Reach new heights

Welcome to the Creative Problem Solving workshop. In the past few decades, psychologists and business people alike have discovered that successful problem solvers tend to use the same type of process to identify and implement the solutions to their problems. This process works for any kind of problem, large or small.

This workshop will give participants an overview of the entire creative problem solving process, as well as key problem solving tools that they can use every day.

Workshop Objectives

Research has consistently demonstrated that when clear goals are associated with learning that the learning occurs more easily and rapidly. With that in mind, let’s review our goals for today. 

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to: 

    • Understand problems and the creative problem solving process

    • Identify types of information to gather and key questions to ask in problem solving 

    • Identify the importance of defining a problem correctly

    • Identify and use four different problem definition tools

    • Write concrete problem statements

    • Use basic brainstorming tools to generate ideas for solutions

    • Use idea generating tools, such as affinity diagrams, word chaining, the box method, the six thinking hats, and the blink method

    • Evaluate potential solutions against criteria, including cost/benefit analysis and group voting

    • Perform a final analysis to select a solution

    • Understand the roles that fact and intuition play in selecting a solution

    • Understand the need to refine the shortlist and re-refine it

    • Understand how to identify the tasks and resources necessary to implement solutions

    • Evaluate and adapt solutions to reality

    • Follow up with solution implementation to celebrate successes and identify improvements

Change is a constant in our lives. All around us, technologies, processes, people, ideas, and methods often change, affecting the way we perform daily tasks and live our lives. This workshop will give any leader tools to implement changes more smoothly and to have those changes better accepted. This workshop will also give all participants an understanding of how change is implemented and some tools for managing their reactions to change. 

Workshop Objectives

 Research has consistently demonstrated that when clear goals are associated with learning, the learning occurs more easily and rapidly. With that in mind, let’s review our goals for today.

By the end of this workshop, you should be able to:

• List the steps necessary for preparing a change strategy and building support for the change
• Describe the WIFM – the individual motivators for change
• Use needed components to develop a change management and communications plans, and to list implementation strategies
• Employ strategies for gathering data, addressing concerns and issues, evaluating options and adapting a change direction
• Utilize methods for leading change project status meetings, celebrating a successful change implementation, and sharing the results and benefits
• Describe the four states of Appreciative Inquiry and its purposes

Critical thinking is vital to any kind of success, including your career and beyond. Simply put, critical thinking is a questioning approach to form a judgment or conclusion. It encourages reflective and independent thinking to guide us through the hundreds of decisions that we make throughout a week. Having these skills provides you with the best chance of making an informed decision. Everything and anything can be a subject to question with critical thinking.

As problems are bound to come up in any organization, it’s important to know how to address these challenges with good reasoning and logic. Utilizing your critical thinking skills will lead you toward being a more rational and disciplined thinker. This workshop will provide you the skills to approach problems critically, as well as recognize the power of open-mindedness and altering your perspective, in order to make the best choices.

Workshop Objectives

Research has consistently demonstrated that when clear goals are associated with learning, it occurs more easily and rapidly. 

The objectives for this course are as follows:

    • Define critical thinking

    • Understand the critical thinking process

    • Identify the role of logic, and reasoning

    • Recognize benefits and barriers to critical thinking

    • Identify characteristics of a critical thinker

    • Evaluate information using critical thinking skills

    • Recognize ways to improve skills

    • Explore and revise perspective, when necessary

    • Comprehend problem solving abilities

Welcome to the Meeting Management workshop. You are on your first project and you have to organize and manage the project kick-off meeting. What do you do first? Do you create the agenda or the invitation list? How do you run a meeting? What preparation do you need? All of these are valid and real questions you, as the meeting manager, must address. There is no doubt about it, meetings require skill and technique in order for the meeting to achieve its purpose. Disorganized and poorly managed meetings waste time and hurt your credibility as a meeting manager. Consistently leaving a poor impression with the attendees will haunt you, if left unchecked.  

This training course is designed to give you the basic tools you will need to initiate and manage your meetings. You will learn planning and leadership techniques that will give you the confidence to run an engaging meeting that will leave a positive and lasting impression. This is a hands-on workshop and your participation will help make it a valuable experience. Use this time to begin the process of developing your techniques to improve your meeting management skills. 

Before we begin, let’s get to know each other better. Since we will be spending most of today working with each other, it is worth the time to share some things about ourselves now, making it easier to engage in the course. 

Workshop Objectives

Research has consistently demonstrated that when clear goals are associated with learning, it occurs more easily and rapidly. 

By the end of this workshop, participants will understand:

    • Planning and preparing

    • Identifying the participants 

    • How to choose the time and place 

    • How to create the agenda 

    • How to set up the meeting space 

    • How to incorporate electronic options 

    • Meeting roles and responsibilities 

    • How to use an agenda

    • How to chair a meeting

    • How to deal with disruptions 

    • How to professionally deal with personality conflicts 

    • How to take minutes 

    • How to make the most of your meeting using games, activities and prizes

Everyone has dreams and goals. Achieving personal and professional goals, however, requires planning and action. Learning how to manage time and set realistic goals will increase your chance of success in every area of your life. Following the advice in this course will help increase your productivity and help you achieve your dreams. 

Workshop Objectives

Research has consistently demonstrated that when clear goals are associated with learning, it occurs more easily and rapidly. With that in mind, let’s review our goals for today. 

At the end of this workshop, participants should be able to:

    • Overcome procrastination

    • Manage time effectively

    • Accomplish important tasks

    •  Self-motivate

    • Create SMART goals

Welcome to the Budgets and Financial Reports workshop. Everyday businesses deal with budgets and financial reports in some form or fashion. At minimum, business managers review budget numbers and run financial reports for decision-making and reporting to shareholders and Federal regulators once a month. Many companies devote the last few months of the calendar year to creating budgets for the next calendar year. In addition, organizations create and disseminate year-end financial reports to investors.

The goal of this workshop is to give the participant a basic understanding of budgets and financial reports so they can hold relevant discussions and render decisions based on financial data. This course will define key terms like ROI, EBIT, GAAP, and extrapolation. Furthermore, this one-day course will discuss commonly used financial terms, financial statements, budgets, forecasting, purchasing decisions, and laws that regulate the handling of financial information. 

Workshop Objectives

Research has consistently demonstrated that when clear goals are associated with learning, it occurs more easily and rapidly. 

In this course, participants are going to achieve the following learning objectives:

    • Identify financial terminology

    • Understand financial statements

    • Identify how to analyze financial statements

    • Understand budgets

    • Learn how to make budgeting easy

    • Understand advanced forecasting techniques

    • Understand how to manage the budget

    • Identify how to make smart purchasing decisions

    • Identify the legal aspects of finances