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Espresso Learning Sessions

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The Menu

See below for a list of available sessions. These are the subject areas that our clients tell us are vital to their organizational development. If what you're looking for isn't here or for further information on these sessions please call us on 781-895-9988.

Personal Impact and Effectiveness Sessions

Release the Pressure

Do you know what causes your stress, be it whopping workloads, no seat on the train or unsolicited sales calls to your home phone.

Remembering that stress can be positive as well as negative, this is your opportunity to explore your personal stress triggers and once identified, use our tools and techniques to develop a winning strategy for handling pressure.

  • Participants will investigate their own stress levels using the stress thermometer, and then use a three phase approach to managing stress. They will practice different meditation techniques and progressive muscular relaxation, analyze stress reducing foods and then carry out a time management exercise

No More Procrastinating

Yes it's true; you are the biggest time stealer around! "just another cup of coffee" "oh another email to look at" "where do I start"

We are all experts at putting things off and finding excuses for not getting on with things. This short session will explore how you can stop the rot and ensure you stay proactive, by understanding procrastination can lead to sleepless nights, poor performance and ultimately stress. Get more done in and out of work by following some simple techniques and our top tips for achieving more.

  • Participants will investigate the five major reasons people procrastinate, a five step model to break the habit and carry out a skills practice with a live situation.
  • Participants will leave with a personal application plan and top tips card.

Time Management - Top Tips

Is everyday an uphill struggle? Do you go home feeling like you have more work to do than when you started? Ever wonder why you have had a really busy day but have achieved nothing?

This session will give you tips on how to plan and prioritize your working day for maximum effectiveness. Also included is how to manage those dreaded time stealers from phone, email and people.

Spend 90 minutes with Hemsley Fraser and move towards better use of your time in and out of work.

This session will cover

  • Time Management, what it is and why its hard to manage.
  • How to plan and prioritize your day.
  • Managing those time stealers.
  • Stop procrastinating and start doing!
  • Participants will take away an action plan for implementation.

Can Do Attitude

We all have internal conversations with ourselves. I can't do that, it won't work if I do it, I couldn’t talk to them etc... You’re right though it's often a self fulfilling prophesy, you think you can’t so you don’t etc...

This workshop helps with focus techniques to change those tunes playing in your head to, I can and yes, the self fulfilling prophecy helps again to ensure it happens, "I can so I will".

Attitude is just a state of mind. Let us help you to get it right.


Saying No Effectively

Are you saying yes when you should be saying no? When you say no do people ignore it and you find yourself with the task anyway? Do people think you are joking or even get upset or defensive when you say no?

Yes! Then this short session is for you. Discover the benefits to saying no effectively and of course how to say no effectively with a range of ideas giving you the best chance of people accepting your decisions.

  • Participants will identify their fears using a mask game, investigate their options using the 4D approach, discover the formula to be a HERO and conduct a skills practice session.
  • Participants will take away a session summary card.

Project Management - Top Tips

Come along to this workshop to explore our top tips for helping any project run smoothly to conclusion.

We will look at some straightforward techniques that really work, to ensure your project delivers on time and within budget. Not forgetting that projects are also about people not just systems and procedures.

Let our experts help to make you more confident when you are required to manage a project of whatever size, cost or impact.


Sticky Presentations

Your tongue's sticking to the roof of your mouth, your audience is staring expectantly at you and keeping them interested in your subject seems a tall order.

Sticky presentations will introduce you to some key techniques and tricks of the trade to engage with your audience. Ensure your messages are listened to and acted upon while maintaining an air of control and confidence.

  • Participants will first explore some body language tips and techniques, look at how to control breathing, the voice and consider different ways to use the voice for effect. Each of these areas will include a skills practice and will close with a speech from Martin Luther King
  • Participants will leave with the Helping Hand for Sticky Presentations takeaway

Winning People Over

OK so your boss, colleagues, friends and family all see things differently from you. It’s obvious that your approach or thoughts are best so why don’t others see it your way?

We all at times need to influence and persuade people and this session will guide you through some powerful tools to help win others over. After all people are so diverse using the same old tactic is not always going to work. The right technique at the right time is crucial to your success.

  • Participants will look at a range of psychological “rules” for persuasion developed by Professor Cialdini. They will take part in a range of practical activities to examine and practice using these tools.
  • Participants will take away a set of credit card sized hints and tips.

Management and Leadership Sessions

Feedback that Fits

Feedback should be given little and often, not dumped once a year at appraisal time. Just like shoes, one size does not fit all, so we need to appreciate the need to plan formal feedback sessions to ensure the right result. Within this session you will learn how to manage the feedback process ensuring people feel valued, respected and knowing how to improve, or with positives to build on.

  • Participants will look at the importance of praise and why it works, a five step model for giving praise and criticism and carry out practice sessions.
  • Participants will leave with a credit card summary of the session.

Coaching that Makes a Difference

Management has moved on from just telling and showing people how to do things. Now a manager has to coach and GROW their people for maximum benefit. This session will look at a simple 4 step process that will enable you to develop your people. Not everyone will want to be coached in the same way and in this session we will look at different styles of coaching along with 'Instant Coaching'

  • Participants will develop a bank of great questions to ask to enable powerful coaching sessions to take place.
  • Participants will takeaway a personal application and handout for the session.

SOS - Smarter Objective Setting

Objectives are often viewed as other people's agenda's and we ask so what’s in this for me? This could mean we only pay lip service to them or worse we never get round to them, well perhaps the day before our appraisal. This workshop aims to change the way you think by showing you ways to interact in the process more and develop your own approach to ensure you complete each Smarter objective set, whether it’s work or not.

  • Participants will use the SMARTER model to write objectives and making goals motivating using the PACES model.
  • Participants will take away a handout and a credit card reminder of the key methods used.

Making Meetings Matter

Serious things meetings, ensure I get the window seat, that I get a strong black coffee and a pad to doodle on! Not often seen as productive they are an essential part of our communication pathways.

Yes they do matter; this workshop will show you how to get more interaction, enthusiasm and commitment than you thought possible. Looking at some core skills when planning, preparing and conducting meetings we can help you to stop wasting valuable time and hold meetings that matter to all.

  • Participants will examine the principles of a good agenda, tips for getting your message across and a skills practice session.
  • Participants will receive a summary booklet and application plan to take away.

Delegation Heaven

Effective delegation benefits everyone whether they are delegating or accepting delegated tasks.

This session will look at the advantages to effective delegation from the viewpoint of the organization, the person delegating and the person accepting delegation. You will understand the barriers to effective delegation; see how planning plays a key role and even how to use delegation as a motivator for your staff.

  • Participants will investigate time stealers using the Monkey Business Game, look at the Urgency/Importance matrix as a planning tool, barriers to delegation and how to remove them, carry out a self check inventory and a skills practice.
  • Participants will take away a personal application plan and set of CD cards as a session summary.

Motivating Remote Teams

Leading a team is a challenge in itself. Managing a remote team is a much bigger challenge. This session addresses the issue of motivation – how can you motivate to deliver results when in many cases you can’t even be face to face with your team? The session will unearth top-tips for ensuring that you can still build a sense of energy, motivation and belonging even in the most widely dispersed team.

  • Participants will be defining the five challenges of remote leadership and complete a remote team task.
  • Participants will leave with a set of solutions cards and a personal application plan.

Performance Management Meetings that Work

Performance management is now a key part of the role of today’s manager. Reviewing performance is now a daily activity and not a once a year form filling chore. This session will offer tips on how to prepare effectively for the performance review, give a simple structure to follow in the meeting and what to do next. Bringing together the key aspects of objective setting and feedback you will go into these meeting with more confidence.

  • Participants will look at a simple structure and tips for each stage of the Performance Reviews, before, during and after.
  • Participants will take away handouts for each stage of the meeting.

Resolving Conflict

Conflict and disagreement can be a huge barrier to getting things done. People have different views and regardless of which view is right, if people dig their heels in you can end up at stalemate. Don’t let conflict stress you – it can be a positive. This session looks at ways in which you can positively manage conflict, and helps you weigh up all the options rationally, and come up with the approach that works and delivers the best outcome.

  • Participants will be covering the link between emotions and behavior, five conflict handling modes, 8 step approach to collaboration and skills practice.
  • Participants will leave with a personal application plan.

Shortcut to Creativity

Are you ever in a meeting, searching frantically for a creative idea, looking for creative solutions to solve difficult problems or finding a creative way to deal with that difficult situation? There are tools that will help the logical mind unlock the creative potential that we all have.

This session introduces you to those tools which will help you generate thousands of ideas. It will provide a useful structure to creative thinking and will help you look at things from a different perspective and identify new possibilities. This certainly is a short cut to getting you starting to think differently and makes being creative easier than you thought!

  • Participants will test their own creativity, examine the De Bono thinking hats, and participate in a live demonstration of these.

Delivering Bad News

"It's not what you say but the way that you say it" Bad news has to be delivered and getting it right involves more than saying the right things. This session will show you more than just the words to use. When, where and how to do it are explored to ensure positive outcomes leaving you, the deliverer, and the receiver/s still talking and potentially with stronger relationships.

  • Participants will discover and use the SPIKES approach to planning and delivering bad news, a planning exercise, empathetic listening (using an emotional intelligence questionnaire), followed by an activity combining the subjects of self-awareness and body language.
  • Participants will leave with an application plan, emotional intelligence questionnaire, summary cards and a handout.

To find out more or to discuss how Espresso can work within your organization, please contact us.