Effective Interpersonal Skills Training

Today we are Going to Look at Effective Interpersonal Skills Training

Organisations are turning more and more to external training companies to develop the soft skills of their staff.

With so much expertise available, what should people look for to get the best from their training?

At Impact Factory, our objective is to deliver the most effective learning experience possible. To do this, we take into account the varying and changing needs of delegates and organisations, all the way from taking the brief for what you need, to delivering the courses and beyond.

Three Stages of Interpersonal Skills Training

There are three stages that go into the creation and delivery of interpersonal skills training

It has to be:

• specific to an organisation
• the group of people to whom the training is available
• and most importantly the group to whom the training is delivered

Here’s how we see these three objectives broken down:

1. Initial Briefing

There must be a good initial briefing reflected back to the client in order to ensure that the objectives are understood.

The more detail the better, so that everyone is clear on how the training will fit into the goals of the company. Companies who go to the trouble of providing well-detailed briefs should be presented with something better than off-the-shelf courses by the training provider.

2. Consultation

There should be a period of consultation with the client and prospective participants whilst the training is being designed.

This is to ensure that there are a number of different perspectives heard, which can be taken into account when creating the training. Input from a variety of people helps present a broad picture.

Now, most really good training companies achieve these first two objectives.

3. Fit The Needs Of Delegates On The Day

It’s the third objective, however, that truly sets excellent training apart from the good.

It is the function of the trainer in the room when the training is delivered. In the same way that training companies can provide off-the-shelf programmes, so trainers can deliver courses in a proscriptive and inflexible way.

In other words, they may be good trainers, but they follow their training manuals step-by-step even when something unplanned would be more appropriate.

Every Impact Factory training ever designed has a clear set of objectives and a manual which will include a series of processes, exercises and games to fulfil those objectives. Beyond that, however, Impact Factory trainers are rigorously trained to be able to create, develop and modify these processes to fit the needs of the people on the day.

Flexibility

For instance, after a series of tried and true communication exercises, there might be a session given in the manual only as “An hour on Added Value”.

The processes for this session would be developed by the trainer based on the dynamic of the group of people in the room and what would most benefit them.

That level of flexibility keeps every training session we run alive and relevant.

Here’s an example:

Team Event for Interpersonal Skills Training

We ran a Team Event for a group of 18 software support and customer service staff.

There were eighteen people who were giving up their Saturday just before Christmas. We had created a one-day programme for them to include team-building, creativity and a look at how the future of this department might develop.

They clearly said at the beginning of the day that they wanted to have fun, but didn’t want any role play, but they also clearly demonstrated during the day a desire and ability to play hard and well.

No Role Play Please

This resulted in a process where three natural teams, or groups, within the department created a tongue-in-cheek political manifesto for running the department. It was then followed by a party political gathering where each group electioneered, made promises, bargained and generally tried to get the others to vote for them.

It was tremendous fun, helped people deal with serious issues of agreements between the groups, but most important of all, suited this group of people down to the ground.

This approach may look dangerous and cavalier at first glance. Indeed, if attempted by untrained people it can easily turn into a disaster. However, when run by experts it is very safe, very effective and produces comments like

“This is the best training I have ever done”.

Relevant Experience

Impact Factory trainers work hard to give participants a relevant experience as opposed to just delivering a training well.

Our skill is in providing appropriately tailored training to fit the group of people who are there at the time. When you think about it, if we took this training, which was developed on-the-spot for these software people, and made a reluctant, non-playful group go through the same process it would not produce the same result.

The experience is what is important. When you look at the reason that role-play is so universally disliked it’s because people have had, or fear they will have a difficult or humiliating experience.

Real Life

Impact Factory trainers and interpersonal skills training dosn’t use set-piece role-plays or inflict role-plays on unwilling people. We look for ways to introduce ‘real-life re-enactments’ using situations or examples brought in by participants. They may well end up ‘playing them out’, but are likely to say afterwards things like ‘How did they get us to do that?’.

This way of working is entirely dependent on the ability of the trainer in the room being able to assess the people, create the processes and ‘bounce’ the participants into willingly taking part.

Our trainers will always deal with the experience that people are having rather than trying to give people the experience the manual says they are supposed to have. This is how Impact Factory creates effective interpersonal skills training.

Read – Interpersonal Skills are the Key to a Thriving Business

Interpersonal Skills Training

Impact Factory runs

Open Professional Development Courses

Tailored Management Training

Five-Day Communicate With Impact Workshops

and personalised

One-to-One Interpersonal Skills Training

for anyone who is interested in

Interpersonal Training Skills

Effective Training in London