story master class & workshops terrence gargiulo

8/12/2019 Story Master Class & Workshops Terrence Gargiulo

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Two master class outlines &Facilitator guide for story-based experiential activity

TERRENCE GARGIULO [email protected] phone: 415-948-8087


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CALL TODAY FOR MORE INFORMATION -- MAKINGSTORIES.net 415-948-8087 [email protected] pg.1

TITLE:

Getting Results with Breakthrough Communication Skill s 3 Day Foundational Course

DESCRIPTION

With the pace of work in todays organizations , are you using your communication ski lls toget the results you want?Breakthrough communication obliterates barriers and puts us in touch with ourselves and inconnection with others. This foundational course looks at the key communication skills we allpossess and can strengthen for thriving at work and in our personal relationships. Based on

research with Fortune 500 companies, participants are introduced to nine key communication skillsthat will drive new results in their organization regardless of where they sit.

YOURE A NATURAL COMMUNICATOR!

Youre committed to becoming a better communicator. Do you know that you have a perfectset of skills for communicating effectively already?

Youre trying to build stronger working relationships. Do you use your listening skills toconnect more meaningful with others?

Youre frustrated because people do not l isten to you. Do you have a hard time getting yourideas heard or understood?

Youre tired of endless misunderstandings and conflicts. Do you clash with others when youare faced with ideas and positions different from your own?

Youre not recognized in your organization. Do you fail to get the feedback and recognition youdeserve?


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How You Will Benefit

Discover your natural communication skills and start putting them to work Build stronger and quicker working relationships Convey your thoughts, ideas, and feelings with clarity, confidence, and sincerity Process verbal information with greater speed and accuracy Reduce confusion, frustrations, and misunderstandings when communicating with others Negotiate differences with poise and openness Work more collaboratively with others to achieve better results Increase your visibility and respect in the organization by strengthening your listening skills Reduce reactive and negative exchanges with others Maximize your awareness and sensitivity to others and your environment

What You Will Cover

Maximize the Communication Skills You Already Have

Develop awareness of the nine communication skills we all possess Measure the degree to which you are currently using these skills Practice techniques for strengthening these skills Work with a large collection of self-development activities to keep your skills honed

Strategies for Taking in Verbal Information

Break verbal communications into three channels of information (content, emotion, intention) Increase powers of observation Engage people communicating with you to increase your understanding

Techniques for Interpreting the Information You Hear

Create a mental picture of what you hear Relate what you hear with your experiences Sort through the interpretations you generate from listening to others Draw more reliable conclusions to guide your response to others and interactions

Communicate with Clarity, Confidence, and Sincerity

Selecting the right words Finding good experiences and examples to share with others Hear what you will say before you say it Use compelling language and examples to paint a vivid picture of what you want to

communicate Speak with your actions as well as your words


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Developing Your Action Plan

Make a commitment to try at least two new strategies in the work place Write a learning plan to continue developing your communication skills Select a goals partner from the course to check-in with on a regular basis for peer support and

feedback


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TITLE

Return on Experience (ROE): Leveraging Your ROE for Results 2 Day Course

DESECRIPTION

Leave no experience unturned. This course will show you how to get a return on experiences(ROE).Our experiences are not just nice to have; nor is thinking about them a luxury. Ourexperiences motivate, drive, and guide all our behaviors and reactions. You will learn and practiceresearch proven techniques for transforming your experiences, and the experiences of others intoassets by making better decisions, avoiding past mistakes, and enter new situations with betterknowledge and confidence. Participants work with concrete tools for developing the essential skillsthey need in order to get an ROE and achieve results.

HOW YOU WILL BENEFIT

Discover how to tap into your wealth of experiences Review your experiences with an open mind Conduct a critical analysis of your experiences Transform your experiences into nuggets of knowledge that will guide future actions Avoid making the same mistakes Leverage your instincts by increasing your awareness of how you form gut opinions Make better decisions more quickly and with less information Improve your working relationships by being more sensitive to eliciting the experiences of

others and learning from them Become more proactive versus reactive in your relationships with others Implement easy to facilitate group practices for extracting lessons learned from projects

WHAT YOU WILL COVER

Get A Return on Your Experiences (ROE) Examine why your experiences are so important to achieving better results Discover the potential of tapping into your experiences

Tap Into Your Experiences Work with new techniques for quickly remembering your experiences Replay these experiences in your mind to vividly relive them

Review Your Experiences Examine your experiences with an open mind Look for the relationships between your past experiences and your current attitudes, values,

biases, beliefs and assumptions


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Extract Knowledge Transform your experiences into nuggets of knowledge Examine your experience for repeating patterns of behaviors Decide how you can use the information you extract from your experiences to guide future

actions Communicate your opinions more effectively by sharing the experiences that have contributed

to the development of your perspectives

Use ROE Techniques to Increase Group Effectiveness Use three simple questions at the end of any meeting to maximize the groups effectiveness Conduct After Action Reviews that focus on peoples experiences to identify key lessons

learned


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The Magic Three


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The Magic Three

BackgroundIve always been a fan of the number 3 and one day it came to my rescue. I wasfilling in as a facilitator for a colleague of mine. It was early in my career and, not being familiar with the workshops materials, I was at a loss as to what to do withthe group. There were two hours left on the clock and we were ready to go into theworkshops last exercise, which was supposed to last ten minutes. I began topanic. My colleague had warned me not to end the session early. I decided to adlib and modify the directions of the exercise. The exercise called for participants toshare with partners an experience from their past that would be different today if they applied the communication principles we had learned during the course. Iput people into groups of four and instructed them to share three experiences in-stead of one. Something very unexpected and magical happened; and since thenthe Magic Three has never disappointed me.

Facilitation Level Easy

Objectives1. Provide a structured activity to guide people through an experience of

reflection.2. Practice authentic communication.3. Create a connection with listeners.

Materials None

TimeUp to fifteen minutes per person

Directions1. Give this as an overnight assignment during a multi-day workshop or retreat.2. Tell participants to think of three personal stories that have some relationship

among them.

110 Once Upon a Time


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3. Ask participants to share their stories with the group the next day.4. Debrief the activity.

Debriefing The good news:this is almost always an easy activity to debrief given the richness

of the experience for the teller and the group listening to him or her. The activ-ity runs itself. Your main job is to give people ample time to react to the story.When a teller is finished, it is a good idea to allow some silence in the room.Start the debriefing process with the teller. Ask him, How did that feel?Alternatively, if he hasnt done so already ask him to explain how he came upwith the three stories. If it was an emotionally charged set of stories, feel free toask a few follow-on questions about one or more of the stories. However, beprepared to redirect the group if one or more people become too engrossed inthe details of a story or pursue tangential lines of questioning. Some of thissort of thing is okay but can quickly take a group off track.

Next, if it hasnt started happening naturally already, ask the group to providefeedback, impressions, and reactions to the teller. Some people may even feelcompelled to spontaneously share a story of their own. Encourage the tellerand then the group to reflect on the relationship between the stories and dis-cuss insights that have emerged from them.

Tie the outcomes of the activity to the major themes, lessons, and insights of the workshop.

How did the tellers communication style change when he or she was telling a story? How were you impacted as a listener?People who find it difficult to speak in frontof a group will experience a real connection with their audience. Likewise, lis-teners will describe the teller as engaging, and the stories as rich or stimulat-ing. This is the result of the teller reliving her experience.

Whats the connection between the stories? How and why did these three stories becomeassociated with one another? Before participating in this activity someone mayhave never associated these stories to one another. In some cases, this may bethe first time he or she is suddenly recalling an experience from the past thatwas forgotten. One story leads to the trail of another. This is the reflectivepower of stories. Stories by their nature are multi-threaded. Frays of the threadcan twist and unwind in lots of unexpected ways. As stories come apart, theycan be rejoined to others to form new networks of meaning and significance.

Variations Vary the number of stories (however, it should be two at a minimum and

under most circumstances not more than five).

111The Magic Three


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Have participants work on the assignment during the workshop. Tell stories during a working lunch. Change the type of stories you ask participants to think about and tell

(e.g., from personal ones to work-related ones). Depending on the nature of the workshop and the composition of your group, you can be very specific inthe parameters you set.

Limit the number of participants in the activity. Spread out the number of people who share their stories across multiple days. Break participants into smaller groups and have people share their stories

within the smaller groups. Ask each group to select one of its members storiesand have a member of the group other than the owner of the story retell it tothe group at large.

Invite one of the participants to facilitate the group debriefing. Ask everyone to anonymously write down three major things that struck them

about the stories (do this before any group debriefing). Provide the feedback tothe story owner.

Add a visual component to the activity. Instruct participants to create a collageor some other kind of visual to document their stories.

Encourage listeners to share any of their stories that have been triggered byanother persons stories.

Tips Be purposefully vague in your instructions. This is one of those times when

less is more. Some participants may struggle with the directions. Encouragethem to grapple with the ambiguity. Out of the ambiguity comes the reflectivesoul-searching that is necessary. Be aware that detail-oriented people may become slightly frustrated by your lack of clear and precise directions. Thatsokay. Apologize to them and explain that it will make more sense to them afterthe activity. Realize that you may need to bear the brunt of their temporaryaggravation. At this point there is no need to relieve it. It would only alleviateyour feelings, but not help the participant. Afterward, point out that the suc-cess of the activity is contingent on participants finding a path through theirexperiences. Ill sometimes joke and say, In the words of Hamlet, I must becruel to be kind.

Emphasize that stories need to have some sort of thread or connection betweenthem. Encourage participants to look for non-linear connections. That is to say,the stories they select that have a relationship to each other can be from verydifferent times and parts of their lives.



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Do not provide your own example in advance. After one or more participantsshare their three stories, you may feel free to share yours. The purpose indoing so is to generate greater trust, intimacy, and authenticity with the group.Your stories as a facilitator of the group may also be a good tool for defusingany intense or difficult dynamics that arise in the group as a result of someone

elses stories. Never judge the stories or anyones response/reaction to them. Allow there to be some silence after a participant shares his or her three stories. Insist that people come to the front of the room to tell their stories. Unless

someone is completely emotionally or physically incapable of being in front of the room, it is an essential part of the activity. People overcome their inhibi-tions about speaking when they tell stories.

Confiscate notes from the participant sharing his or her stories. Despite what-

ever inclination he or she may have, he or she will not need notes, and usingthem will prevent the person from reliving his or her story. Limit the number of tellers if you are pressed for time. People listening learn

from the activity sometimes as much if not more than tellers.

Applications1. This is a great activity to use in any offsite retreat.2. Incorporate this as a team-building activity or let members of a team take

turns sharing their magic three at the start of regular meetings.3. Use as an icebreaker or lunch activity during an event.

Case StudyI was facilitating a workshop on personal effectiveness in business. Len was a no-nonsense technology project manager for a nuclear research company. Len pos-sessed exceptional communication skills. He was clear, precise, succinct, and veryarticulate. However, despite his technical prowess as a communicator, Len ob-

served that he often failed to connect with people on an emotional level.I gave Len two assignments. The first assignment was to take a complexnewspaper article on a controversial topic and in thirty seconds or less provide asummary of the articles information and make a recommendation. Lens secondassignment was the Magic Three.

Len performed the newspaper activity with the prowess of a polished politi-cian. He was absolutely brilliant. I wanted him to serve as an example of how todeliver an effective executive sound bite. There are many times when we havethirty seconds or less to make an elevator pitch.

113The Magic Three


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After appropriate accolades, I asked Len to share his three stories with us. In amatter of a few seconds, Lens body language began to transform in front of ourvery eyes. His erect, formal stature was replaced with a more relaxed posture. Ashe began to share his stories with the group, he moved to the edge of a table to sitdown. Here is a recapitulation of his stories as I remember them:

Ive always been a fairly private person so joining groups was never highon my list of things to do. About seven years ago I decided to get more in-volved with my local Catholic church group. I was surprised at how quicklyI began forming a core group of friends who became a central part of mylife.Weekends were filled with fishing trips,barbecues with our wives andfamilies, and general fraternizing with my new cohorts.It had been a longtime since I had experienced this kind of camaraderie and I was relishingevery minute of it. As a group, we kept growing closer and closer. Even myfamily was caught off guard by the quality and depth of relationships I de-

veloped with a bunch of total strangers.This continued for several years.After a horrible car accident, I found myself in the hospital recovering froma life-threatening back surgery and long days of excruciating pain bluntedby the constant dripping of numbing morphine. Everything was a haze. Iwas in a complete fog of pain, depression,and despair. During these hor-rific weeks, there were two pins of light that got me through these dark times,my family and my friends. Family you kind of expect to be there foryou,but I was amazed at the dedication and energy my friends gave to mewhen I needed them the most.To this day I believe my friends were a spe-cial gift granted to me to ensure I pulled through a very trying experience.A couple of years later my buddies wanted to go on a weekend retreatwith the church. I resisted,but after a lot of cajoling I agreed to go.We hada fantastic time,and the retreat was filled with lots of soulful opportunitiesto recharge our batteries and put the challenges of life into perspective.My friends made the retreat a special experience and I returned home withfresh vigor and zest.A day after my return,my father died unexpectedly. Ibelieve my friends and the retreat were granted to me as a form of prepa-ration for my fathers death. I was able to be a source of comfort andstrength for my family. I had more emotional energy to give to them.Tothis day, I am eternally grateful for friendship and all of the richness it hasgiven me in life.

Unfortunately, my retelling is pale in comparison to Lens original account. Itsmissing all of the other subtle forms of communication that accompanied it, suchas body language, eye contact, and tone of voice. When Len finished, there was si-lence in the room. People needed a moment to exit their imaginations and reenter



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the workshops frame of reference. Ken confessed he had never told these storiesto anyone else before; and prior to the workshop he never would have dreamed of sharing them in a work environment. He reflected on the powerful connection of friendship he discovered in the three stories. Then Ken made an amazing leap of insight. He concluded that he needed to be selectively more vulnerable with peo-

ple at work in order to improve his personal effectiveness. Ken committed tospending more time cultivating relationships in his organization. Stories, he dis-covered, are one of the best tools for building effective, meaningful relationships.

115The Magic Three


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AUTHOR BIO

Terrence L. Gargiulo, MMHS is an eight times author, international speaker, organizational development consultant

and group

process

facilitator

specializing

in

the

use

of

stories.

He holds a Master of Management in Human Services from the Florence Heller School, at Brandeis University, and is a recipient of Inc. Magazine's Marketing Master Award, the 2008 HR Leadership Award from the Asia Pacific HRM Congress, and is a member of Brandeis Universitys athletic Hall of Fame. He has appeared on Fox TV, CN8, and on CNN radio among others.

Highlights of some of his past and present clients include, GM, HP, DTE Energy, MicroStrategy, Citrix, Fidelity, Federal Reserve Bank, Ceridian, Countrywide Financial, Washington Mutual, Dreyers Ice Cream, UNUM, US Coast Guard, Boston University, Raytheon, City of Lowell, Arthur D. Little, KANA Communications, Merck Medco, Coca Cola, Harvard Business School, and Cambridge Savings Bank.

Web: http://www.makingstories.net Video: http://www.vimeo.com/user2343092/videos

Email: [email protected] phone 415 948 8087

INTERVENTIONS CONSULTING RETREATS WORKSHOPS COACHING SPEAKING

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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

COMP VIDEOS & CONVERSATION STARTERS

These are distinctive, stylized short nuggets of organizational poetry offered to clientsand prospective clients to encourage people to dialog about themes prevalent inOrganizational Development work. Recordings of webinars and keynotes round out thiscollection of videos. These offeran authentic and personal snapshots into me. Eventranscational and bottom line work is first and foremost relational. I want you to knowa little about who and how I am. For those that resonate with these I gaurantee we willhave a mutually gratifying and productive engagement.

CLICK HERE TO SEE VIDEOS

AVAIL YOUR SELF OF OVER 30 FREE ARTICLES & WHITE PAPERS

Are you looking for how the rubber meets the road? Need some practical tips andtechniques for designing and implementing learning and communication interventions?

Heres a repository of great resources sure to offer everyone something. Be sure toreach out to me with your questions. Im happy to offer up to 30 minutes of free

consult to get people started.

CLICK HERE FOR RESOURCES
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I am very proud and grateful for the crystallization of my story-based communication skillsassessment . It was awarded the 2008 HR Leadership Award from the Asia Pacific HumanResource Management Congress

CLICK HERE TO ORDER THE ASSESSMENT Are you looking for some easy ways to develop your story-based communication skills orhelp others on your staff or team? Try our eBook of self- development exercises

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Have you wanted a step-by-step guide to discovering and mining your rich treasure chest ofstories so you can leverage them more effectively? Here just the guide to get you started

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Maybe you just want to work with us. Dont be bashful. Give me a call today . I promise to tellonly a few stories but be careful you might yourself launching into a sea of stories !

PHONE: 415-948-8087
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story master class & workshops terrence gargiulo

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