HSE Professional Development™

Influencing Skills for HSE Professionals™ 

A study by Dr. Paul Nutt at Ohio State University found over the last 19 years that more than 50% of business decisions fail; they are abandoned, partially implemented or never adopted. There is no one reason for this alarming high rate of failure, but leading reasons include:

• Poor problem identification, not identifying causal factors and inadequate solution development
• Not considering alternatives and not consulting colleagues and subject matter experts
• Failing to appreciate the political landscape and anticipate resistance
• Not thoroughly evaluating the impact of the decision
• Ineffective solution implementation
• Even when the right answers are known, the game often is lost by poor communication and presentation skills.

For the HSE professional, it only gets worse. Environmental, safety and health maybe a company value or priority, but when it comes to the real day to day effort to "get things done", there is always competition with production and cost. HSE professionals say "if you have a business issue, you'll get tons of help:" it is easy to get people to the table ready to discuss an issue and make a decision. With EHS programs and improvements, it's often a different matter.

What if?

Imagine you walked into your first meeting tomorrow and everything except the surroundings had changed. People turn to you and not only ask for your opinion and insights, but they hang on every word. You and your colleagues focus on the real problems and the the best ideas for soultions. Nobody is showcasing their brilllance nor responding according to the politics of the day. The thinking was fresh, uncontaminated and lucid. Resistance is identified and disposed of effectively. The most important issues of the day are addressed with innovative solutions. Problems are solved and decisions are made. Alignment of the workgroup is obtained and progress is in the forward direction.

You leave the meeting realizing your talents were leveraged and utilized. People trust your intuition and value your ideas and insights. You have become highly influential and relevant. You and your workgroup created value. You're feeling good and ready for the next challenge. What a day and you're just getting started.

Purpose of the Workshop

HSE professionals in many organizations are at the heart of ensuring the safety of every individual in the company and protecting company assets. For HSE professionals, producing successful results takes more than just authoring a new procedure and an occasional speech at a safety meeting. The Influencing Skills workshop gives HSE professionals the practical tools they need - and can immediately begin using - to positively and effectively influence their organization.

At the completion of the workshop participants will be able to:

• State the benefits, personally and professionally, from effective influence and better decision making
• Apply a basic definition of influence to a wide range of business activities
• Improve their problem identification and solution development abilities
• Recognize and deal effectively with resistance
• Use the leverage of measurement, evidence and data to help convince people
• Recognize how top management views problems and solutions
• Hone a critical view point down to a succinct summary
• Be able to make a presentation that can change opinions and close the sale
• Use questioning techniques as a way to gain intelligence about problems and promote buy-in
• Handle tough questions from skeptics

Immediate action following this course reinforces the learning process. Accordingly, each participant will leave with a personalized action plan to address a pressing issue. The action plan is designed to incorporate the organization's safety goals and objectives.

The Program

Influencing Skills for HSE Professionals™ is an intensive two-day workshop. Classroom lectures, individual and group exercises, and case studies are used to bring real world safety management problems into the classroom. The course is taught by an instructional staff of senior line managers, each with more than thirty years of experience in operations and safety management.

Course Outline

Introduction

• Influencing Skills for EHS Professionals
• Learning Objectives
• Introductory Exercise

Influence

• What it is and isn't
• Influence Hall of Fame
• Your Personal Influence Quotient

Understanding Problems

• Maalox Moments
• Defining the Problem
• Basic steps for dealing with problems

The Power of Good Questions

• The best questions
• Question practice

Getting Your Opinion to Matter

• The four stop expert model
• Responding to a shoulder injury
• Responding to a hand injury

Understanding and Dealing with Resistance

• Always expect resistance
• Don’t create problems where you don’t have them

Organization Politics

• What are “politics”
• Political power
• Recognize the politics in play

Finding Solutions that Sell

• Define the problem better
• Look around for ideas
• Solution matrix

Basic Principles of Selling

• The sales process
• Become a financial services consultant
• Skills of a good salesperson

Getting Better Data

• Dig deeper, look harder, go farther
• Forget your solution
• Get over the issues
• Get more evidence
• Determine the impact
• Watch out for freight trains
• Uncover causes

Developing Your Path Forward

• Where to now?
• Four steps forward, zero steps back

Organizing Your Case Better

• Finding your point
• Winning with data and evidence displays
• Revealing knowledge

Handlling Tough Questions

• They got questions - you got answers
• Dealing with hecklers & disrupters

Closing the Deal

• Overcoming objections
• Gaining commitment

Presenting a Better Case

• Understanding your audience
• Designing your presentation
• The correct use of slides and overheads

Bringing the Learning Home

• Revisiting your toughest challenge
• Which techniques can be use?
• How will you measure improvement?

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