Methods

By help of this service format we prepare professionally induced situations from your business practice with regard to the requirements. Our support for you is consultative and process-orientated at the same time.

In the “classic” definition of coaching, one focus is to ask questions because everybody is the best expert to find solutions for his own situations. On the other hand, we do hesitate to bring own suggestions and opinions into the process. In this sense we generally talk about “consulting & coaching” as a common service which includes elements of both and has different emphasis according to the concrete needs.

Furthermore, in our consulting and coaching processes we flexibly deliver supporting background information and helpful exercises. We only propose them if they have a practical value for your needs. We do not only develop action alternatives with you for your practical situations but test and further develop them as well!

Our consulting & coaching services can take place in on-site or online settings or as a combination of both (see
also communication projects).

Our pioneering online service for conversation preparation, e.vorgespräch, is our premium consulting and coaching service for you.

Like commonly used, also for us “training” means a planned education activity under a specific topic. Our trainings are structured and designed to fulfill your individual goals and wishes in the best way and always target your practical benefit in your daily technical business. They leave room for spontaneous wishes, but are principally more pre-structured than our workshops.

Within our workshops, the participating group shall use and develop its own resources and competences in optimized manner and under our guidance. The resulting process will be accompanied by us with enough time and within a creative frame. Our workshops follow the idea of planning the workshop beforehand as detailed as possible, while at the same time being always open to abandon or change (parts of) the planning if needed.

We use the full range of online and on-site opportunities for you within our vorgespräch training & workshop services.

Conflict Mediation

Mediation is used for conflict resolution. It supports the involved parties in finding solutions which take the interests of all participants into consideration. The general mediation phases are opening, statements, interests, options, negotiation and acknowledgement. In our up-to-date mediations we refer to these phases while at the same time we give the needed room to the emerging process to develop.

Beside the classic on-site mediation, we also offer online mediation. Methodically, online mediation can be carried out using different media and formats, among which we choose the most suitable for your case, in agreement with you and your conflicting parties. Variants are e.g. “real-time versus time-delayed”, “written versus verbally”, “using mediation software versus using virtual classroom technology”. Depending on the process, combinations might make sense as well.

We conduct our mediations according to the standards of the German Association of Business Mediation (BMWA).

Discussion leading

When we lead a discussion, we structurally intervene in order to support the success of for example a meeting or a negotiation. We help to bring the contributions of the participants together and to give the discussion a target-orientated direction. Classical on-site discussion leading (or also called “moderation”, at least in German naming) uses e.g. coloured cards and pin boards as typical working material. The standard phases are introduction, topic collection, topic selection, working on topics, action planning and closure.

We offer our discussion leading services in form of on-site and online variants. Typically, virtual classroom technology is suitable for the use in online discussion leading.

If desired, we offer a tailor-made communication project which combines several of our service formats. This package can be further expanded by external offers. Whether you decide to choose “small solutions” or “big solutions” – we deliver according to your needs and wishes.

Especially regarding possible communication projects, the examples within the service matrix can only give you a rough idea. The range of possible communication projects is virtually unlimited and our final offer to you always depends on your specific needs and our preliminary talks with you. Thereby we also want to point out, that we always “really tailor”, instead of only stringing together existing modules.

During the development of your vorgespräch communication projects we always consider the possibly reasonable inclusion of combined on-site and online services (sometimes called “Blended Learning”).

Feedback is an integral part of many of our services because a professional feedback is a basis for communicative development, e.g. presentations, conversations or meetings. Also in the frame of our communication projects, feedback service might be a reasonable module.

But also as separate service, feedback can make sense. When you already have prepared a speech and need further professional opinion and some last tips. Or you want to receive a frank and neutral opinion on your personal role in a round table talk.

Also in the context of our vorgespräch trial offers, we offer feedback services because this service offers directly usable values within a limited time. As trial offer we usually deliver the feedback service on-site for about two to four colleagues.

If you have your communicative situations available in electronic form, we can deliver our feedback service online, too.

We use interviews in a practical sense to get opinions, needs, wishes, information et cetera from you.

As part of a communication project, even brief interviews before the first planned real-time session already might lead to the following benefits: the subsequent services can be customized more precisely, the introduction stage within the real-time service can be overcome quicker because the clarification of interests (usually) is shorter. Both aspects lead to more effective and also more time and cost efficient services.

When thinking about communication services we often only have on-site approaches like e.g. on-site training or on-site consulting in our minds. Within vorgespräch we think that this approach is not up to date anymore. Instead of this, we treat on-site methods as equal opportunities, and we combine them (communication projects). The decision on which might be the best approach always depends on your specific request and demands, taking the given methodical advantages and disadvantages into account:

• Advantages of on-site methods are:
  • contact – being in the same room with other persons makes it easier to connect to each other
  • motivation – the direct contact with other people usually is a motivating factor
  • environment – the service can be delivered in the real practical communicative environment
  • feedback – the reaction and feedback of other persons can be experienced immediately
  • concentration – generally it is easier to focus the concentration of the group on-site
  • low-threshold – participants usually know “classical” on-site services very well and therefore might adapt easier to them

• Disadvantages of on-site methods are:
  • costs – not only our remuneration produces costs, but indirect expenses are generated as well: non-productive time costs, travel expenses, hotel costs
  • time and effort – sometimes the situation does not legitimate the effort needed for organizing an on-site service (for e.g. periodical regular local meetings of international project groups)
  • feasibility – some settings cannot be realized on-site (e.g. involving everybody in the implementation of a new company strategy in an internationally widely spread corporation)
  • fixed frame – on-site services are timely and locally less flexible than online services

Principally, we offer all our services online and on-site. Within vorgespräch we see online methods, on-site methods and combinations of both as equal opportunities which widen the methodical scope of our services. For some services the need of on-site meetings seems to be quite self-evident, like for e.g. conflict mediations. But even then, online elements can often be used gainfully as additional modules. The decision on which might be the best approach always depends on your specific request and demands, taking the given methodical advantages and disadvantages into account:

• Advantages of online methods are:
  • time flexibility – like any business meeting, this service can be integrated in a normal working day
  • local flexibility – online services can be delivered in regional independent manner (e.g. in a hotel during a business trip)
  • individuality – can be used for personal, individual goals and unique business situations – as independent service or supplementary to (online or on-site) group services
  • easy to use – uncomplicated use for many services, e.g. repetitive consultancy services
  • internationality & group size – participation from all over the world and with “endless” group sizes
  • preparation and follow-up – applicable for preparing and reinforcing other (online or on-site) services
  • environment – saved travel activities usually save environmental resources

• Disadvantages of online methods are:
  • reduced contact – some services, e.g. teambuilding, usually presuppose the highest personal contact possible, which is only given in on-site settings (anyway, online services might be used supportive even for those services)
  • gratification effect – online services must be customized precisely in order to keep up the motivation of the participants because other “gratification effects” like personal contact, out of office time, nice hotel and interesting trip are missing or reduced
  • discipline – participants of online services need the self-discipline to concentrate on the service because other activities are “just one click away”; we recommend to attend online sessions from a separate workplace.

vorgespräch offers you a wide range of various online services with diverse goals and service complexity:

• e.vorgespräch
• online consulting
• online mediation
• online feedback service
• online interview

We conduct our online services according to the standards of the German Association of Online Consulting (DGOB).

Conflict communication services can be used to improve the further development of your corporation. The idea is to relate the results of our communication services to the current company situation from organizational development´s point of view and to take this input as a basis for future developments.

The basic concept is a subsequent feedback process, given by service participants to the management of the company. Further development potential lies in the inclusion of other stakeholders affected.

The use of service results for organizational development can be implemented on-site or online.

Are you planning a workshop/training/seminar/meeting or similar event and get stuck with the preparation or are generally looking for some support in realizing your activities? – We offer to benefit from our competences in developing educational activities, from “little support” (e.g. just answering some questions or giving some hints) up to “wide support” (see chapter communication projects for ideas of complex services).

Virtual classroom technology is a central element for the implementation of many of our “medium complex” up to very complex online services. Similar to a normal on-site classroom or meeting room, it comprises a set of cooperation tools as a basis for the collaboration of the participants.

Typical activity tools in a virtual classroom software are presentation sharing, whiteboard, user activity status, application sharing, chat, voice over IP, video sharing, web sharing, rooms for working groups, questionnaires,
evaluations.

When we deliver online services, you always can choose if we shall use your own company specific tools or tools provided by us.