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Advocacy Skills for HR Practitioners & Managers

Advocacy is a key skill for HR practitioners and other professionals involved in managing people and working with tribunal and appeals processes, particularly in light of recent changes to legislation.

PCE offers high quality training and practical professional development in this key capability:

The Art of the Advocate - A one day course open to the public.

We are often called upon to advocate our position – to try to convince others to adopt our point of view, provide us with resources or agree to our idea. How successful we are at doing this can have a major effect on our productivity and performance. In this program participants will engage in court-room role plays to learn the skills that lawyers use to achieve the three A’s of effective advocacy: getting their Attention, getting their Agreement, getting them to take Action. An ideal course for managers, human resource practitioners, project leaders or anyone needing to influence change. For course information and upcoming dates click here.

Customised Training

Using your own workplace scenarios and examples, PCE can develop a program for your organisation that develops competency in a range of advocacy tools and techniques. The program will enable participants to critically analyse workplace situations according to legal criteria and to formulate, structure and present written and verbal arguments.

The program will be developed in consultation with you to ensure relevant workplace needs and issues are addressed in the program. Individual coaching can also be incorporated into the program to ensure participants develop competency based on individual strengths, weaknesses and needs.

Topics incorporated into your organisation’s program could include:

• Analysing situations to distinguish fact, inference and assumptions
• Applying legal criteria to contested situations
• Clarifying issues and structuring arguments
• The elements of persuasion
• Evaluating evidence for clarity and weight
• Sequencing and prioritising facts and issues to build persuasion
• Presenting your argument and addressing the alternative argument
• Making language more persuasive
• Responding to questions
• Writing persuasively

Learning Methodologies

The program will provide participants with an interactive and stimulating learning experience. There will be opportunities for participants to advance opinions and ideas and participation is encouraged in a supportive environment. To ensure the concepts introduced during the programs are understood, they will be reinforced through a mix of learning methods, including include discussion, case studies, role plays, coaching and video critique, individual and group work.

Assessment

Your organisation’s customised Advocacy Skills program could incorporate, if relevant,  competency-based assessment that requires students to demonstrate the ability to perform a skill (e.g. present a persuasive argument) under realistic conditions and pressures and to respond to contingencies (e.g. counter arguments and questions).

Three assessment methodologies could be used:

1. Practical assessment using role-plays to assess their ability to formulate, structure and present verbal arguments and respond to counter-arguments and questions.
2. Written assignment to assess analytical thinking skills and ability to structure and present arguments.
3. Videotaping of the participant’s performance to assess their ability to self-critique and learn by reflection on practice, and to develop the capacity for ongoing learning.

Our Experience

As we are a University of Adelaide enterprise, we are supported by a reputable educational organisation and have developed and delivered training programs to local, national and international clients for over 13 years.  Evaluation and feedback from participants means that we consistently review and provide feedback to our clients as well as our consultants to ensure the delivery of high quality programs. 

In 2009, PCE developed and delivered a very successful Advocacy Program for HR practitioners from three SA Government Agencies. The program took place over four and a half days with a verbal and written assessment at the end of that period. The program was delivered over a series of weeks to enable participants to undertake exercises in their own time based on the most recent session and in preparation for the next session.

Feedback from the HR Directors and participants was very positive:

“the participants from my team have been energised and engaged in in-depth conversation about what they learnt. They are questioning their own approaches and working with each other to dissect arguments. The program has been very valuable.”

“Great course. Walked away with some good skills like building evidence for a case and what that constitutes.”

Our Specialist Presenters

PCE brings together a team of professionals that are highly experienced in the development and delivery of quality training programs. Depending on your exact program requirements, PCE could draw on the expertise of the following facilitators for development and delivery of your program.

Gary Edwards LLB (Hons) ASM - Proposed Program Coordinator and Primary Presenter

Gary Edwards is a former Barrister and Solicitor and Lecturer in Legal Skills (including Advocacy) at the University of South Australia.  He has taught hundreds of people how to negotiate, persuade and advocate for their cause, both verbally and in writing. Gary also developed and ran the Advocacy program at Flinders University.

Gary now runs his own business communication consultancy that specialises in helping business people to build collaborative workplace cultures, strengthen client relationships and communicate more effectively in critical situations.

A trained mediator and communication coach, Gary has worked with many clients in the public and private sectors to show them how to build relationships, resolve conflict, increase learning and improve outcomes in the critical “conversations” that business people have each day – negotiations, conflict situations, leadership, presentations, meetings and client service.

Gary is a Professional Member and past State President of the National Speakers Association of Australia and a Member of the International Federation of Professional Speakers.

David Griggs is a professional speech coach, devoted to helping people improve their public communication skills. His unique feature is his combined experience in theatre and business. He teaches public speaking skills, drawing on the techniques of the professional actor. He is a graduate of NIDA and has many years experience managing a family business.

David has the ability to simplify the techniques of the actor and to interpret and translate these techniques to the field of public communication. These communication skills are vital at every level in the work place. He has developed a methodology that leads participants to achieve confidence and credibility through truly effective public communication and has successfully used this with a range of corporations and individuals.

David is the past National President of the National Speakers Association of Australia and has coached people for critical pitches worth millions of dollars including the presentation bid team that won the 2007 World Police and Fire Games for Adelaide and the successful Adelaide Solar City bid that is worth $53million.

Your program could include guest speakers who have experience in preparing and delivering written and verbal submissions to the Industrial Relations and other Commissions.

Certification

At the conclusion of the program, participants will receive a University of Adelaide, Professional and Continuing Education Certificate of Competency.
The Certificate will include a list of the topics and skills assessed and course hours. This documentation may assist participants in gaining ‘Recognition of Prior Learning’ (RPL) or ‘Course Credit’ in applicable Award courses.

More Information

For more information or to discuss your organisation’s specific training requirements, please contact Jo Carrick, Program Manager on 8303 4777 or email joanna.carrick@adelaide.edu.au