A worshop for facilitators

Study Circles were developed in 1870 at Chautauqua Assembly in New York to provide higher education opportunities to people who didn't have access to college.

Today, Study Circles are widely used as a technique for small groups to examine an issue from many perspectives and to solve related problems. The process is aided by an impartial facilitator who creates a safe environment, manages expectations, models desired behaviors and keeps the discussion "on purpose.

This workshop trains those facilitators.

This workshop is designed to provide managers with the information and hands-on skills training they need ─ in only three to five hours of total training time ─ to facilitate Study Circles successfully.

The workshop uses coaching and training techniques that give participants an opportunity to interact with the information presented in ways that help drive it home. Subjects are covered, through presentations, games, competitions and other exercises.

For additional information or to schedule a workshop, please contact me.

Planning a communication program or campaign is an art and a science.

The science is in the planning process, the art is in the content.  It's impossible to find the art without the science.  Yet so many communication "planning" processes start with a clever tactical idea and some vague goals or, worse, they're cobbled together in response to a management directive such as "get our name out there to the public."

As a public relations educator and judge of countless regional and national public relations programs, I've evaluated far too many communication "plans" that set-out to "educate the public," "generate excitement," and "position the client as a leading provider of solutions in the insert-your-product-here space."

There's no shortage of communication planning models in the public relations literature.  Yet for many reasons (that could be the subject of another workshop) many organizations seem unaware that they exist.  So I've developed a structured workshop that provides a communication planning team with the science they need to discover the art.

Through a straightforward, rigorous, facilitated structure, the workshop drives the communication team through a step-by-step process that starts with defining the problem or opportunity the plan is supposed to address. Depending on the core competencies of the participants, the extent to which the actual communication plan is developed during the workshop itself will vary.  In every case, the participants leave the program with a "ready to go" framework to complete a specific communication plan with the appropriate communication professionals in the organization.

Contents of the Workshop

• Define and prioritize the issues
• Analyze Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT). 
• Identify, segment, profile and prioritize audiences. 
• Develop message platform(s).
• Set goals and (if appropriate and possible) objectives.
• Develop strategies. 
• Develop tactics and evaluation methods.*
• Identify partnerships and alliances.
• Identify staffing and resources.

*Rarely developed in the workshop itself because additional research is almost always required. However, participants are provided with tools for use after the workshop.

Q: What's the first thing you learn in Employee Communication 101?

A: Managers and supervisors are the most effective and most credible source of information for employees.

Q:  So, what's are the mainstays of every employee communication program?

A: Newsletters, E-mail and the company intranet.

What's missing in this equation? How about the idea that most managers aren't naturally good at communication! These skills can be acquired through coaching and training.

Yet, for the serious employee communication professional, simply finding an affordable, effective training program for managers has been next to impossible. (That is, of course, until you found this Web site!)

As a companion to Managing Change: How to Plan and Implement an Effective Employee Communication Program. A Step-by-Step Guide for Managers I have developed an effective, involving ― and fun! ― all-day workshop for managers, Communication Skills for Leaders.

The workshop uses effective coaching and training techniques that give participants an opportunity to interact with the information presented in ways that help drive it home.

Subjects are covered, through presentations, games, competitions and other exercises ― one involves mirrors, but not smoke.
 
Depending on your specific needs, the workshop can be modified to provide hands-on experience and coaching on specific needs your managers have ― for example, preparing them to handle employee communication during a re-engineering program or handling employee communication when your company is involved in a crisis.

History  of the Workshop

I originally developed the Communication Skills for Leaders workshop in the early 1990’s for CoreStates Financial Corp during a corporate re-engineering program.  Employee survey research I conducted at the time demonstrated the timeless fact that employees’ immediate supervisors are the most credible and trusted sources of information about the company and the roles they play in its success.  Yet, as in many companies then and still now, little was or is done to provide the training and support supervisors require to be effective as communicators.  Fewer link effective communication to evaluation or compensation of supervisors.

I searched for an existing training program to fill this gap.  When I was unable to find one, CoreStates asked me to develop this program.  Over the years, I have modified and improved it.  In the most recent program I conducted, 100% of the participants reported that they achieved the purpose of the workshop and every component of the workshop scored 8.25 or higher on a scale of 10.

Purpose of the Workshop

The purpose of the workshop is “to provide information and hands-on experience with communication skills that are important in your role as a leader.  The intended result of the workshop is to improve immediately your understanding of and comfort with using the skills covered in the workshop.”

Within that context, using information, games, exercises, demonstrations, simulations and coaching, I drive home a number of points:

• Communication is the single most important factor that affects company loyalty and job satisfaction;
   
• Communication skills are critical to successful management and these skills can be learned and improved;
   
• There are no “tricks” or “techniques” that are effective in and of themselves.  In fact, most people come to the program with a list of pop-psychology tips and rules they’ve learned that I need to reveal and peel away;
   
• The communication “techniques” that work best are those that “come from” the idea of building relationships of trust, respect and honesty.  

Process of the Workshop

Because the success of the workshop depends on giving each participant multiple opportunities to participate in exercises and demonstrations and to receive individual coaching, I limit the number of participants in each program 25 people.

The workshop takes place in a conference room facility, from 9:00 a.m. to as late as 4:00 p.m.  Typically, the sponsor provides continental breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack.  Comfort and meal breaks are scheduled throughout the day. Set-up and equipment requirements are minimal and include a computer projector, flip charts and so forth.  Most clients prefer to handle all logistical arrangements such as room set-up, scheduling participants, nametags, copying handouts and so forth to take advantage of lower internal costs and existing staff.

Tricks?  Or relationships? 

There are essentially two approaches to presentation and media relations coaching.  The differences are profound:    Skills-based coaching works exclusively with behavioral modification techniques. This approach trains people to adopt behaviors that are fundamentally opposed to those required to present effectively. It emphasizes “tips and techniques” over building relationships.

This inevitably results in people who are stiffer and less comfortable speaking in public because they’ve learned “right” and “wrong” ways to do everything. Worse, they can only draw upon a limited “bag of tricks” as opposed to adapting their behaviors naturally to changing circumstances. You’ve undoubtedly heard many of these “tips and techniques:” don’t fold your arms, look over the audiences’ heads to manage nervousness, compliment a question, picture the audience naked and so forth.  Skills-based coaching alone simply doesn’t produce effective speakers.

Relationship-based coaching, which I offer, is designed to help each individual participant to become aware of and responsible for his or her own presentation and behaviors in order to help him or her to use their unique talents, presence, quirks and skills to build stronger relationships — the foundation of “effective speaking.” Within the context of relationship-based coaching, “tips and techniques” are used to develop each individual’s unique abilities to build stronger relationships and are never presented or intended as manipulations of an audience. This approach produces speakers who can adapt seamlessly and powerfully to changing circumstances.  

The Typical Process for Customized Coaching Services

I will structure a customized, individualized coaching program for your organization that includes these phases:

• Assessment
• Design
• Group session
• Individual video work and coaching
• Assessment
• Assessment

I use two tools to determine which of many potential elements to include in an initial group coaching session: 

• A self test designed to determine which of four competence/confidence levels applies to each participant.
• Individual interviews following the self-test to review the results of the self-test and to determine the specialized objectives, needs and wants of each participant. In part, in the individual interviews I’ll work with the results of the self-test by reviewing the likely implications of each person’s test score. 

Design/Group Session

During the approximate three-week design phase, I will use the information gathered from the self-assessment and individual interviews to develop a customized four- to six-hour group training session for the participants. I will design it to deliver relevant fundamentals that apply to all of the participants, to establish basic coaching and participant-support relationships and to introduce and practice common strategies that will be developed in individual coaching sessions. This session may use some of the modules I already have developed and/or entirely new modules I’ll develop for the purpose, based on a vast body of adult-education techniques, research data and other materials I have at my fingertips. 

Individual Video Work and Coaching

Following the group session, I generally conduct a minimum of two, two-to three-hour, one-on-one coaching sessions with each of the participants:
 
The first session uses videotaping, mirror work, mocks, simulations and other techniques to give each participant the opportunity to discover and work with strengths and weaknesses in relationship-based presentation skills.  The participants will be required to do some preparation for this session, chiefly developing simple practice materials. They also will be given specific “homework” assignments to prepare for the second session.

The second session will use similar techniques to validate each participant’s progress since completion of the first individual session and to work on any issues that are appropriate to each participant. Depending on the degree to which media relations issues are relevant to a participant, I will, at additional cost, add an exercise that employs a mock interview with a journalist. This session generally also includes a before/after video review.

Assessment

Each participant will complete an evaluation of the program and his or her progress, at the conclusion of the second session. The sponsoring executive(s), of course, receives a summary of these reviews to help evaluate the effectiveness of my work. These reviews also will include identifying areas in which each person would like to do additional work. At this stage, I will give you a report that will include, if any, additional plans to address the participants’ needs.

Personal Coaching Services for Public Relations Practitioners

 You're a public relations executive in need of a second opinion from a senior colleague on issues such as recruitment, department structures or staff development.

Or perhaps you're tackling an organization-threatening issue with tools, staff and resources more appropriate to marketing communication and publicity. Or you have a periodic need for specialized guidance in communication specialties such as research and evaluation, investor relations or crisis management.

Each year, I handle scores of short-term coaching requests from other public relations practitioners, from all sorts of organizations ranging from small not-for-profits to international corporations.

If you might benefit from a coaching session, please contact me for further information. If your coaching needs relate to the concerns of a sole practitioner, you may enjoy the article at the bottom this page, 15 Tips from a Veteran of Independence.

“Son,” my dad always said, “I can’t tell you in a few minutes what it’s taken me years to learn.” Dad never met the editor of PR Tactics. So with 28 years in our business, the last 10 in independent practice, here’s the pithy list of tips for independents for which he asked. My unique credentials? I’ve made every mistake.

Forget tips, tricks and techniques.

Ironically, many of the skills that successful executives have learned to be successful are precisely backwards compared with the skills needed to present effectively to a group and to interact with news media.

This program, which is customized to the specific needs of each group and individual, is designed to help executives to become better presenters, chiefly by freeing them of the "public speaking techniques" they've learned along the way to the top. The workshop is grounded in a philosophy of authenticity, "audience advocacy" and personal responsibility. Rather than loading the participants with more "techniques" that inevitably make them worse presenters, participants learn to approach a presentation from the viewpoint of the audience. They also discover, through intensive group and personal coaching, how their own physical presence affects an audience and how to manage that effect.

The customization of the program includes advance interviews with each participant, group exercises that create meaningful work products that the group can use, mock presentations, videotaping and respectful but hard-hitting personal coaching.

For additional information, contact me.

Contents of the Workshop

Day One

• Audience advocacy
• Preparation
• Keys to success
• How presentations go wrong
• Brainstorm a presentation
• Right brain/left brain
• Opening techniques
• Flow structures
• Rehearsal
•  

• Day Two

• Culture of media
• Media relations
• What reporters want to know
• How to aggravate a reporter
• Preparing for an interview
• Q&A principles and models
• Types of challenging questions
• Paraphrase technique
• Structuring an answer
• Video demos
• Platform skills
• Listening
  Reading an audience Using PowerPoint

Day Three

• Role playing
• Demonstrations
• Videotaping
• Coaching

Day Four

• Individual, private coaching

"This was an exceptionally well-done workshop on a topic that I have heard and spoken about myself countless times in the past. Mr. Kirk's style was informative, humorous and easy-going. I highly recommend this kind of training to other employees. Nice job!"

"Great presentation and presenter. Was looking for a long boring day. However, it ended up being fun!"

"I would recommend it to anyone!" "An excellent, engaging presenter. Your obvious preparation made our day very valuable!"

"A very worthwhile experience!"

Learn David Kirk's Seven Commandments of Media Relations

The highly evolved skills that most successful executives use in their work often are not the skills they need to be successful at media relations. In fact, they're most likely backwards.

This intensive four- to six-hour workshop shows high-level corporate executives what's missing in their current approach to interacting with news media and gives them hands-on experience with building authentic relationships with members of the Fifth (and, now, the Sixth) Estate

If you're looking for just another set of tips, tricks, techniques and other means of manipulating relationships with news media, this is not the program for you. This workshop is grounded in the fundamentals of building successful relationships such as cultural awareness, listening, respect, responsibility and empathy.

The program is customized for the specific requirements of each client organization. Using demonstrations, exercises, video examples and, as required, videotaping. Participants learn about the culture of news media, principles of media relations, surefire tips for aggravating reporters, David Kirk's Seven Commandments for Answering Questions and even the Zen principles that apply to answering questions. Then, using models and examples specific to their current challenges, participants practice the principles they've learned.

For additional information or to schedule a workshop, please contact me.

Skills covered in the workshop

• Four keys to a successful interview
• Audience Advocacy
• Principles of media relations
• Surefire tips: how to aggravate a reporter
• Preparing for an interview
• Principles for answering questions
• The Zen resistance/persistence model
• The paraphrase technique
• The P.A.B.R.S. model for answering questions
• The S.C.A.M. of sound bites
• About 20 other program modules are available depending on the requirements of each client.