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Lead Instructor(s)
Participating Instructor(s)
Date(s)
Jul 15 - 18, 2024
Registration Deadline
Location
Live Virtual
Course Length
4 Days
Course Fee
$3,600
CEUs
2.7 CEUs
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Ready to turn your data and technical knowledge into meaningful insights that engage and persuade stakeholders? In this four-day course, you’ll hone your communication skills in four essential areas: public speaking, critical thinking, visual persuasion, and audience adaptation. A unique feature of this program is that all participants will meet for one-on-one diagnostic meetings with the course instructor.  Supplemented with these one-on-one sessions, and students participating in discussions and hands-on activities, you’ll master actionable strategies for quantifying your conversations and moving your projects and organization forward.

This course may be taken individually or part of the Professional Certificate Program in Innovation & Technology OR THE PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATE PROGRAM IN BIOTECHNOLOGY & LIFE SCIENCES.

Course Overview


Have you ever been frustrated when trying to explain a technical problem to someone without technical knowledge? Have your peers experienced greater professional success, not necessarily because their ideas are better, but because they can express them more clearly and persuasively?

Through a mixture of one-on-one, discussion and hands-on workshops, this course is geared towards early career professionals and those who find themselves frequently needing to communicate their ideas to people both up and down the organizational hierarchy, you will advance your skills in 4 key areas: 

  • Public Speaking: Learn how to capture an audience’s attention from the outset, earn their trust, and achieve your goals.
  • Critical Thinking: Learn strategic ways to present your ideas, research, and projects.
  • Visual Persuasion/Data Visualization: Clarify your data for experts and non-experts alike.
  • Audience Adaptation: Learn to “translate” your expertise so that key stakeholders in other fields and laypersons will understand and “buy in” to your projects and proposals.

“Persuasive Communication Bootcamp” is an intensive course, specifically designed to help scientific, engineering, and other technical professionals to achieve their career goals through effective communication.

In meetings, conferences, budget hearings, public forums, even your performance reviews—-these skills are valuable anywhere you need to present information, correct misinformation, overcome objections, and/or achieve consensus or approval.

It may be a commonly held belief that engineering and technical professionals don’t need well-developed written and oral skills, but effective communication is often the top skill today’s companies value in all their employees. In this program you have direct one-on-one coaching to diagnose the areas you wish to improve and develop an action plan for program follow-up.

All participants who successfully complete Persuasive Communication Bootcamp will receive an MIT Professional Education Certificate of Completion. In addition, they may be eligible to earn 2.7 Continuing Education Units (MIT CEUs).

Certificate of Completion from MIT Professional Education

Persuasive Communication Bootcamp cert image
Learning Outcomes
  • Understand the relevant theoretical and practical knowledge behind communication and persuasive speaking
  • Enhance critical thinking abilities to construct and evaluate claims and arguments with positive outcomes
  • Explore the impact of the Digital Revolution on professional communications
  • Improve your presentation skills
  • Adapt and “translate” your messages across different audiences, especially those with differing levels of scientific and technical expertise
  • Learn "compliance gaining" persuasive strategies to change workplace culture
  • Understand the importance of intercultural differences in persuasion in order to be a global communicator

Program Outline

Class runs 8:30 am - 4:30 pm EDT (GMT-4) Monday through Thursday.

Monday: Effective Persuasion I: The Public Speaker

8:30 – 9:00 am: Intros, Logistics, Program Overview
9:00 – 10:00 am: Lecture: Persuasive Presentations
10:00 – 10:15 am: Break
10:15 – 11:45 am: Introduction Exercise
11:45 – 1:00 pm: Lunch Break
1:00 – 2:30 pm: Performing Credibility Exercise
2:30 – 2:45 pm: Break
2:45 – 4:15 pm: Best Practices in Slide Presentations 
4:15 – 4:30 pm: Final Wrap-up, Debrief for the Day

Tuesday: Effective Persuasion II: The Multi-Media SciTech Speaker

8:30 – 10:00 am: Persuasion Theory in a Digital Age (plus exercise) 
10:00 – 10:15 am: Break
10:15 – 11:45 am: Presentations in Digital Media (plus exercise)
11:45 – 1:00 pm: Lunch Break
1:00 – 2:30 pm: Introduction to Data Visualization (plus exercise)
2:30 – 2:45 pm: Break
2:45 – 4:15 pm: “Would You Rather” Speech Exercise
4:15 – 4:30 pm: Final Wrap-up, Debrief for the Day
                                                                                               
Wednesday: Adapting Messages & Media to Audiences

8:30 – 10:00 am: Adapting Messages to Audiences
10:00 – 10:15 am: Break
10:15 – 11:45 am: Message Adaptation Exercise 
11:45 – 1:00 pm: Lunch Break
1:00 – 2:30 pm: Cultural Differences
2:30 – 2:45 pm: Break
2:45 – 4:15 pm: Exercise for Intercultural Adaptation
4:15 – 4:30 pm: Final Wrap-up & Debrief 

Thursday: Adapting Messages & Media to Audiences

8:30 – 10:00 am: Visual Persuasion
10:00 – 10:15 am: Break
10:15 – 11:45 am: Scientific & Technical Communication Challenges
11:45 – 1:00 pm: Lunch Break
1:00 – 2:30 pm: Persuasion as Gaining Compliance
2:30 – 2:45 pm: Break
2:45 – 4:15 pm: Compliance Gaining Exercise

Who Should Attend

This course is designed for engineers and non-engineers who need to talk with each other, any professional wanting to improve their ability to present and persuade others within their organization or outside of it, and professionals who need to deliver messages across different media channels and to diverse audiences, as well as those who wish to enhance their critical thinking abilities to construct and evaluate claims and arguments with positive outcomes.

Requirements

A computer or tablet is required, along with a Zoom account. Presentation software such as PowerPoint is recommended. Additionally, it is strongly recommended that participants have a device with the ORAI app installed (free trial available at https://www.orai.com/)

Brochure
Download the Course Brochure
Persuasive Communication Bootcamp - Brochure Image
Content

The type of content you will learn in this course, whether it's a foundational understanding of the subject, the hottest trends and developments in the field, or suggested practical applications for industry.

Fundamentals: Core concepts, understandings, and tools - 30%|Latest Developments: Recent advances and future trends - 30%|Industry Applications: Linking theory and real-world - 40%
30|30|40
Delivery Methods

How the course is taught, from traditional classroom lectures and riveting discussions to group projects to engaging and interactive simulations and exercises with your peers.

Lecture: Delivery of material in a lecture format - 30%|Discussion or Groupwork: Participatory learning - 35%|Labs: Demonstrations, experiments, simulations - 35%
30|35|35
Levels

What level of expertise and familiarity the material in this course assumes you have. The greater the amount of introductory material taught in the course, the less you will need to be familiar with when you attend.

Introductory: Appropriate for a general audience - 50%|Specialized: Assumes experience in practice area or field - 50%
50|50