Influencing and Persuading

In the digital age, where drivers for change can come from anywhere and fast, influencing and persuading across a network at speed and with conviction contributes to performance. In modernising businesses, who we work with can change often and we might well reach out to a broader ecosystem of partners. Meanwhile, we influence customers to use our services and products, to remain loyal to them, through new relationships, pricing arrangements and experiences. Given the increasing rate of change in the digital age, the skills of influencing and persuading bring empowerment to accommodate change.

Our QA view is that in a modernising organisation, we need to influence and persuade upwards with line and senior stakeholders, across the organisation with colleagues and stakeholders, internally with teams and team members, and externally with peers, suppliers, customers, and external stakeholders. The influencing agenda is full and demanding. It is difficult to prioritise or find a starting point, especially if you are new in position or your role is changing through the integration of technology.

To influence and persuade authentically we need to proactively create a foundation of influence so that it can be drawn upon to influence and persuade in the moment or to anchor and support longer term strategies through diverse relationships.Our ability to influence is linked to; levels of trust, openness to change, our communication and presentation skills, the power we have, and our ability to develop a mind share with stakeholders.

This learning acknowledges this context and through professional practise embraces a range of skills, tools, and behaviours that help influence and persuade. Carefully selected approaches to influencing and persuading are used, and a structured template guides the development of influence strategies for each learner’s context. The experience is engaging with plenty of time for application practise, and thinking through the use of the learning in the workplace in ways that are practical and relevant.

What can Influencing and Persuading do for you and your organisation?

In the digital age where attention spans are shorter, change is continuous and complex, agendas busier, taking ‘time-out’ to think deeply about how to and why influence and persuade who and when – adds to performance.

Influencing and Persuading are durable skill sets that despite all possessing to some degree. To be a great influencer these skill sets benefit from being intentionally developed. With change coming not only from above but also middle managers and front line staff, not understanding Influencing and Persuading at first line manager level can be detrimental. Technology opportunities for growth and efficiency can sometimes only be seen at first line manager level. Does everyone in your organisation know how to influence and persuade to accommodate change and disruption?

Our approach to your spending time learning

We do not overload learners with too many ways of thinking about Influencing and Persuading that can be confusing. We clearly direct the learner to ways of behaving that are selected to be translatable at speed into different workplace situations. We provide a safe place to explore the power dynamics of influencing rather than shy away from their existence.

We establish the environment that encourages learners to explore and embrace persuading as an authentic approach to enhancing performance. Our emphasis is on developing fresh perspectives on persuading suitable for the modern digital age.

Returning to work energised with practical and considered ways of influencing is key. Throughout the course, we pause to allow learners to think and record what it all means. Learners walk away, not with a hurried plan they are not committed to, written at the end of the course. Instead, they own well-thought through approaches to translating the learning into their workplace because they are built upon throughout the course with facilitated help.

Breakouts, where influencing and persuade are related to in-depth, in personalised ways through comparing and contrasting the experiences and views of others, are not passive, nor forced contrived interaction. In small groups, learners think deeply about influencing and persuading. How it happens, who engages in it and its impact on performance.

What’s included?

Included are sessions that clearly articulate how the learning can be translated into different contexts and different roles. Influencing and persuading are positioned and explored to extract the role of the context, the possible outcomes, which allows learners to gain insight into what can make a difference in their context. As much as the theme is communicate effectively, relevant connections are made to other related concepts that draw connections between the scenarios, influencing and performance. These related concepts can be organisational structure, value chains. stakeholders, team dynamics, and difficult conversations. Which related concepts are referred to depends on the unique context and experience of the learners.

• Utilise Influencing and Persuasion skills andtechniques to drive business value
• Create an Influencing plan to build relationshipsand trust with key stakeholders
• Utilise sources of power in an effective way as partof an influencing strategy
• Communicate and Present visions in a compellingway
• Demonstrate and encourage an open mindset
• Capture mindshare and attention with keystakeholders
• Demonstrate a structured and adaptable approachto influencing and persuasion

Our learning is geared towards people wishing to link influencing and persuading to performance in ways that highlight the challenges of being more proactive as technology disrupts and itself persuades us to work in different ways.

Learning how to influence and persuade in each learner’s specific context, means the target audience comes from a diverse set of people. We deeply understand people attend with varying motivations to learn that we accommodate through skilled facilitation.

There are no pre learning or pre-requisites. Learners are purely asked to come with their experience, and their understanding of their unique context.

Throughout learners are asked to complete a QA Leveraging Learning Log (LLL) so that learning is translated into relevant opportunities for growth – personal and organisational. Unique to QA, the LLL is a key part of our teaching and learning strategy that ensures learning flows back into the workplace with effort of course, but without wasted or un-co-ordinated effort.

The course takes an active stance on influencing and persuading to ensure it is practised in professional and productive ways in the workplace. It includes:

• Influencing and persuading
• Creating the climate
• Influencing and Power
• Principles of Influencing
• Communicating your vision
• Open Mindset
• Getting Mindshare
• Planning and Implementing

We look forward to running these events to make a difference.