Details about the Relational Skills Certificate Program©
Devised by Workplace Education Manitoba, the “Relational Skills” cluster is made up of 8 skills that together equip employees to not only work well together, but to do so in a way that builds trust, creates a respectful workplace, supports inclusion, and helps employees manage effectively in an ever-changing, increasingly digital, and global world.
The Relational Skills cluster combines four unique workplace skills that have been identified as critical for “social/interpersonal” success in the new world of work – these are:
Workplace Skills
Change & Continuous Learning
Change & Continuous Learning. Continuous Learning strategies promote change readiness- a flexible, learning mindset critical for 21st century learning. Continuous learning requires understanding new approaches to workplace learning, including online and AI applications.
Social Intelligence
Social Intelligence Social IQ has declined significantly due to reliance on technology. Building trust across cultures and in diverse teams demands a “presence” and ability to read social, nonverbal, tonal, and contextual cues, adapt social style, and learn written and unwritten social rules.
Cultural Competence
Cultural Competence Due to increasing diversity, individuals need to be able to move beyond awareness to be able to build on differences and to work well together.
Civility & Citizenship
Civility & Citizenship Increasingly SMEs are tied to, impacting, and interacting with communities, e.g., for recruitment, to achieve social impact, and to build social capital. Individuals benefit – as do companies by learning how “community” and citizenship mentality is necessary to thrive in 21st century and beyond.
Competency in these four skill areas combined with adapted aspects of four skills from the Skills for Success Framework create a comprehensive and measurable toolkit that enables employees to thrive.
Skills for Success
Collaboration
Your ability to contribute and support others to achieve a common goal. For example, at work we use this skill to provide meaningful support to team members while completing a project. Amid varying workstyles, motivations, values and thinking approaches, employees need to acquire a distinct set of collaboration skills including listening with TING, adapting to communication context, and addressing conscious and unconscious bias.
Communication
Your ability to receive, understand, consider, and share information and ideas through speaking, listening, and interacting with others. For example, we use this skill to listen to instructions, serve customers and discuss ideas.
Thinking Skills
Aspects of Thinking Skills – Systems Thinking. Your ability to identify, analyze, propose solutions, and make decisions. Problem solving helps you to address issues, monitor success, and learn from the experience. For example, we use this skill to make hiring decisions, select courses of action and troubleshoot technical failures. Systems thinking means you always consider the impacts of your decisions and how you are impacted by the systems around you.
Adaptability
Aspects of Adaptability – Resilience Your ability to achieve or adjust goals and behaviours when expected or unexpected change occurs, by planning, staying focused, persisting, and overcoming setbacks. For example, we use this skill to change work plans to meet new deadlines, learn how to work with new tools and improve our skills through feedback. Resilience in the Relational Skills cluster refers specifically to your mental ability to adapt.
Some of the benefits for employees who are offered Relational Skills training include increased ability to:
Be situationally aware, e.g., by reading verbal, nonverbal and contextual cues which helps individuals read situations and anticipate potential conflicts or interpersonal issues before they happen.
Show empathy and shared perspective, e.g., by building trust through communication approach and tone.
Relate from a “people first” point of view and so appreciate differences or preferences and accommodate them, when necessary, without having to fully understand all aspects of culture, generation, or gender.
Be change ready, that is, see change as an opportunity to learn and to actively seek opportunities to learn.
See situations from a systems perspective which fosters accountability and an increased awareness of the cost, benefits, and consequences of actions.
Adopt a “global citizen” mindset where there is increased understanding of shared experience, and the human aspects of work including need for autonomy, mastery and shared purpose.
Engage with others in a respectful way which fosters an ease in communication and exchanges and facilitates civil dialogue, creativity and problem-solving.
Build self-management and self-awareness skills that help employees self-direct and manage stress.
Some of the challenges that The Relational Skills Program helps organizations to address include:
Diversity and Inclusivity, e.g., increased cultural understanding and trust across gender, cultural, and generational groups.
Onboarding e.g., “quick to fit” solutions, such as identifying and illustrating unwritten rules, teaching, and reinforcing the value of collaboration, and having ability to properly assess and manage onboarding issues
Staff Retention e.g., by creating environments where learning is encouraged, collaboration is expected, and overall health and well-being is anticipated
Staff and Workplace Mental Health e.g., reduce stressors such as language and learning barriers
Safety e.g., by building trust, offset potential conflicts and issues related to lack of cultural competence and systems thinking
Productivity Efficiencies e.g., devise clearer learning and performance paths based on increased accuracy of skills analysis
Customer Service e.g., better meet the needs of both customer and service provider by improving service culture and building communication skills
Teamwork e.g., help foster a mindset of creativity and collaboration – show employees the benefits of working well together
Does your team need Relational Skills Training?
Take a short survey to learn symptoms of low Relational Skills Competency.
Examples of Symptoms of Low Relational Skills Competency include:
Frequent miscommunications among members of the work team
Inability for team members to recognize when they have offended or are perceived to have disrespected others
Perceived barriers between cultural groups represented in the workplace
Difficulty for individuals and teams to adapt to change
Reports of mistrust amongst the work team
Difficulty with group discussions, events, or problem solving
Individuals taking more time off e.g., as sick days
A lack of or team orientation
Complaints from team members about “tone” of communications
Hesitation or inability of individuals to self-direct their learning
Tendency for employees to blame the company or coworkers when things don’t go as planned
Difficulty for individuals to “fit” into the workplace culture
Team members disengaging from group interactions
Persistent reports of high stress in the workplace
Day to day rudeness /incivility in the workplace
Individuals seeming to focus only on their own needs and wants
Contact Us
Contact us and learn how you can have a Certified Skills for Success Workplace Practitioner deliver a customized Relational Skills program for your organization.