap-up and Evaluation Participants will have an opportunity to ask any final questions complete a short evaluation.

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You folks have the best materials! I thank you and your colleagues for your continued support. It’s one of the reasons we continue to come back!

Manager, The Canadian Medical Protective Association

Why should you attend?

Organizations and communicators most often focus on external audiences and the development of strategies to communicate effectively with them. While the communications environment and challenges may be different, the need for a strategic, planned approach to internal communications and its tools and techniques is the same. How well or poorly internal communication is undertaken affects both individual job satisfaction and achievement of organizational goals and objectives.

What will you learn?

The workshop will focus on:

• Key issues and drivers of internal communications
• What makes internal communications effective
• An integrated strategic approach to planning, developing and implementing internal communications
• Understanding the internal communications environment
• The importance of research
• Using the right tools and techniques
• The essential role of monitoring and evaluation

What will you take away?

• Workbook with checklists, how-to procedures/reminders and templates
• Exercise handouts

Professional competencies

• Engagement: Working effectively with people, organizations and partners

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Sample Agenda

Activity
Introductions and Workshop Overview
What is Internal Communications — Definitions and Approaches – Effective organizational communications – Organizational and employee communications needs – Principles and challenges of effective internal communications – Different types, flows and applications of internal communications Mini-Exercise: Internal communications HealthQuiz
BREAK
Effective Internal Communications: Getting Started and Being Strategic – Guiding principles – Strategic communications – links between internal and external communications – Strategic internal communications sequence and template – Determining our situation and understanding the drivers Case Study Exercise: Understanding internal communications drivers and identifying research needs
LUNCH
Analyzing the Internal Communications Environment – Communications issues, challenges and opportunities – Defining and understanding the differences Issues management – Developing the strategic approach Case Study Exercise: Identifying strategic issues, communications challenges and developing a strategic communications approach
BREAK
Determining our Response: Identifying Objectives, Results and Performance Measurement Indicators – Differences between goals, objectives, results and performance indicators – Understanding, developing and defining results – Importance of realistic performance indicators – How do we know what, why and when do we need to measure? – Using the right tools and techniques – Developing your own measurement framework Case Study Exercise: Developing internal communications objectives, results and performance indicators
Wrap-up

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I would like to take the opportunity to thank you again for another excellent course.  I keep returning to the CEC for training as I am continually impressed by the courses, which I find to be relevant, practical, interesting and informative. My experience to date after attending 3 courses is that the instructors chosen are dynamic people who deliver the content in an engaging and accessible manner. As someone who actively pursues professional development and has been to a number of facilities, I truly appreciate this approach and will continue to turn to the CEC.

Workshop Participant