Personal effectiveness

“There is no such thing as creative and non-creative people, only people who use creativity and people who don’t” – Brene Brown. Creativity is innate in all of us; but too many people and organizations unknowingly hinder it from flourishing. Without creativity, it is impossible to develop an innovative organization that can deliver improved services and products and maintain sustainable competitive advantage. And the stakes have never been higher. The world is in the early stages of a new era of disruptive innovation that promises to transform every workplace and sector of society. Adaption is the new normal, and creativity is the new literacy. Explore how using creativity strategically can help you provide powerful solutions to problems and increase motivation, job satisfaction and engagement. Learn how creativity can be harnessed at an organizational level, and, with the right process in place, serve as an engine of innovation.

Mastering critical thinking and problem-solving skills can help you make better decisions or recommendations- an essential competency in today’s knowledge workplaces. Critical thinking helps you to examine and improve thought processes, ask the right questions, challenge assumptions and consider varying viewpoints. Effective problem-solving helps you to properly identify and systematically work through a problem in a comprehensive manner, ensuring clarity when it comes time to make decisions or recommendations. This course will demonstrate how critical thinking, problem-solving and decision-making work optimally together, and will provide hands-on practice with tools that you can apply to your everyday workday tasks, big or small.

Living in a world of constant change and uncertainty demands the ability to improvise, accept the unknown, and move through challenges with agility, flexibility, and presence. Embracing virtual interactions and deepening your understanding of personal dynamics are key to fostering innovation and a thriving working environment. Learning improv principles and adapting an ensemble mindset are crucial to a productive team dynamic. Through interactive exercises that emphasize active listening, making your partner look good, and building off each other’s ideas, you will enhance your problem-solving skills and deepen your relationships. Join our transformative and interactive session to learn improvisation principles and conflict resolution strategies, build active listening skills, and develop emotional intelligence through interactive exercises and group discussions. Walk away with new tools and inspiration for tackling everyday challenges in a safe ,fun and engaging environment.

A recent study suggested that the average office worker receives 190 pieces of information a day and wastes as much as 150 hours a year looking for “stuff”. Another study suggests that at least 10% of all documents are lost or misfiled. With information overload growing and budgets tight, you can’t afford the wasted time and lost productivity that comes from a cluttered desk, messy files, or no system of personal organization. At this workshop, you’ll develop organizational skills: learn to how to streamline daily tasks, organize personal space, effectively use calendars, communicate using the appropriate means, and more.

Your memory helps you to shape your understanding of your present, and your application of your memories helps you to shape your future. How well your memory works has a direct impact on how much you get done in a day and the quality of your work. Your memory is a window into the health of your brain, how you care for it, and how you use it. It also helps to define who you are – for yourself and for those around you such as family members, friends, colleagues and others. This very engaging, interactive, and memorable workshop is about your memory – how it works, how you can better use your recall capacity, and much more. We guarantee you’ll remember it for years to come!

Confidence is not just an asset that’s nice to have. It is a fundamental basis for success and satisfaction in your professional and personal life. Whether you are selling your ideas, taking calculated risks, responding to criticism, working as part of a team, interacting with co-workers or clients, applying for a promotion, or a myriad of other everyday activities, you will achieve more faster if you have self-confidence. This workshop explores the positive impact of self-confidence in your career and personal life. Through exercise, you will discover the sources of low self-confidence and develop new skills to increase your self confidence in order to increase your effectiveness and comfort in various areas of your life.

Management is frequently described as the art of getting work done through others. This requires a set of skills and talents that Administrative Professionals can develop to extend their influence, meet their manager’s expectations, create a professional image, take initiative, solve problems, resolve conflict, plan current and future activities, and have a springboard for career development. If you are in the role of executive secretary or administrative assistant you’ll find this workshop to be essential to your present job and critical to your future. This workshop is not a lecture. It is a “hands on” opportunity to identify your existing management skills, develop new skills and bring increased opportunity to your organization and to you personally. The list of practical exercises includes confidence & conflict resolution role-plays as well as a ‘guess my personality type’ exercise based on the True Colors personality indicator. For prioritization, students will learn how to create a Daily Map in order to prioritize tasks.

Emotions are a key component of what makes us human. While emotions have often been seen as less important than intellectual reasoning, emotions motivate us to act, inspire us to create and connect our relationships. Our experiences shape how we understand, process and manage our emotions. Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to identify, assess and positively engage with one’s own emotions and the emotions of others. Many people have not developed the foundational building blocks to be emotionally intelligent, resulting in emotions getting in the way of our judgement, relationships, or careers. This workshop provides opportunities for participants to build emotional intelligence by focusing on developing understanding and skills in: self-awareness, emotional management, physiological and behavioural reactions, understanding the connection to values and motivations, overcoming barriers to communication, building trust, and exercising empathy. Participants can apply their new skills in EQ to their personal and professional lives. 

This course follows Personal Effectiveness Through Emotional Intelligence – EQ1. It builds on the theory and tools presented in the initial program and dives deeper into developing the practical skills and behaviours that increase one’s own emotional intelligence both at work and in personal life. This course provides the opportunity to gain greater knowledge and skills to understand, express and regulate one’s emotions. In addition, participants will develop strategies to manage emotional interactions with others.  Participants engage in a variety of self-reflective exercises, group activities, and discussion to explore and develop higher levels of emotional intelligence in a supportive environment.

Almost everyone encounters overwork and the pressure of time constraints — even the most organized person can sometimes feel overwhelmed and frustrated. This workshop will introduce you to practical ‘how-to’ techniques to help you achieve better results, both at work and in your personal life. You will learn how to organize your time effectively and utilize self-management habits that lead to increased productivity both on and off the job. You’ll complete a 21 point self-assessment that will help you understand your personal style of time management, learn how to make that style work for you rather than against you, and work more productively with people who manage their time differently.

Thinking strategically can be described as the way people in an organization think about, view, assess and create the future for themselves, their team, and the organization. More than simply reacting to day-to-day or long-term problems and opportunities, it is concerned with creating opportunities and choosing options in order to be able to realize the best possible future. It is an ongoing process that becomes part of the organizational culture and part of the local vocabulary; it also ensures that strategic planning activity is more meaningful. Strategic thinking is a foundational skill and the same principles can be equally applied to people’s personal lives and their work responsibilities. The same thinking approach is relevant to all levels of responsibility throughout the organization. However, thinking strategically is only half of the workplace challenge; the ideal outcome for any organization is for its people to be able to both think strategically while acting tactically. Striking the proper balance is critical to the smooth operation of the organization and the full involvement of all its people. Achieving the balance helps team members collaborate and better align their day-to-day activities with the higher goals and vision of the project, department, or organization as a whole. This workshop will explore both what it means to think strategically, and how day-to-day operational action can be aligned to the grander strategy at both the individual and team level.

In today’s workplace, the administrative support position is the nerve centre of business, industry and government at all levels. Called upon to increase the effectiveness of the office environment, the administrative assistant needs to manage strategies, public relations, resources, time, stress, difficult people conflict and crisis situations calmly, effectively and professionally. This workshop provides management skills vital to today’s support position. This energetic, fun and fast-paced course will show you how to achieve respect as an indispensable member of your office team. In a comfortable and controlled learning environment, you will explore and expand upon techniques and methods, and learn the critical skills required to get the work done on time, keep the office running at peak efficiency, and balance work and personal life.

This two-day workshop provides an overview of how to develop and manage your career progression. You will learn and apply skills to support your career planning. You will also learn how to organize key information in a way that will support your career objectives. You will receive practical tips to apply at any stage of your career and work search journey.

Change is a time-consuming distraction. It takes us away from our regular work, it slows productivity and it often creates conflict. You may even notice an increase in absenteeism during periods of change. The reality is that you may never be happy with the change you are experiencing, and that’s okay. At some point, though, you will have to learn to live with your new reality. The more quickly you can do that, the sooner you can get back to being productive and feeling like yourself again.  The Change Cycle™ is a change management model that helps individuals and teams deal with change pragmatically, resourcefully and effectively. Change is the result of change, choice, progress, or crisis, and is often unpredictable. People react, respond, and adjust to change in a sequence of six predictable stages which identify thoughts, feelings, and behaviors associated with each stage of change. There is no better map to assist individuals in navigating through the changes in their work and life.

Now more than ever employees are practicing flexible work options and many of us have arrangements to work from home. Overcoming work-from-home challenges are crucial in order to improve our workplace performance, and engagement. This session will help participants stay engaged in the work from home process. Learners will be given tools and techniques that can be easily applied to their WFH with clear methods on how to increase their productivity and results by applying a WFH framework with proven success. Participants will gain an understanding of the challenges faced when working from home and learn techniques to overcome these challenges as they enhance their WFH routine and overall performance strategies.

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein Feeling connected to the people you work with matters. Disconnection costs in productivity, lost staff, and stress. Whether your team is coming together for the first time, or you have been together for years, experiential learning opportunities that are work related can help develop a better understanding among team members that encourages creative ideas to solve problems. “You can learn more about a person in an hour of play than you can from a lifetime of conversation.” – Plato  PLAYDOH Power Solutions Corporate training is a collaborative, experiential process that enhances thinking, innovation, productivity and team performance.  Your team will be 100% engaged in the process as it unfolds. Learn about each other and tackle your organizations’ toughest challenges all while having fun. If you are looking for a unique experience that has your team thinking, creating and doing through play, this workshop is for you. We’ll have you thinking differently, guaranteed!

Change offers huge opportunities for personal and professional growth. This workshop is designed to help you understand the new world of constant change. This one-day workshop explores the human response to change and will provide you with practical strategies to identify and exploit opportunities for increased job satisfaction, performance and personal success.

The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said, “The only thing that is consistent is change.” We are in an unprecedented time in history when everything is changing. How we perceive the experience will impact if we react, or how we can choose to respond. Many of us are not used to talking about our feelings, which can be especially difficult when we are asked to organize our lives a different way, without knowing what the future might hold. This interactive workshop provides an opportunity to reflect on change, how we feel about the change, and how we can understand our stress responses while using them to propel us forward. We will do this in a straight forward manner that is appreciated by even the most skeptical virtual meeting participants.  Resilience is often considered the “ability to bounce back” from life’s challenges. With challenges facing us from all directions, participants will appreciate the opportunity to reflect on their own past experiences that could help them face current challenges. Participants will also learn about easily accessible tools that they can use to address stress, understand and decrease fear of the unknown, and identify new opportunities for living a more satisfying life.