(Virtual) Debugging Human Communication How to Teach Collaboration, Communication, and Leadership Skills to Analytical, Skeptical, and Highly Technical Learners

Andrea Goulet

Andrea Goulet helps scientific and technical people strengthen their communication through an experiment-driven approach rooted in systems thinking. Her work gives analytical minds a structured way to test, refine, and trust their communication skills in complex, real-world environments. 

Over the past 25 years, Andrea has co-founded and scaled a multimillion-dollar software company, built communication systems that generated billions in revenue, taught more than 100,000 learners worldwide, and delivered keynotes at conferences and companies around the globe. She specializes in translating complex human dynamics into practical tools technical minds can use to communicate clearly, influence effectively, and collaborate with confidence.

Session Description

Andrea Goulet shares a practical, science-based approach to teaching communication and collaboration skills to technical learners like engineers, IT professionals and scientists. She explains why traditional soft-skill training fails and how to redesign it so analytical audiences find it relevant, engaging, and credible.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify key principles for reducing learner resistance and increasing psychological safety for audiences who might be skeptical or naturally process information through data and logic…so you can show clear, measurable behavioral change that makes the ROI of your programs easier for the leadership team to see.
• Understand common mistakes L&D teams make when teaching soft skills to technical professionals…and the simple rule that prevents them.
• Apply a quick formula for designing soft-skill content that analytical thinkers perceive as credible, relevant, and applicable…so you can build high-impact training designed for engineers, analysts, and other data-driven thinkers in a fraction of the time.

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This session Builds the following Capabilities and skills from the ATD Capability Model:

Personal Capability - Communication, Collaboration and Leadership
Professional Capability - Instructional Design, Training Delivery and Facilitation
Organizational Capability - Performance Improvement

This session has been approved for recertification credits by the Association for Talent Development.