Nova SBE (NSBE): Professor Richard, we are on our way to the 15th edition of this program. How do you explain its success and its apparent relevance to participants over time?
Richard Fleming (RF): I think the program has been able to address a number of common concerns and passions of today's executives, from a wide variety of sectors, functions and positions in their respective hierarchies - challenges that we all face and that have drastically altered the work of those who lead, those who sell and, ultimately, those who seek to influence, develop or motivate others in recent years.
NSBE: When you talk about concerns, what are you referring to?
RF: For me, it doesn't make sense to talk about communication in organizations without contextualizing our dialogue in their real lives. In a highly noisy world, with constant calls for both our attention and that of our audience, we have to rethink communication strategies in order to balance the efficiency inherent in IT tools with the communicative effectiveness needed to "make it happen". We communicate a lot, I would say almost on auto-pilot, through email, Teams or other tools that depend on writing, when often our effectiveness will depend on a more strategic approach, more focused on the basic characteristics of human beings and what drives them.
That's why we focus the classroom dialogue around this context and I try to get everyone to find, if not solutions, at least guidelines for rethinking the way they communicate, the change they want to make in their organizations, the impact they want to have on their teams, their clients or other people they want to impact. I try to bring practical, real-life examples of communicating change in companies so that we can analyze this balance between effectiveness and efficiency together, and then move on to more creative exercises. In fact, this combination of analysis, critical thinking and creativity is the pedagogical basis of the program and, with a few adjustments over the years, it has worked well.
NSBE: And what tools do the participants in this program have?
RF: An essential part of the program has to do with self-confidence, which for me comes essentially from recognizing our weaknesses. I assume that each participant will have weaknesses that impact their ability to communicate, because we all have them. Even those people who communicate in an apparently confident way, without nerves or difficulty in speaking to large audiences, often this self-confidence of theirs hides more complex emotions and a long journey of arduous preparation; or they discover that speaking in public doesn't represent a great challenge, but a difficult conversation with a member of their team causes them sleepless nights. No one is without personal communication challenges. Sharing them helps everyone understand that they are not alone, that these concerns can be worked on or simply faced in a healthier way.
NSBE: Did you ever feel that certain people felt uncomfortable sharing?
RF: You'll have to ask them, but I know that of the 400-odd participants I've had the privilege of accompanying, I've never met one who couldn't verbalize a communication weakness within the first hour of the program. For those who were more hesitant, it was enough to see how easily their colleagues shared their respective challenges for them to feel more comfortable sharing. Pretending that we're perfect and that we don't have fears and worries is a common shell of people in organizations, and although it's necessary on some occasions, on others it's an impediment to development and authenticity, and a program like this can be a low-risk opportunity to expose ourselves and start exploring development paths
NSBE: Did you ever consider changing the format of the program?
RF: There have been slightly different editions in terms of format, but the basic concept, as long as it's attractive to the participants, is to be maintained. Two and a half days, intensive or semi-intensive, face-to-face, with a heterogeneous audience.
NSBE: Heterogeneous, why?
RF: In almost every edition we've had several c-level leaders, and once we came up with the idea of doing a dedicated edition just for top managers. In many leadership programs, this makes perfect sense, but Communicating Effectively gains a lot from attracting a heterogeneous audience. The exploration of communication in organizations is richer when we reflect on its impact inside and outside the organization. Then, learning from the context and perspectives of other professionals only enriches the dialogue: putting a top financial director in a discussion about persuasion with an insurance salesman and a cancer doctor brings a lot of richness, and I don't want to lose that multiplicity of perspectives at all.
It's true that there are times when we work on more specific situations that not everyone will have to face in their professional lives, such as an exercise in which we put the participants under pressure in front of journalists, angry audiences or situations in which they have to publicly justify unfortunate behavior or decisions. But the truth is that the experience of feeling pressure to communicate a difficult subject without preparation is rich in itself and transversal to all areas.
NSBE: What's new for the future of the program?
RF: The basic program will continue as long as there are interested participants, which fortunately is our reality. Now, with a considerable and growing group of program alumni, we have received requests for a 2.0 version. We're working on it and I hope to have news later this year. There may also be English-language editions, with the growing demand from international audiences for executive training in Portugal.
NSBE: Finally, what still motivates you about this training?
RF: Each edition of the show is an intense learning journey for me. I get as much or more out of each edition as the participants. In addition to my work as a guest lecturer at Nova SBE, I have a leadership role in a complex organization, so I experience the challenges of communication in organizations intensely on a daily basis. Being able to share my perspective with people facing similar and different challenges is a great pleasure for me and ends up being a rich mutual learning experience.
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