Training Curriculum

Proper training can help employees do their job more efficiently and effectively, increase team productivity, manage stress, and develop leaders. The majority of our courses are custom-created, with presentations, exercises, and examples tailored to fit your tea – whether a small group of 25 or across an organization of 1,000+. 

ILD has decades of expertise in developing training curricula with a large catalog of prepared training presentations. The following is a sampling from our library. Of course, every organization has unique challenges. ILD will work with you to devise a training and coaching strategy to meet your organization’s distinctive needs. 

Breakthrough Communication The Request Loop
Building Resilience   Time Management Series
Building Transparency Business Writing Series
Conflict Resolution  Assertiveness Series
Managing Change Burnout, Compassion & Decision Fatigue

Breakthrough Communication

Following the Breakthrough Communication Assessment, this course explains the nuances of various communication styles. Easy and practical to implement, the session will cover:

  • How our brains process information, then reacts and responds
  • How the impact of time creates distinct styles of communication
  • Listening filters used by different styles
  • Tips to recognize and adapt to other communication styles
  • Impact of stress and pressure on communication

Building Resilience

Life can be hard. Everyone struggles at times. Building resilience is a learned skill that can be strengthened through compelling brain science. Practical tools can increase your ability to “bounce back.”  This session will cover:

  • Grow the “Joy Center” of your mind
  • Learn quick techniques to quiet the noise in your head 
  • Turn on “Relational Circuits” to enhance ongoing relationships
  • Utilize practices to put yourself back on the priority list

Building Transparency

Building greater transparency through trust and trustworthiness to improve organizational culture requires intentionality and ultimately results in a more harmonious and productive workforce. This session will cover:

  • The difference between Trust and Trustworthiness
  • Practical steps to build trust and avoid a cycle of distrust
  • Nine pillars of trustworthiness and practical tips for demonstrating each pillar, leading to greater transparency

Conflict Resolution

It is often out of conflict that we learn. However, the method we use to end conflict can often restrict growth. Recognizing styles of conflict resolution can help you move towards collaboration.  This session will cover:

  • Five main conflict styles and which style is most appropriate based on the encounter
  • The impact that communication style preferences have on conflict styles
  • Effective methods to resolve conflict with better outcomes

Managing Change

The rapid rate of change can feel like a tidal wave – not only how fast changes happen, but the number of changes occurring simultaneously. The result feels like a tsunami! Effectively managing chance will lead to calmer seas. This session will cover:

  • The impact of change on organizations, departments, stakeholders, and individuals
  • The process of change and how to move through it successfully 
  • Simple strategies to conquer the emotional wakes in change
  • Communication techniques to overcome resistance

The Request Loop – Making & Fulfilling Requests

Miscommunication consistently ranks in the top 3 reasons given for work that is incomplete, incorrect, late, or needlessly duplicated – often causing low employee morale and engagement, and wastes company resources. Learn to break requests into their essential elements from both requester and receiver’s perspective. This session covers:

  • What goes into requesting and fulfilling a request successfully.
  • Driving the process from end-to-end to ensure requests are fulfilled in scope and on time.
  • Knowledge to help you “get it right the first time” whether you are the requester or receiver.

Time Management Series

This 4-part training series explores common time management obstacles and solutions. Focusing on results, you will create customized, practical tools that address your specific challenges and needs. Plus, you will leverage the Time Communication Assessment to produce your unique time management techniques that work!  Utilizing an international survey of time management issues, this class can be customized to spend time on the group’s top time problems.

Time & Time Use Motivation

This session examines how personal motivations impact one’s ability to manage experiences in time.

  • Managing time vs. experiences that occur in time
  • Review of individual time communication assessment results
  • Begin the journey to find solutions and making standard principles work

    Avoiding Time Traps

    Most time traps come from individual challenges. This session takes an inward look to create awareness and develop strategies that work.

    • Lack of self-discipline
    • Disorganization
    • Poor planning and task management
    • Incomplete information or paperwork

      Mastering Time Wasters

      We are typically unaware of patterns that occur in our daily lives and how they directly impact our success in managing time.  This session will cover 4 key time wasters and how to combat them: 

      • Procrastinating
      • Firefighting 
      • Overextending 
      • Interruptions 

        Resolving Time Conflicts

        Time conflicts arise when we fail to communicate and achieve clarification. This session will focus on the key sources of time conflict and create plans to resolve them. 

        • Inadequate delegation
        • Failure to say “no
        • Confused authority and responsibility
        • Poor communication

          Business Writing Series

          Good business writing inspires confidence in your business. With impending deadlines and spellcheck, it is easy to get careless and make mistakes. In order to establish credibility and trustworthiness, each piece of writing must be well-written. Well-written proposals lead to more revenue; clearly written memos and reports lead to deeper insights; clever marketing materials boost marketplace reputation.

          Fix the Most Common Mistakes 

          Grammatical mistakes and typos are distracting and can impact the organization’s image. Shifting from conversational to business writing will boost credibility for you and your organization. This session will cover:

          • 20 commonly misused words
          • 10 grammar and punctuation tips
          • Identifying communication styles in writing
          • Online resources and tools

          Email Etiquette

          Be more concise and precise while maintaining proper protocol and respect. As email etiquette continues to evolve, this session covers techniques and rules for what is most currently digitally appropriate. 

          • Effectively reduce email volume
          • Utilize “trigger words” as you create powerful responses to connect with every style
          • Use of emojis
          • The unwritten rule of CC & BCC

          R.A.F.T for Business Writing

          Take your business writing to the next level by flexing to the reader’s communication style. Utilizing R.A.F.T., deliver more influential, clear messages with quick, easy-to-remember tools that reduce misunderstandings and maximize impact. 

          • Role
          • Audience
          • Format
          • Topic

          Writing with a Higher EQ

          Written communication often leaves us to assume tone, body language, and emotional expression. Avoid creating or responding to negative emotional wakes in your business writing with “Basement vs. Balcony Thinking”, an emotional intelligence (EQ) tool to reach desired results.

          • Introduce Basement vs. Balcony Thinking
          • How to recognize communication from each tier
          • Practical steps for writing from the Balcony

          Assertiveness Series

          Are you too nice, or maybe too direct? Finding the right balance is key. Balanced Authentic Communication (BAC) is a methodology that allows you to avoid misunderstandings while remaining true to yourself. This four-part series looks at the extremes of being too nice (passive) or too direct (aggressive). The fundamental concepts and simple techniques of BAC allow effective communication across generations, genders, and roles.

          Pendulum Swings

          Imagine a pendulum swinging back and forth with each distant point of the swing a communication extreme – one too nice, the other too direct. Looking at the two extremes and finding the preferred center point of communication is called Balanced Authentic Communication (BAC). This session will cover:

          • Extreme communication differences
          • Consequences and benefits of pendulum swings
          • Pitfalls focused on limiting beliefs and fears
          • Elements of using BAC

          Mastering Your Pendulum

          Off-centered messages can sabotage intentions – assumptions being one of the biggest saboteurs. This power-packed session provides techniques for building a process to make balanced, authentic communication a habit. This session will cover: 

          • Awareness of undermining habits in written and verbal communication
          • Becoming a Level Three listener
          • How to ask clarifying questions and c ounter when not in agreement
          • How to say “No”

            Centering Your Pendulum

            When seeking to make a change behaviors or perceptions grounded in communication, it’s important to look in the mirror first. Intentionality through mood management (triggers) and learning new techniques for receiving and delivering criticism/feedback is key. This session will cover:

            • Recognizing triggers to extreme swings
            • The difference between criticism and feedback
            • How to give and receive criticism and feedback
            • “Radical Candor” techniques to uphold relationships

            Influencing Pendulum Swings

            BAC works for everyone. This final session introduces a tool to facilitate difficult conversations and influence balanced, authentic communication. Learn how to make BAC a standard, one conversation at a time. This session will cover:

            • Eliminating conversation avoidances (with early detection)
            • Principles to use to influence BAC in others
            • Creating “Fierce Conversations” as an accomplished communicator

            Burnout, Compassion and Decision Fatigue

            Extended times of heavy stress and constant pressure can cause feelings of exhaustion and lack of interest in daily work. Burnout, Compassion and Decision Fatigue can directly impact performance, efficiency, and quality. Learning techniques to mitigate stress is essential to an employee’s overall health and wellness.

            Combatting Burnout

            A bubble bath will not fix burnout. While enjoyable moments of escape, magazine self-care tips do not address root issues or create long-term solutions. This session will cover:

            • Two main components of burnout
            • Practical steps to begin alleviating stress now
            • Unique responses to real or imagined triggers
            • Crafting a life that you don’t want to “escape”

            Compassion & Decision Fatigue

            The close cousin of Burnout, Compassion and Decision Fatigue are treatable conditions with distinctly different protocols. Both exacerbate the underlying sense of burnout. This session will cover:

            • Symptoms and treatment
            • Investigating the avoidance of red flags
            • Preventing the “Human Giver Syndrome”
            • Building a web of support

            Writing Your Own Wellness Plan

            An engaging, hands-on lab class to clarify your current state and desired state. Thought-provoking conversation, reflection, and clarification questions give way to a personalized, easy-to-implement wellness plan.  

            • Customized strategies and tools to bring major impact 
            • Realistic steps to recover from and prevent burnout, compassion, or decision fatigue
            • Support and accountability to help you stay the course

              Everyone Is a JERK to Someone, Every Day

               

              Painless Ways to Improve Communication with Individuals and Teams

              Written by Rebecca M. Rhodes                    

              Who Sounds More Like a Jerk to You?

              Someone who hangs up before you are done talking.

              Someone who stares out the window when you are speaking.

              Someone who won’t let you forget your past mistakes.

              Someone who justifies everything in response to a question.

              We tend to judge ourselves by our intentions, while judging others by their actions. This often leads us to one thought... “Jerk!”

              In Everyone Is a Jerk to Someone Every Day, communication expert and ILD President, Rebecca Rhodes, uses the Breakthrough Communication Model to explain how perceptions lead to misunderstandings that can be easily avoided.