In professional organizations, it is commonly believed that an idea’s quality guarantees its implementation. Practice proves that quality is important, but not sufficient when it comes having an idea accepted.

Objectives

Provide participants with knowledge and skills to create goodwill for their ideas and to get those ideas accepted.

By the end of the programme, participants will:

• Have a deepened insight in their influencing style and its consequences
• Have a deepened insight in influencing strategies and their indications
• Have more means at their disposal to help them build alliances and constructively play the political game
• Have an increased competence when it comes to get people to accept a message
• Understand the importance of speaking the other’s language in order to be heard

Program

The training focuses on developing the following skills:

• Stakeholder analysis
• Principals of getting messages across: building an argumentation based on the decisional style of the audience
• Alfa and Omega strategies to increase the attractiveness of the message and to reduce the resistance to it
• Strategies to prepare mentally to influencing situations

Following subjects will be dealt with:

The fundamentals of influencing:

• The importance of influence
• Creating the appropriate mindset
• How to build alliances?
• Pacing and Leading as the core mechanism
• How to build credibility?
• How to activate the reciprocity mechanism?
• How to prepare oneself mentally for difficult influencing situations?
• How to keep listening when your intentions or credibility is challenged?

Techniques and strategies

• Stakeholder analysis: defining essential stakeholders and their interests
• Decision Making Styles and how to deal with them
• Influencing rational decision making
• Alpha strategies: how to make my message/idea more appealing?
• Omega strategies: how to lower resistance to my message/idea?
• Tactics: combining strategies and techniques in a coherent approach

Process and duration

• 360°-survey
• Kick off (half a day) Introduction of the programme and its objectives; Participants fill out a test of Emotional Intelligence
• Individual intake (1 hour): participants define their development goals based on the 360°-survey and the Emotional Intelligence Test
• Training: 2 modules of 2 days each. Between the 2 modules time is foreseen to apply what has been learned
• Individual synthesis/coaching (1 hour) based on the development goals (what was achieved and how to pursue further)

Approach

• Introduction and analysis of models
• Practicing techniques
• Application of the course to participants’ personal cases

Participants can cancel or reschedule their enrollment free of charge up to three weeks before the start of the training.

Kick-off and individual interviews will take place in Beerse.