Communicating with Impact - BASF

Communicating with Impact

Impact Factory created a five-day Communications Programme for a global team of senior managers and transformed their lives.

Creating the Impact you consciously choose to create is harder than you think. As leaders or role-models we'd suggest there are three things you need to keep in mind

1. On the catwalk of business life, you're always on show
2. Your body never shuts up
3. Never forget rule 1 or 2

Five Day Communication Skills Programme

Our client BASF, 'The Chemical Company' understood that premise and asked us to create a Five-day Communication Skills Programme for its global team of senior managers.

Once we began to unpick the skills and behaviours required to achieve that goal they, and we realised we had our work cut out even with the luxury of a week-long programme.

The core objective of the workshop is to create an initial environment, in which these highly skilled and experienced leaders would feel comfortable and trusting enough to 'play' with us.

Impact Factory loves to 'play', but that playfulness has serious intentions and always aims to offer people pragmatic tools, awareness and benefits. Our delegates must return to the real world and demonstrate role-model behaviour not only internally, but externally and often on a global stage.

A Challenge For All

The five-day workshop is as much a journey for us as it is for the delegates because although we have our core objective, people are different and therefore no two workshops are ever the same.

And that's the way we not only like it but how we believe any Communication Skills-based workshop should be; as challenging for us as it is for the delegates.

We are the first to acknowledge that inviting highly-skilled mostly science based-professionals into the world of Impact Factory can present challenges. To use a chemical analogy, in the act of mixing two inert, yet when mixed, potentially explosive mediums, great care must be taken to avoid a disaster.

Soft Skills Are Hard to Master

The first three days represent a journey into the world of environments, behaviours, personal insights, how we say things and the all-important ability to 'see'. These initial days are designed to introduce delegates to the concept that softer skills are often sometimes the hardest to master.

Our suggestion to begin that process is to firstly accept and recognise their current patterns of behaviour. Then, with input from us, we work to try and disturb automatic knee-jerk reactions and encourage delegates to replace them with conscious choices.

Defining Presentations

The final two days are designed to pull together the experience of the first three into the solid, practical and ultimately serious world of the chemical industry. Delegates are asked to make Presentations and work together in teams to pitch ideas in a high-pressure environment.

Our skill comes to the fore during this time as we endeavour to encourage delegates not to fall back into previous patterns, triggered as soon as the 'suits' go back on.

Invariably, the task is a tough one for any development organisation which deals with the entrenched patterns of behaviour we all have, and only too easily demonstrate on a daily basis, in both our personal and professional lives.

Our success has been to have the delegates acknowledge that the surface has been well and truly scratched, and the way has been prepared for them to be reminded to 'see', and to begin consciously creating the impact they choose, when they choose to create it, with self-awareness, energy and passion.

If you'd like a taste of the Communicating with Impact programme for your self, have a look at our Elite Communicate With Impact Course