Meaningful One-on-One Conversations

Presence, Purpose, and Productivity

This learning experience is designed to help the team develop the skills they need to have productive business conversations that also build strong relationships with clients and colleagues. Often, our tendency is to lead with our expertise and offer solutions right away, but meaningful conversations start with resisting that reflex and taking the time to connect with the other person. By asking thoughtful questions, actively listening, finding shared priorities, and working together to create solutions that benefit everyone, the team can achieve sustainable success. This session provides the team with practical strategies for connecting authentically, understanding unspoken needs, and building trusted relationships that will drive business growth.

Outcomes

Following the session, the team will be able to...

Recognize verbal and non-verbal cues to understand colleagues better.
Eliminate distractions to focus fully on the other person and what is actually going on.
Set specific, measurable goals for workplace conversations so expectations and outcomes are clear.
Select the most relevant tactics to achieve project goals efficiently.

What it could look like

Here is a suggested agenda for this session. It can be customized to align with the team’s specific needs including learning outcomes, session duration, and job scenarios to ensure effectiveness.

Setting the Stage

45 minutes

The session will start with a warm-up and focus exercise, for example:

Interview and Introduce from Memory

In groups of four, participants will work together to answer simple questions and share what they learned with another group member from memory, without prior knowledge of having to do so.

Building the Tool Kit

90 minutes

Next, the team will learn through interactive activities that focus on these specific skills aligned to on-the-job situations.

Active listening
Asking strategic questions
Setting achievable goals for the conversation
Applying emotionally intelligent tactic to when communicating with the team
Balancing internal and external focus when interacting with others

Putting into Practice

75 minutes

Then the team will show their work.

The A, B, Cs of Finding Common Ground

By responding to a client scenario, participants will align business priorities, build rapport with a personal or professional anecdote, and collaboratively apply insights by asking a strategic question.

Moving Forward

15 minutes

The session ends with time to reflect on what has been learned.

Our Implementation Plan

The team will identify strategies to apply what they’ve learned to their job-specific goals.

SELECT CLIENTS

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Your investment in Alliance@work goes directly back into the community, with all proceeds going to support advancing literacy in Georgia classrooms.