LearnersRecommend

Persuading andInfluencing

Course

Personalised feedbackand developmental

action plan

AHC Learning Ltd.

CASE STUDY:Persuading and

Influencing

100% of learners wouldrecommend the

workshop

The Persuading and Influencing workshop isdesigned to help learners build rapport, improvecommunications, and conduct challengingconversations within the workplace. This workshopalso includes a practical section with actors, whichchallenges learners to try out their influencing skillsusing real-life scenarios. The actors push thelearners to get the most out of the workshop andprovide personal feedback which gives them adevelopment plan to take away for the future.

Summary

“The client wanted a simple,effective and interactiveworkshop where participantshad some practical experienceas well as new models andtheories. This is the way I loveto work, to increase the actualtakeaways from a workshop”

- Alison, AHC Learning Ltd.

Course structure:

• Insight into a range of influencing stylesand analysis into your own dominant style

• Increased confidence in the applicationof the appropriate influencing andpersuasion techniques at the right time

• The confidence to respond (rather thanreact) to difficult situations

• Developing and using assertiveness inany situation with any individual

• A simple five-step model to plan,structure and present your case

• A personal development plan, with clearactions to maximise your owneffectiveness for future success

About the client:

They provide independent assurance andwork with over 220 public sectororganisations.

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What We Did

For an organisation like this, the need to build relationships andgather data is of paramount importance. Being able to engage clientsto gain clear and insightful information can be challenging. However,with the right approach and technique, it can also be very rewarding.

This particular workshop was aimed at all levels and role types withinthe organisation, from new recruits who were lacking in confidence,to others who had years of experience. Many of the learners in thisworkshop had client-facing roles, which have changed in recent years,particularly around engaging people to capture the informationrequired for reporting, and sometimes dealing with challengingbehaviours.

In the past, gathering this information was very structured with achecklist of questions and protocols to gather the necessaryinformation. However, we know that successful businesses now relyon building relationships with clients and in the workshop we discusshow to maintain positive relationships while still being assertive.

Other learners within the workshop had internal roles, either withinfacilities or corporate services such as graphics, project managementetc. For the client, it is imperative that all team members within thebusiness have excellent persuading and influencing skills. Oneexample of this is the way the audit reports are written and this wasone of the points that were raised in the workshop in 2016.Previously, a report would simply have been a long text, whereas nowthere is the technology and expertise available to produce graphsand charts, social media and interactive graphics. This change hasmeant some internal challenges while adapting from the old way tothe new way, while still balancing the quality of the informationpresented in the report. And that's where persuading and influencingcomes in again.

When the client reached out to AHC Learning Ltd., they werekeen for team members to have a better understanding of howpeople might react to the things they say. They wanted to beable to improve communications both internally with otherteam members, and externally when dealing with outsideorganisations and clients.

In this workshop, we had a range of roles from receptioncolleagues to senior management. This worked well for us,because it reflected the real-life scenarios within anorganisation, where staff may be interacting with people whoare at different levels. Although the client is part of the publicsector, they also build proposals for business alongside privateorganisations, meaning they compete at a corporate level. Theway they persuade and influence directly drives the quality ofthe reports that they produce.

Challenges

“Personally I am very fond ofstrawberries and cream, but I havefound that for some strange reason, fishprefer worms. So when I went fishing, Ididn’t think about what I wanted. Ithought about what they wanted... Whynot use the same common sense whenfishing for people?”

Dale Carnegie – How To Win Friends AndInfluence People

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100% of learners wouldrecommend the workshop

Average feedback score of 92%from the evaluation questions

For the Persuading and Influencing workshop, weused actors for a role-playing scenario based onreal-life situations. In this case, the introduction ofactors was particularly useful because people canoften be too nice when role-playing with theircolleagues, or else they become quite challenging;whereas we really want to focus on persuading andinfluencing. The actors are able to push thedelegates to practice the tools they have learnt.

In addition to the actors, the workshop also offerspeer-to-peer feedback of the role-play, which allowsthe delegates to learn things about themselves thatthey don't already know. This taps into a theoryknown as Johari's Window – a technique used tohelp people better understand their relationshipwith themselves and others, and learn how othersmay observe or perceive them.

At the end of the workshop we have an action plancalled "stop, start, continue" which looks back at allthe material covered and asks the delegates whatbehaviours they are going to stop doing, start doing,and also the continue section where it's importantto recognise what people are already doingsuccessfully.

Results /Feedback

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"Alison is veryknowledgeable and has agreat delivery style.Fantastic trainer"

"Great at bringing out thebest in people"

"One of the better coursesthat I have been on. Canreally see lots of areaswhere this can be used inmy role. Great delivery andinformation."

"Really valuable day – greatto get personally-adaptedfeedback and discussions.Much better than justlearning theory"

"Our workshops aren't about pointing out where people are doingthings wrong; it's about recognising where they are already doing itright, leveraging those strengths, sharing them internally and using

them to enhance business relationships."

- Alison, AHC Learning Ltd.

Since 2001, AHC Learning Ltd. have excelled indelivering personal and professional learning anddevelopment workshops. We aim to make a realdifference while forming true and lastingpartnerships with our clients, enabling us to deliverthe right solution at the right time.

Does your organisationneed to improve itspersuading andinfluencing skills?

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Contact

alison@ahclearning.co.uk

+44 7940 588 047

www.ahclearning.co.uk