Our process
We initiated several alignment meetings, one with the point of contact to set expectations, then a second involving leadership and key stakeholders to ensure we understood their strategic goals and metrics.
A senior leadership group within Airbnb, a technology-based, Fortune 500 Hospitality / Hotel & Resorts company, often communicates high-stakes presentations to senior leaders, to foreign stakeholders, and to their CEO, who is known to limit talks to 5 minutes.
Future business growth depended on these leaders nailing their communication skills and presentations. Miscommunication was costing them valuable time, executive buy-in on innovative projects and initiatives, and a loss of new international business.
Industry
Services
The big challenge
Multiple leaders needed to uplevel their presentation and communication skills. Some needed to present to, and appease, a high-standards CEO. Others needed to frequently work with foreign governments due to regulations in their industry, but were hitting communication roadblocks due to different cultures, nationalities, and other nuances.
Recognizing a strong skills gap for better communication, the L&D leader pushed hard for Duarte training, because she knew the ROI was worth it. They needed a communication training journey to teach their leaders how to make audience-centric presentations, whether for a CEO or for someone from another part of the world.
Duarte started by conducting their own pre-workshop audience analysis of their CEO and his communication style. We referenced multiple interviews to understand his ability to influence and which Duarte workshop methodology would work best.
The results
This is a fast-paced learning culture, and they cap all trainings to no more than 90 minutes. It was their first time working with an outside partner, and their leaders expressed it was worth it! Some leaders started this learning journey by proclaiming themselves as master storytellers, with 15 years of communication experience. But by the end of their time training with Duarte, they surprisingly exclaimed they learned something new, and still have a lot to learn. It was obvious our workshops had a significant impact on the senior leadership here.
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“The most senior person in the room told everyone he could do better and elevate his storytelling game. He went from, ‘I’m an excellent speaker and I know who to craft a story,’ to ‘there’s a lot for me to learn and I could do a better job when delivering a message, so it’s well received and understood by my audience’.”