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Conflict Management

Approaching Difficult Conversations: Your ability to engage successfully in difficult conversations relates directly to the results you achieve in your personal and professional life. This one-day seminar provides a framework for understanding the dynamics of difficult conversations along with strategies for improving your personal and organizational effectiveness. Participants will:

• Deepen their understanding about how language influences thinking and relationships;
• Learn skills for listening to what is most important to the other person;
• Practice intentional inquiry to discover what is at the heart of the matter; and
• Learn to move beyond stuck conversations and relationships to create new possibilities and achieve the results you want.

Essential Skills for Effective Collaboration: Personal and Professional effectiveness is very often determined by our ability to work interdependently with others in pursuit of shared objectives. This two-part series is designed to provide participants with skills for managing difficult conversations and facilitating shared decision making.

 

• Part 1: Essential Skills for Effective Negotiation: We engage in shared decision making on a regular basis in both our personal and professional lives. In some cases the issues discussed are relatively simple with limited significance. At other times we face complex issues impacting the lives those in the conversation and those who are not. This two-day seminar lays the foundation for effective decision making on issues when you have a stake in the outcome. Participants will be introduced to key concepts, processes and skill for interest-based problem solving including:
• The roots of disagreement and motivating factors in decision making;
• The language and theory of principled negotiation;
• A step-by-step process for effective negotiation; and
• Communication skills for improving relationships, solving problems, and reaching agreement.
• Part 2: Mediation: The Role of a Neutral Third Party in Negotiation: This three-day workshop builds on the concepts, process, and skills of Part 1 to teach participants to apply collaborative problem solving strategies as a “Third Party Neutral”. Participants will:
• Learn to guide others through a collaborative negotiation and problem-solving process;
• Understand the role of a neutral third-party in negotiations;
• Recognize and manage personal bias;
• Understand how to balance power at the table; and
• Gain skills for dealing with strong emotions and building an environment that fosters candor, collaboration, and creativity.

 

Team Building

Essentials of Effective Teaming: This one-day workshop is designed to help work teams function more effectively. Combining organizational theory, adult learning theory and conflict resolution theory, this workshop presents strategies that will enhance team performance and improve relationships. We will customize the workshop to meet your team challenges. In this seminar we will:

• Provide teams with theory and constructs for improving performance;
• Provide teams with opportunities to apply concepts within their teams;
• Identify skills that enable teams to improve communication;
• Offer process suggestions and models.

 

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Facilitation

Leading Participative Meetings: This one-day interactive course provides the essential skills and knowledge to run effective meetings. You will learn to design and lead meetings so that all voices can be heard and decisions can be made that lead to excellent results. You will learn a framework for being intentional before, during and after meetings to ensure that the meetings achieve their intended results. You will learn strategies for:

• Sharing responsibility for success with participants
• Creating participant satisfaction during meetings;
• Engaging in Learning conversations;
• Expanding the possibilities for achieving results and improving relationships.

 

Essentials of Effective Facilitation: Meetings, Meetings, and more Meetings. It often seems like we are asked to participate in an unlimited number of meetings in both our personal and professional lives. Often at the heart of these gatherings are complex, high stakes issues on which people have differences of opinion and strong emotions. At times these gatherings produce increased learning and understanding, helping us to better address a range of shared issues. At other times they result in polarization and damaged relationships, leaving us frustrated, as our expectations for the time spent are not met.

Experience tells us that the work of groups is enhanced with the assistance of a facilitator. The role of the facilitator is to serve the group and support them in their ability to meet their objectives. This workshop will introduce participants to key concepts, processes and skills of effective facilitation. The workshop will assist participants to learn essential strategies and skills for meeting facilitation and group work. Topics to be covered include:

• Understanding the role of the facilitator;
• Essential elements of an effective meeting;
• Strategies for facilitating group conversations, and
• Skills for improving communication and decision-making.

Moving Upstream: Facilitating in the IEP Life Cycle: This three-day workshop prepares participants to facilitate collaborative learning and shared decision-making within the context of the I.D.E.A. Participants will learn the elements of successful participative meetings and gain the skills to guide groups to achieve their objectives. Participants will be introduced to key concepts, processes, and skills of facilitation and learn specific strategies for supporting successful IEP meetings. Topics to be covered include:

• The role of the facilitator;
• Essential elements of participative meetings;
• Skills and knowledge to support and lead groups through difficult conversations; and
• Best practice facilitation skills applied in various I.D.E.A. context, including the IEP process.

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Leadership

Leading Change and Improvement in a Complex World: This two-day workshop introduces essential concepts and skills needed by leaders and leadership teams. Participants will learn a framework for structuring shared decision-making and problem-solving. We will explore role of effective leadership, understand the dynamics of change and transition, and gains skills to navigate conflict and facilitate learning conversations. Specific topics to be covered include:

• A five-phase process for effective collaboration;
• An interest-based approach to conflict management;
• Change and transition; and
• The roles and functions of effective leadership.

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Bargaining

Foundations for Effective Bargaining: Engaging in Difficult Conversations: This two-day workshop is designed to help collective bargaining teams improve the quality of their negotiation process, their relationships, and outcomes. Participating teams are provided a shared learning experience around the concepts, process, and skills of Interest-Based Negotiation. Participants individually and jointly process the learning and determine next steps. You will:

• Learn to apply the basic concepts, processes and skills of Interest-Based Bargaining;
• Identify and communicate the interests of your constituencies;
• Effectively gather, share, and interpret information and data essential to sound decision-making;
• Use communication skills to improve understanding and relationships;
• Structure negotiations to optimize possibilities for mutual gain;
• Employ behaviors that stimulate trust and open communication; and
• Develop a foundation on which to build more advanced skills.

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