What happens when you can explain exactly what’s happening in your area - and senior leaders keep asking, “So what?”
Learn how to connect your work to the business with:
Insight.
Impact.
Influence.
Speaking the Language of Business takes you from reporting what is happening to explaining what it means, what could be done, and what should happen next. You’ll build your business vocabulary, interpret financial and operational information, and learn to communicate recommendations that help senior leaders see the business impact.
What You'll Explore
- Key financial and operational concepts, and the business vocabulary that goes with them.
- How to interpret common business and performance metrics, and understand what the information means, why it matters, and how it should influence decisions.
- How to shift from operational thinking to business thinking: from activities to outcomes, problems to implications, assumptions to evidence, and single solutions to alternatives.
- How to use the Decision Impact Map to examine the financial, operational, customer, employee, and safety and risk implications of a decision.
- How to use the VALUE Business Thinking Framework and the Senior Leader Filter to move from information to a clear recommendation, weighing evidence, magnitude, risk, options, and trade-offs.
- How to use storytelling techniques to turn business information into a clear, compelling message tailored to your audience.
What You'll Gain
- You’ll leave with the confidence to interpret financial and operational information, make more informed decisions, and communicate recommendations in business language that helps senior leaders understand the impact.
- You’ll take away practical tools you can use right away to connect your team’s decisions and productivity to organizational outcomes.
- The goal isn’t to become a finance expert. It’s to understand what the information means for the business, and contribute with confidence in conversations with senior leaders.
Learn the Language → Read the Numbers → Think in Business Terms → Weigh the Options → Make the Case.
The learning journey moves from building your business vocabulary, to interpreting financial and operational information, shifting from operational thinking to business thinking, weighing alternatives and trade-offs, and ultimately making clear, compelling recommendations that connect decisions to business outcomes.
The MCE Learning Experience
This is a highly interactive, reflection-based course. You’ll move between short learning segments, reflection, partner and group discussion, working with business and operational information, applying each tool to realistic situations, and practicing turning what you see into a clear recommendation.
Your workbook is an important part of the experience. It brings together the key concepts, models, tools, and reflection activities from the course, giving you a place to capture your own insights and examples. Use it throughout training and reflect on it afterwards to apply the tools in your day-to-day leadership.
ELECTIVE courses are responsive by design and developed to stay current with industry trends and client needs. Add them to any pathway, whether DEVELOP, BUILD or BLENDED, or take them on their own.
Ready to Speak the Language of Business?
Speaking the Language of Business is an ELECTIVE. Add it to any pathway as an EXTENDED option: in DEVELOP it builds your own business confidence, in BUILD it helps you make the case for your team, and it fits just as well in a BLENDED cohort. It also stands on its own. Cohorts are available for this course. Or ask us how it fits into a pathway.
Cohorts are available for this course. Or ask us how it fits into a pathway.
Pairs well with Strategic Thinking & Innovation in the BUILD pathway.