Impactful conversations at work

What will your webinar cover?

This webinar is all about how we communicate, offering a framework to help to improve how we interact with each other that's relevant in many environments. I use this primarily in workplaces as it helps people to understand why communication may not be going well and what can be done, yet I'm told it also improves people's personal relationships.

I'm going to be talking about a little-known 'branch' of Transactional Analysis (TA) that's known as Organizational Transactional Analysis. It's the work of Abe Wagner who described this in the 80s and 90s specifically for busy working people to use. It's a simplified and highly pragmatic version of TA that helps ordinary people with the mechanics of communication. The idea is that if you have a simple framework to better understand the impact of your communication you'll be able to make even more effective choices in the moment, so that others engage more with you and ultimately means you'll have better relationships wherever you use it.

Over the course of the two hours I'll describe the framework, gradually deepening so that I end up by describing and looking at how to turn around some of the most difficult and tense communication situations that we find ourselves in, such as conversations where we're displeased, even angry, where someone isn't hearing or understanding us, or where there's disagreement. I'll be explaining that we enter most conversations with good intent, yet we don't walk away having made the impact we expected. I'll be looking at how to change that, to increase impact through conversation.

How did you first become interested in this area?

Although I trained as a Clinical Psychologist and TA is a therapeutic model, I hadn't encountered it in my clinical practice. It was only when I went to work with Mark Hamlin at OR Consulting that I learned about it. Mark loved the model from his clinical training, and it was the base model for our work in leadership consulting where we used models from clinical psychology to support behavioural change in the workplace. I've used it ever since. I now primarily work in Coaching Psychology supporting leadership development for senior leaders, and when organisations ask me back, it's the model they ask for.

What still needs to change in this area?

I was worried that there wasn't enough evidence base to justify its use. It's always been an oral model, and you won't find it written down in many places.

I presented it at the Division of Coaching Psychology's conference this summer to test this. The feedback was that given I'm asked back to use this so much that gives it a level of validity.

I hoped that someone would want to take its use with leaders up as a research project but no one's come knocking at my door yet.

Could you tell us something that might surprise someone not familiar with this area of work?

I think people are surprised by how easy it is to be misunderstood. Most of us go in with good intent but tiny things mess up our communication. This model explains that it's not what we say that's important, it's how we say it. If someone isn't listening, or is paying you lip service, or is defensive, these are all signs that what you were trying to explain or say is not being received well. These clues help us to make good choices about how to put our messages across in different ways.

The great thing about Organizational TA is, it's very simple: in it there are just six ways to communicate of which three are thought to be effective and three that are likely to cause tension. There's also an order to using the effective ones and some key techniques that decrease the use of the unhelpful ways that are really simple to learn and enact.

What do you hope people will take away from the webinar?

Firstly, I hope that they learn something that they can use in their own conversations, maybe work ones, say with a difficult boss or colleague, or maybe with their kids (there is actually lots written on using simple TA methods with young people) or friends. Usually, even when I run this with other coaches we look at our own relationships first. 

This could help with influencing people and making sure that they avoid or manage potential conflicts before they get out of control. Secondly, I hope this is a useful method for coaches, educators and clinicians to pass on to the people they work with, a method that helps them to help others.

The webinar, Impactful Conversations at Work (and elsewhere): using an Organisational Transactional Analysis Framework, will be held on Tuesday 5 November from 9.30am until 11.30am.

Registration costs £87.50 (+ VAT) or £52.50 (+ VAT) for BPS members.

Find out more and book your place.