Communication-Based Learning in the Workplace
Why are communication patterns important in effective management training?
Here at Leadership Choice, all of our training programs begin with our Connecting With People Workshop. Not only does this workshop give each participant insight into their own personal communication patterns, but it also gives them the mindsets and skillsets to be able to identify the communication patterns of those around them.
Why is this base of learning so important?
A Better Mindset for Training
The first step of our Connecting With People communication pattern workshop is the iConnect Communication Assessment (you can take yours for free here). This communication assessment tells you your personal communication pattern, including how you see yourself, how others see you, and how you communicate under pressure. This opens up each training participant’s awareness of how they act in any given situation, providing a better understanding of the personal baseline upon which the training program will build upon.
This assessment also creates a mindset of self-awareness and analysis which makes for better receptiveness during the remaining training modules.
Understand Strengths and Weaknesses
Some people go into training confident that they have already mastered all of the tools they are about to learn; others come in with a completely open mind ready to take in all of the new information and implement it immediately. In order to create a learning environment focused on learning efficiently and effectively, Leadership Choice empowers each participant with more in-depth knowledge of their strengths and areas for improvement before training ever begins.
This means participants can understand which information is most pertinent to them personally without becoming overwhelmed and overloaded as sometimes happens during traditional training. Understanding personal strengths and weaknesses before learning takes place means each piece of new information is more directly relatable to the person’s individual circumstances.
Realistic and Effective Results
There’s a reason each leader is in the career position they are in: because they already have something great to contribute to the company. When new leaders join our management training or leadership development programs, it’s not because they’re not good at what they do; it’s because they want to accelerate their success.
A key principle in getting the most out of training is to define points of action, and the best way to start this discernment is to first understand your current baseline then analyze areas for improvement. Picking a strategic action plan instead of committing to changing everything means more effective and sustainable results.
Anticipate Results
We’ve already discussed how knowing your personal communication pattern can make you more effective and receptive to training, now let’s talk about how understanding the communication patterns of others can help you become a better leader:
When you can understand the communication patterns of others, it empowers you to adjust your actions accordingly to help manage a better result. Understanding your communication pattern and the communication patterns of others allows you to know what you typically do in a given situation and what temporary modifications might be made in a specific situation considering the communication patterns of those around you.
More successful implementation
We know that everyone is different, so why would we assume that management and leadership strategies are one-size-fits-all? A communication-based leadership learning program provides strategies for leading your team members with each different communication pattern. This means you can adapt your leadership and management strategy based on the person you are communicating with, and also means your new skills can be implemented with less trial and error.
This accelerated success also means you’re more likely to implement those strategies in the future, making for a more successful training application and long-term retention.
It’s personalized
Traditional training programs are typically about rote learning — memorization and impersonal application. When you have the mindset of considering your personal communication pattern in each training module, as well as considering the patterns of others when applying those skills, implementation suddenly feels more natural and logical.
Lessons become ingrained
Communication patterns are something that you encounter every single day (whether it’s with yourself or others). This knowledge is so usable, applicable, and ever-present that it becomes ingrained in your knowledge base. This means that every time you are in a position to apply a new skill, you already have strong neural signals to the communications knowledge you’ve already developed, which makes the path to your new communication-based training lessons more readily accessible.
Think about it like learning common roots and prefixes. When you stumble upon a word you can’t quite remember the definition of, instead of having to recall the definition from scratch you can relate it to similar words to discern the definition. For instance, “podiatry” isn’t used in day-to-day conversation, however, the prefix “pod” is more commonly used in relation to feet (as in “tripod”), and “iatry” is commonly used in relation to healing (as in “psychiatry”), which means you can deduce that “podiatry” likely has to do with the practice of healing feet.
Communication patterns and the subconscious use of this knowledge are so abundant that when a chance to use that knowledge arises, such as in a leadership conflict scenario, the information is quickly and naturally more accessible than “Conflict Resolution chapter 7 section 3” might be.
Universally usable
Even though each of our training programs has a limited number of modules, knowledge of communication patterns is usable in any situation. This skill can be applied throughout the workplace for any number of leadership purposes or otherwise, as well as in day-to-day social settings. The skill of communication patterns not only helps participants become better leaders, but also helps them become more understanding, insightful, and effective in daily life.
