Managing Partnerships and Strategic Alliances

Introduction

The environment of current competitive business requires an increased focus on skills in negotiating and communication for building alliances, and new processes such as planning and organizing work tasks to improve productivity. Additional skills such as delegating to empower staff to higher performance, and change management also help today’s modern leader create success. Negotiation is inevitably at the heart of every process to achieve what you want or need to build an alliance, or work with consultants or suppliers. At the end of each negotiation, the goal is to seek a win-win agreement. Negotiation, Persuasion, and Critical Thinking are the skills covered in module one of this program. Businesses and indeed, all organizations, find themselves needing more productive methods of planning, more appropriate goals, and effective means of accomplishing work. A focus on using productive best practices allows for effective and efficient management of work and making changes in the organization. Planning and Organizing Work, and Delegating to build a strong team are the skills learned in this program.

Objectives

Participants will develop the following competencies:

• Discover how to effectively persuade and influence others
• Utilize various communication skills to send convincing messages
• Be more knowledgeable of others communication styles
• Critical thinking to identify key objectives and results desired from the negotiation process
• Project and performance management
• Planning management
• Personal Organization & Delegation skills

The Goals

• Recognize aims for key alliances – how to develop and manage them
• Develop an effective plan and strategy for negotiations with allies
• Practice and develop skills for influencing others – especially those who are vital to your long-term business development strategy
• Gain confidence as a trusted negotiator who knows which behaviours to adopt for each stage of the negotiation
• Successfully apply the principles of persuasion to key negotiation situations
• Recognize internal and external influences on our daily planning
• Understand and develop skills necessary to complete work on time
• Learn how to organize work and projects to complete them successfully
• Understand the characteristics of colleagues who do work in our teams
• Develop positive interpersonal techniques for better team relationships
• Practice and develop skills for influencing others
• Gain confidence as a negotiator
• Know what behavior to adapt at each stage of the negotiation
• Recognize and counter the most common negotiating ploys

Training Methodology

This is an interactive course. There will be open question and answer sessions, regular group exercises and activities, videos, case studies, and presentations on best practices. Participants will have the opportunity to share with the facilitator and other participants on what works well and not so well for them, as well as work on issues from their own organizations. The online course is conducted online using MS-Teams/ClickMeeting.

Who Should Attend?

Those who recognize that improving their negotiation and planning skills is about being able to influence others that a win-win outcome is a key goal. Those who understand that good planning technique and how to use delegation to improve the motivation of team members and expand the organization’s resources are the targets for this comprehensive program.

Course Outline

Day 1: Developing Alliances

• Characteristics of a strategic alliance – effects of market dominance
• Culture and perception – and effects in building alliances
• Building trust through communication and achieving results for the alliance (bearing in mind its “life cycle”)
• Personality - strengths & weaknesses in negotiations
• Minimizing communication blockers to maintain relationships
• Development review and action planning 

Influence & Persuasion Skills in Managing the Alliance

• Challenges of meetings – group and individual strategies
• The positive influence of listening in challenging situations - good and bad news!
• Applying rules of influential presentations to maximize the impact
• Maintaining compatible body language & using logic, credibility, and passion
• Feedback and action planning

Day 2: Strategy in Negotiation Skills for Partners and Allies

• Steps in win/win negotiation
• The keys to collaborative bargaining in partnering
• Leverage: What it is and how to use it
• Negotiation tactics and ploys
• Dealing with difficult negotiators and barriers
• Ethics in negotiation

Higher-level negotiation skills for challenging situations

• Listening and responding to signals and informal information
• Recovering from reversals, errors, and challenges
• Developing a climate of trust
• Higher-level conversation techniques
• Concentrating action on the needs of alliance partners

Day 3: Maintaining Alliances: Critical Thinking for Decision Making

• Gaining control and using information – formal and informal
• Identifying sources and testing assumptions
• Framing the problem
• Decision making under pressure
• Reviewing strategic alliances and building a personal action

Creating an Attitude to Change How We Plan and Organize Work

• Course purpose, goals, and objectives
• New systems & strategic thinking
• Overview and context of organizational change and the impact on planning and organization
• Identifying a standard of excellence in the organization, team, and personal work
• Review of management processes and skill areas
• Using a planning process to set goals and get projects started

Day 4: Importance of Planning Management

• Integrating goals, scope, work structure, and management planning
• Identifying initial resource requirements
• Identifying risk techniques that affect work assignments, priorities, and deadlines
• Communication that responds to who, what where, when, how, why
• Understanding the importance of quality planning in work assignments

The delegation, Personal Organization, and Setting Priorities

• Understanding how people approach their work
• Planning for time management, scheduling, and meeting deadlines
• Using proper delegation skills to empower staff
• Improving prioritizing of work and work tasks
• Planning for delegation responsibility and authority

Day 5: Planning Effectively with Your Team

• Identifying the skills required to obtain the help of others
• The importance of group skills to achieve team success
• The importance of interpersonal skills in making personal and team decisions
• Empowering the team through the development of interpersonal skills
• The importance of versatility in team relations

Developing Personal and Team Change Plans

• Innovation and improvement for personal and team change
• Identification of change processes and human change
• Techniques to set personal and team change goals
• Dealing with people who do not want to change
• Developing an action plan for personal and team change