Are you tired of rubbish unproductive conversations that don't get the results you want?

I recently stood down from my CEO role and despite getting daily advice to slow down and take it easy, after 23 years working 24/7, I have found the mini wind-down more difficult than I thought. Don't get me wrong, I have had a couple of late lie-ons, binge watched #makingamurderer on Netflix, gone for early morning walks on Dun Laoghaire pier and I have had coffees (so many, I had to switch to decaf) and meet ups in various coffee shops and hotels around Dublin checking out what is going on in the business world. I also got to see Tony Robbins at the Pendulum Summit, all six foot seven of him and I have managed to fit in some training, both online and offline as-well as getting to catch up on Oscar nominated movies. Go see Lenny Abrahamson's Room.  It is superb. I even managed to fit in two trips to the doctor an get a course of antibiotics to treat a shocker of a chest infection. In the midst of all that, I have been reading LinkedIn most days, posting on twitter @orlaithb and checking out training courses.    

I've done many training courses over my career so why did this one called ''GreenLine Conversations'' catch my attention? 

When I came across 'GreenLine Conversations' after a chat with a friend, I went home to tell my husband about it and he reminded me that he had done the course at work and that he highly recommended it.  It was a day long course which promised to ''enhance my ability to have performance conversations''. I was curious and decided, after a good conversation with Ian McClean, Founder of The Flow Group and Co-Founder of GreenLine Conversations, to go along.

It all kicked off at 8.30am in The Gibson Hotel

There were 50 of us registered for the course in the Gibson Hotel on February 4th and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I learnt loads about myself in a packed day with a busy agenda. There were and lots of team based exercises, video content and live examples to stimulate discussion and a bag with six marbles and a pack of 7 Green Cards and 7 Red Cards. At the introduction, we also met Blair Steinbeck, cutting edge thinker and practitioner in personal transformation and organisational development who is Co-Founder of GreenLine Conversations.  

Ian McClean, Co-Founder, GreenLine Conversations

Blair Steinbeck, Co-Founder, GreenLine Conversations

Do you ever ask yourself these kinds of questions?

Do you ever have conversations with people and ask yourself could that conversation have gone much better? Did we get out of that what we both needed? Did the other person think it was a good conversation? Was it a good use of our collective time? Were we effective and productive? Were we clear?

What if I told you that there was a way to mange conversations which ensured that you made a powerful and positive impact on others and built real trust with your teams?

That's what Greenline Conversations is all about delivering. Ian McClean told us that the world doesn't measures us by our intentions but by our impact on others. How many times have you had a conversation where afterwards you said to yourself, ''I don't think he meant to say that, it just came out wrong'' and you left the conversation pretty deflated?

I read this quote today on LinkedIn posted by Bob Billings who is in Healthcare Operations and works at DNA STAT in Florida who pioneer clinical applications and utility of pharmacogenomics. It was a good reminder of the importance of good conversations;

No matter what job you have in life, your success will be determined by 5% by your academic credentials, 15% by your professional experience and 80% by your communication skills

GreenLine is all about helping us to structure conversations better so that we get absolute clarity and importantly foster greater commitment, even when things get difficult.

One of the exercises we did proves just how important clarity of communication  is if you want to achieve better performance.

We broke up into teams of five and put two chairs back to back. One person sat in a chair (builder) and another with their back to the builder (architect) and then three people sat facing the architect but could not see the face of the builder. The builder had a magnetic board and shapes. The architect had a picture of a swan built from the shapes which everyone could see, except the builder. The architect had to give verbal instructions on how to place the pieces to build the swan. The team could help by tapping the architect on the shoulder to switch places and continue to give instructions. Frantic unclear conversations ensued  as I received instructions to build the swan. I was told to move a triangle(there were two different sizes of triangle) at a 90 degree angle?  What? Which triangle? Heeeeeeelllp? If you are ever asked to do this, refuse to be the builder. It was a great team exercise and we had a super team. At least I wasn't on the team were a poor girl wasn't even told it was a swan! 

In business, do you sometimes lose your marbles?

We moved through the days training at pace, with plenty of breaks, some science to understand how the brain actually works to sequence things (this is where we used the marbles to illustrate how when we focus on desired outcomes and goals - ''the there'' - we move towards open and flexible thinking). In both the swan building exercise and the marble sequencing discussion, we talked about the importance of setting context, a critical variable for managing good conversations.

The core of the course is 7 Red Cards and 7 Green Cards where we first recognise the kind of behaviours that can cause 'residue' in conversations - the Red Cards, and the Green Cards which help you to keep the conversation on track. 

The standout Red Card behaviour for me is 'Not Listening'. Our ability to actively listen in times of pressure in business can negatively affect our impact.

There were tons more tips and supportive examples and if you want to take a course that really does help to help us all to get better outcomes, then check it out.  I'd recommend this course for anyone interested in getting better engagement and commitment in teams they work with and particularly if your organisation is going through lots of change or transformation.

Both Ian McClean and Blair Steinbeck really know their stuff and were a superb team to deliver the course on the day. They really excelled. I urge you to take a look at the course online on www.greenlineconversations.com or get in touch with Ian McClean to find out more. There is another day long workshop coming up at the end of April, so do check it out. The course is also available online.

Finally, don't take my word for it. This team have worked with some of the biggest, best and brightest companies globally including Irish Distillers, Pepsi, Paddy Power and Pioneer Investments. Get on the GreenLine, because life never happens in a straight line.  

Orlaith Blaney, 9th February 2016