Encouraging Sustainability and Social Responsibility in Business
The ideas behind encouraging sustainability and social responsibility in business seem noble, as organizations commit to creating optimal circumstances for people to live and work. The reality is that every company, whether it is a micro-business or a large multinational corporation, can take steps to create sustainable, socially responsible environments that contribute to positive workplaces, communities, and futures.
English as a Second Language: A Workplace Communications Primer
“A different language is a different vision of life,” said the Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini. Employees who use English as a second language demonstrate great commitment and skill in learning a language other than their native tongue. There are subtle differences between languages because of social influences and workplace demands that can create or strengthen the language barrier for employees who have learned a language other than English in their formative years. That barrier is an obstacle for both employer and employee, severing what could be productive relationships with co-workers and clients.
This course will identify any gaps in communication as the result of cultural language differences, and provide exercises to help connect those gaps. This course is written for employees with intermediate competency in English as their second language. Exercises will explore the four main categories of communication: Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing.
Entrepreneurship 101
Wouldn’t it be nice to be your own boss, work on your own schedule, and make money doing something that you’re passionate about? Millions of people around the world are living that dream and running their own business.
This three-day course will teach you the basics of entrepreneurship. You’ll consider if entrepreneurship is right for you and learn the basic steps of creating your own business. At the end of the course, you’ll have a solid foundation to start your entrepreneurial journey.
Environmental Sustainability: A Practical Approach to Greening Your Organization
Environmental Management Systems (EMS) involve a set of processes and practices that enable an organization to reduce its environmental impacts and increase its operating efficiency. A well-designed EMS can help an organization address its regulatory demands in a systematic manner thereby reducing the risk of noncompliance. An EMS can also help address non-regulated issues such as pollution prevention, odor management, water usage and energy conservation.
In this one-day course participants will learn about EMS and how it can benefit their organization. Through the use of a Case Study and information they bring about their own company participants will leave with a draft EMS for their organization. It will include organizational Environmental Aspect and Impacts and Objectives and Targets for their organizations significant environmental impacts.
Facilitation Skills
It is impossible to be part of an organization today and not attend meetings. Staff meetings, project meetings, and planning and coordinating meetings all take time.
There has been a growing realization that we have to pay attention to the process elements of meetings if we want them to be effective. With its focus on asking rather than telling, and listening to build consensus, facilitation is the new leadership ideal, the core competency everybody needs. Managers and supervisors are often asked to facilitate rather than instruct or manage their meetings and training sessions.
How can you facilitate, rather than control, group decision-making and team interaction? With no formal training, people may find it difficult to make the transition from instructors or managers to facilitators.
GDPR Readiness: Creating a Data Privacy Plan
The Data Privacy Plan is the best way an organization can document and enforce the privacy of personal information they hold. It puts in place procedures and guidance for how to properly handle data, respond to information requests, and deal with unexpected incidents or breaches. It contains information that applies to the day-to-day work of employees, as well as higher-level policies and guiding principles that apply to the company as a whole. The Data Privacy Plan is one of the best ways for an organization to become privacy compliant.
GDRP Readiness: Getting The Message Out
An important aspect of privacy compliance is communication, both internally and externally. Employees need to know that privacy-related policies and procedures exist in your organization, and they need to be instructed on their use. Customers also need to be informed about a company’s privacy practices, and be given the chance to ask questions. Good communication is essential for maintaining company transparency and is an important aspect of compliancy with data privacy laws, including the General Data Protection Regulation. While having written policies and procedures is the best starting place, getting the message out about privacy is a critical subsequent step in the process.
Generation Gap: Closing the Generation Gap in the Workplace
There are currently five generations in the workforce, and employers faced with mass retirements of Baby Boomers are looking for ways to prepare for the changes that will result. This course examines the history and reality of the generation gap.
This course explores whether defining the actual limits of each generation is most important, or whether the merits of people within the context of employment is the bigger issue. Understanding others helps us to understand ourselves and to manage the people that we work with. We will explore problems, solutions, and strategies to help overcome issues of the generation gap.
Getting Along in The Workplace
Many people see conflict as a negative experience. In fact, conflict is a necessary part of our personal growth and development. Think of when you were trying to choose your major in college, for example, or trying to decide between two jobs.
However, conflict becomes an issue when the people involved cannot work through it. They become engaged in a battle that does not result in growth. When this type of conflict arises, negative energy can result, causing hurt feelings and damaged relationships.
This course will give participants the tools that will help you resolve conflict successfully and produce a win-win outcome.
Getting Stuff Done: Personal Development Boot Camp
Why are there so many different organizational systems and time management methods out there? The answer is simple: it’s like any other personal challenge, like weight loss or money management. There is no simple, one size fits all answer. You must build a solution that works for you.
Over the course of this two-day workshop, we will explore various time management and organizational tools and techniques so that you can build a customized productivity plan for your personal and professional lives. At the end of the course, you will emerge with a plan that works for you, so that you can start regaining control of your life!
Getting Your Job Search Started
While looking for work can be an exciting time, it can also involve fear and discomfort about change and the unknown. Whether you are already in the midst of a job search or just thinking about it, this workshop will help you to determine what your skill set is made up of, the kind of work that is important and realistic to include in your search, and how to get started.
Today’s job market is not the same as it was even five years ago. Knowing where to go, who to talk to, and the opportunities that are available will help to shift you from someone who dreams about having a job, to someone who has the job they always wanted.
Giving Effective Feedback
As human beings, we often hunger for feedback. However, many people will tell you that when they do get feedback, it’s often because of something they have done wrong. This one day course is designed to help workplace leaders learn how to provide feedback any time that the message is due. Whether feedback is formal or informal, and whether it is provided to employees, peers, or someone else, there are ways that it can be structured to be effective and lasting.
This course will help participants learn why the way we deliver feedback is important, how to deliver a message so that people accept it and make changes that may be needed, and how to accept feedback that we are offered.
Global Business Strategies
Opportunities to take a regional business into the global market make it possible to strategically, smartly, and profitably accomplish more than you can by staying local. To prepare, you need to set your business up for success by being open to learning, to applying new ideas, and to continually reviewing how you can create success in the global market.
Topics such as trade financing, regulatory considerations, international business planning, sustainability, and much more are included in this three-day course. The materials here are well suited for small and medium sized business leaders as they prepare to take their company into the global marketplace.
We strongly recommend that participants complete our “Entrepreneurship 101” and “Basic Business Management” programs before taking this course.
Goal Setting
We all have things we want in life. The route to success is to take the things that we dream about and wish for and turn them into reality. This one-day workshop will lead participants through thinking, planning, and taking action on the things they really want. They will learn ways to ensure that they get where they want to go in life.
Growth Hacking
The new economy calls for a new way of attracting customers and sales.
Growth hacking is to the new economy what marketing was to the last millennium.
The goal is to share a message and make a sale. The difference is in how those customer connections are discovered, created, and nurtured.
This course will highlight the essentials of growth hacking — from learning the new growth hacking mindset and discovering the need your product or service can fill, through planning, delivery, and optimization — that will position your company to grow and thrive today and in the future.
Hiring for Success: Behavioural Interviewing Techniques
Interviewing sounds easy enough: you arrange for a conversation between you and potential candidates, and then select the best person for a particular position. But what if you could refine the process in such a way that you were confident that you are selecting the right person? How do you separate the good from the great, when they have similar work experience and strengths to offer? This workshop will give you the skills and tools to hire successful candidates.
Honing and Delivering Your Message
This one-day course will prepare participants to develop a message and remain on topic when they are presenting their message to the media and public without straying from the point, or points, they want to make. The final session will give students the opportunity to craft and hone a message of their own.
Human Resources Training: HR for the Non-HR Manager
In today’s fast-moving world, many managers and supervisors are expected to deal with some human resource issues. They may be asked to take part in developing job descriptions, take part in interviews, or take responsibility for discipline. This three-day workshop will introduce those managers to human resource concepts. We will walk you through the hiring process, from performing a skills inventory to conducting the interview; discuss orientation; and cover some issues that arise after the hiring (such as diversity issues, compensation, and discipline).
Influence and Persuasion
When we talk about influence and persuasion, we often talk about marketing and sales. However, we influence in many ways and with great frequency. If you want a raise, sometimes you need to persuade your boss. If you want to convince your team to adopt a change, help your staff make choices, or choose the best place for lunch, there is often influencing taking place. This workshop will help participants learn how to influence and persuade in a variety of areas.
Intermediate Project Management
Project management is not just restricted to certain industries, or to individuals with certification as a project manager. Lots of us are expected to complete assignments that are not a usual part of our job, and to get the job done well, within our budget, and on time.
This workshop is intended for those who understand the conceptual phase of a project’s life cycle, including setting goals, creating a vision statement, and creating the Statement of Work. Today will take you through the remaining three stages: planning, execution, and termination.
Intrapreneurship
Intrapreneurship has been described as a great way to make beneficial changes to organizations. People can choose to continue with the status quo, or they can work to make a difference in the lives of themselves and others within the company.
Who wants to feel empowered and recognized for their innovative and creative ideas? Who wants to make a difference? If participants answer yes to these questions, then this course will help them become energized and ready to push their ideas forward. After participants complete this workshop, they will have ways to get started and implement their plans.
Introduction to E-Mail Marketing
E-mail marketing is here to stay, and knowing how to do it well is essential for marketers as well as small business owners, coaches, and consultants. In this two-day workshop you’ll learn the essentials of planning, creating, and delivering exceptional e-mail marketing campaigns that support your overall marketing strategy. After this workshop, you will be able to reach more clients and potential clients through your efforts at being an e-mail influencer.
Introduction to Neuro Linguistic Programming
Your brain, thoughts, and behavior are at the core of everything that you do every day, even if you aren’t aware of it. In order to truly achieve the results that you want to achieve, you must master the art of bringing your unconscious thoughts to the surface, so that you can have real choice over how you interact with and respond to the world. Neuro-linguistic programming can give you the tools to do just that.
In this one-day introductory workshop, you will learn the basics of neuro linguistic programming. We will give you the tools to manage your thoughts, and thereby manage yourself.
Inventory Management: The Nuts and Bolts
No business can survive very long without an effective program of controls over the parts and materials that are used in producing or distributing goods and services of the firm. Like many other things that depend on human interpretation, “control” means different things to different individuals.
This is an introductory workshop for you, the warehouse or stockroom manager, the person in charge of what comes in and goes out of your company. You want a smooth and cost-effective operation, with enough products on hand to satisfy needs without stockpiling too much.
This course will discuss all aspects of inventory management, including common terms, the inventory cycle, how to maintain inventory accuracy, and what some of the latest trends are.
Kickstarting Your Business with Crowdsourcing
Today’s fast-paced marketplace demands that businesses think fast. Crowdsourcing can help all types of businesses keep on top of trends and stay competitive. This one-day course will show you how to leverage all types of crowdsourcing (including microwork, macrowork, crowdvoting, crowdcontests, crowdwisdom, and crowdfunding) to kickstart your business’ growth.
Knowledge Management
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.
Leadership Skills for Supervisors: Communication, Coaching, and Conflict
Supervisors represent an important force in the economy. You have the power to turn on or turn off the productivity of the people who report to you. You are the crucial interface between the employee on the shop floor or the service desk and the managers of the organization. Although you usually have more technical experience than the employees you supervise, you may not have had a lot of leadership experience. This one-day course will give you the skills in communication, coaching, and conflict that you need to be successful.
Lean Process Improvement
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.
Logistics and Supply Chain Management
The supply chain is a crucial part of any business’ success. Optimizing the flow of products and services as they are planned, sourced, made, delivered, and returned can give your business an extra competitive edge.
This two-day course will introduce you to the basic concepts of supply chain management, including the basic flow, core models, supply chain drivers, key metrics, benchmarking techniques, and ideas for taking your supply chain to the next level.
Making Training Stick
We have all participated in training courses or workshops. Some of these have been helpful and useful in our everyday lives and others have seemed redundant and a waste of time. How often have we cheered or grumbled at being asked to participate in a training day?
The good news is that all training can be useful and applicable if the trainer keeps some simple tips in mind when developing and applying training. We all learn differently, but there are some truths about learning that can be applicable to most groups and can be tweaked to fit any training session.
Making Your Business Better
Starting and building a business begins with a great idea. At this moment, there are millions of ‘great ideas’ seeking attention and success. Some of those ‘great ideas’ may be very much like your own. To make your idea not only stand out, but to take root and grow a sustainable, successful business, you need the right team, tools, and expertise. This one-day course will highlight the essentials of business acumen, from relationship selling to and team building, through to planning and marketing, that will position your company to grow and thrive today and in the future.
Managing Across Cultures
Our culture defines many aspects of how we think, feel, and act. It can be challenging for managers to bridge cultural differences and bring employees together into a functioning team. This course will give supervisors and managers easy-to-use techniques for communicating across cultures, building teams, promoting multiculturalism in the organization, and leveraging the global talent pool.
Managing Customer Service
Managing Difficult Conversations
We have so many interactions in the run of a day, it’s reasonable to expect that some of them are going to be difficult. Whether these are conversations that you have in person, or you manage a virtual team and need to speak with someone in another city, there are things that you can do to make these conversations go smoothly. This one-day workshop will give you the tools to manage difficult conversations and get the best results possible out of them.
Managing Pressure and Maintaining Balance
When things are extremely busy at work and you have your hands full with many tasks and dealing with difficult people, having skills you can draw on are essential for peace of mind and growth. This one-day course will help participants understand the causes and costs of workplace pressure, the benefits of creating balance, and how to identify pressure points. They will also learn how to apply emotional intelligence, increase optimism and resilience, and develop strategies for getting ahead.
Managing The Virtual Workplace
Virtual workers and virtual teams are an essential part of today’s workforce. More than ever, people are using technology to work anywhere, anytime.
There are big benefits to today’s virtual workplace, but there can be big challenges, too. This one-day course will teach managers and supervisors how to prepare employees for the virtual workplace, create telework programs, build virtual teams, leverage technology, and overcome cultural barriers.