Services
Workshops
We design our workshops to reflect the specific culture of your organization and the needs of your participants.
The Approach
All workshops provide a highly participatory environment. We incorporate individual exercises, small and large group discussions and input from the program leader to make the learning environment personal and highly practical.
On occasion, we use thought provoking videos to stimulate thinking and illustrate various points. Comprehensive handout materials provide an excellent resource after the program.
Who Attends?
People from all levels of organizations have participated in our programs. In some cases, a significant and unexpected benefit to participants has been the opportunity to get to know their colleagues better.
Personal Action Plans
All workshops conclude with each participant developing a Personal Action Plan for the application of no more than two (2) key ideas to his/her work environment. Experience has taught us that such a narrow focus has a much higher likelihood of success.
Sustainment Calls
These are calls of 15 minutes or less made by the program leader to individual participants approximately 30 days after the conclusion of the program. During this call, the leader follows up on the two items that the participant highlighted at the end of the workshop. The feedback from participants has been very positive. They have found that knowing they would be reviewing these items has kept them front of mind during the interim period.
The call also provides an opportunity for the leader to make suggestions for tackling any areas of challenge.
Post Program Coaching
When a post program coaching has been added, the Action Plans form the foundation for the first coaching session. At the end of each subsequent coaching session, the coachee develops an action plan that will be revisited at the beginning of the next session.
The number of 50 minute telephone sessions varies. Our preference is six calls spread over 5-6 months.
Program Outlines
The outlines contained on this site provide an overview of the possible contents of workshops. As mentioned above, each workshop will be adjusted to reflect the particular needs of your organization. Click on the title for details of the content.
- Communicating with Impact
- Advanced People Skills
- Building an Engaging Workplace
- Courageous Conversations
- Developing Emotional Intelligence
- Gearing Up for Change
- Meeting Mastery
- The Exceptional Leader®
- The Unified Team
Communicating with Impact
This workshop is designed to assist participants to refine the critical skills that will permit them to interact even more effectively with their internal and external customers.
The Communications Model
The participants will be introduced to a simple model of communications. This model will serve as a foundation for the ensuing discussions on communications. The participants will be introduced to Neurolinguistics and explore the importance of taking into account the varying preferences that people have in their styles of communication.
The Power of Non-Verbal Communications
The leader will use a simple exercise to stress the large amount of information available in non-verbal aspects of communications. The participants will be encouraged to use their awareness in a productive but non-threatening manner.
The Impact of Perception
The participants will participate in exercises that will illustrate the impact of differing perceptions on the communications process. They will be reminded of the importance of clarifying their intentions to make sure that their communications have the desired impact.
Passive and Active Listening
Practice sessions will demonstrate the hard work involved in listening both passively and actively. The leader will outline the more common barriers to effective listening. He will then provide suggestions for listening more productively and emphasize the value of using the appropriate technique for different situations.
Expressing Empathy
Successful communications is more likely to occur when there is a positive relationship between the participants. To that end, the participants will learn and practice the 3L’s of empathy as a technique for further developing their relationships. . .
Words that Diminish Impact
In this module, the participants will review a series of short phrases and expressions that have the potential to diminish the impact of what they are trying to communicate. They will be encouraged to minimize the use of the more obvious ones.
Pseudo Questions
Effective communications requires trust between the participants. Too often pseudo questions result in people being distracted as they wonder what the other person is ‘really’ trying to say.
In this module, the leader will provide suggestions for more direct means of communications.
Assertive Communications
The leader will provide further suggestions for direct and assertive communications.
The Feedback and Feedforward Processes
Successful communicators constantly seek and give feedback and feedforward.
In this module, the leader will present a useful model for feedback and a checklist for increasing the quality and impact of feedback.
The leader will also introduce the notion of feedforward. An exercise will reinforce how impactful and constructive this technique can be.
Methodology
The workshop provides a highly participatory environment. Individual exercises, small and large group discussions and input from the program leader will make the learning environment personal and highly practical. This combination of approaches will provide a stimulating learning experience that will have a lasting impact for the participants.
An Option
Participants complete the Neurolinguistic Communication Profile before the meeting. Time is then allocated for a review of the feedback they receive and suggestions made for using any insights that are gained.
Advanced People Skills
In conjunction with the Institute for Health and Human Potential, we offer this two day workshop.
Staff engagement and accountability are two of the biggest challenges leaders and managers face in these challenging times. According to Hewitt, engagement is a measure of an individual’s emotional and intellectual commitment to an organization. It measures the extent to which the individual:
- Consistently says positive things about their employer
- Intends to stay with the organization
- Strives to achieve above and beyond what is expected of him/her in their daily role.
Retaining the best and the brightest is another important challenge. Research by Gallup has confirmed that ‘people leave managers, not companies’.
To achieve high levels of engagement, retention and personal accountability, successful managers excel at making emotional connections with their staff. Advanced People Skills has been designed to equip managers with the powerful skills to make these connections.
The study of emotional intelligence has provided simple and powerful insights into how to build and sustain those connections. Research has also provided evidence that emotional intelligence is more important as a predictor of leadership success, than the combination of IQ and acquired technical skills.
This highly practical two day program has been designed to help managers:
- learn about emotional intelligence and its value both professionally and personally
- recognize the impact of emotional intelligence on working relationships
- discover the scientific basis of emotional intelligence
- receive insight into their existing emotional intelligence
- learn techniques for dealing effectively with heightened emotions in themselves and in their interactions with others
- acquire tools for creating a highly engaging and productive workplace
- refine their coaching skills
Day 1
The participants will:
- examine the characteristics of E:xceptional Leaders™
- learn about the importance of aligning intention and impact
- discover what emotional intelligence is not and is
- explore the components of successful leadership
- be introduced to a model of emotional intelligence
- examine the science behind emotional intelligence
- become more aware of the long term consequences of emotional hijacks
- examine the importance of determining underlying driving needs before responding
- assess their existing emotional intelligence in three areas
- learn about their personal early warning system
- look at the role of emotional intelligence in engagement and accountability
Day 2
The participants will:
- learn the SOSS strategy for managing heightened emotions
- acquire skills for managing themselves when unexpected changes occur
- be given strategies for dealing with setbacks
- gain techniques for making emotional connections and developing more effective working relationships
- explore the importance of empathy and how to express it
- learn the value of non-triggering questions
- have an opportunity to participate in Coach the Coach exercises
- develop a Personal Action Plan for the application of two learnings to their particular situation.
Coaching Follow Up (Recommended Option)
Long embraced by high performance athletes, coaching is being adopted by more and more successful organizations. These organizations recognize that coaching can be a useful addition to training to help the participants apply their learnings, solve complex interpersonal problems and increase their leadership effectiveness.
Each participant will have six (6) 50 minute confidential coaching sessions with an executive coach. To minimize costs, these sessions will take place by telephone.
The coaching sessions will take place at intervals of approximately three weeks. The sessions will reinforce the application of emotional intelligence in the daily activities of the participants.
Building an Engaging Workplace
The objective of this workshop is to equip team leaders with the tools necessary to build a high performance team.
The workshop is based on the premise that an effective team has a clear mandate for its existence. With a clear mandate, guiding principles are established to ensure that the team members are able to function effectively within clear parameters.
The learning process involves basic background concepts followed by exercises that will reinforce the tools described.
Topics to be covered include:
- A communications review
- The feedback process
- Managing differences of opinion
- Diagnosing group dynamics
- Two models of team development
- The varying roles of team leaders
- Tips for effective functioning
Courageous Conversations
Conflict is inevitable in organizations. It is a powerful and potentially destructive force. Poorly managed it can result in turmoil, drastically reduced morale and sub-standard performance. Managed well, conflict can produce more productive relationships and significantly increase the level of trust in the workplace.
The objective of this workshop is to equip the participants with tools to constructively deal with conflict and thus reap its potential benefits. By the end of the workshop, the participants will feel more competent and confid¬ent to deal with difficult situations.
Prework
Before the meeting, the participants will be asked to complete two assignments to start thinking about a challenging situation they are presently experiencing.
The first will be an online questionnaire to assess their existing conflict-handling style and how they use the five distinct modes: competing, avoiding, compromising, collaborating and accommodating. During the meeting, each participant will receive a confidential report generated from the questionnaire.
The second questionnaire will help the participant focus on the most challenging person or situation currently affecting him/her.
These assignments will take approximately 25 minutes.
Program Outline
Analyzing Conflicting Situations
The participants learn to diagnose conflict situations. They also acquire tips for determining the costs of “win-lose” and “lose-lose” outcomes to conflicting situations. The leader presents suggestions for making adjustments to arrive at “win-win” outcomes whenever possible.
Courageous Conversations
Courageous Conversations are the conversations most people avoid for as long as they can in the hope that ‘things will sort themselves out’. By developing the skills to hold these conversations promptly and constructively, the participants gain the confidence necessary to address situations before they fester and, potentially, become even more difficult.
The program leader presents the Constructive Confrontation Model as a helpful tool for addressing conflicting situations. He then outlines the DESC Formula, an excellent four-step process for preparing for Courageous Conversations.
On occasion, people pay token attention to or appear to ignore the concerns of others. To gain the attention of those people, the leader provides the participants with suggestions for creating SEE’s (Significant Emotional Events).
Dealing with Strong Emotions
The leader introduces the participants to the notion of emotional hijacks and the Law of Hardwiring. He then provides simple tools and techniques for dealing with strong emotions which, if not properly managed, can compound the challenges of conflict.
Engineering Crisis out of Relationships
In this module, the leader outlines and recommends the Planned Renegotiation Model as an effective approach for reducing the likelihood of crises in ongoing relationships.
Practicum
Participants have an opportunity to prepare for a Courageous Conversation and get feedback on their approach to dealing with their challenging situation.
Methodology
This workshop combines individual work, input from the program leader and opportunities for interaction between the participants in small and large groups. Handouts and blank worksheets are provided for future use.
Developing Emotional Intelligence
In conjunction with the Institute for Health and Human Potential, we offer a two day workshop called Emotional Intelligence for Personal Leadership. This workshop is based on the EI360™ an online feedback tool that allows input from up to 14 raters.
By the end of the workshop, the participants will:
- be able to differentiate between the three domains of competence
- be able to define emotional intelligence and its core competencies
- understand the relationship between the brain, emotions and behaviours
- be able to identify an amygdala hijack
- have extracted and interpreted practical information from their EI360TM feedback reports
- have learnt key strategies for developing the core competencies of emotional intelligence which include:
- Self-awareness
- Emotional management; and,
- Emotional connections with others
- have developed a personal action plan for refining their personal leadership based on their 360° feedback and their key learnings from this workshop.
We strongly recommend that clients complement this program with one-on-one telephone coaching after the workshop. This process encourages the participants to implement new strategies and provides them with support and an impartial sounding board as they refine their techniques.
Gearing Up for Change
Change surrounds everything we do in our organizations. Some people fear change and shy from it; others are excited by it and anticipate more change with great enthusiasm.
As our markets and our industry changes, our people must change to adapt. Organizations that prepare themselves and their people for change are much more likely to succeed in this ever increasingly rapid changing environment.
This workshop focuses on equipping people to better handle all types of change. To this end, the workshop examines such areas as:
- Typical Reactions to Change
- Change as Opportunity
- The Role of Emotions in Change
- The Force Field Analysis
- The Concept of Paradigms
- The Change Review
At times people are required to create change in their organizations. The workshop explores different strategies for successfully stimulating change. In addition, the workshop examines the varying roles of successful change agents.
Managing Conflict Constructively
Conflict is inevitable in organizations. It is a powerful and potentially destructive force. Poorly managed it can result in turmoil, drastically reduced morale and sub-standard performance. Properly harnessed, conflict can fuel progress and result in deeper and more productive working relationships.
The objective of this workshop is to provide tools for properly managing conflict and thus reaping its benefits. Participants will leave feeling more confident about dealing with difficult situations.
Topics to be addressed include:
- Common reactions to conflict
- The costs of win-lose and lose-lose outcomes
- The Constructive Confrontation Model
- Techniques for creating S.E.E.’s (Significant Emotional Events)
- Using the DESC Formula to prepare for Courageous Conversations
- Recognizing and managing the strong emotions that are inevitable in conflict
- The Planned Renegotiation Model for reducing crisis in relationships
The Exceptional Leader®
We have designed this in-depth workshop to equip participants with feedback and ideas that will help them refine their approach to leadership.
Topics addressed include:
- An examination of existing strengths and areas for development
- The distinction between Leaders and Managers
- The Components of Leadership Model
- Emotional Intelligence
The workshop then provides participants with the opportunity to analyze their existing leadership style using the Leader Behaviour Analysis developed by Dr. Ken Blanchard.
Participants use the Developmental Task Analysis instrument to practice applying the knowledge they have gained from the Leader Behaviour Analysis to a leadership situation in their workplace.
The focus of the workshop then changes to the topic of Delegation. Participants rate their existing delegation skills through a brief survey of their recent work practices. They then explore:
- A definition of delegation
- Common barriers to delegation
- Steps to successful delegation
- The benefits of delegation
One of the more common barriers to delegation is the fear of overloading one’s direct reports. To address this concern, the participants are provided with the Constructive Abandonment Technique. This is a method of proactively managing heavy workloads. In addition to encouraging direct reports to use it with them, the participants will find it helpful for dealing with their own workloads.
We often supplement this program with one-on-one telephone coaching after the workshop. This process encourages the participants to implement new strategies and provides them with support as they refine their techniques.
On other occasions, we use 360° feedback to ensure that the participants are aware of the impact their actions are having on the people they seek to lead and work with.
The Unified Team
This workshop has been designed to assist the participants to fine tune critical skills that will help them create a more unified and respectful working environment. This will facilitate their relationships with their colleagues and their customers.
The Communications Model
The leader will introduce a simple model of communications. The participants will learn about the VAK Styles of Communication and explore the importance of factoring this knowledge into their exchanges.
The Power of Non-Verbal Communications
The leader will use a simple exercise to stress the large amount of non-verbal information present in communications. The participants will be encouraged to use their awareness of non-verbal information in a productive but non-threatening manner.
The Impact of Perception
The participants will participate in exercises that will illustrate the impact of differing perceptions on the communications process.
Passive and Active Listening
Practice sessions will demonstrate the hard work involved in listening both passively and actively. The leader will emphasize the value of using the appropriate technique for different situations.
Words that Diminish Impact
In this module, the participants will review a series of short phrases and expressions that have the potential to diminish the impact of what they are trying to communicate. They will be encouraged to minimize the use of the more obvious ones.
The Continuous Improvement Process
Successful people constantly seek feedback about their impact on others. They are also open to receiving suggestions or feedforward that will help them increase their impact in the future. In addition, successful people are willing to offer feedback on their reactions to the behaviours of others and offer feedforward.
In this module, the leader will present a useful model for feedback and a checklist for increasing the quality and the impact of feedback and feedforward.
The Thomas Personal Profile Analysis
The Thomas Personal Profile Analysis will provide each participant with the opportunity to better understand themselves and others. It will also help them identify how best to modify their own behaviour to strengthen relationships and improve communications.
Prior to the workshop, each participant will complete an online survey. S/he will receive a report before the meeting which will provide feedback on work strengths, self-motivation, work and pressure modifications and general comments relating to any frustrations s/he might be experiencing.
In this part of the workshop, the participants will discuss the implications of their profile and how they can use this information to refine their approach to working with others.
Courageous Conversations
Conflict is inevitable in any relationship. To be effective, people must be willing and competent to have courageous conversations to address challenging people and situations. To begin the examination of this topic, the participants will be asked to complete the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument prior to the workshop. This instrument will give them insight to their existing ways of dealing with conflict.
In the workshop, the leader will present the Constructive Confrontation Model. He will also introduce the notion of emotional hijacks and the impact/intent dilemma that often have a devastating effect on seemingly unimportant interactions. The participants will then be provided with suggestions for creating S.E.E.’s (Significant Emotional Events). This is an effective technique for dealing with situations in which opinions are being ignored.
Finally, the leader will describe the DESC formula. This simple but powerful tool consists of a four step process for preparing for potentially contentious discussions.
Methodology
The program has been designed to provide a highly participatory environment. Individual exercises, small and large group discussions and input from the program leader will make the learning environment personal and highly practical. This combination of approaches will provide a learning experience that will have a lasting impact for the participants.
