Training
Our training workshops provide a group learning experience for up to twenty-four participants live, or twelve participants virtually.
Our workshops are individually tailored to your needs. No matter how complex your business is, or how narrow the niche your company occupies, we will do whatever it takes to understand your industry, grasp the issues you face, and then create exercises to make it come to life in the training room. We design customized role-play scenarios that reflect your particular professional context, allowing participants to engage their specific real-life challenges during the training session.
Our philosophy is that people learn best through action and reflection. For this reason, our workshops are highly interactive, allowing participants to try out new strategies through a role-play or exercise, and then think about the results those new strategies produce. Employing a minimum of lecture/formal presentations, most of the training time is spent preparing for, engaging in, and discussing participants’ interactions in exercises and role-plays.
Our offerings include:
Our negotiation training builds on core concepts developed at the Harvard Negotiation Project. Participants will learn both foundational concepts and advanced application of key negotiation theories, including:
- How to separate the people from the problem
- How to expand the pie before dividing it
- Tips for dealing with a party with greater leverage
- Skills for focusing on interests rather than positions
- Whether participants are completely new to the field of negotiation theory or have had negotiation training before and are well-versed in basic concepts, our negotiation skills workshops will help them improve their skills and obtain superior results.
Our communication skills training is based on the methodology developed by Donny Ebenstein, described more fully in his book, I Hear You: Repair Communication Breakdowns, Negotiate Successfully, and Build Consensus…in 3 Simple Steps.
In this workshop participants will learn that the key to improved communication lies not in learning specific words to say, but in learning to shift one’s thinking.
The course includes techniques and exercises that help participants see their difficult situation from multiple points of view, as well as practical tips for improving the communication dynamic.
Few professionals work in a vacuum, “flying solo.” Most of us operate as part of group – a team, a department, or a company. Success requires not just being effective within our own area or team, but working effectively with people from other parts of the organization.
Navigating organizational structures can be complex. Different teams have different areas of focus and diverging goals. And those goals are often deliberately placed in conflict with one another. For example, a company’s business development team will have very different incentives in place compared with their compliance team, and these differing incentives can easily lead to conflict.
It’s important to be aware of the systemic nature of conflicts, and not to make it personal. Participants in this course will learn to identify the systemic tension in their own particular work context. They will grow to understand the role that systems play in creating conflict, learn methods for recognizing how conflict can be systemic and not personal, and practice techniques to discuss these systemic tensions effectively.
To learn more about systemic tension, read about Donny’s book, I Hear You: Repair Communication Breakdowns, Negotiate Successfully, and Build Consensus…in 3 Simple Steps
Presenting in a comprehensible and impactful manner is an essential skill for any professional. This course will teach you how to present your message succinctly yet powerfully, maximizing your impact.
This course is useful for anyone who needs to make their message stand out – salespeople, team leaders, department heads, relationship managers, and more.
To learn more, see The New York Times article describing Donny Ebenstein’s keynote presentation on this theme.
This workshop focuses on how to handle challenging conversations, and skills for transforming them from intractable conflict to constructive dialogue.
Participants will learn a conceptual framework for creating learning conversations, and learn strategies for integrating what they are feeling with what they need to be saying. The course provides extensive opportunities to practice applying these new skills to participants’ individual challenges.
A potentially cost-effective option for companies seeking large scale roll-outs of training is a Train the Trainer (TTT) program. With TTT, we help our clients identify a small number of instructors from within their organization, and then provide them with an intensive training in the delivery of one of our training workshops. Although there is an initial cost associated with preparing the internal delivery team for the roll out, over time clients save money in delivering a large volume of classes.
Please ask if this is something that may be suitable for your organization.
While conflict is unavoidable, it can often be resolved more quickly and more effectively by using a mediator. Mediators are neutral, outside professionals who facilitate dialogue and who help the parties to the conflict craft a resolution that meets their needs.
Mediators are skilled communicators, relationship managers and problem solvers. A good mediator can effectively show empathy to both parties while simultaneously encouraging them to work towards a solution that ends the conflict.
This offering teaches the framework and basic tools mediators use to resolve conflict, as well as more advanced concepts and methods that can help you learn to break through deadlock and transform the dynamic between the parties.
Donny has trained hundreds of mediators, including judges in Latin America and the Middle East, as well as individuals who serve as ombudsmen in their particular organizations.
