Workshop · one day · in-company
Effective Communication for Engineers.
Strong on content. Now with a message that lands.
Engineers know what they are talking about. Yet their message often doesn’t get through: to production, planning, their manager, another department or the customer. In this workshop they learn to put a difficult message across clearly, honestly and with a clear request, working on their own real cases.
Delivered at technical companies in offshore engineering, electronics and manufacturing.
Sound familiar?
The content is right. So why isn’t it going smoothly?
A story without structure, no clear line from cause to effect, no clear request for help. The expertise is there, but afterwards the other person doesn’t know what is expected of them.
What this day is about
- Clear technical communication
- Working across departments
- Staying constructive in difficult conversations
- Giving and receiving technical feedback
- Fitting the message to the audience
Programme
One day: an opening and five rounds, on real cases.
Participants work with their own experience and concrete situations from their work, not with invented role-plays. What they practise, they apply the next morning.
- Opening and introductions in one: who am I, what do I want.
- Speech is silver, dialogue is gold: how to open a dialogue and keep it going.
- Engage with respect: first really understanding what is going on for the other person, before a conclusion is drawn.
- Aligning how we see the world: the core of the day, making a difficult message understandable and acceptable.
- Questioning the context: seeing an issue through different eyes, so there is more room for movement.
- Intention carries change: each participant shapes one concrete intention and takes it back to work.
The core
From a conversation put off to one with an outcome.
The core of the day is a short, fixed structure for a difficult message. What it does in the conversation:
- The other person hears what is going on, without it landing as blame.
- Assumptions get checked before they turn into conclusions.
- The request is clear: the other person knows what is needed, and why.
- Mutual dependency is named instead of left unsaid.
- The conversation ends in a shared conclusion, not two separate versions.
Participants practise it with their own most difficult experiences, with an observer who feeds back what actually came across, until it lands as intended.
Foundation
An original model, not a borrowed method.
The workshop rests on Harry’s own model of communication along five layers: possibilities, qualities, values, drives and identity. Alongside it, the idea that behind every effective message lies an ‘aligned world model’, and that many misunderstandings start there.
Preparation
- Two short online questionnaires, about 20 to 25 minutes in total
- A personal report for each participant on communication style and energy across the five layers
- The report is for the participant only
- An intake conversation with the client
Outcomes
After this day, participants can:
- put a difficult message into five sentences, with a clear request
- check their own interpretation before acting on it
- ask open questions instead of filling in the answer
- reframe a stuck situation
- take one concrete intention back to work
Practical
- One full day
- In-company, at your location
- Groups of up to 12 participants
- English or Dutch
- Investment: on request (all-in for the whole group)
- Includes intake conversation, online profile questionnaires and personal reports
- Tailored on request: for multiple groups, a follow-up programme or specific departmental issues.
A variant of this training, Effective Communication for Technicians, has also been given to IT support and maintenance technicians.
Get in touch
Is this right for your engineers?
Tell me in a short intro call what is going on in your team. Together we’ll see whether this day is the right format, or whether a different set-up fits better.