Free, right now
The first four chapters online, with a knowledge check after each chapter. Plus a PDF with a worksheet and cheat sheet.
You can read the lessons straight away. For the PDF, you leave your details.
Start with lesson 1Prefer to have a trainer there with you?
The two-day Conversation Techniques course. You practise your own difficult conversations with a trainer present and hear back how you come across.
€1250,- excl. VAT
View the Conversation Techniques course All Conversation Techniques courses →You hold conversations all day. With colleagues, clients, your manager, your team. Some go smoothly of their own accord. Others linger: you walk away thinking you would have wanted to handle it differently, or you notice days later that your message never landed the way you meant it. That is rarely down to the other person alone. It is down to what happened in the conversation, and you have more influence over that than you think.
This free online course is the starter for our full Conversation skills. In the first four chapters you will learn what active listening really involves, practise paraphrasing, reflecting feelings and asking follow-up questions, see with the Leary Circumplex why you keep ending up in the same role in certain conversations, and build up feedback that lands without causing an argument. Each chapter ends with a short knowledge check, so you notice straight away whether it is sticking.
The full training course goes on to cover the communication model and noise, the three channels you transmit on, the layout of the room, directness and I-messages, McClelland's iceberg theory, resistance and emotions, the bad news conversation, the appraisal interview and the advisory conversation, and assertiveness with RET and core quadrants. Would you like to work through that material with a trainer present, and with your own difficult conversations on the table? Then take a look at the Conversation Techniques course.
0.-
IntroductionHow this free course is structured and what you learn in the four chapters.
1.-
Active listeningListening as a choice, the three layers of content, feeling and intention, and the obstacles that get in the way.
2.-
The basic techniques: paraphrasing, reflecting and probingSmall encouragements, paraphrasing, reflecting feelings, open and closed questions, and making things concrete.
3.-
The Leary CircumplexBehaviour provokes behaviour: two axes, four quadrants, eight styles and how to turn around a conversation that has become stuck.
4.-
Giving and receiving feedbackThe 4G model, observation versus judgement, the INGE and LSD rules, and receiving feedback without defending yourself.
5.-
The communication processThe communication model, the laws of communication, and how noise and frames of reference distort your message.
6.-
Verbal, non-verbal and paralinguisticThe three channels you transmit on at the same time, why tone carries more weight than you think, and conscious use of your voice.
7.-
Setting the stage: conditions for a good conversationHall's four distance zones, three seating arrangements with three effects, and showing attention through posture and eye contact.
8.-
Clear communication and directnessIndirect versus direct, the ambiguities everyone creates, and formulating an I-message.
9.-
McClelland's iceberg theoryAbove and below the waterline: interpreting and influencing beliefs, values, emotions and needs.
10.-
Dealing with resistance and emotionsRecognising open and hidden resistance, dealing with anger, and turning objections around constructively.
11.-
The bad news conversationThe three phases of blow, absorption and resolution, switching between content and relationship, and five pitfalls.
12.-
The performance review and the advisory conversationThe structure of an appraisal interview, the advisory conversation and keeping control without closing the conversation down.
13.-
Assertiveness, RET and core quadrantsSub-assertive, assertive and aggressive, how to build an assertive message, REBT and Ofman's core quadrant.
14.-
Wrap-up and transfer to practiceYour personal action plan with your strengths and points to work on, plus a way of keeping up the practice.
That is the difference with a pdf: there is someone standing in front of the class who answers your questions and thinks along with your own situation.
I found the 'Interview Techniques' course to be good. Nothing to fault. It was also good that Job called beforehand for a short preliminary discussion. You don't see that very often. A very worthwhile course. It also had a strong element of repetition. Plenty of variety, including between theory and practice. Learned a lot, and applied it straight away during the course. And I think these learnings will also help me further when conducting interviews.
Tjeerd J
We took the Outlook, Teams and OneNote course with Roy Nieuwenhuijzen. Good content, and a few days before the course he got in touch with me (coordinator of the course, head of the secretariat). Pleasant that you can fill in the day itself as needed. The booklet for reference is rather dated, but apparently there is little up-to-date material to be found.
Inge Brouwers
In May 2024 I took the WordPress course. As an IT enthusiast with broad but not necessarily deep knowledge, I wanted to know more about WordPress. How do you install everything and how do you start building a website. This course is extremely well suited to that. From the outset you learn in 3 days how to start a website and what to look out for. I now have a solid basis for getting to work with WordPress and I know my way around the various options. The course is recommended for anyone who wants to learn in three days what WordPress can do and how to apply it.
Igno Freriksen
Your own motivation and commitment are essential if you want to master something new. You can get a long way with self-study. Learnit wants to contribute to this by offering valuable content such as free webinars and courses. This way you can get acquainted with new fields of learning. Once you have made a start, you may discover that there are also many advantages to taking a course at Learnit under the guidance of an experienced trainer.
In short, you achieve much more in less time.
The free courses are suitable for home study, as you can download them online as a PDF. The range of free courses consists of IT and Communication & Management courses. Would you like to learn more about these subjects, or is the subject you want to learn about not included? Then take a look at our courses.
In this course you learn how to use the STAR method during selection interviews. You practise questioning techniques, targeted follow-up questions and recognising competencies, so that you get a realistic picture of every candidate sitting opposite you.
In the Networking Conversations course you learn how to make contact in a natural way, build up a conversation and use your network purposefully to achieve your goals.
In this Motivational Interviewing course you work with the method developed by Miller and Rollnick. You learn how to reduce resistance, handle ambivalence and elicit change talk. You practise actively with the four steps you use to guide someone from "no" to "yes".
In this course you learn to stand up for yourself while respecting the other person. You practise setting boundaries, saying no, giving feedback and communicating with purpose. You gain insight into your own behaviour and learn to present yourself decisively without walking over others.
In this course you learn how to draw up and support a Personal Development Plan. You practise conversation techniques, 360° feedback, dealing with resistance and recording clear agreements, so that you can support your employees in their development in a focused way.
In this Conflict Management course you learn to recognise and understand the background to conflicts. You practise conversation techniques for de-escalation, learn to deal with resistance and emotions, and discover your own role and style. In this way you give a positive turn to difficult situations.
In this course you learn how to give and receive feedback constructively. You discover techniques for adjusting behaviour, strengthening cooperation and creating an open communication climate. You also learn how to deal with emotions, criticism and difficult conversations.
On this course you learn how to conduct appraisal and performance review meetings professionally. You gain insight into the right structure, practise conversation techniques such as listening and asking follow-up questions, and learn to deal with emotions and resistance in order to reach clear agreements.
Learnit offers more than 300 IT and Communication & Management training courses. The courses are given as one-day or multi-day courses, and almost all of them can also be given as a workshop. In addition, Learnit offers courses as e-learning and as a combination of e-learning and classroom lessons.
Learnit has many locations throughout the country, so there is a good chance that a course is also given near you! A course can also be given in-company, in which case it takes place at your own company or organisation.
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