Make workplace conversations clearer
Unclear instructions or different perspectives can complicate a meeting or collaboration. Content may focus on listening carefully, rephrasing a message and confirming a shared understanding.
MY SERVICES · TRAINING & CONFERENCES
Develop people skills that matter at work.
TRAINING & CONFERENCES
What might bring you here.
Workplace situations often ask us to listen carefully, communicate clearly and respond to emotions. Training and conferences offer practical learning around these skills, with content tailored to your organization. Each session has clear learning aims and opportunities to connect the ideas with everyday work.
Prepare for difficult conversations
Feedback, disagreement or tension can make a conversation difficult. Examples and exercises help participants distinguish the facts, express a message clearly and make room for another perspective.
Understand pressure and reactions
Change or heavy demands can bring reactions that are hard to understand. Training may offer ways to identify sources of pressure, recognize emotions and consider how to respond.
WITH DIANA
Useful ideas. A format that fits.
Diana draws on concepts and examples from everyday working life to invite reflection, in a format suited to your audience.
A workshop explores a specific issue. Training builds learning more systematically, with exercises and practice. A conference offers a perspective on a theme, with room for questions as agreed for that format. The two sample agendas below illustrate a workshop and a training session.
MY APPROACH TO TRAINING
Learning shaped around your context
Before developing the content, we clarify who will attend, the situations you want to address and the intended learning. This guides the themes, format, examples and the place of exercises.
I draw on research-informed content and explain it in accessible language. The learning connects concepts with the group’s own situations. Depending on the engagement, practice between sessions or coaching may offer a way to continue the work.
WORKING TOGETHER
Themes grounded in your working life.
These themes can shape a workshop, a training session or a conference. The choice and depth of content depend on your team and your goals.
Emotional intelligence at work
Recognize emotions, understand their place in conversations and consider how to take them into account in professional decisions and relationships.
Practical applications
A way to distinguish facts, interpretations and emotional responses before a conversation or decision.
Communication and active listening
Explore ways to listen, express a message clearly and confirm a shared understanding, using situations relevant to participants.
Practical applications
A sequence to try: listen, reflect back what you have heard, confirm understanding, then make a clear request.
Handling conflict with courage
Reflect on tensions and difficult conversations, considering how to approach them more clearly and with care for the people involved.
Practical applications
A framework for preparing a difficult conversation: describe the facts, identify what needs to be discussed and make room for the other person’s perspective.
Leadership and management
Explore the human side of managing: your stance, your interactions and how you support people in their work.
Practical applications
Questions to clarify an expectation, discuss support needs and agree on a next check-in.
Feedback and recognition
Consider how to offer useful feedback, express appreciation and have conversations that support development at work.
Practical applications
A structure for sharing a specific observation, explaining why it matters and opening a conversation about next steps.
Stress and emotional regulation
Name sources of pressure and explore ways of understanding mental overload and emotional responses at work.
Practical applications
An approach to noticing signs of overload, distinguishing sources of pressure and identifying available resources.
THE CONFERENCE FORMAT
A conference for reflection.
Bring a group together around the human side of work, using accessible concepts to bring situations into perspective and invite discussion.
The theme, format and time for questions are shaped around the audience and the aims of the engagement.
Discuss a conferenceTWO FORMATS, PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
What might a half-day look like?
A workshop takes a closer look at a specific issue: an introduction, relevant content and application to participants’ situations. Training offers a more structured learning process, with concepts introduced progressively, demonstrations and exercises. Both include content presented by Diana and time for participation.
Participatory workshop
Emotions in team conversations
A workshop focused on one issue: recognizing the emotions at play in a workplace conversation. An introduction to relevant concepts comes before applying them to situations that matter to the group.
Sample half-day · 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
- 9:00–9:20 a.m.
Introduce the workshop
Introduce the issue, the morning’s agenda and participation guidelines, and connect the workshop with the team’s experience.
- 9:20–10:00 a.m.
Explore how emotions work
Present the links between situations, interpretations, emotions and reactions, with examples of workplace conversations.
- 10:00–10:30 a.m.
Apply the ideas to a concrete example
Work through a guided example relevant to the team, identifying facts, interpretations and possible reactions.
- 10:30–10:45 a.m.
Break
Time to pause before trying the ideas in practice.
- 10:45–11:45 a.m.
Try different ways of responding
Use scenarios close to the group’s experience, then compare ways of listening and expressing a need.
- 11:45 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Connect the workshop with daily work
Share observations and choose a concrete action to try at work.
What to take away Time to build a shared understanding, consider different reactions and choose something to try in the team’s everyday work.
Training with practice
Develop listening and clear communication
A guided progression through concepts, demonstrations and exercises. Participants practise listening and expressing messages clearly in professional conversations.
Sample half-day · 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
- 9:00–9:20 a.m.
Introduce the learning process
Present the learning aims, the agenda and an initial example of communication, with room for questions about the session.
- 9:20–10:15 a.m.
See the concepts in action
Introduce active listening, reflecting back and clear messages through examples and demonstrations.
- 10:15–10:30 a.m.
Break
Time to step back before the exercises.
- 10:30–11:30 a.m.
Practise in pairs
Practise listening and expressing a message, then receive feedback on the experience.
- 11:30 a.m.–noon
Reflect on the practice
Compare observations and discuss useful adjustments for workplace situations.
- Noon–12:30 p.m.
Plan how to apply the learning
Choose a situation to work on and a first action to try. Practice between sessions may be included if it fits the engagement.
What to take away Time to explore communication tools, practise and plan how to use them in a workplace situation you have chosen.
These agendas illustrate two possible formats. They are starting points for a tailored session: themes, timing and activities are agreed together around your organization’s needs.