The smart Writing™
workshop
15 Years of Praise
16 benefits
2 Day Training Agenda
Your European Facilitator
“Communicating Ideas simply and effectively isn’t just nice; it’s necessary to getting things done.”
When ineffective communication habits persist, they can result in your audience becoming indifferent to every email, social media post, or proposal you put forth. This can lead to diminished productivity or, even worse, inaction. Whether you collaborate with others to achieve goals or depend on your verbal or written communication to prompt action, there’s a significant advantage in mastering the art of compelling expression.
Led by a distinguished TEDx communications expert from Europe, you’ll acquire simple & unique methods to purge weak jargon, wimpy passive voice, and words that add no value. You will learn to write or speak on any platform, persuasively & directly with economy & empathy to get your stakeholders or colleagues to sit up and take action!
Features & Benefits
6 Features
Acquire an effective communication method to shed ingrained and unproductive writing habits.
Apply analytical thinking techniques tailored to engage listeners/readers effectively.
Master cutting edged techniques and start crafting impactful writing right-away.
Learn how to draw from your personal experiences and perspectives to cultivate a unique voice that resonates with your audience.
Receive a structured and logical writing framework so versatile that you can apply your new skills right-away.
Transform your email and day-to-day writing with insightful reflections, techniques, and tools.
Explore the potential benefits and pitfalls of Generative AI in writing to harness new technologies effectively.
12 Benefits
Write with purpose to ensure your ideas remain undiluted by your words.
Cultivate plain precision in what you say to effortlessly convey your message.
Craft a compelling story that engages your intended audience.
Apply persuasive writing each & every-time to create genuine and empathetic campaigns, emails, reports & requests.
Convey complex information with clarity and brevity using structures and methodologies.
Develop active listening skills to identify your listener / reader’s motivations.
Apply new active listening abilities to quickly suss out your audience’s motivations.
Extract the most valuable insights from complex documents.
Recognize and avoid common logical mistakes.
Create impactful email subject lines to capture your audience’s attention.
Master efficient emailing practices to stop unproductive correspondence.
Implement effective editing techniques to refine your final documents.
Familiarize yourself with acronyms and business jargon that hinders communication.
Participate in thought-provoking exercises to reinforce key writing techniques and communication strategies that will get your readers to sit up and take action for you.
2 Day Training Agenda
Training Day 1
Session 1 : Compelling Writing/Speaking Essentials
The key to compelling writing or speaking is to erase bad writing habits and embrace a fresh approach. Participants will explore good & bad writing with powerful real-life examples as well as own experiences.
Principles of Compelling Writing.
Participants will read a business case study and begin the analytical thinking process.
Principles you’ll learn:
- How to read with purpose to uncover essential facts.
- Identify what is important and what to ignore.
- How to develop a clear, focused message for your reader
- The Clarity Principle. The single most important point in writing.
Session 2 : First Writing Clinic
Highly practical and interactive session where participants draft a first message & get feedback
- Four ways to define a compelling objective
- How to define expected outcome
- Identify four typical audience types
- How to write to each reader’s perspective
Session 3: Analytical Thinking
The most common mistake business people make is to begin writing without planning. In many companies, business focuses on getting things done quickly, rather than getting things done effectively. Unfortunately, this approach nearly always leads to poor communication & unproductive relationships between managers, staff, clients, and colleagues.
Workshop participants will learn how to examine their messages and topics, analyse options, choose a reader- focused strategy, organize their ideas, and communicate powerfully and compellingly.
You’ll learn to use these thinking tools:
- Plan, write, revise, edit – 4-step process to help you think clearly, organize your ideas, focus on your objectives, take less time writing.
- Rapid Storyboard creation & double-checking
- Analytical frameworks and tool
- Brainstorming – Generate ideas and create logical connections.
- Brainwriting- Improve ideas together with others.
- Outlining – Organize your ideas and structure a persuasive Document, via standard outlining but also for instance mind mapping, post-it method and more.
Session 4 : Analysis Exercises
Participants complete a series of exercises designed to help them examine a situation thoroughly and ask insightful questions.
Techniques you will learn:
- The POP framework for great thinking.
- The New York Times test & other top journalist techniques
- Why most writers struggle with writing—and how to avert struggling and get to a first draft fast (including for instance the use of Generative AI)
- Ways to identify and answer your reader’s objections.
- How to tune into what every reader wants to know.
- How to develop a powerful storyline
- Ways to avert jargon, acronyms, and clichés.
- How to motivate your reader through compelling writing.
Training Day 2
Session 5 : Practical On-Site Assignment – Real Life Cases
Participants will read a given case study and/or will work on an own real life message (ideally one they will have to use at their work, giving full real life optimization).
We will analyze the given scenario, develop ideas, and produce an effective outline as well as a key approach.
Session 6 : Exercise – Email & Social Media writing
Many business and government professionals have not only to write key memos and reports, but also a large amount of emails, and potentially as well Microblogs, Social Media updates and more.
Skills you will learn in this exercise.
- Strategies that work for convincing emails
- Email mistakes to avoid
- The power of the fast message
- Updates on social media – what works, what doesn’t
Session 7 : Advanced Writing & Communicating
Participants will learn the essential skills of persuasive writing. These skills will help you plan, structure, and write documents that achieve their desired outcome.
Skills you will learn:
- Three ways to position yourself in the reader’s mind.
- Strategies for communicating complex information clearly and concisely, including data-rich messages
- How to develop your own business writing style.
- Persuasive techniques for developing powerful writing
- How to create an effective opening statement, purpose, and compelling closing statement.
Argument structure and plots for business writing that work
Participants will learn how to structure an argument, introduce facts and make compelling recommendations – Every essential to compelling business writing.
Argument Exercise
Participants analyze a given business situation and structure an outline for an effective argument.
Techniques you will learn:
- How to identify key issues and problems to be resolved.
- The step-by-step process that guarantees a convincing presentation & communication of your message.
- Insightful questions to help them think and write analytically.
Session 8 : Grammar & Powerful Words
After learning how to organize their writing, you will learn how to create compelling ideas and eliminate embarrassing and costly writing mistakes.
Sentences & Paragraphs
- The Sentence – People use them every day, but don’t know what they are.
- The Paragraph – The document’s rhythm section.
- Quantity vs. Quality – How to know when enough is enough.
- Style – How to set the right tone for your audience and purpose.
- Clarity – What’s clear for the writer is often confusing for the reader
Revision exercises
We’ll look at good and bad examples of style, structure, word choice, and clarity, and we’ll practice transforming confusing writing into compelling writing.
Session 9a: Analysis Exercises
Each participant will determine purpose, audience, and expected outcome, and write a persuasive real-life document with a compelling recommendation.
Lars will walk you through the writing process and help you apply what you learned.
Session 9b: Professional Critiques & Q&A
We’ll read the papers and talk about how participants approached the assignment.
Participants will reinforce their skills and help each other through peer critiques
Your Expert Facilitator
Based in Europe, Lars Sudmann has garnered vast experience as a leader and communicator. He has a distinguished career at Procter & Gamble -known for it’s rigourous business writing culture and the famous P&G memo- where he was for instance CFO for Belgium. He is a lecturer at the distinguished RWTH Aachen Business School in the MBA and Executive MBA programs. Lars Sudmann is also a best-selling author featured in a multitude of international outlets, such as Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, BBC Capital and many more. His TED talks have more than 2 million views. For more than 15 years Lars has helped executives around the world learn to think analytically and become better communicators and leaders.
The Trainer will be flown from Europe to Singapore for 2 Days to deliver this class
Ask Us Anything>> michael@gbxmasterclass.org