Decisive Communication Skills for Improved Productivity and Decision Making - By AtoZ Compliance

Key Take Away
Get practical techniques for making structured decisions, even under pressure, to earn buy-in from bosses, coworkers and customers and become more decisive and productive in your approach.

Overview
This highly interactive seminar offers you and your team an array of practical tools to help you get things done in today's chaotic and constantly changing work environment. You’ll learn practical techniques for making structured decisions—even under pressure—to earn buy-in from bosses, coworkers and customers. In a workshop environment, you will participate in valuable exercises utilizing real-world case studies. You'll emerge with an action plan you can use right away to master expanding workloads and complex decisions.

Why Should You Attend
Become more productive by prioritizing work and maintaining focus
Become a stronger communicator with techniques that enable you to question and clarify priorities
Make better decisions based on consistently good analysis
Become more decisive and make better decisions by gleaning the right information and appraising the situation more effectively
Gain the cooperation of others by communicating the risks and gains of decisions
Learn stress survival techniques to help you balance work and life when you must make tough choices you face every day
Areas Covered In This Webinar
Managing Escalating Work Pressures

Develop Answers to Vital Questions on Managing Work Pressures
Use New Tools to Control Stress, Reduce Backlogs, and Redistribute Work Overloads
Adopt Visual Maps That Help You Stay Calm under Pressure, While Rebuilding Confidence and Energy
Collaborate with Coworkers to Invent Shortcuts
Juggle Multiple Projects without Dropping the Ball

Gain Certainty about Priorities

Prioritize by Validity, Not by Urgency
Apply Three New Rules to Prioritize Your Projects
Make Your Priorities Visible to Requesters
Rank Your Priorities with the PAR Chart
Apportion Your Time between Strategic and Tactical Work
Start Priority Negotiations Early with Requesters

Prevent Collisions among Customers, Internal and External

Replace Three Outmoded "Rules" of Time Management
Adopt Two New Rules for Today’s Chaotic Conditions
Learn Four Strategies to Avoid Calendar Collisions
Design Tools That:

Educate Requesters on "Blind Risks" in Their Requests
Help Requesters Arrive at Your Door Better Prepared
Create a Selective Daily Action Plan
Match Assigned Deadlines with Actual Estimates

Manage Traffic While Meeting Needs

Outline for a One-Page Business Case: Convince Others
New "To-Do List": Help Everyone Face Reality
The "Dot Chart": Re-channel Interruptions
Work Request Validation Card: Help Requesters Make a Case When Seeking Your OK
Quick Interim Review: Correct Employee Performance Shortfalls before They Escalate
Smart Subject Lines: Eliminate the Need to Open e-Mails
"On the Wall" Meetings: Shorten Meeting Time—Upgrade Involvement and Improve Joint Decisions
Communicate Powerfully Despite Pressure

Employ Assertive Responses No Matter How Manipulated or Provoked You Feel
Determine the Rare Occasions When Non-Assertive or Aggressive Responses May Be Advisable
Decline a Request Successfully, Whether from Above, from Peers, or from Customers
Use a Risk Reduction Card to Encourage Requesters to Assume Their Half of Any Negotiation
Select Final Commitments and Refine Applications for Tools Introduced Today
See How Your Values and Thinking Styles Drive Decisions

Learn How Your Values and Thinking Style Drive Your Decisions
Apply Three Survival Steps to Decisions
Detect Your Preferred Thinking Patterns
Learn the Decision Guide

Come to See That Decision Making Is a Learned Skill
Understand the Decision Guide Format through a Demonstration Case
Learn the Decision Orbit Format to Generate Options for a Case
Apply the Decision Guide to Your Own Case

Form a Team to Assemble a Real-Life Case Using the Decision Guide
Complete the Decision Guide and Orbit, Step by Step
Demonstrate Your Case for Fellow Attendees; Collaborate on Refining Your Decisions
See Others on Options

Use Verbal and Visual Tools to Overcome Stakeholder Resistance
Take Part in Role-Plays to Demonstrate a Choice of Verbal Tools
Create Risk Clocks, Calendars, or Bar Charts to Educate Others about Risk Escalation
Learn New Processes to Gain Internal Team Commitment
Fast Focus Analysis

Try Out Fast Focus Analysis, a Tool for Making Complex Decisions with Multiple Issues and Opposing Stakeholders
Work on a Prepared Case to Confirm That Needs or Attractions—Not Offers—Should Form Your Decision Criteria
Create Attractions Lists for Two Opposing Options; Then Select "Quick Picks"
Run a Fast Focus Analysis; Make Your Decision; Weigh It against Your "Quick Pick"
Select Some Work-Life Dilemmas for Your Next Fast Focus Analysis

Learning Objectives
Become More Productive by Prioritizing Work and Maintaining Your Focus
Become a Stronger Communicator with Techniques That Increase Your Ability to Question and Clarify Priorities
Make Better Decisions Gleaning the Right Information and Appraising the Situation More Effectively
Gain the Cooperation of Others by Communicating the Risks and Gains of Decisions
Learn Stress Survival Techniques to Help You Balance the Tough Choices You’re Faced with Every Day

Who Will Benefit
Executives
Managers
Teams
Sales & Marketing Personnel
Business Development
Speakers Profile
Chris DeVany
Chris DeVany is the founder and president of Pinnacle Performance Improvement Worldwide, a firm which focuses on management and organization development. Pinnacle's clients include such organizations as Microsoft, Visa International, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Sprint, American Counseling Association, Aviva Insurance, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Big Brothers and Big Sisters, Hospital Corporation of America, Schlumberger, Morgan Stanley, Boston Scientific, US HealthCare and over 500 other organizations in 22 countries.

He has published numerous articles in the fields of project management, management, sales, team-building, leadership, ethics, customer service, diversity and work-life balance, in publications ranging from ASTD/Performance In Practice to Customer Service Management. His McGraw-Hill book, "90 Days to a High-Performance Team", is replete with hands-on tools, templates and checklists which managers use effectively everyday to improve performance.

He has appeared hundreds of times on radio and television interview programs to discuss project management, sales, customer service, effective workplace communication, management, handling rapid personal and organizational change and other topical business issues. He has served or is currently serving as a board member of Sales and Marketing Executives International, American Management Association, American Society of Training and Development, Institute of Management Consultants, American Society of Association Executives, Meeting Professionals International and National Speakers Association. Chris is an award-winning Toastmaster's International Competition speaker. He recently participated in the Fortune 500 Annual Management Forum as a speaker, panelist and seminar leader.

Chris has distinguished himself professionally by serving Corporate America as manager and trainer of project management, IT, sales, customer service and marketing professionals. Included among those business leaders are Prudential Insurance, Sprint, BayBank (now part of Bank of America), US Health Care and Marriott Corporation. He has assisted these organizations in developing project management, sales, customer service and marketing strategies, organizing inbound and outbound call center programs, training and development of management and new hires, and fostering corporate growth through creative change and innovation initiatives.

Chris holds degrees in management studies and organizational behavior from Boston University. He has traveled to 22 countries and 47 states in the course of his career.