Below is a large collection of training videos on communication skills, listening skills, speaking skills, and related topics.

How To Ask Positive Questions The Hidden Communication Skill That Will Make Your Next Team Meeting More Productive - With John O'Hurley We understand that speaking clearly, using proper listening skills, and knowing the importance of non-verbal cues all play vital roles in clear communication between people in organizations. Surprisingly, the impact of questions, and how to ask them properly, remain an unacknowledged part of the training curriculum. This sprightly and to-the-point video addresses that shortfall. Driving home the lessons is John O'Hurley, best known as J. Peterman on the Seinfeld series. His unique persona helps deliver these important learning points: Appreciate how learning to ask positive question can improve team effectiveness. Recognize that asking questions is a communications skill, just like speaking clearly or listening effectively. Develop the ability to use inflection, phrasing, and timing to ask positive questions. This intriguing, involving, and entertaining video will improve: Team Effectiveness Communication Skills Productivity In Meetings How To Ask Positive Questions is designed to be used during team training sessions devoted to productivity and communication skills, or before a meeting starts. By increasing the questioning ability of employees, the video's benefits extend beyond team impact. Employees who can properly ask questions will deal better with all colleagues throughout the entire organization. Additionally, communication with both external and internal customers will improve. Entertaining, motivational, and informative, How To Ask Positive Questions is a skill-building, consciousness-raising video that will energize your teams to perform at higher levels. Target Audience All employees. DVD or VHS (Running time: 12 minutes) / 32-page Leader's Guide with Two Lesson Plans Rental $295.00 Purchase $495.00

Dialogue: How You Communicate When You're Having Trouble Communicating By Robert Rosell, President, Quality Media Resources Dialogue has been around for centuries. The ancient Greeks practiced it. Successful families use it all the time. So do governments, businesses, armies, and other groups of people that need to better understand each other. Dialogue is how you communicate when you're having trouble communicating. Who among us hasn't found ourselves in that situation more than once? We don't normally think much about how we'll communicate. In most cases we simply open our mouths and hope the right words come out. Sometimes they do. However, the workplace has been changing dramatically over the past few decades. Women have entered careers where they had traditionally not been welcome. People from different races, religions or ethnic groups that rarely interacted in the past now work side by side. Gay employees are more visible at work. Laws against discrimination have opened doors for many. Huge populations have migrated around the globe. Corporations have become multinational. The result is that we now have to communicate with a broader, more diverse range of people. These folks don't always do things, see things, or express themselves in the same ways that we do. It's very easy for misunderstandings, suspicions, stereotypes, or hidden assumptions to color our relationships. The results are often negative and at times disastrous for teams trying to work productively together. What worked for us before may no longer be sufficient. We will have to expand our communication skills to be understood and make sure we understand. That's where dialogue comes in. The 6 Basic Rules for Dialogue: Be open and suspend judgment - don't disparage other points of view. Keep dialogue and decision-making separate - dialogue precedes decision-making, negotiation or action. Speak for yourself, not as a representative, and treat all participants as peers. Listen with empathy - acknowledging you have heard others and that you care. Look for common ground - identifying areas where you agree. Search for and disclose hidden assumptions - especially in yourself. See the new training video series "Dialogue. Now You're Talking" produced by Robert Rosell, below. Free preview..

Dialogue: Now You're Talking Training Video Series Dialogue: Now You're Talking Series consists of four video-based training programs: 1. Communicating in a Diverse World. Overview. What is dialogue - contrasting debate and dialogue. Initiating Dialogue - how to do it, where to do it. The skills of Dialogue - Suspension (of judgment, decision making and status); Listening (with empathy, for understanding, showing you care); Discovery (uncovering and sharing hidden assumptions in yourself and others). Includes a dramatization of how Dialogue helps us communicate across job functions, helping improve relations between people at different levels within the organization as well as between different departments or areas of expertise. 2. Dialogue for Cultural Understanding. We apply the skills of dialogue outlined in Program 1 to challenges faced in culturally diverse work environments. We see a dramatization that demonstrates how dialogue can be used to open communication, uncover hidden assumptions, break down stereotypes and facilitate more productive relationships. 3. Dialogue between Genders. A dramatized dialogue shows us how the skills we learned in Program 1 can be used to overcome misunderstandings, break down gender stereotypes and improve communications between men and women at work. 4. Dialogue among Generations. We demonstrate how the skills of dialogue can be used to bridge the personal and professional style differences that exist between employees of different ages. We uncover how divergent personal and world views common to people of different generations can lead to misunderstandings and distrust and how dialogue can help overcome age barriers and build more productive workplace relationships. Support materials include a comprehensive facilitation guide, reproducible handouts, pre- and post-assessments, and PowerPoint slides for classroom presentation. Call us for a free preview of these four programs in one VHS or DVD format: 1-973-427-3004 Purchase any one program of the above four $625.00 Purchase any two programs For $1062.50 Purchase any three programs For $1462.50 Rent any one program of the above four $295.00 Purchase all four programs for $1875.00 For a Free Preview of this video program email your request with your information to: service@communicationideas.com

Working Without A Script: Creating a Culture of "Yes, And" -  By Second City Communications The Second City is well known for their improv comedy, their TV shows, and their scores of famous alumni. But what do you and The Second City have in common? Both of you improvise every day! Second City Communications has facilitated successful business training for over 45 years. Their training program, Working Without A Script, teaches how the basics of improvisation will help your organization communicate better, build stronger teams, and create a positive work environment. Just like an improv troupe, organizations need to know how to work together when the plan doesn’t go as planned. Hosted by Keegan-Michael Key, TV personality and Second City alum, along with a talented ensemble cast, Working Without A Script emphasizes that good communication starts with a "yes, and" philosophy. "Yes, and" means embracing and building upon new ideas. It fosters open mindedness and empowers people to think on their feet and take risks. When an organization commits to the "yes, and" philosophy, good things will happen! Information on Working Without A Script    Purchase DVD/VHS $595 5-Day Rental DVD/VHS $200.00

Take Time to Listen If some employees are poor listeners, this video will give them the skills they need to listen and improve communication all around. Help them refine their listening skills to understand the real message being sent. Studies have shown that most people listen at 25% efficiency. Take Time to Listen shows how to use three basic steps to listen at nearly 100% efficiency. How To Training Points: How to utilize three basic rules--Stop, Think, Listen--to improve communications / How to ask questions and get the right message / How to recognize and solve common listening problems. 19 Minutes Video/ Free Preview 5-day  rental $295.00 Purchase DVD (LINEAR) OR VHS for $695.00

Achieving Communication Excellence- A Training Bytes Video Communication goes to the heart of both personal and organizational effectiveness. A workforce lacking basic communication skills experiences more conflict, misses more opportunities and alienates more customers. The modules of this program bring a true level of excellence to your workplace. Employees take away practical tools that foster problem solving and innovation, improve day-to-day productivity and enhance service levels throughout your organization. This program features modules: 1. Listen Up! Listening for Effectiveness 2. Speak Up! Communicating for Effectiveness 3. So, How Am I Doing? Giving and Receiving Feedback Learning Point Highlights: Teaches active listening and three techniques to improve listening skills Helps employees understand how to get their point across in any situation Presents proven techniques for giving and receiving feedback Program Components: DVD or VHS (11 minutes) CD-ROM (Facilitator Guide and Reproducible Participant Materials) Purchase DVD or VHS : $595

Are You With Me? Common Courtesy On the Phone - Telephone Skills Training Why does there seem to be one set of rules for the way we behave when we're physically with other people, and a whole different set of rules for the way we act when we're separated, as we are when we're on the phone When we're with other people, we naturally tend to do what we can to understand one another, to ensure that we're communicating, to make certain we are making a connection. But when we interact with others on the phone, it's easy to lose touch with the basic rules of common courtesy. The truth is that, all too often, the telephone becomes an easy excuse for not connecting with other people. Wouldn't it be great if we all went out of our way-all the time-to treat each other on the phone the way we naturally know how to in person. From making and taking calls to transferring calls and putting people on hold to taking and leaving messages, Are you with me? connects all the rules of telephone courtesy to a single, simple, easy-to-remember concept: Treat the person on the other end of the line as though they were right there in the same room with you. Key Learning Points: Making a call is like making a visit. Taking a call is like receiving a visitor. Putting a caller on hold is like asking a visitor to wait at the door. Transferring a call is like introducing two people. Leaving a message is like making a call or a visit. Taking a message is like receiving someone else’s visitor. Code/ ST/StarThrower Rent it for $200.00 Purchase it for $625.00

Increasing Emotional Intelligence - A TrainingBytes Video About the Program: Why do some people handle constant change, confusion and competing priorities better than others? Emotional Intelligence. It’s what helps us as individuals keep things in perspective and maintain an even keel in the midst of chaos and stress. The modules of this program guide employees in assessing their level of emotional intelligence, identifying ways to apply it and exploring techniques to increase it.

The three TrainingBytes included in this program are:

1. Stay in Control: Managing Your Emotions at Work

Participants will

Recognize what types of situations (triggers) tend to make you angry, frustrated, and irritable Use proven anger management techniques to defuse emotion and refocus energy Identify opportunities to proactively squelch anger tendencies

2. Half Full or Half Empty? Choosing to be Positive

Participants will

Understand the importance of personal choice Use proven techniques to turn seemingly negative situations into positive opportunities Identify opportunities to be a "positronic" influence amongst peers

3. Big Picture: Keeping Things in Perspective

Participants will

Recognize the difference between importance and urgency Use techniques to filter information to decide what to ignore and what to act on Know how to accept what you can't control, and how and when to act on what you can