Case Study: Orange Business Services, Netherlands

The Customer Services and Sales Support departments commissioned a Conflict and Negotiation skills course, as they wished their people to be able to develop conflict resolution and negotiation skills when working with clients.  After a number of discussions the course overview was agreed and the course created, bearing in mind the desired objectives.  This was delivered in the Netherlands in the winter of 2009.  In addition the course was made available to OBS Switzerland and the  delivered in Vienna, Geneva and Zurich in addition to Amsterdam.

In Amsterdam 80% of the participants scored the course ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’.  The other 20% scored it as ‘good’. 64% of participants felt very strongly that the course helped them do their job better while the other 36% felt strongly that the course had helped them to do their job better.

When asked to identify actions they would take as a result of attending this course, one participant said “I made a self development plan and I’m going to improve the skills mentioned in this plan.”  Another participant wrote: “Great, enthusiastic trainer.  Very good knowledge.”

In Switzerland 84% said that the course was very valuable or exceedingly valuable to them 100% said that the course was valuable to them 83% said that they could do their job very much better or exceedingly better as a result of the course 100% said they could do their job better as a result of the course.

 

When asked to identify actions they would take as a result of attending this course, participants said:

“Review or rethink my approach in cases of conflicting situations”

“Review documentation, especially for making presentations”

“Will try to structure my future meetings accordingly”

“Focus on what I put on the development ladder.  Use more the tools given”

“Work on controlling emotions/ be less fearful of conflicts negotiation”

“Try to use E.Q. Tactics and approach in what I am doing: when I have to negotiate, manage a conflict with my customer”

“I will try to apply skills & methods in the day to day and will try to make work easier for everyone in the team”

“Different approach to resolve a conflict is possible”

 

Other comments made by the participants included:

“I liked the course which was intense and rich workbooks”

“Excellent! Definitely will help me gain more confidence”

In Austria 100% were very or exceedingly satisfied with the course:

100% said it was very or exceedingly valuable to them.

100% said that they could do their job very much better or exceedingly better as a result of the course.

 

When asked to identify actions they would take as a result of attending this course, participants said:

“Try to resolve conflicts in practice smoothly”

“Self control improvements”

“More focus on personal development”

“Apply steps; separate problem from people”

“Work on improving my skills as outlined”

“I will try to change my negotiation skills”

 

Other comments made by participants included:

“Very professional trainer”

“I would like to continue with this softskills programme”

“It would be beneficial to receive some more courses e.g. Cultural Differences and Time Management”

“Further training on Time Management in addition to the course could be helpful”

 

On another occasion the Customer Services department commissioned a course that would assist their teams to improve communications but also to provide effective feedback to colleagues in order to improve team efficiency.  The course was delivered in May 2010 in Amsterdam.

84% of participants said it was very or exceedingly valuable to them

100% said that the course was valuable to them

84% said that they could do their job very much better or exceedingly better as a result of the course

100% said they could do their job better as a result of the course

100% were very or extremely satisfied with the course

 

Participants commented:

“Two productive, interactive and positive days in a good atmosphere”

“For the second time, lovely to have such an active training!”

“Good teacher and good pace”

“Training was great!”

 

When asked what actions they will take as a direct result of the course they said:

“ Look into team building activities.”

“Work on the non-verbal/verbal communication and use the documentation we received is very useful.”

“Take some time for active listening and keep the body language into account”

“Work on non-verbal comm by finding more articles/books and request colleagues as a coach for this.”

“Focus more on constructive feedback. Prepare on focus and what trying to achieve before communication”

“Use this methodology in the meetings planned.”

“Gain active listening. Use more non-verbal. Analyse others”

“Active listening. More aware of the receiver. Openness (window) awareness”

“I will read the material. I will practice the things discussed”

“More active feedback sessions with colleagues”

“Use the Johari model & better interact with my colleagues”

“Executing what is learned in practice”

“More aware when sending mails to customers.  Listen X 2, Talk X 1”

“Actively work with the Johari window to increase the “open” space within our team”