Lunch and Learn

Today’s organizations must have employees that can initiate change, introduce new ideas, and influence others in order to be successful. The workshop focuses on eight skill sets that are essential to developing employees who feel personally empowered to awaken, excite, and activate others.

In this session, participants will learn:

• How to develop credibility in the organization
• Be assertive without appearing aggressive or arrogant
• Communicate more effectively
• Discover what motivates different people
• How to positively impact your energy and attitude

The session will be interactive, with an opportunity to reflect and apply the principles and practices covered. Each participant will be provided a workbook as a resource to effectively apply their learning and will walk away with an understanding of how to have an immediate and positive impact on people.

Change is the norm, yet most of us still struggle to facilitate change or support each other during times of upheaval. During this session we will be investigating a framework that provides insight on how to support individuals during change and learning the critical skills required to navigate a change and transition successfully.

In this session, participants will learn:

• The effects of change and transition on individuals, teams, and the organization
• The natural process that people experience in reaction to change
• The principles and practices in managing individuals through times of change
• Tool and techniques to identify and reduce resistance

The session will be interactive, with an opportunity to reflect and apply the principles and practices covered. Each participant will be provided a workbook as a resource to effectively apply their learning and will walk away with an understanding of how to effectively manage, and have an immediate impact on, the people side of change.

Many of the world’s most admired corporations, from GE to Goldman Sachs, invest in coaching. Coaching is an effective way to enable winning performance, for the individual, team and organization. Leaders, who can coach others to reach their full potential, will have an extensive impact on their organization’s success.

So what is coaching and how can you apply the key principles to your leadership approach? During this session we will be investigating the conditions, principles and skills required to enact a coach approach. Using real world examples, we will demonstrate the power of coaching and reveal how to get the most from the people around you.

In this session, participants will learn:

• To describe the role and benefits of a “coach approach”
• Identify behaviours that help foster a supportive coaching environment
• Demonstrate a variety of asking and listening techniques to coach others formally and informally

The session will be interactive, with an opportunity to reflect and apply the principles and practices covered. Each participant will be provided a workbook as a resource to effectively apply their learning as a “coach approach” leader in the organization.

When have you experienced a high performing team? What did it look like, feel like? What were you able to accomplish? What would the impact be if the power of that team could be harnessed?

During this session we will be investigating the critical elements required to be a high performing team and what you, as a leader, can do to bring this to fruition.

In this session, participants will learn:

• To identify high performing team behaviours
• The factors required to create and sustain high performance
• The tools and techniques to establish these factors on their own teams

The session will be interactive, with an opportunity to reflect and apply the principles and practices covered. Each participant will be provided a workbook as a resource to effectively apply their learning and will walk away with an understanding of how to get started on the journey to be high performing.

Negotiating with internal partners, peers and management may not always end with exactly what you want, however, attending this session will provide some tools to improve your results.

This course will benefit anyone who wants to improve their skills at getting buy-in from above.

In this session, participants will learn:

• To identify key motivators for all parties
• Review the 3Ps of negotiating
• Gain a critical negotiation tool

The session will be interactive, with an opportunity to reflect and apply the principles and practices covered. Each participant will be provided handout materials as a resource to effectively apply their learning and will walk away with an understanding of how to negotiate internally.

Emotional responses in the workplace are not always the most effective way to get a message across, unless they are harnessed. You can manage your own and others’ responses by understanding the principles of social intelligence. How you interact with your colleagues can change your brain! Attend this session to learn about how leaders are using our new understanding about brain functioning to improve leadership, motivation, and teamwork.

This course will benefit anyone who interacts with others on a regular basis.

In this session, participants will learn:

• Understand the influence of the brain on workplace interactions
• Learn the key factors contributing to social intelligence
• Gain three tips for increasing your social intelligence

The session will be interactive, with an opportunity to reflect and apply the principles and practices covered. Each participant will be provided with handout materials as a resource to effectively apply their learning and will walk away with an understanding of how to flex their social intelligence skills to improve working relationships at all levels.

Many believe that accountability can be mandated in an organization; or that accountability itself is a process to be implemented. In fact, accountability in your culture is much more an outcome of the actions and the environment that is established by management. While this may sound ambiguous and difficult to implement, it is actually as easy as following any other system with discipline.

In this session, participants will learn:

• The cultural enemies of accountability
• The connection between organizational effectiveness and accountability
• The principles for establishing accountability
• The concepts behind an holistic system that creates accountability

The session will be interactive, with an opportunity to reflect on how to convert the principles to action. Each participant will be provided a workbook as a resource to effectively apply their learning, and will walk away with an understanding of how to get started on the journey to develop accountability within your culture.

Talent management is as important a process in organizations as financial management.  The ability to establish the rigor and the right mindset in support of the process is critical across the organization and through hierarchical management levels. Understanding the connection with other people processes will ensure an effective review of talent and potential.

In this session, participants will learn:

• What are the most effective tools for assessing talent in an organization
• How talent management directly supports with succession planning
• What needs to happen for embracing talent management
• What do you do with the outputs of the framework

The interactive session will focus on how to customize the framework for your organization. There will be an opportunity to reflect and apply the principles and practices covered. Each participant will be provided handout materials as a resource to effectively apply their learning and will walk away with an understanding of how to start the process in your organization.

A Corporate Executive Board worldwide survey reported that 90% of companies considered succession management a top corporate priority. Only 6% said they were confident that they had the right succession planning systems in place. If succession planning is so important, why do organizations struggle with designing, implementing and sustaining an effective process/system?

In this session, participants will learn:

• What should be the objectives of a succession management system
• The essential alignment with other people related processes
• The importance of establishing responsibility and accountability
• How to create sustainability
• What to do with the outcomes and actions of the plans

The session will be interactive, with an opportunity to reflect on how to convert the principles to action. Each participant will be provided handouts as a resource to guide for their learning, and will leave with an understanding of what’s required to establish an effective succession management system.

There is a substantial amount of research linking employee motivation to general job satisfaction, engagement, commitment, and reluctance to quit.  Motivation matters.  It dictates one’s intention, commitment to persist and output of effort; so how can we tap into these internal drives and help motivate our employees?  During this session we will investigate key elements to motivation and how you can harness the strengths of your team through a motivating mindset.

In this session, participants will:                

• Explore key concepts regarding motivation
• Understand how to create a motivating mindset
• Recognize the value of an engaged, motivated team
• Define a plan to increase your team’s motivation

The session will be interactive, with an opportunity to reflect and apply the principles and practices covered. Each participant will be provided a workbook as a resource to effectively apply their learning and will walk away with an understanding of how to have an immediate and positive impact on the motivation levels of their team.

We have all heard the notion “feedback is a gift”. We have also all experienced the opposite to sometimes be true. How can we be our best selves and perform to our highest level, without feedback? The answer is we can’t. We need feedback to be successful, yet many of us our not as skilled at delivering or receiving feedback as we should be. This session will provide tools and techniques to plan, prepare and deliver effective feedback that will have the intended, positive impact required to achieve true potential.

In this session, participants will:

• Understand the value and impact of effective feedback
• Learn and apply the SBI model of feedback
• Understand barriers and challenges to effective feedback
• Prepare to handle possible reactions to feedback (yours and others)

The session will be interactive, with an opportunity to reflect and apply the principles and practices covered. Each participant will be provided a workbook as a resource to successfully apply their learning and will walk away with an understanding of how to effectively plan for and deliver valuable feedback.

You feel it.  Your team is off; they are not performing to the level required.  What can you do?  The best approach is to take action and begin to understand where your team is and what you can do about it.  In this session you will learn approaches to diagnose your team’s woes and set a specific course of action that you and your team can take together to begin to put some fuel back in your tanks.

In this session, participants will:

• Gain perspective of where their team is and where they need to be
• Investigate and determine ways to create forward, empowering momentum
• Use tools and techniques to develop a Team Refueling Plan

The session will be interactive, with an opportunity to reflect and apply the principles and practices covered. Each participant will be provided a workbook as a resource to effectively apply their learning and build a Team Refueling Plan.

In order to build a business relationship that stands the test-of-time, and allows those within it to prosper in a way not possible without it, one must master the ability to demonstrate commitment, trustworthiness and mutuality. While this is easier said than done there is a system that when consistently practiced will become unconscious, and fundamentally transform the depth and benefit of the business relationships that drive commercial success.

In this session, participants will learn:

• Relationship management is not about sales, it is required through organizations
• The formula for assessing trustworthiness
• The flywheel system for developing powerful business relationships

The session will be lively, and each participant will be provided a workbook as a resource to effectively apply their learning, and will walk away with an understanding of how advance their relationship building skills.

Collaboration has become a buzzword and label in our culture that we apply liberally to encounters with others. It feels good to suggest we are collaborating when in fact many do not have an effective working definition, let alone a clear set of practices that enable effective collaboration. Effective collaboration has saved organizations like IBM from obsolescence and can unlock increased value in most companies.

In this session, participants will learn:

• The 4 barriers to organizational collaboration
• The 4 behaviours required to enhance collaboration
• The 4 pillars of evidenced based, best practice for organizational collaboration

The session will be lively, and each participant will be provided a workbook as a resource to help them transform their learning from best practice to actual practice in their company.

Do you see the need for happiness and trust in the workplace? I hope so…A lot of research has been done and trust is critical in order for employees to feel that they can contribute with conviction. The reason being is that they feel they are in a culture that values long term commitment and believes in their capabilities. Unfortunately trust and employee engagement continues to decline. But we can do something about it with Appreciative Inquiry.

Appreciative Inquiry is a model that can help organizations come together in a spirit of trust AND happiness. It seeks to create a better reality by everyone working together and realizing their full potential because it ensures you treat employees as contributors to a better future by focusing on possibilities out there…not problems!

In this session, participants will learn:

• Appreciate ‘What is’
• Imagine ‘What might be’
• Determine ‘What should be’
• Create ‘What will be”

Working remotely as part of a “virtual team” is a growing trend in today’s workplace and we can understand why. After all, much research has been done and it has revealed some interesting conclusions including: (i) virtual teams are actually more engaged and (ii) remote employees tend to log more hours.   “Approximately 69% of the employees surveyed cited higher productivity when working remote, and 75% of those surveyed said the timeliness of their work improved. However if you think of the meetings that take place in your virtual team you might beg to differ.

The reality is most people say they hate meetings, but what they really dislike are unproductive, poorly run meetings. Meetings are a great tool for achieving business results when the right people meet with a clear purpose and specific agenda. This session can help leaders save time and resources by leading meetings that support business needs.

In this session, participants will learn to:

• Plan a viable agenda or series of agendas\Effective use of technology
• Prepare participants and pre-work
• Keep participants focused and engaged during a virtual meeting
• Build trust and social capital
• Maintain momentum between meetings

In high-stake negotiations, the common mistake is rushing to close the deal. FBI hostage negotiators understand that in life-and-death situations taking time to develop rapport is essential for a successful result. The same holds true for high-stakes negotiations in the business world. Do you want to leverage your influence? Change other people’s behaviour?

Learn to listen. FBI-style.

In this session, participants will learn:

• The steps of the FBI Behavioural Change Stairway Model
• To use the active listening techniques FBI negotiators rely on in high-stake situations

Want to build rapport with team members and clients? Resolve conflicts? Effectively manage and lead others? We typically spend 70% to 80% of our waking hours in some form of communication ~ 45% of that time in listening. And yet…most of us are poor listeners. How come?

We’re busy, distracted, and dealing with our own problems. And the bottom line is, often we don’t know how to really listen. Listening with empathy means going beyond not interrupting to genuinely trying to understand the other person’s point of view. It’s hard work and takes practice. And it transforms relationships.

In this session, participants will learn:

• The importance of empathetic listening in building rapport with team members and clients
• The key differences between empathy and sympathy
• Essential listening skills and attitude for understanding

Studies show that people who practice gratitude report a host of benefits – from stronger immune systems and better sleep to more optimism and happiness. This workshop provides simple evidence-based techniques to cultivate a grateful attitude.

In this session, participants will learn:

• The physical, psychological and social benefits of developing a grateful attitude
• The reasons why gratitude has a positive effect
• Techniques to practice a grateful attitude in everyday life

When colleagues lock horns, valuable time is wasted. Rarely is the outcome favourable to the team – from damaged relationships to mediocre solutions that lack buy-in. This workshop provides strategies to defuse tension through refocusing on the common vision and working together towards shared solutions so that everyone wins.

In this session, participants will learn how to:

• Create an environment to encourage open dialogue
• Defuse tension before emotions get out of hand
• Refocus on shared goals and vision

Employee engagement is considered to be one of the most important indicators of a business’ success.  However, recent reports show that in North America employee engagement is declining.  Engagement experts have proven that employee recognition is an important pillar of a meaningful engagement strategy.

In this session, participants will learn the five pillars of effective engagement programs.

In this session, participants will leave understanding:

• How easy it is to become recognition champion in your day to day role
• How to connect with employees based on their values and what recognition means to them
• How to develop a communication strategy around recognition in the workplace

The session will be lively, and each participant will be provided a workbook as a resource to help them transform their learning from best practice to actual practice in their company.

Politics in the corporate world is inevitable. However not all office politics is bad. In fact we will uncover the positive aspects of office politics and how when managed effectively can be used to garner support from key stakeholders. Understanding Political Mapping and the 4 attributes associated with successful management of politics can provide an effective blueprint for focus and actions.

In this session, participants will:

• Understand what is office politics, why they exist and where they play out
• Review tips to not only survive but thrive in the corporate political landscape
• Learn how to use political mapping tools
• Understand the 4 dimensions and attributes of political skill

The session will be interactive with time to understand how to put the tools into practice. Participants will be provided handouts as a resource to guide for their understanding of the best way to use the tools in specific situations.

Charities support essential community needs.  One of the key ingredients for charities to run effectively is diverse, skilled and committed resources to ensure sustainable impact of the charity mission. In addition, there are significant opportunities for individuals who are considering volunteer Board participation:

• Hone decision-making skills in diverse environments
• Develop new management and leadership skills
• Build valuable networks
• Gain Board experience
• Manage competing expectations
• Give back

In this session, participants will learn:

• More about the needs and expectations of charitable Boards
• Where opportunities exist
• How to access them and understand how Altruvest can support your personal growth journey

This session is an overview of the charitable sector and the needs they have for Board membership. Participants will be provided the necessary information for them to seriously consider the next steps in supporting their community and their personal growth and development.