Business Course Catalog
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Communication Skills
Customer Service
Diversity
Human Resources
Leadership
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Management/Supervisory
Problem Solving
Quality
Teambuilding
Trust
Training Technologies
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Active Listening
Introduction:
Active listening is not a new concept. Unfortunately, it is one of those areas that is much harder to put into practice than it appears to be on the surface. First, you will have the opportunity to evaluate your own listening skills, you will then learn how to improve those skills, and finally you will put your skills to work in several listening skills practice sessions.
Sometimes there are barriers that get in the way of our ability to listen actively. Sometimes it’s also our habits that get in the way. We will examine what some of the barriers and habits may be that cause us to not listen as well as we should.
The average person speaks at about 500 words a minute, but can listen to 135-175 words a minute. The difference between listening speed and speaking speed is a listening gap. It’s during the listening gap that we have a tendency to exercise poor listening habits!
Objectives:
When you complete this training, you will be able to:
• Evaluate your current listening skills
• Identify and provide examples of barriers to listening
• Identify common habits that promote inactive listening
• Practice listening skills
Length: 1/2 day
Recommended Audience: All employees
Communication Skills
Introduction:
As dedicated employees, we may spend the majority of our time on the technical aspects of our jobs. We may concern ourselves with ensuring the accuracy of our work, thereby meeting our duties and responsibilities. In our efforts to ensure good work, we may overlook the other portion of our job - communicating with others. We may ensure that the technical aspects of our job are done to the best of our ability. But how often do we ensure that our communication with others is done to the best of our ability?
You may think that communication is not that important to emphasize in a training program. After all, we know how hear what others are saying, and we know how to talk to them - we learned those skills when we were children. The reality is that knowing how to communicate effectively can cause us to have satisfied internal customers or dissatisfied customers. If our customers are satisfied, they will provide us good feedback, and ensure provide our boss good feedback about us. Satisfied customers provide us job security. Effective communication may be more important than we at first thought.
Objectives:
When you have completed this training, you will be able to:
• Explain the importance of excellent communication in performing your job
• Specify the components of excellent communication
• Interview internal customers to gain information and build rapport
• Listen actively and effectively
• Recognize the impact image has on the communication process
• Effectively use body language to read and deliver messages
• Increase communication effectiveness via the telephone
Length: 1 day
Recommended Audience: All employees
Conflict Resolution
Introduction:
• Do you avoid conflict?
• Do you fear making others angry?
• Do you find yourself upset or frustrated with your peers, but doing nothing about it?
• Do you have difficulty putting conflict to rest?
• Do you often discuss work problems at home, without resolving them?
• Are you uncertain whether you want to address work conflicts or not?
In this workshop, you will learn why we react negatively to conflict, the reasons for conflicts, how to resolve conflicts and responsibly and ways to prevent conflicts.
Objectives:
At the end of the session, you will be able to:
• Work effectively with others
• Learn new techniques
• Learn how conflict can be positive
• Reduce your stress
Length: 1 day
Recommended Audience: All employees
Negotiation Skills
Introduction:
Effective negotiation underlies the most successful business and personal encounters. Whether dealing with a client, family member, staff, a billion dollar deal or a car purchase, there are measurable differences in results between those who negotiate well and those who do not.
This course offers skill-building practice in helping participants learn and apply techniques and processes to be more effective in negotiating for a win/win solution to any situation. The course will also include a framework within which to constantly improve, long after the course is over. The course is designed to be intense, enjoyable, highly interactive and immediately practical.
Objectives:
At the conclusion of the course, you will be able to:
• Use new negotiation tools, and processes to increase collaboration
• Systematically prepare for negotiation sessions.
• Develop an understanding of the others’ point of view.
• Collect information more quickly and effectively.
• Using standards effectively.
• Use information and understanding to develop win/win solutions.
Outline:
I. Communication, perception, interests – introducing some key negotiation tools of the most effective negotiators.
Turning instinct into structure
A model for negotiation
A question of attitude
II. Interest-based negotiation – demonstrating the importance of collecting information and interest about the other party.
Using interest-based negotiations in company-specific situations
III. Difficult negotiators
Standards
Alternatives to agreement
Third parties
Dealing with difficult negotiators in company-specific situations
IV. Getting agreements with those who are different
Differences
Exercises in cross-cultural problems and solutions
V. Final exercise
Length: 1 day
Recommended Audience: All individuals involved in negotiations with internal or external people.
Negotiation Strategies
Introduction:
Effective negotiation involves more than knowing numbers or facts. Good negotiators understand the negotiation process – as separate from substantive knowledge of the subject at hand. Perceptions, trust, relationships, style, constituencies and emotions are at least as important as the substance. Experts in any area can gain significant competitive advantage by learning persuasion skills to enhance their basic expertise.
This course provides high-level sales negotiation strategies and tools to become better negotiators. The course will also include a framework within which to constantly improve, long after the course is over. The course is designed to be intense, enjoyable, highly interactive and immediately practical.
Objectives:
At the conclusion of the course, you will be able to:
• Develop value-enhancing skills.
• Deal effectively with hard bargainers and power imbalances
• Find other parties’ interests and hidden agendas.
• Find creative options to overcome impasses.
Outline:
I. Negotiation strategies, tools and process
II. Multiparty Negotiation – many negotiations involve more than two parties. Many seemingly two-party negotiations involve other parties – constituencies, principals, or agents of others. The equations can be complex, with many interests and demands.
Analysis of a multiparty negotiation
Exercise on a company-specific negotiation
III. Emotional Negotiation – how to be more effective with various styles and emotional behaviors.
Assessing one’s own negotiation style
Assessing the other parties’ negotiation style
The danger of emotion in negotiation
Recognizing and dealing with emotional situations
V. Problem solving – the best negotiators are creative problem solvers.
Using a problem-solving tool
IV. Testing problem-solving ability
Length: 2 days
Recommended Audience: All those involved in internal or external negotiations with others.
Email Etiquette
Program Overview:
When information needs to be disseminated quickly, there’s no better way than by email. Unfortunately, with the benefit of speed come some problems that aren’t always predictable unless employees are forewarned. This course is designed to help employees know the appropriate use of the Internet while at work as well as behaviors they must avoid.
Program Objectives:
At the end of the training, participants should be able to:
• Use proper email language to convey a professional image for the company.
• Write efficient emails that get to the point.
• Protect yourself and your company from liability by being aware of email risks.
• Follow the 30 most important email etiquette tips.
• Create an email subject line that accurately describes the content of the message.
• Consider the visual components that enhance an email message and make for easy reading.
• Determine who should and should not receive copies of emails.
• Know what to do when emails misfire and reach the wrong people.
Length:
Recommended Audience:
Customer Protocols
Introduction:
Customer Protocols is an intensive immersion in the skills needed to work effectively with customers. The course is a fast-paced skill-building workshop involving the use of videotaping and individualized feedback and evaluation by customer interaction specialists. Completing an assessment is required prior to attendance, and follow up via a development strategies tool book and management feedback is required as reinforcement. Participating in this workshop will dramatically improve your customer interaction skills.
Objectives:
At the end of the training, participants will be able to:
• Follow a professional communication process
• Plan for effective communication
• Establish rapport with customers
• Probe for further understanding, and to avoid miscommunication
• Communicate professionally with their customers
• Practice active listening skills and interpreting body language
• Ensure accountability for communication
• Avoid technical jargon and unnecessary detail
• Use the appropriate mode of communication (e-mail, voice mail, face-to-face, conference call), given the situation
• Ensure quality communication in all situations (written and email as well as face-to-face)
• Diffuse customer anger
Length: 1 day
Recommended Audience: All employees
Leveraging Diversity
Objectives:
Upon completion of this workshop, participants will be able to:
• Describe the business rationale for leveraging diversity within the organization.
• Describe the current organizational context with regard to diversity.
• Identify the cultural makeup of the organization today.
• Identify the potential practices that hinder the organization from leveraging diversity.
• Identify the actions/behaviors that can be taken to overcome the practices that hinder the organization from leveraging diversity.
• Identify the cultural norms with regard to job performance of associates from diverse cultures.
• Use the appropriate behaviors/actions when assessing the performance of associates from diverse cultures.
• Use the appropriate behaviors/actions when conducting a performance appraisal/feedback discussion with associates from diverse cultures.
Content Outline:
MODULE 1: Introduction
MODULE 2: Understanding Reactions To Diversity
MODULE 3: Getting Clear About Leveraging Diversity
MODULE 4: Indications Of The Current State
MODULE 5: Identifying And Addressing Diversity Challenges
MODULE 6: Identifying Helping And Hindering Factors
Wrap-Up
Length: 1 day
Recommended Audience: All employees
Valuing Diversity
Objectives:
Upon completion of this workshop, participants will be able to:
• Explain what is meant by “diversity”.
• Leverage the diversity of employees in order to obtain increased business results.
• Invite new ideas, information, and diverse perspectives.
• Explain diversity business rationale.
• Explain diversity business strategy.
• Explain the four planks of diversity.
• Follow the guiding principles of respect for individuals.
Content Outline:
MODULE 1: Introduction
MODULE 2: What Is “Diversity?”
MODULE 3: Accepting Diversity
MODULE 4: Diversity In Action
WRAP-UP: Walking The Talk
Length: 1/2 day
Recommended Audience: All employees
Creating a Great Place to Work
Introduction:
Once upon a time you might not have thought much about losing a talented employee. After all, you may have thought, there are a great deal of workers available who would love to be a part of our company. Those days may be short-lived.
The facts are that multiple research studies suggest that the cost of replacing key employees is at least 70% percent of the person’s annual salary. This cost can go as high as 200% of the person’s annual salary.
One study found that the top three reasons for implementing retention strategies are:
• Losing an employee costs between 6 – 18 months pay.
• Hi-tech workers, professionals and managers cost twice as much as other employees to replace.
• Many hidden costs are incurred through lost sales and lost customers.
• The impact on productivity can be drastic, because the employees who are thinking of leaving are not generally as productive as they could be. Getting their replacements to be productive can take a great deal of time as well.
This half-day program helps managers learn how to determine what makes their employees want to stay with the company, and then helps managers determine specific strategies for keeping employees. Alternative strategies are presented for different generations of employees, whose retention drivers are different than those of generations past.
Objectives:
At the end of the training, participants will be able to:
• Recognize the business need for retention.
• Recognize retention opportunities.
• Develop and prioritize unique retention strategies for individual employees.
• Use effective two-way communication skills.
• Provide on-going feedback and coaching for employee retention.
• Identify when retention is not the best choice.
• Act on agreed-upon retention strategies.
Length: 1 day
Recommended Audience: Supervisors, Managers, Directors and Vice Presidents
What is Ethics?
Introduction:
A few years ago, sociologist Raymond Baumhart asked business people "What does ethics mean to you?" Among their replies were the following:
"Ethics has to do with what my feelings tell me is right or wrong."
"Ethics has to do with my religious beliefs."
"Being ethical is doing what the law requires."
"Ethics consists of the standards of behavior our society accepts."
"I don't know what the word means."
These replies might be typical of our own. The meaning of "ethics" is hard to pin down, and the views many people have about ethics are shaky. Many people tend to equate ethics with our feelings. But being ethical clearly is not a matter of following one's feelings. A person following his or her feelings may not always do what is right. This program helps participants to understand what ethics is and is not, and what our responsibilities are with respect to ensuring an ethical environment in which to work.
Objectives:
At the end of the training, participants will be able to:
- Develop a greater understanding of the company’s ethical business practices.
- Recognize how ethical business practices affect the company’s bottom line.
- Use the Ethics NOW model to resolve ethical concerns.
- Resolve ethical case study examples.
- Resolve ethical situations within the company.
Outline:
MODULE ONE: What is Ethics?
MODULE TWO: What Should I do about ethics?
MODULE THREE: What are some examples of ethics in question?
MODULE FOUR: Why Should I Care?
Length: 1/2 day
Recommended Audience: All employees
Strategic Leadership
Introduction:
Strategic Leadership is a highly interactive learning experience designed specifically for managers and those in leadership positions throughout the organization. The program is focused on helping leaders understand the strategic value of team leadership within divisions/departments and across the organization.
Strategic Leadership will provide managers with the knowledge and skills required to carry out their unique roles as team leaders. These roles include aligning associates to the goals of the division, which are linked to the goals of the corporation and working effectively as team leaders across the organization to achieve sales, profitability and customer satisfaction targets. This workshop also will provide senior/middle managers with an understanding of the dynamics of decision-making in a team environment and provide them with the information necessary to reinforce effective team leadership behaviors with other members of management.
Objectives:
When participants have completed the workshop, they will be able to:
• Set clear direction for their division/department
• Align associates to the goals of the division/department and the corporation
• Understand how division/department goals link together to achieve overall corporate objectives
• Apply different modes of decision making
• Implement teamwork concepts within individual divisions/departments and across the organization
• Apply and reinforce the main elements of the leadership model; these elements include communication, trust, participation, feedback, win-win agreements and information
Length: 2 days
Recommended Audience: Managers, Directors, and Vice Presidents
Leadership Skills
Introduction:
Leadership is predicated on vision, energy, and relationships. It is a function of an individual’s ability to move people and the organization forward. Leadership Skills provides managers with the techniques tactics and skills needed to manage and achieve organizational and individual goals, build team support and accountability, effectively introduce change and work across boundaries to get buy-in for implementation.
Objectives:
When participants have completed the workshop, they will be able to:
• Set clear direction with their employees
• Align associates to the goals of the division/department and the corporation
• Understand how division/department goals link together to achieve overall corporate objectives
• Lead change throughout the organization
• Leverage partnerships within individual divisions/departments and across the organization
• Apply and reinforce the main elements of the team leadership model: setting direction, aligning to goals, leading change, leveraging partnerships across the organization, and fostering teamwork.
Length: 2 days
Recommended Audience: Managers, Directors, and Vice Presidents
Business Planning
Introduction:
Business Planning is more than a concept. It is a set of skills for looking at the future, developing strategies, and selecting tactics to achieve success in business. No matter what your time horizon is, there are always unknown elements in front of you that can make your operational goals difficult to achieve. Looking ahead to define the unknown is the first key step in Business Planning.
Business Planning is a workshop designed to develop your skills by using proven tools and techniques to examine and plan for the future. Business Planning is based on a solid understanding of your role and responsibilities in preparing and executing solid business plans. Each group and department within your company is linked to other groups and your customers. Your group provides value in the chain of services that serves the marketplace. Understanding that value is key to implementing your role. The new skills you will learn in this course include analyzing the roles of your business partners and identifying the value-added activities of your business units.
Objectives:
At the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:
• Conduct a Value Chain Analysis to relate corporate goals to business unit goals.
• Define key aspects of supplier relationships.
• Isolate the critical elements of people, resources, services, and funding that are needed for their tactical plan.
• Write a business plan based on sound strategies and tactical actions.
• Establish milestones and metrics for executing the plan.
Approach:
Business Planning enables supervisors, managers, and directors to develop and practice the skills necessary to do effective business planning. A combination of exercises and scenarios develops their business planning skills.
Length: 2 days
Recommended Audience: Managers, Directors, and Vice Presidents
How Leaders Inspire, Influence & Achieve Results
It’s a fact of organizational life: To lead well, you must communicate well. No communication, no leadership - no question about it. This fast-paced, results-oriented course is uniquely designed to strengthen your leadership communication skills. You’ll learn practical techniques to shape your leadership messages, hone an authentic leadership voice and engage in powerful conversations that achieve results.
Who Should Attend:
Experienced managers and executives and anyone who aspires to a leadership position or who is expected to provide leadership.
How You Will Benefit:
• Become a more effective communicator and leader
• Build greater buy-in, trust and loyalty
• Demonstrate grace under fire and defuse tension
• Overcome resistance to change
• Motivate followers and inspire them to action
• Rally support in difficult situations
What You Will Learn:
Effective Leaders—Past and Present
• Describe typical situations requiring leadership, and assess how well you use the language of leadership in these situations
• Identify five traits of effective leaders as communicators and assess how well you demonstrate those traits
Finding Your Leadership Voice
• Learn the two components of a leader’s voice
• Describe several leadership styles and describe your dominant style
Crafting Compelling Messages That Inspire Action and Produce Results
• Pinpoint the desired results of your leadership message by using a results matrix
• Shape your leadership message
Setting the Stage for Powerful Communication
• Pick the right forum and create a winning setting for your key messages
• Overcome stage fright and communication anxiety
Taking the Lead
• Generate presence and charisma that command respect
• Send clear messages that maximize audience understanding
Setting the Direction You Want Others to Travel
• Communicate a clear mission and inspire vision and values
• Delegate authority in ways that prompt others to take responsibility
Influencing and Inspiring Others Into Action
• Identify the factors that demotivate
• Light a fire in the hearts of others
Length:
Recommended Audience:
Preparing for Leadership : What you need to take the lead
You want to become a leader but are you ready to take that step? Learn how to get noticed and selected for a leadership position and develop the skill every confident leader needs! This course is uniquely designed to help leaders-to-be get ready for their new challenges and responsibilities. You’ll discover the heart, soul and mind of true leadership. You’ll explore leadership roles as strategist, change agent, coach, manager, communicator, mentor and team member. And you’ll learn how to develop your unique leadership style for maximum impact.
Who Should Attend:
Any manager who is a potential candidate for a leadership role or who is about to take on a new leadership assignment.
How You Will Benefit:
• Understand what a leader is…and is not
• Project a more dynamic image
• Discover your own unique leadership style
• Determine which leadership attributes you already possess
• Take on your first leadership position with greater confidence
• Get noticed by learning how to look and talk like a leader
• Find out what people expect and respect in a leader
• Refine your leadership skills in gaining and using power and influence positively
• Learn how to motivate a team, including “difficult people”
• Protect yourself against the pitfalls of intra-organizational politics
What You Will Learn:
Is there a Leader in You?
• Discuss which qualities senior management looks for in candidates for leadership positions
• Understand the challenges you will face as a leader
What Do Leaders Talk About?
• Discover your leadership style
• Learn to adapt your style to the needs of others
What Is Your Leadership Image?
• Describe how to project the positive professional image of a leader
How Can You Build Your Influence and Power?
• Illustrate ways that leaders can build their power and influence
How Can You Develop Key Relationships?
• Identify the strategic alliances you need to build
How Should You Handle Organizational Politics?
• Explain strategies for getting others to support your agenda
How Can You Motivate People?
• Assess the things that really motivate
Length:
Recommended Audience:
Coaching for Success
Introduction:
To be effective, supervisors must feel prepared and comfortable in a challenging, fast-paced, stressful environment. Supervisors come out of this training not only motivated themselves, but having the ability to motivate their associates. The training is very upbeat, motivational, and enjoyable for everyone.
Objectives:
Skills and knowledge is acquired and developed throughout the program using the following approaches:
• Participants are requested to bring to class some specific performance situations with which they are presently faced. They will use these situations to be acted out as real-life case studies.
• To ensure participants know the areas they as individuals specifically need to work on, they will complete a self-assessment. This assessment is based on each of the specific skills that comprise the COACHing model.
• The training is designed to allow participants to practice their coaching techniques. In order to effectively provide feedback, the facilitator will need to videotape each participant as he or she is practicing coaching skills.
• The critical skill of redirecting is used to help participants learn new skills. Redirecting means to stop the action at critical points to provide coaching. Redirecting will allow participants to increase their skills and benefit more from the role play experience if they receive coaching on the spot so they can improve the situation rather than waiting until the end of the role play to receive feedback.
Length: 2 days
Recommended Audience: Supervisors, Managers and Directors
Continuous Performance Management
Introduction:
The program uses a “pull-it-all-together theme” that functions as a hook, but also as a reminder of the key ideas they need to improve performance. This theme is based on the PERFORM model. Each letter in the PERFORM model represents a key skill managers need:
P - Preparing through goal setting
E - Effectively observing behavior
R - Recording behavior
F - Feedback
O - Offering recognition
R - Remembering to coach performance
M - Managing through evaluation
The model can also be represented on job aids - business card size reminders of the components of the PERFORM model. Participants can use these once they return to their jobs as easy, quick reminders of what they need to do to improve performance.
Emphasis is placed on the need for continuous performance management, rather than end-of-year performance appraisals. This theme of continuous performance management can be reinforced through a graphic showing performance management as an ongoing cycle. This cycle is replicated throughout the program - as a cover graphic, an element in the corner of each overhead, etc.
Another “tie-it-all-together” concept is that at the end of each module, the participants will complete the portion of an action plan that relates to the particular skill in that module. At the end of the training, participants will complete one action plan for the course.
Objectives:
At the end of the program, participants will be able to:
• determine how the component skills of the performance management cycle interact with each other and directly affect the performance of their business units
• use key skills/behaviors in each component of the PERFORM model
Length: 1 day
Recommended Audience: Supervisors, Managers and Directors
Corporate Civility (Business Etiquette)
Introduction:
This workshop focuses on the most important essentials of business etiquette. In the business world, relationships are developed quickly – or not. If employees treat each other with respect they will treat the customers with respect. Your investment in training your staff will be immediately visible to you – and to your clients.
Approach:
This no-nonsense, real-world, training program teaches all forms of business etiquette: It is specifically designed for groups who want to polish their skills and improve their professional image. Information is presented in a humorous and relaxed style that cuts to the heart of today's etiquette concerns. Hands-on activities are used to reinforce learning points.
Outline:
• First impressions in the business world
• The importance of attitude
• Verbal communication
• Nonverbal communication
• Dress and grooming
• Chivalry
• The art of handshakes
• Introductions
• Business card etiquette
• Corporate meeting protocol
• Business lunches
• Telephone courtesy
• Email and fax etiquette
• Cell phone etiquette
• Cubicle etiquette
Length: 1 day
Recommended Audience: all employees
Managing Flexible Work Arrangements
Introduction:
Managing Flexible Work Arrangements requires different types of management ability than traditional work arrangements. A key element is a lower level of face-to-face contact. This requires the ability to manage remotely. Both employees and managers have many of the same types of needs, but they also have unique needs driven by the nature of the flexible work arrangement. It is not enough to know the guidelines and policies for flexible work arrangements. Managers must create a specific set of practices to help ensure success. These practices may lie outside their normal habits of communication and management practices.
This course provides a process for looking at each flexible work arrangement as an opportunity to achieve results through creative management. Participants will learn tools and techniques by applying them first to scenarios and then to their own situation.
Objectives:
At the conclusion of the course, participants will be able to:
• Define the key aspects of managing remotely.
• Synchronize your expectations with employees’ expectations.
• Use tools and techniques to achieve results through flexible work arrangements.
• Implement a Personal Action Plan for managing flexible work arrangements.
Length: 1 day
Recommended Audience: Employees who manage flexible work schedules
Navigating Change
Introduction:
Leading Through Change enables employees to use change management tools to strengthen personal and organizational effectiveness in the midst of change. The workshop is highly interactive, and it encourages individual and group initiative and creativity.
Objectives:
At the end of the course, participants will be able to:
• Assess their ability to deal with change effectively
• Identify the impact of change on four levels: individuals, working relationships, your organization, and the marketplace
• Identify the transition phases during change and strategies for each phase
• Recognize the need for continuous adaptation in a changing marketplace
• Understand and apply tools to strengthen their capacity to deal with change
Length: 1 day
Recommended Audience: All employees
Streamlining Priorities
Introduction:
Being active and being productive are worlds apart. People may have a lot of work going around them daily, yet others seem to generate better bottom-line results.
The reason is simple: Merely being active is not the same as being productive.
“I wish I’d spent more time at the office.” History has never recorded these as anyone’s last words. “I wish I’d spent more time with my family” is a much more likely deathbed sentiment. The course centers on the concepts of First Things First, by helping you to focus on the most important activities, rather than those that deter from productivity. Delegation, paper management and handling interruptions are also covered by this insightful program.
Objectives
At the end of the training, participants will be able to:
• Create a vision of successful time management.
• Identify the skills required to focus on organizational priorities.
• Identify the organizational priorities that must be focused on.
• Use an urgent/importance grid.
Length: 1 day
Recommended Audience: all employees
The SUCCESSful Supervisor
Introduction:
The SUCCESSful Supervisor is a two-day interactive workshop that helps participants build supervisory skills. The program uses the SUCCESS mnemonic to emphasize the core skills required to be a successful supervisor, and it features the use of a skill-building simulation which enables participants to use each of the core supervisory skills within a realistic setting.
Objectives:
At the end of the training, participants will be able to:
• Staff, plan and prioritize.
• Understand and facilitate teams’ ability to meet goals.
• Communicate expectations clearly.
• Consistently manage performance.
• Encourage teams’ to make decisions and resolve problems.
• Seize coaching opportunities.
• Strengthen skills through empowering others.
Length: 2 days
Recommended Audience: Supervisors and Managers
Business Speed Reading & Comprehension Skills
Introduction:
The biggest single overhead cost in any organization is it’s payroll, which is essentially the cost of buying the employee’s time. And in order to keep abreast of new information, employees spend many hours a day on office-reading – reports, email, newspapers, correspondence, technical papers, industry news and general-knowledge reading – at a cost of thousands of dollars annually. Learning to manage and process this reading workload more productively and efficiently saves time and money.
Objectives:
At the end of the program, participants will have :
* A strategy for skimming through large volumes of reading material with sufficient comprehension to establish content relevance to reading purpose.
* An effective e-mail management system.
* A technique for mastering general reading – reviewing what is already known, familiarization with what is relevant but not critical, and identifying what is vital to reading purpose and what needs urgent and critical attention.
* A game-plan for efficiently mastering high-responsibility reading – the complex and technical material that needs total & accurate comprehension, retention & recall.
* A system for improving general knowledge through the rapid and effective processing of newspapers, magazines and general interest fiction and non-fiction.
* A mind-mapping strategy for enhanced retention & recall, and planning of reports & presentations.
* All of this to be achieved in less time than before, but with better results. Indeed, the average reading rate increase by the conclusion of the 10-hr course is 5-fold, without loss of comprehension or retention.
Length: 10 hours over 2 days
Recommended Audience: Executives, Managers, Professionals & Supervisors
Note: This course is presented by Dr Bruce Stewart, an international advanced reading & comprehension skills coach with over 30 years experience in coaching personnel from organizations such as the Pentagon, Special Operations Command, The World Bank, Microsoft, Credit Suisse, Visa and B&W Nuclear Operations Group.
Problem Solving and Decision-Making
Approach:
Lecturette: Problem-Solving/Decision Making model - Linking the Turnaround experience with the behaviors required for successfully solving problems and making decisions, participants explore the concepts embedded in the model. Participants are encouraged to link the elements of the model with their experience in Turnaround and their own working environment.
Turnaround Simulation - Turnaround is a simulation which helps supervisors and managers learn how to deal with and change employees’ attitudes and solve production problems. Individual and group performance during the simulation reflects the level of managerial knowledge and experience of participants and successful scores depend on effective communication and teamwork skills. The simulation has four parts.
Application: Real-World Impact - In this group discussion, participants begin to understand what specifically they need to do differently to ensure effective problem solving and decision making. Participants identify what specific problem solving and decision-making skills contributed to the success of turning around the Grindtown Plant.
Based on their experience in Turnaround they are asked to identify some of the actions they can take to reach results like those attained in the simulation. The facilitator debriefs this discussion and relates it to the Turnaround experience.
Length: 1 day
Recommended Audience: All employees
Developing Quality Relationships
Introduction:
Developing Quality Relationships is an interactive one-day workshop that strengthens the vital links between customers, suppliers and employees. It develops relationship skills that build strong business partnerships with both internal and external customers and suppliers. The program is intended to help the organization improve both the quality of work relationships and the quality of work processes. Introductory quality concepts are learned through simulations and experiential learning. In the workshop, participants then apply what they have learned to their own work situations.
Objectives:
At the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:
• Describe the relationship between value, quality and price.
• Describe the importance of internal customer/supplier relationships in satisfying the ultimate customer.
• Build strong customer/supplier partnerships on the job.
• Map key business processes that need improvement.
Approach:
The Developing Quality Relationships workshop impacts the way people partner with customers and suppliers both inside and outside the organization. A key component of the workshop is a realistic simulation that enables participants to experience the impact of improving quality relationships as well as quality processes. In addition, participants work through experiential exercises intended to help them understand how to make the quality changes necessary to drive more effective business results.
Length: 2 days
Recommended Audience: All employees
Facilitating Work Teams
Introduction:
This workshop is highly interactive and experiential in nature. People learn by doing, so we place participants in situations that replicate the work environment. We then ask them to apply the learning to these work situations.
Outline:
• Introduction
• The Role of the Facilitator
• Effective Communication Skills
• When to Intervene
• Motivating the Team
• Developing the Team
• Closure
• Intention Groups
The following additional modules are offered as reinforcing modules. If you prefer, they can be combined into the existing workshop:
• Developing Team Mission Statement
• Developing Team Ground Rules
• Leader/Peer Feedback
• Developing Team Performance Measures
• Resolving Team Conflicts
Length: 1 day
Recommended Audience: Employees who are responsible for facilitation
Working Together Works!
Introduction:
Working together is the key way to help your teams, your organization, and yourself become more successful. Becoming an effective supervisor is predicated on alignment, building partnerships and empowering teams. An effective supervisor knows how to resolve conflicts, develop teams, and provide feedback on a continuous basis. Working Together Works! provides supervisors with the techniques, tactics and skills needed to develop each of these key skills and more.
Approach:
Working Together Works! enables participants to practice the specific skills necessary to help supervisors grow and develop their teams. Through a pre-course assignment, interactive exercises, movie clips, and role-plays, participants are immersed in the various skills necessary to become proficient in their important role. The workshop causes participants to embrace the importance of their job, thereby helping to create increased job satisfaction, motivation and productivity.
Objectives:
Upon completion of the workshop, the learner will be able to:
• Align associates to the goals of the division/department and the corporation.
• Build partnerships within the team and between your team and other teams.
• Empower teams by encouraging participation and decision-making, as appropriate.
• Resolve team conflicts.
• Develop teams by identifying strengths and weaknesses, and building on strengths while reducing weaknesses.
Length: 1 day
Recommended Audience: All employees. Best for in-tact work teams
Exploring Social Developing and Instilling Trust
Introduction:
In the Developing and Instilling Trust workshop, participants will experience the consequences of win/lose in teams and between teams through experiential exercises, role-plays and simulations. Participants learn through self-discovery and application of techniques. This workshop makes the intangible tangible by focusing on the skills required to build trust. Participants learn the components of trust through the trust model; these components are: win/win, openness, honesty and consistency.
Participants explore how to move from a win/lose position to a win/win position in the workplace through using trust as a strategic tool.
Objectives:
At the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:
• Identify the impact of lack of trust on work relationships and on departmental success.
• Apply and reinforce the main elements of the trust model: win/win, openness, honesty and consistency.
• Implement trust-building skills throughout the organization.
• Determine how to build trust with specific individuals.
Approach:
The Developing and Instilling Trust workshop enables participants to use specific skills, strategies and tactics to build trust throughout the organization. Through interactive exercises and movie clips, participants recognize rust components that they can use to become more successful. The workshop causes participants to take an intangible subject and make it tangible, thereby helping to create more positive, effective work relationships and more positive, effective work results.
Length: 1 day
Recommended Audience: All employees
Imbedding Trust throughout the Organization
Introduction:
This follow-up session is intended to help participants continue to imbed trust throughout their organization. This session should be used as a follow-up to the workshop “Developing and Instilling Trust.” Ideally, this follow-up session should be held 3 – 6 months after attending the training. Preferably, all the participants from the original training will attend.
Talk is cheap with regard to trust. We don’t build trust by telling people “trust me.” We do not build trust by talking about the importance of trust. We do not build trust through talk, but through our actions.
We build trust through win/win actions, through openness, honesty and consistency. We build trust by fulfilling our promises and acting in a consistent and predictable manner. We build trust by showing concern for others, particularly when they are in need of our support.
According to Robert Bruce Shaw, author of Trust in the Balance, “Trust is the organizational glue that is going to replace loyalty as the bond employees have with the company. As we know, there is no longer an implicit bond an employee has with the company when he or she is hired. Rather, that loyalty is constantly in question when it comes time for layoffs, downsizing or re-engineering. Employees do not feel that they need to be loyal to a company that is not loyal to them.”
In this workshop, participants learn to imbed trust throughout the organization by practicing specific skills and techniques and putting these to work everyday on the job.
Length: 1/2 day
Recommended Audience: All employees
Designing and Developing Effective Training
Introduction:
This workshop gives participants the skills and techniques they need to design and develop effective instruction applying proven methods and a systematic development approach. From front-end analysis to piloting the finished product, this course uses extensive hands-on activities and cases to teach the fundamentals of good instructional design.
Objectives:
At the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:
• Use essential needs analysis, design and development tools
• Use proven methods to design professional training
• Apply their skills to their own instructional design cases and receive detailed feedback
Outline:
• Overview of instructional design process
• Completing a needs analysis
• Completing an audience analysis
• Completing a media analysis
• Analyzing content
• Sequencing content
• Determining training design
• Writing learning objectives
• Selecting prime, prompt, and perform methods
• Working with SMEs
• Creating participant materials
• Piloting training
• Planning implementation
• Ongoing evaluation
Length: 3 days
Recommended Audience: Anyone who participates in the design and development of training programs, including: SMEs who develop their own courses, HR practitioners seeking to specialize in training, instructors who must design training, developers who want proven methods to develop courses, and training managers looking for training tools and standards.
Job Aid Design and Development
The effective alternative to classroom delivery!
Introduction:
Are you tasked with designing job aids to leverage training in a variety of environments and for a range of needs? You will review the characteristics of seven types of job aids and their expanding role in the workplace. Explore examples and participate in design exercises to clarify the characteristics of different job aid formats. And, you’ll have the opportunity to apply the design process to your own job-related projects
Objectives:
At the end of the workshop, you will be able to:
• Determine when to use job aids.
• Select a job aid format.
• Select media.
• Select the appropriate job aid formats:
o step
o worksheet
o look-up table
o decision table
o flow chart
o checklist
o combination
Length: 1 day
Recommended Audience: Trainers, course developers and project managers involved in development, editing or testing of training programs
Train-the-Trainer
Introduction:
Everyone knows that being a "learning organization" can improve a business' competitiveness. Most train-the-trainer programs teach in-house staff to present a specific program, often designed by the vendor. We guide your staff in being able to present content that you specify, but more importantly we prepare your staff to develop more effective training no matter what the content. They also learn to identify and promote learning for themselves and others.
Our train-the-trainer program:
• Enables employees to design the training they need when they need it
• Provides training and re-training "just in time"
• Translates into higher productivity and reductions in errors and waste
• Helps new employees quickly climb the learning curve to full productivity
• Maximizes learning achieved in formal classrooms training as well as one-on-one coaching and group problem solving
• Trains a wide range of employees to be better trainers and learners
Outline:
Section I
Introducing Yourself
Modeling the Principles in the training
Getting People interested in and ready for the training
Section II
Using Audio-visual Equipment, power points and flipcharts
Using Transitions
Answering Questions
Section III
Physical Skills
Handling Difficult Participants
Grouping People
Handling Resistance
Section IV
Maintaining Interaction
Debriefing Exercises
Managing Time
Section V
Providing Effective Stories and Examples
Providing Effective Hooks and Benefit Statements
Asking for Volunteers
Using Supporting Notes
Using Humor
Helping People Learn
Length: 2 days
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