How to talk so people listen. (And listen so people talk)
The people who get listened to at work are not the loudest, the smartest, or the most senior. They are the ones who learned two skills: how to talk so people listen, and how to listen so people talk.
A one-day workshop that combines the art of acting with the science of psychology. Then Heard, the software built to win the yes, keeps counting after the room empties.
Most business problems are people problems. Most people problems are communication problems.
"Communication" keeps coming up.
It is on every review and every after-action report, and it is always too vague to fix.
The training covers the process, not the people.
Your people learn the systems, the checklist and the regulations. The conversation is left to chance.
New people every month.
New managers, new recruiters, new hires. Each one has to earn trust with someone they just met, and do-overs are expensive.
A conversation someone keeps putting off.
It has been months. When they finally have it, it is rarely as hard as they feared.
One day. Two skills.
This one-day workshop combines the art of acting with the science of psychology. You will learn the same techniques the world's greatest stage and screen actors use to captivate an audience, the psychology of why they work, and how to use them in your next meeting, your next one-on-one, and your next hard conversation at home. Then you will practice them, with a partner, until they are yours.
Not a lecture.
People are up and working in pairs, on conversations from their own jobs.
Built around your world.
Every exercise is fitted to the people in the room, in the words they use at work.
Tools for tomorrow morning.
Things to say and do in the next meeting, the next one-on-one and the next first conversation.
How to talk so people listen
- How to get to the point in the first thirty seconds so people follow you and remember what you said
- The secret for holding a room: where to put your attention so people cannot look away
- How to say the hard thing without triggering defensiveness
- How to use your voice and your body so what you say lands the way you meant it
- How to stop rehearsing in your head and respond to what is actually happening in front of you
How to listen so people talk
- The six listening moves that make a person feel heard in the first two minutes and keep them talking when it gets uncomfortable
- Why closed questions shut people down, and what to ask instead
- The reflection habit that makes people open up, and how many times to use it before you ask anything
- What to do at the exact moment the other person gets upset, quiet, or defensive
- How to stop fixing, soothing, and solving, and listen in a way that gets you the truth
Heard. AI built to win the yes.
Most of what you want lives on the other side of someone else's yes, and people say yes more often when they feel heard. The workshop teaches it. Heard measures it: your share of the talking, how many of your questions were open, and how often you reflected back what you heard.
Heard for Meetings™
You can't be on every call. Heard joins your team's two-person Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet calls. After each call, the person who sent it gets a report on how they listened, and managers see the whole team on one page.
Start with one seatHeard: Who Really Listened™
Free to download for iPhone, for conversations in person.
Get it on the App StoreHonest by design. Every measure is labeled by how reliable it is. In the workshop, measuring a conversation is each person's own choice.
called themselves good listeners.
In the same survey, 80% said they multitask on conference calls. Both numbers come from one survey of 3,600 professionals in 30 countries (Accenture, 2015).
In visits where clinicians asked what the patient wanted to discuss, they cut in two times in three, after a median of 11 seconds.
Singh Ospina and others, 2019Adults with no counseling training typed to a simulated client after a short lesson on listening skills. Under 9% of their messages reflected back what the client said.
Tanana and others, 2019Across training studies, skills eroded over the six months after a workshop when no feedback or coaching followed. With feedback or coaching, they held.
Schwalbe, Oh and Zweben, 2014Every number comes from a published study by other researchers, and each one links to its source.
Read the researchFor people whose work runs on someone else's yes.
Every exercise is geared to the people in the room and the conversations they actually have.
People leaders
New and seasoned managers who were trained on the process and now have to lead people.
Recruiters and sales teams
Anyone who sits down with a stranger and has under an hour to build rapport, earn trust and find out what they care about.
Operations and care teams
People across shifts, sites and disciplines who have to be understood the first time.
Training partners
University programs, workforce offices and associations that want a session people sign up for and talk about afterward.
"Forget everything you know about forced team-building, corporate-bonding, hours-long seminars...this session will actually make you a better communicator and strengthen your relationship to your coworkers in a deep, meaningful way."
Michael Cinquino
Led by an instructor with an MFA in acting from Rutgers, a master's in clinical mental health counseling in progress at Northwestern, a decade behind closed doors with Fortune 70 executives, and five semesters teaching communication at UNH's Paul College of Business.
The acting came first and the psychology came second. He teaches the place where they meet.
Read Michael's story
Veteran-owned. An SBA Veteran-Owned Certified business, and a clean fit for supplier-diversity and procurement requirements.
Plain prices. No surprises on the call.
The one-day workshop
Minimum 8 people. No cap on the room. Travel billed at cost. Every participant receives a certificate of completion and a free month of Heard for Meetings™.
Heard for Meetings™
One report a week. Or $59 a seat a month, with four reports a month. For two-person Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet calls.
Heard: Who Really Listened™
For iPhone. Scores a conversation in the room.
Tell us your dates and headcount. We'll follow up with a quote. A six-session virtual lab is also available.
Bring the workshop to your team.
Tell us your dates and headcount. We'll follow up with a quote.