2 days

Overview

This course aims to help you improve your influencing, persuading and negotiation skills. You will have the opportunity to assess your current skill levels and the course will cover practical frameworks, tools and tips to enhance these skills further.

By the end of the programme, you will:

• have identified the differences between influencing, persuading and negotiating and how the three inter-relate.
• produced a map showing your own network and influences.
• have identified and practiced the key interpersonal skills in rapport-building and persuasion.
• have been introduced to (and practiced) a framework for making persuasive proposals.
• have been introduced to a tool for identifying your personality type as well as other personality types and how to relate to them.
• have identified the strengths and weaknesses of your personal negotiation style together with strategies for mitigating, or overcoming, these weaknesses.
• be aware of the stages of the negotiation process and the key elements that lead to successful negotiation.
• be aware of the importance of planning and goal setting in effective negotiation.
• have applied a framework to the negotiation process and participated in a negotiation using that framework.

Style of the workshop

This workshop will have a practical focus. It aims to be interactive and has activities and skills practice to involve and engage those on the course with learning. 

The Programme

Introduction and introductions

Persuasion and influencing icebreaker activity

• Participants work firstly on their own, then in small groups looking at situations where they have been persuaded to another view.

           Plenary feedback session.

Influencing

• Participants look at what lies behind influence and what makes a person influential to them.

Mapping our network of influence

• Participants work firstly on their own then in pairs mapping and analysing their own network of influence then identifying any improvements to be made.

Extending our influence and becoming more influential

• We look at the work of Covey and identify sources of influence.
• Participants identify actions that they can take to become more influential.

Persuading

• How do you persuade others? What makes something persuasive?

Interpersonal skills, rapport and persuasion

• We look at the key interpersonal skills linked to persuasion and how to demonstrate the key skills.
• Participant's key skills practice activity.
• We look at ways to build rapport in our communication.

Putting forward a persuasive proposal

• We identify what makes a proposal persuasive.
• Participants are introduced to some practical frameworks for producing persuasive proposals.

The other party

• We look at ways of categorising personality and different personality types. Participants identify their own peronsality and look at ways of identifying the perosonalityof others.
• Activity - how to flex style and proposal to suit different types.

Close of Day One

Day Two

Brief review of what was covered in Day One

Overview of negotiation

• What is negotiation?
• Negotiating situations we encounter in life and work?

Negotiating Styles

• Activity participants use an instrument to identify their own preferred negotiating style.
• We identify the strengths and weaknesses of each style together with strategies for mitigating, minimising or overcoming these weaknesses.

The Negotiating Process

• Brief presentation of important steps in the negotiating process together with key considerations for success.

Planning for negotiation

We look at planning for negotiation, specifically:

• setting goals and objectives
• identifying tradeables
• establishing the negotiating range and boundaries
• putting a backstop in place
• considering both parties perceptions of relative leverage
• the importance of considering BATNA
• establishing clear roles and procedures in group negotiations.
• what to consider about the other party.

The negotiation

We look at important negotiating practices during negotiation, specifically:

• The importance of a good opening
• Setting and agreeing the agenda
• Listening
• Clarifying
• Probing
• Summarising
• Proposing
• Signalling
• Dealing with the curved ball
• Adjourning
• Consolidating and Closing

Participants Negotiation Skills Practice (Planning)

• Participants use the framework to plan for their negotiation 

Participants Negotiation Skills Practice (Negotiating)

• Participants apply the framework and what they have learnt in a negotiation skills practice session.
• Negotiation activity feedback and de-briefing.

Recap and participant action learning log

• Recap over the main learning points to emerge from the 2 days.
• Participants identify areas for improvement and commit to practical actions they will take to make those improvements.

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