Interest-Based Communication.

Most professionals were never taught how to communicate under pressure. They default to hardball tactics, avoid conflict, or wing it and hope for the best. Interest-Based Communication is a different approach — rooted in negotiation theory, built around the idea that understanding what people actually want (their interests) matters more than winning arguments about what they say they want (their positions).

This is a two-day, in-person course. You'll learn the philosophy in the morning and practice it in the afternoon — with real exercises, real role-playing, and real conflicts from your own work. You'll leave with a workbook and a set of skills you can use the following Monday.

• The ability to negotiate over interests without hardball techniques or force of personality
• A memorable introduction for yourself and your organization — one people actually remember
• Confidence in conversations that prompt others to share what they really think
• Techniques to present ideas so others want to hear, understand, and contribute
• Skills to turn communication breakdowns into collaborative problem-solving
• An understanding of how decisions get made inside bureaucracies — and how to influence them

Sessions are approximately two hours each. They include lessons, Q&A, small-group role-playing exercises, and debrief discussions. Each participant receives a workbook.

Aion Biosciences on the impact of interest-based communication training.

The course benefits from people at all levels. Executives, sales teams, managers, and individual contributors all bring different conflicts to the table — and that range makes the exercises better for everyone.

Executives from Broadview Group on how interest-based communication changed their team's approach to negotiation and client relationships.