Q & A
Questions and answers
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How is this different from other business communication programs?This is best answered by outlining both what it does cover – and what it does not.The program does cover …
- How to clarify your thinking so that you can present a compelling proposition to a business audience that passes the Goldilocks test (ie is not too hot, not too cold. It's just right)
- How to map out even the most complex sets of messages on one single page (hint: We used this technique to write our book … it doesn't matter how short or long the communication is)
- How to collaborate with your colleagues to think through the ideas that you want to present to a business audience
- How to socialise an idea with your stakeholders so that you can get the decisions you need faster and without significant rework
The program does not cover …Although I have opinions on some of these areas and do offer suggestions when appropriate, I do not specifically focus on any of the following things:- Traditional writing skills (grammar, punctuation, word choice, etc)
- Presentation skills (how to hold yourself in front of a room to present your paper, body language, project your voice, etc)
- Meeting skills (how to run a meeting, facilitate a discussion, etc)
- Interpersonal skills (how to have difficult conversations, ask questions, listen, etc)
- How to clarify your thinking so that you can present a compelling proposition to a business audience that passes the Goldilocks test (ie is not too hot, not too cold. It's just right)
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What is your Early Bird offer?
EARLY BIRD OFFER CURRENTLY AVAILABLE UNTIL 30 JUNE – $1,750
- Core program described below
- A 1-1 coaching session with me to further a piece of your own work
- Friday Five ‘make it stick’ program (six emails, each with a video and a challenge that you can keep forever)
- Early access to The So What Strategy
Also includes an opportunity to book an extra coaching session at $300, rather than the usual $600
The program investment is $1,950 (plus 10% GST for Australians). This includes (at a minimum)
- Participation in the online program, which includes
- A substantial learning journal with notes for the whole program, which I will mail to you
- 6 x 1.5 hour group coaching calls where I share answers to the exercises, test your knowledge and introduce new content
- 6 x Live Q&A Calls (I will be there for a minimum of 30 minutes and stay longer if there are lots of questions)
- Practical exercises to complete for each module
- Email feedback on a piece of communication of your choice
- Lifetime access to the online modules and the private Facebook group
- Access to 12 online learning modules organised in six, two-week learning blocks plus bonus modules
- A substantial learning journal for keeping notes and recording your progress, which I will mail to you
- A copy of my new book, The So What Strategy
Note: you may be able to claim the costs of this program against your tax or be able to obtain reimbursement for some or all of the program from your employer. Many organisations have an education budget for promising emerging leaders: ask your HR team if you qualify.
You may also qualify for Continuing Education Points from your professional association: participants have in the past qualified.
Click here to download a brochure.
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Who is this program for?
This program is for executives of all levels who have a technical background and need to communicate with greater impact. Examples include
- Business leaders who need their ideas to gain greater traction faster and with less rework
- Analysts who frequently write reports
- Team leaders who need to update their leaders, Steering Committees, technical forums and other governance groups about their progress or their recommendations and
- Anyone who needs to articulate their point of view more clearly, particularly when communicating with non-technical audiences.
Click here to download a brochure.
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What are the benefits of doing the program?
Learning to think strategically about your communication delivers many benefits to you and your organisation. Here are two that stand out:
You will spend less time preparing better quality communication
You will know how to use a powerful, proven and universal three-step framework that enables you to clarify your thinking before you communicate in any business context, which will
- Reduce the time you spend reworking multiple drafts of your communication before your leaders endorse it
- Cut the number of clarification questions you receive from your audiences that slow down progress
- Speed up your ability to ‘get things done' as business audiences respond more quickly to your communication
- Increase your chance of being promoted as you become visible for the right reasons
You will have a universal approach for thinking through most business communication
Once you master it, you will be able to distill your ideas down to one major insight that is supported by a small number of logically organised ideas. This is useful in many contexts, such as
- Preparing for 1-1 conversations
- Meetings and team huddles (one client told me she cut her meetings in half by putting the concepts I taught her into practice)
- Formal emails (you will write fewer, shorter emails)
- Written and PowerPoint communication (most likely fewer, shorter Word and PowerPoint documents too)
But don't take my word for it. Listen to past participants to hear what they have to say here.
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How many people have you helped learn this approach?
Thousands! I have been designing and facilitating learning programs intensely for the last 10 years for a wide range of organisations mainly in Australia, but also overseas. This has involved helping people across almost all industry sectors in the following business areas:
- Accounting and Finance
- Consulting (all kinds)
- Human Resources
- IT
- Marketing
- Operations
- Project Management
- Risk
- Strategy
- Supply Chain
- The Law
The 2018 cohort will be the fourth completely online group I have worked with where participants come from a range of organisations.
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How much work is involved?
Participants invest about 20 hours of active learning over three months while also practicing their new skills at work.
Here is a breakdown:
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- Preparatory Live Group Q&A Call (approximately 30 minutes, depending on the group).
- Core modules from our Clarity Concepts online course, which take about 5 hours to complete in small chunks in your own time
- Six, fortnightly online Clarity Calls over 3 months: Each session is 90 minutes (9 hours total)
- Six, fortnightly Live Q&A Calls over 3 months: each call takes between 30 minutes and 1 hour, depending on the number of questions being asked.
- Exercises: About 15 minutes per week
- Facebook interaction: up to you. After the formal program concludes, you can continue to enjoy the Facebook group conversation.
Participants tell me they quickly ‘get back' the time invested as they answer fewer clarification questions, fight fewer mis-fires and have a familiar and universal process to use when preparing their communication.
Click here to download a brochure to learn more about the program.
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How do you manage confidentiality?
I offer every participant a legally binding confidentiality agreement that explains that I will treat your material with the utmost respect. I have confidentiality agreements in place with leaders of many of Australia's largest organisations and would treat your material with the same degree of respect that they require.
If your organisation would like me to sign their standard agreement, send it to me and I will do so.
Click here to download a brochure to learn more about the program.
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When are the online sessions held?
The September 2018 program runs over six, two-week blocks from late September through mid December.
Here is the program schedule as well as an explanation re: timezone implications:
Sessions are scheduled at the same time each week from 10am to 11.30pm on Tuesdays ( Sydney, Australia time – AEST, GMT +11) on the following dates:
O-week:
- 27 September: Getting Started Q&A Call
Block 1: Start thinking about your purpose and audience
- 2 October – Group Coaching Call
- 9 October – Live Q&A Call
Block 2: Structure your storyline Part 1
- 16 October – Group Coaching Call
- 23 October – Live Q&A Call
Block 3: Structure your storyline Part 2
- 30 October – Group Coaching Call
- 6 November – Live Q&A Call
Block 4: Structure your storyline Part 3
- 13 November – Group Coaching Call
- 20 November – Live Q&A Call
Block 5: Structure your storyline part 4
- 27 November – Group Coaching Call
- 4 December – Live Q&A Call
Block 6: Share your communication
- 11 December – Group Coaching Call
- 18 December – Live Q&A Call
For those of you in Asia and New Zealand the sessions will fall at different times on the same day as follows:
- 8am in Perth, Hong Kong and Singapore
- 9am in Jakarta
- 12 noon in New Zealand
- 1pm in Tokyo
For those of you in the US and Canada the sessions will fall on Monday, the day prior as follows:
- 5pm the prior evening Pacific Time (LA, Phoenix, Seattle, Vancouver)
- 6pm the prior evening Mountain Time (Denver)
- 7pm the prior evening Central Time (Austin, Chicago, Dallas, Houston)
- 8pm the prior evening Eastern Time (Atlanta, New York, Philadelphia, Toronto)
A couple of other things to note:
- If there is sufficient interest from people in Europe, I will add in more sessions that are at more suitable times for those timezones.
- We will move to Daylight Savings Time during this program, so these times may adjust accordingly
- All sessions are recorded and posted to the learning portal straight afterwards so that you can catch up if life or work intervenes.
Click here to download a brochure. -
How much direct contact will I have with you during the program
I will engage with you in a variety of ways throughout the program:
- We will have a ‘get to know you call’ before the program begins
- I will review a couple of pieces of your communication before we start so I am familiar with your current standing as well as your context (after signing an NDA)
- I offer a fortnightly Live Q&A Session where you can log in to ask questions about any part of the program
- I am active in the Facebook group, either posting ideas for you, responding to queries or providing mini challenges
- I also discuss pieces of communication that group members submit (only if I have your permission) in the fortnightly Coaching Calls. This is a great way to share ideas and learn from each other.
- Either I or one of my team provide personal feedback on one piece of communication during the program. You can learn more about my team here. We all trained in top-tier environments (most at McKinsey) and specialise in helping others master structured communication techniques.
Click here to download a brochure to learn more about the program. -
What happens if participants are on leave or sick during the program?
The program is deliberately designed to accommodate the unpredictability of your work and personal lives.
- The online modules can be completed anywhere on any device at any time
- The Clarity Coaching Calls and Live Q&A are recorded and posted in the course portal asap after the session. This means that you can watch them if you miss the sessions and you can also revisit them if that is helpful.
- Challenges and extra ideas are posted to the Facebook group and also distributed via email as we go and remain there for the duration of the three-month program.
Click here to download a brochure to learn more about the program.
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Is it better to complete the program independently or with colleagues?
There are benefits both ways. Interaction with others while learning is always beneficial and I encourage everyone, whether they are joining the program alone or with colleagues to ensure they participate in the group fully so they get the most out of the program. Click here to download a brochure to learn more about the program.
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Why use a Facebook group for group conversations rather than a LinkedIn group?
I have found that people participate more actively via private Facebook groups than LinkedIn. I realise some of you may not want to mix work and pleasure and may not want to participate in a Facebook group, which is why I will email you regularly with updates. My goal is to offer multiple channels to make it as easy and enjoyable as possible for participants to engage in the concepts throughout the program.
If you would like to see more about our public Facebook conversation you may like to visit our page: @communicateup or click here to apply for a place in the program.
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Do you offer a guarantee?
Yes, I do. All I ask is that you let me know why the program doesn't meet your expectations so I can improve it.
Click here to download a brochure to learn more about the program.
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Do you offer private programs for organisations?
Yes, email me and we can talk about it. I am currently running three corporate programs: two for a retailer and one for an energy company. These teams value the opportunity to discuss confidential details of their communication within a secure and collaborative small-group environment.
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What does the program cost?
The program investment is $1,950 (plus 10% GST for Australians). This includes (at a minimum)
- Participation in the online program, which includes
- A substantial learning journal with notes for the whole program, which I will mail to you
- 6 x 1.5 hour group coaching calls where I share answers to the exercises, test your knowledge and introduce new content
- 6 x Live Q&A Calls (I will be there for a minimum of 30 minutes and stay longer if there are lots of questions)
- Practical exercises to complete for each module
- Email feedback on a piece of communication of your choice
- Lifetime access to the online modules and the private Facebook group
- Access to 12 online learning modules organised in six, two-week learning blocks plus bonus modules
- A substantial learning journal for keeping notes and recording your progress, which I will mail to you
- A copy of my new book, The So What Strategy
Note: you may be able to claim the costs of this program against your tax or be able to obtain reimbursement for some or all of the program from your employer. Many organisations have an education budget for promising emerging leaders: ask your HR team if you qualify.
You may also qualify for Continuing Education Points from your professional association: participants have in the past qualified.
Click here to download a brochure.
Discounts are available for teams of 5 or more. Email me to learn more or download the brochure here. There is also an Early Bird offer available for those who book and pay before 30 June.
- Participation in the online program, which includes