C13.M3 Conversation Skills

Course description:

For all engineers, conducting different types of conversations will be important in their professional career. For instance, interviewing clients, users, about product characteristics can be essential for creating an in depth understanding of technological development. Consultants should be able to conduct advisory meetings. For those engineers that aspire management posts, communication skills are particularly important, e.g. for coaching and employee evaluation conversations.

Course objectives:

Acquiring knowledge of:

• Some key processes in face to face communication;
• How in practice particular communication skills can be applied.

Insights in:

• The applicability of the conversation types in the course;
• Techniques for some conversation- and research types.

Skills in:

• Performing an (semi-)open interview, breaking bad news, managing advisory conversations;
• Judging the abovementioned conversation types on effectiveness.

Teaching method:

Basically the organization of this course is build according to the experimental learning theory of David Kolb, that is to say that after practice (role plays, games and other exercises) come reflection and some discussion, then analysis and finally the translation of the newly acquired insights into new experiences.  After the course participants have to interview an expert in the (scientific, technological) field they themselves are working in. This interview must be summarised in a report that is to be handed in to the lecturer within three weeks after the course.  Reviewing of interview reports will be done in close collaboration between lecturer and participant. 

Course Enrolment

If you would like to enrol in this course, please fill out the "Course Enrolment Form" and e-mail this to graduateschool@remove-this.tudelft.nl. If you would like to take more than one course, please fill out one form per course. Enrolment forms stating more than one course will not be processed. 

About the Lecturer(s)/ Coach(es):

Johan den Hartog is a qualified Drama Teacher and convinced that real life as well as the more or less artificial life on the performance stage revolves around communication and conflict. Interesting drama always concerns conflicts, and interesting conflicts a lot of times express themselves with dramatic force.  Conflicts are but one way for people of relating to one another. In a broader sense: when culture is everything and communication is culture, everything is communication.  Mr den Hartog is a lecturer at the faculty of Technology, Policy and Management of TU Delft and as such teaches a lot in the field of communication skills, conflict management and collaboration skills.