How to make communication effective within organizations? How to get buy-in, not just compliance, from followers? How can teams and agencies be better through a zero-cost way? Al Cobos returns to the Justice Clearinghouse to explore strategies to improve interactions within organizations through motivational conversations and impactful storytelling.

Al has over 33 years of law enforcement experience with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) where he served as the Training Bureau’s Education-Based Discipline/Leadership Unit. He is an award-winning faculty member of the University of Phoenix, Southern California Campus for his research course development in managing teams and the primary consultant and owner of Dychelon, LLC.

Specifics of his discussion covered:

• How effective communication within organizations relies on the leaders’ ability to convey messages clearly, regardless of industry differences.
• Barriers to successful communication in the organizational setting such as lack of clarity, apathy, electronic communication, lack of commitment, and being uncomfortable when delivering the message.
• The importance of self-assessment and awareness of our own challenges to improve our communication style.
• The elements of the normal communication process.
• The common methods of communication in the organizational setting, their positive and negative aspects, and samples of their successful use.
• The components of the basic communication model and the considerations for each of these.
  • The sender and the receiver – which are impacted by the individual’s attitude, knowledge, culture, and communication skills or style.
  • The message – the content, how it is packaged, the non-verbal cues, and the use of questions to encourage thinking during delivery.
  • Engagement which depends on the channel the message is sent, the receiver’s interest, how it engages the senses, and how it creates physical engagement.
• An example of how engagement is generated in an ethics class.
• What motivational conversation is, its motive, the importance of connection, and its goal.
• How motivational conversations facilitate goal setting and consequently achieving it.
• The benefit of asking versus telling in building relationships, establishing influence, and fostering leadership.
• Guidelines to ask better questions by asking open-ended questions, avoiding words that may come off accusatory, and developing self-assessment questions.
• The purpose function of motivational conversation that takes intent, the conversation itself, the relationships, and the results into account.
• Considerations to implement to make storytelling more impactful and resonate with the audience by…
  • Getting to know the audience and involving the audience.
  • Keeping the story simple, flexible, immersive, and relatable by bringing characters to life, using movement, and creating tension in the story.
  • Building up “buy-in” and incorporating purpose to make effective and create a positive takeaway and learning moment.

Questions from the audience are about:

• How to work within one’s purview to influence the workplace positively.
• Using surveys to assess personnel job satisfaction.
• Balancing the need for quick and accurate communication with storytelling to make it effective.
• Taking feedback into account in decision-making.

Other Webinars with this Presenter

• Sept 15: Maslow in the Workplace: Creating Employees that Contribute and Are Engaged 
• Feb 2, 2023: Psychological Safety: Creating a Culture of Trust on Your Team and Organization 
• May 9, 2023: Communicating with Executives, Supervisors, and Managers: Selling Your Ideas Up the Chain of Command
• Nov 7, 2023: Executive Communication: Getting Your People to Understand Your Message (this webinar)

Or click here to view and register for other upcoming Leadership webinars and recordings on the JCH Platform.

Resources and Handouts

• Handout: Executive Communication Process

Audience Comments

• “How to use different modalities to get your point across and to know your intended audience, use examples.”
• “Thank you for the informative webinar. The biggest takeaway I found was asking instead of telling. I am eager to utilize this technique during subsequent communications with my staff.”
• “Great presentation on being a more effective communicator. Leaders have to ensure the message is properly received.
• “Al is an amazing instructor who has a great virtual presence. Thank you!”
• “Helpful tips to engage in and convey the appropriate messaging to agency personnel.”
• “I believe in the concept of storytelling and asking questions of others up and down the organization. This represents a true departure from the command and control paradigm. I am grateful that the Motivational Conversation approach was presented. I think it’s a tangible tool that can be passed along to help support the concept of diplomacy and critical thinking across organizations and people. Thanks for presenting this!”
• “Motivational conversation: Asking vs. Telling. This was excellent guidance and I can’t wait to use it! Thank you.”
• “The presenter was great! He was very knowledgeable on the topics discussed and his style of presentation kept me engaged.”
• “I love the visuals that you provided and the way you presented it overall.”