Back to General Courses of WGS
Dates: 26 and 27 October 2010
Introduction
PhD students often find themselves in situations where good communication skills are called for. The most important one, when communicating with their supervisor. Whether it is for example in deciding upon the right direction for the research, or negotiating on how many experiments to include, young scientists find it difficult to pursue their own ideas and maintain a good relationship with important others at the same time. The question always seems to be whether the negotiation should be soft or hard. The hard negotiator always wants to win, turns the negotiation into a competition, invites hard responses to his hard actions and ends up in a deadlock. If this type of negotiator wins the argument, he may lose a valuable relationship. The soft negotiator avoids personal conflict; he makes concessions to maintain the relationship, but in the end feels unsatisfied with the results achieved.
Scientists also differ in their preferred styles of interaction. This is a personal as well as a cultural phenomenum. Still, preferred frequency and style of interaction with the supervisor are seldomly discussed. Interactions are mainly focussed on the research itself. One specific moment to discuss this would be the yearly appraisal interview (jaargesprek). If interaction with the supervisor has turned into a conflict, special attention to communcating styles and –stragies is needed.
In this course, we will therefore be concentrating on the following:
- Recognising your own strengths and styles of communciation
- Learning other communication styles
- Learning strategies in negotiating
- Giving and receiving feedback
- Solving conflicts
- Working with tools for better descision making and negotiating
- Communicating about the preferred interaction in the context of an appraisal interview
NOTE: This course is designed to help you to improve your communication, but not to help you improve your English language skills
General Information
Target Group: The course is set up for Ph.D.-students.
Group size: a minimum of 8 participants and a maximum of 12 participants
Course duration: two days
Language: English
Credit points: 0.6 ECTS
Names of trainers: Brigitte Hertz (www.bhertz.nl)/ Jeanine de Bruin (www.hakunamatata.nl)/ Rosemarie-Smit-Bertens (www.smitbertens.nl)
Venue: room V63, Biotechnion (building 307), Bomenweg 2, Wageningen
Programme
This is an intensive two-day course; participants learn by carrying out brief assignments in small groups and receiving personal feedback from them. At the same time, they are given viable means of being able to apply what they have learnt in practice.
Subjects:
Day 1:
Communication & Negotiating
Negotiating & Conflict Solving
Day 2:
Decision-making
Appraisal Interviews
Course fee
This course is offered by Wageningen Graduate Schools (WGS)
PhDs of WU* with an approved Education Plan (TSP) of one of the WGS** and postdocs of WU registered at one of the WGS** will pay 240 euro. All others pay 480 euro.
* or PhDs graduating at WU / participation is possible until one year after the PhD contract has ended
** EPS, CERES, MGS, PE&RC, VLAG, WIAS, WIMEK
The fee includes study and training material, coffee / tea and lunches
Registration
Register by sending a mail to secretary@graduateschool-eps.info with the following information:
- Your name:
- Name and address of research group (if applicable internal bode number):
- Name of department:
- Name of your graduate school:
- Working at: Wageningen University // other university or research institute:
- Whether you have an approved education plan (TSP) or not:
- Status: PhD student // Post-doc // else:
Information
For further information contact:
Douwe Zuidema, Graduate Schools EPS (Douwe.Zuidema@wur.nl , tel: +31 (0)317 484926)