I love getting positive feedback from people after a programme I have run.  Comments like “it has helped me in all aspects of life”, “I have achieved so much more since implementing the ‘Stop‘” and “the impact on our bottom line has been noticeable”, are all encouraging for me.

I was recently given feedback that I had not heard before.

Someone who shortly before had completed our “Wired to Influence” programme said the following to me – “I used to talk but now I communicate.”  It was one of the best compliments the training could ever have received.  Why I love this one so much is, if there was ever an ideal with “Wired to Influence”, this would be it.

Everyone who has completed the programme knows that a lot of work and energy goes into the delivery of all the sessions but particular care is taken in the delivery of sessions 6 and 7, the two sessions dealing specifically with communication.

The foundation for these sessions is extensive as the groundwork for successful communication is vast.  Missing the groundwork or not integrating the foundation into a communication approach, will simply result in yet another theoretical session in the art of effective communication.

We don’t want to produce more theory, we want to achieve the adoption of key communication best practices.

Effective communication

Most people will be able to explain the theory of effective communication but rarely turn theory into practice.

We want people to communicate after considering the basics of effective communication and then we want them to check the effectiveness of their communication once delivered.  By monitoring the simple law of cause and effect and in reverse effect and cause, people can become better at communicating.

It is easy to talk.  Saying things for the sake of saying them.  Wishing to sound clever and wishing to be perceived as one of the contributors adding to the verbal diarrhoea within a team is easy.  Those vague statements of intent so often confused with clear commitments that people will be accountable for.

Take this example:

“I will be focusing on ways to improve my ability to attract new customers as soon as I get the opportunity to find someone who has the capacity to consider giving me some of their time to help me to close the product knowledge gaps that are more than likely a major stumbling block in my sales strategy.  Talking sales strategy, I do still need to finish this document started some months back, I just need to find the time, amongst all of the sales meetings I have been having with my list of new prospects, to do so.”

I’m not one for accepting results through our training where only a few people implement what they have learned but in the case of “I used to talk but now I communicate“, I’ll see that particular course as a huge success, even if nobody else changed anything.

When one person in our messed up business community learns how to communicate, then we have the chance of making important changes.  

Alter the patterns of mediocrity that so easily become the norm within a team by introducing Ripple’s Wired to Influence methodology into your team’s daily approach.

By Louis Gerke

Development Facilitator – The Ripple Effect

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