Organizational Training Sessions

When you and your team take part in an organizational training session from JLM Management Consultants, you’ll “learn by doing.” We’ve found that people retain information best and are most committed to learning and growing when they are active participants instead of passive listeners. Our organizational training sessions are built around teaching key concepts plus role play, simulation, and creative scenarios.

We provide everyone the opportunity to develop their own plans for growth and learning.

 

“I first met Dr. Mersky when she led me and a group of my peers through a series of workshops. Her sessions were thought provoking, inspirational and fun; and left each participant with a better sense of their skills and potential. Later, facing an especially tricky staff problem, I hired her to work with me as a coach and to mediate. She did an impressive job getting people to openly discuss their differences, prescribed a dose of self evaluation, and ultimately got us moving toward a workable solution. My organization and I place great value in her talents as a coach and consultant, and have benefited from her commitment to our success. I wholeheartedly recommend the work of JLM Management Consultants.” – Noreen Roche-Carter, Treasurer, Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD)

 

Keep reading to learn about our organizational training sessions and classes. See something you’re interested in? Give us a call at (510) 339-3922 or email us to learn more about how we can create a customized training session for you and your team.

Please Note: All courses list the ideal amount of time needed to maximize the benefits of the course. Some topics can be condensed into shorter sessions, depending on your needs.

 

The Challenge of Leadership

(8-16 hours)

What is a leader? How are leaders different from managers? What does it take to be a successful leader in today’s business world?

Today’s leaders are challenged to develop new skills, capabilities, and competencies in personal self-awareness and the creation of strong teams and partnerships. It’s essential that they create vision and manage meaning to keep employees engaged and productive.  Moreover, specific skills in areas such as communication, negotiation, problem-solving and strategic thinking are fundamental to any leader’s success.

These organizational training sessions help leaders focus on the challenges they must overcome to in order to successfully lead their organizations and their teams into the future.

Sample topic areas:

• Defining Leadership for the 21st Century
• Leaders and managers: Overlaps and Differences
• Building Capacity in Four Key Areas: Purpose, Accountability, Teamwork, Heart
• Forward-thinking Leaders: Vision, values and strategy

 

Leadership and Team Skills to Create Alignment

(2 days)

Effective teams are aligned teams. To reach alignment a team needs both highly capable leaders and skilled team members. Both ensure that the team is clear about its focus, communicates well, and manages through the tough issues to resolution.

This organizational training course provides team leaders and members with an opportunity to learn the skills they need to raise the performance level of the team… to build a true T.E.A.M.  They’ll practice the core skills every superior T.E.A.M. needs: Clarifying the Target (goals), building a cohesive Environment, ensuring mutual Accountability, establishing operational Methods of working together.  With these four areas designed in a concerted and  communication, conflict management and getting the best out of each member.

Sample topic areas:

• What is a real team?
• Communication skills overview & practice
• Managing difficult issues
• Valuing different work styles

 

Building Partnerships Between Internal Staff and Their “Customers”

(2 days)

Internal professionals (usually those who work in IT, HR and Legal) contribute to an organization’s success by supplying colleagues with needed information, resources and products/services. These internal staff work with other internal staff — their “customers”— so that the entire organization can perform at the highest levels for the final customer.

Too often, however, internal professionals behave as though the internal customers work for them, instead of with them. They may never have received a message that colleagues should be treated as “customers,” nor training in how to work best with these colleagues.

This course helps internal professionals take the lead when creating partnerships with internal customers. Internal professionals will learn to develop the mental model of partnership and the actual skills needed to build these partnerships in the best interests of the organization (and the final customers).

Sample topic areas:

• Relationship-building: Combining a partnership and customer-orientated model
• Listening, eliciting information, and learning about different communication styles (extensive practice)
• Negotiation framework and “win-win” outcomes
• Using style differences to one’s advantage

 

Improving Work Relationships Using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

(4-8 hours)

This workshop uses the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) to shed light on a few of the mysteries of work relationships. Why do we find it so easy to communicate with certain individuals? Why does one person prepare everything with great detail and another doesn’t?

MBTI and temperament theory offers sound and non-judgmental distinctions between people. It increases our awareness of similarities and differences among individuals and suggests methods for building and sustaining positive working relationships.

In this session, participants will learn more about their personal approach to work and insights into those with whom they interact.

Sample topic areas:

• The meaning of “type” and temperament
• How types complement and confound
• Understanding temperament as a leader
• Improving communication, problem-solving, and conflict management

 

Effective Communication

(1 day)

Whether making a request, fulfilling a request, discussing performance, creating an agreement, or engaging in many other forms of business communication, several fundamental communication skills are needed.

This organizational training course covers both verbal and non-verbal communication, offers substantial time for practicing improved listening skills, teaches non-threatening ways of speaking when dealing with another person’s behavior, and provides opportunities to reflect upon real-world communication dilemmas.

Sample topic areas:

• Perception and communication
• Verbal and non-verbal communication
• Baseline listening assessment and guidelines for listening
• Responsible speaking (“I” messages)
• Interactive skills practices

 

Negotiating Successfully

(1.5-2 days)

Negotiation is a way of life in every industry and for every business professional. One may negotiate something as simple as who should take minutes at a meeting or as complex as the requirements of a new partnership.

Improving negotiation skills begins by recognizing what defines a successful outcome. In this course, you and your team will develop a solid understanding of how negotiations can meet the needs and interests of each party as well as learn and practice the steps for achieving successful results.

Sample topic areas:

• Content and relationship as fundamental to successful negotiation
• Negotiation styles survey
• The mental map of negotiations (“Prep”)
• Implementing the negotiation model (“STEPS”)

 

Managing Conflict through Effective Negotiation

(2 days)

Conflict can stem from interpersonal and organizational sources. It is common in every organization, and can have both positive and negative impacts.

This course combines many of the topics and skills of Effective Communication and Negotiating Successfully with additional topics on understanding and managing conflict. In addition, participants in this session gain insights into the positive and negative aspects of conflict, the causes of conflict, and learn skills to minimize the destructive aspects of conflict.

 

Performance Management

(1-2 days)

Performance evaluation is only one small element of performance management. Too often managers focus only on evaluation and lose sight of the more important goal of performance management: to motivate and develop individuals so that they can effectively contribute to organizational goals.

This course helps to make those distinctions clear. It also outlines the four components of effective performance:

1. To set goals/objectives
2. To measure performance
3. To provide feedback and coaching
4. To give rewards/recognition

Throughout this course, teams will discuss and develop processes for developing objectives, competencies, and measurement and learn how to use feedback and coaching for effective performance.

Sample topic areas:

• What is Performance Management?
• Goals and objectives: Using the “SMART” model
• Four components of an effective performance management process
• What is a “coach”?
• How rewards affect performance, and how they don’t

 

Team Problem-Solving

(1 day)

While there are many problems that may be solved individually, others require involvement of a larger group. This may be a result of problems that affect more than one person or because a group’s commitment to the solution will ensure its implementation.

When individuals are engaged in understanding the problem and devising a solution, they feel more commitment to the outcome. This session provides practical steps to help everyone focus on the same problem, use criterion-based solutions, and cover all necessary bases when problem-solving.

Sample topic areas:

• Typical challenges in problem-solving
• When should a team solve problems?
• The STEPS model for teams (Situation-target-exploration-proposals-solutions)
• The role of creativity in problem-solving

 

Teams that Work

(4-8 days)

Our Teams that Work training session can stand alone or be combined with our Managing Meetings session. We’ll help you achieve a deeper understanding of what makes teams “tick,” when to use teams and how to use certain processes to improve collaboration among members of your team.

We cover all aspects of team development, emphasizing the importance planning and goal setting as methods to improve teamwork.

Sample topic areas:

• What is a team?
• The wisdom of teams
• Elements of team effectiveness
• Planning and performance
• Team types

 

Collaboration for Teams in Conflict (AKA: We’re all in this together, aren’t we?)

(2-3 days)

Managers often wonder why people in different parts of an organization — who need to work together — find it difficult to do so. They are supposed to be working toward the same goals, aren’t they?

This workshop is designed especially for those teams that need to improve how they interact and work together. We’ll help you and your team apply partnership theory and conflict management strategies to eliminate unproductive tension among the teams or departments.

You’ll learn (and practice) a variety of exercises that help team members to find common ground. You won’t learn to avoid differences and conflicts. Instead, you’ll learn to explore and respect them.

 

Managing Meetings

(4 hours)

Meetings are often considered to be something done “instead” of work. This session is based on the principle that meetings are a way to get work done, and should be as useful as any other work activity.

You’ll learn to use a variety of tools and methods for managing meetings before, during, and after they occur. Participants will prepare for and engage in a meeting in order to practice managing meetings.

Sample topic areas:

• Types of meetings
• Tools and processes for meetings
• Meeting mistakes and baffling blockers
• How to engage participants and create desired results

 

Skills for Decision-Making

(4 hours)

Often managers are unaware of all the choices available to them when making decisions and rely upon one method for all situations. We’ll help managers and their teams become aware of alternative decision-making techniques and stress the challenges and opportunities presented when making decisions by consensus.

This session combines easily with Managing Meetings or Meeting Leading. We’ll help you and your team make better decisions and work better together.

Sample topic areas:

• Decision alternatives (e.g., from unilateral, to consultative to consensus)
• When to use which alternatives
• Guidelines for consensus
• Decision-making practice

 

Meeting Leading (4 hours)

Running a meeting isn’t easy. The complexity of executing a successful meeting has led to theory and practice that divides the “leader” role into several parts. We’ll help you understand how several individuals may each hold leadership roles in a single meeting.

This half-day workshop provides an overview of these roles, emphasizing the role of the facilitative leader who assists before, during, and after a meeting. Participants will be able to act as the facilitator and other roles throughout this training session.

Sample topic areas:

• Leadership requirements of today
• Roles leaders play
• How facilitative leaders differ from traditional leaders
• Tools for facilitating meetings
• Other key roles in leading meetings

 

Organizations in Transition

(1-2 days)

Many people resist change, even though they may say otherwise. Normalizing resistance to change allows people to explore why it is frightening, and why it is so difficult to actually achieve true change.

Participants in this training session will learn the stages of organizational transition, the personal challenges of change, and strategies for making change a positive experience. Participants will also learn to engage their customers more effectively and with more understanding.

This workshop is ideal for both managers and employees whose organizations are undergoing significant change.

Sample topic areas:

• What is change? Can it work for you?
• Patterns of human behavior in changing situations
• Organizational growth: What to expect at each stage

 

Building High Performing Organizations: A Simulated Experience

(2 days)

How can organizations be designed for high performance? Find out in this training workshop. You’ll learn strategies for optimizing performance, take part in “Wafting Parachute Company” simulation and develop an understanding of:

• How “departments” interact — Cooperation or competition?
• Functional organizational systems versus process-based systems
• Communication processes under different organizational designs
• How cycle time, quality, service and morale are impacted by organizational structure;
• How management functions in various systems;
• What designs work best given intended goals and objectives;
• Which infrastructures create commitment and high performance

 

R.I.D.E.R.S. (Risk-taking Initiatives to Develop Executive Resources and Skills)

(3 days)

R.I.D.E.R.S. is an outdoor, adventure-based workshop for leaders and teams. R.I.D.E.R.S. develops leadership through an emphasis on self-awareness, partnership practices and effective leadership of teams.

The Team R.I.D.E.R.S. workshop offers a customized format, resulting in a program that builds cohesiveness and commitment to team goals. Both programs use the experience of horseback riding as a metaphor for leading, partnering, and working in successful teams.

Both include the use of didactic instruction, personal learning contracts, journal exercises, feedback practices and debrief of activities. No riding experience is necessary.

 

Presentations

Short presentations (1-2 hours) are available in the following areas:

• Coaching Skills
• Leadership of Fast Organizations
• Teamwork
• Transition and Managing Change
• Leadership and the Gender Gap
• Effective Meetings
• Managing Conflict

Schedule a Discovery Call with Jeri

If you’d like to explore whether our training programs are the right for your organization, let’s block off 30 minutes to chat about your business, explore your goals, and determine if we’d be a fit.