Organizational development

Do you love those moments of exception, when everything seems to have come together and things are working beautifully? Would you like to create an environment where those rare extraordinary moments become the norm? Then you may just be ready to learn the value of Appreciative Inquiry, also known as AI. AI is a method for implementing change that is rooted in being positive, sharing stories of things that work well, and leveraging people’s strengths and the power of co-creation to initiate lasting, powerful changes that can make an organization the best it has ever been, because of people who care and are committed.

Over the past several decades, organizations have come to realize that success cannot only be measured in dollars and cents. Intangible assets (like a company’s reputation, the knowledge base created by their employees, and training initiatives) can make up a huge portion of a company’s wealth. It only makes sense, then, that we need a new tool to help us measure this expanded definition of success. Enter the balanced scorecard! This tool and its related components will help your organization identify, document, plan, and execute a balanced strategic mission. It will also help your organization evaluate and revise its strategic execution. This one-day workshop will introduce participants to the basics of the balanced scorecard and help them determine if this powerful tool is a good fit for their organization.

What exactly makes a decision ethical? The problem with ethics is that what may seem morally right (or ethical) to one person may seem appalling to another. This workshop will not provide you with an easy way to solve every ethical decision you will ever have to make. It will, however, help you define your ethical framework to make solving those ethical dilemmas easier. We’ll also look at some tools that you can use when you’re faced with an ethical decision. And, we’ll look at some techniques you can use so you don’t get stuck in an ethical quandary. Best of all, we’ll look at a lot of case studies so that you can practice making decisions in a safe environment.

This two-day course will provide you with a practical experience of the Business Planning process from a Design Thinking perspective, to reflect current business changes and resource constraints. Business Planning is a way to “design” and manage work within changing constraints. This interactive workshop will develop your knowledge, confidence and practical skills to plan your work activities as a “design thinker” in times of change.

Organizations perform at their peak when the Vision, Values and individual Needs (for autonomy, respect, appreciation and contribution) of their people are agreed upon and met. This enables individuals to flourish within the organization to come together as a team united in a shared group identity. It can be achieved with an agreed purpose and direction based on a set of common values and behaviors. Individuals are inspired then to take personal responsibility to unleash their creative talent in harmony to meet the objectives and goals of the organization.

The right training at the right time can make a huge difference in the productivity and profitability of your organization. Whether you are scanning your workplace for opportunities to make things better and training is the answer, or a client asks you to come into their organization and do an assessment, your answer is best framed in the form of a training needs analysis. Your ability to create an analysis that is comprehensive yet simply prepared is critical for it to be understood and acted upon. This one-day workshop will help you to gather the information, assess the data, and present your suggestions for training or non-training solutions.

This two-day workshop is designed to provide you with tools, templates and a lexicon for developing and implementing a performance measurement framework that is used to support planning, priority setting and investment decisions. Through robust and useful results framework and performance information profiles, you’ll learn techniques for supporting the Government’s Results and Delivery Agenda.

As diversity increases in the workplace, people from different backgrounds and orientations will integrate with the workplace culture and perform when they feel welcomed, safe and included to become a part of the organizational culture. The program is designed to create an interactive conversation to help understand what equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) means and how people from different backgrounds and cultures may experience it in their daily lives. It is acknowledged that there is no one perfect or certain approach to dealing with EDI. It is very much related to the existing leadership and organizational culture and what the organization aspires to be in meeting its goals. The program will be facilitated through a mindfulness lens with a focus on unconscious biases and possible systemic barriers to inclusion and equity.  The facilitator will encourage self-reflection and a compassionate inquiry into how to effect change, and overcome biases and barriers, so every member of the team is valued as a part of an inclusive culture. The program will be facilitated in an interactive co-inquiring manner encouraging participants to actively contribute to the learning process.

Understanding how to manage the knowledge within your organization is the key to business success. Mismanagement of organizational knowledge comes with a price: frustrated employees, angry customers, and decreased productivity. All of these things can affect a business’ bottom line. The purpose behind knowledge management is to help us bridge organizational gaps and to use our greatest asset (our knowledge) to take our business performance to the next level. The theory of knowledge management has emerged to help us harness and enhance both the individual and collective brain power of our businesses. This workshop will introduce participants to knowledge management tips, techniques, and proven processes.

Lean principles have come a long way over the past 300 years. From Benjamin Franklin’s early ideas, to Henry Ford’s work in the 1920’s and the Toyoda precepts in the 1930’s, to Jeffery Liker’s publication of The Toyota Way in 2004, Lean processes have evolved from a simple concept to a set of widely used best practices. This two-day course will give participants the foundation to begin implementing Lean process improvement tools in their workplace. The first day will explore the foundations of Lean through the Toyota precepts and the five critical improvement concepts (value, waste, variation, complexity, and continuous improvement). The second day will give participants tools to perform continuous improvement in their organization, including 5S, 5W-2H, PDSA, DMAIC, Kaizen, Genchi Genbutsu, and various Lean data mapping methods.

Organizations in the public sector, non profit, or private sector are continually facing the challenge of saving money and providing improved service to customers with existing resources. In today’s economic climate this takes on even greater importance. All too often there is a lack of understanding about what activities really add value for clients. In addition, existing processes have bottlenecks, delays, re-work steps or built-in waste. “Lean thinking” is a simple yet powerful approach to looking at the way you do things in order to make significant improvements. It can be applied to improve the productivity, quality and efficiency of any activity, program, product or service. Going lean is also a great way to become more green. This workshop will provide you with the understanding you need to start seeing your workplace, project or program in a different way. You will harness the power of lean through a highly interactive and fun game that runs throughout the day. It will inspire you to find your own better way of doing things and equip you with basic knowledge to implement a simple lean initiative.

Charles Kettering, an inventor for General Motors, once said, “A problem well-stated is half-solved.” The gap analysis tool can help you define problems and identify areas for process improvement in clear, specific, achievable terms. It can also help you define where you want to go and how you are going to get there. This one-day course will give you the skills that you need to perform an effective gap analysis that will solve problems, improve processes, and take your project, department, or organization to the next level.

If you and the people who work with you don’t understand where the company is going, they may all develop their own priorities and actually prevent you from getting where you need to be. Part of getting everyone on board is creating a strategic plan complete with the organization’s values, vision, and mission. Then, there’s the challenge of bringing these principles to life in a meaningful way that people can relate to. This two-day course will help you describe what you want to do and get people where you want to go.

Our lives are becoming ever more complex. We seem to have more to do and never enough time to do it all. We have practically unlimited real time connectivity, and an expectation that we are contactable 24/7. Much of what is put in place to make our work environment better actually has the opposite effect and adds even more complexity to our workday: Endless initiatives to help us do more with less IT systems that we need to spend time learning how to use, before they will help us Policies, procedures, regulations and legislation to keep us safe, secure and consistent We find ourselves making more decisions, about more things, with not a lack of information, but with too much information. Emails, news feeds, updates, phone calls, interruptions, the need to search for files, facts and information, and meetings, all contribute to the complexity of our work life. With all of this, how much of our day is truly productive? What can we do? The answer, while it may seem counter-intuitive, is simplification. Do less to achieve more, slow down to go faster. This workshop will be highly practical. It will involve drawing on experiences, issues and positive examples from your place of work. You will build your own personal 8-point action plan that you take away and start to work with immediately. The techniques we will cover in this workshop are equally applicable in your home and work environments.