Morning Workshop:
Working With Leaders To Improve Employee Engagement

Led By Louisa Scott and Molly Watson, The Company Agency

Business leaders may be experts at shaping the best strategy for their organisation, but many don’t have the necessary skills to develop a climate and culture where employees feel valued and are willing to perform at their best.

In this workshop you’ll learn how you can coach, assist and convince senior management how good communication is key to maximising their essential role in driving employee engagement. Your workshop leaders, The Company Agency helps leaders to maximise the impact of all their communication across a range of contexts. The format of the workshop will be interactive and participative, encouraging delegates to interact and learn by doing. Key areas to be covered include:

• Introductory briefing about the importance of communication skills for individual, departmental and corporate success – including a company’s bottom line
• Presentation challenges and solutions – why people do and don’t listen
• Content challenges and solutions – what is a narrative or story and why is it a relevant and valuable communication tool?
• Understand how you communicate: Filming and analysis of how each participant communicates individually and as part of a team in a range of contexts
• Review of passive visual cues: voice, pace, style and tone of communication
• In-depth coaching in content selection, language and length of narrative and assessment of audience needs
• Dos and don’ts of delivering presentations

Louisa Scott Louisa spent seven years at the BBC. She was Results Editor for the 2001 General Election and worked as a producer for the Political Research unit, News 24 and latterly the Six O’Clock News. She joined The Company Agency in 2003 and works with senior executives to improve their communication skills.

Molly Watson Molly began her career trading FTSE Options on the London International Financial Futures Exchange. She then moved into journalism, becoming New York correspondent for the Evening Standard, a columnist for the Mail on Sunday and regular contributor to Vogue, the Daily Telegraph and The Spectator magazine. She recently headed up the London Office of Crosby|Textor, Australia’s leading political strategic and opinion research consultancy.

Led by Caryn Vanstone, Ashridge Consulting

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a communication technique used to engage employees in constructive conversations that move beyond just “problem solving” and on to positive change. It’s becoming a popular approach for organisations undergoing change and seeking consensus and commitment to new ways of working.

What AI is:

• AI examines the excellence in an organisation, building on positive results and potential
• AI is a process that engages everyone as adult co-owners and co-authors of the organisational experience
• AI is a tool that communicators can use to build employee engagement in their organizations
• AI has the capacity to democratise organisational change – so it’s not just another leadership-driven initiative – and re-ignite a sense of involvement within the workforce.

During this workshop, you will:

• Assess how your organisation can build employee engagement through AI
• Learn the five-step framework for the AI process
• Understand how to introduce AI into your organization
• Examine a range of case studies demonstrating the successful implementation of AI

Caryn Vanstone Caryn’s practice is influenced by years of working as both a line manager and HR/Change/OD specialist in industry.