Training Task Group's Programs
Management and Leadership training
Leaders create the state of mind that shapes an organization, and they serve as symbols of the unity and vision of the organization. Only leaders can articulate goals that lift people out of their daily concerns and above the conflicts that can tear an organization apart. Leaders need to be committed to the objectives of the company or organization. Their values and ethics set the tone and determine the culture of the workplace.
Note: A 360° Leadership Survey is often conducted in conjunction with this type of program.
Participants will:
- Know the difference between leadership and management.
- Develop an understanding of how one's individual approach to leadership influences an organization.
- Compare traditional leadership theories of the past with those necessary for the future.
- Identify the conditions which leaders must establish to satisfy followers.
- Examine their individual leadership style.
- Understand the concept of "vision" and learn how to communicate it.
- Compare theories of leadership.
- Understand leadership roles and competencies.
- Understand the tasks of leadership.
- Learn how to involve others in decision-making.
- Understand the concept of followership.
Team Building
Training Task Group offers several experiential team building programs that will help your organization achieve maximum success. Effective teamwork is the foundation for success in any organization, large or small. In an era of ever-faster competition, teams have proven the most effective way to organize people so that they can meet lofty goals and do so quickly so your organization may adapt to changing business environment.
Training Task Group's innovative team building programs, R•E•A•C•H and S•T•R•E•T•C•H, are based on the idea that theory is important, but that people also have to learn about each other and model new behaviours in order for the learning to really sink in. To this end, we have developed participatory programs that will challenge, instruct, inspire, and delight.
R•E•A•C•H
Overall corporate wellness depends on a healthy work environment. R•E•A•C•H activities, offered as 1 to 3 day Teambuilding programs, are not dependent upon physical strength or fitness. They simply require the enthusiastic participation of each team member. Challenge by Choice is the rule of the day. Following each exercise, we debrief the activity and determine its significance to participants. The debrief discussions follow an instructional sequence which allows participants to understand what they have to do as individuals and as a group to make their team or organization more efficient and effective. Principles of team success are demonstrated and discussed throughout the program.
Participants will:
- Increase their self knowledge and communication skills - appreciate the impact their individual communication and problem-solving preferences have on colleagues.
- Improve problem-solving abilities - learn to use various forms of conflict resolution to create the conditions essential for collaborative problem-solving.
- Enhance project efficiency and effectiveness - understand that efficient and effective team performance contributes to the success of the overall organization.
S•T•R•E•T•C•H
This Teams Program begins with the premise that a team must know itself, its strengths, and its weaknesses. We offer a range of questionnaires from which to choose to get the data you require to see how you are doing. Whether you are a team that will work together for a long time or are a quickly formed team thrown together to solve a problem, the same team dynamics exist. You will arrive at the course and receive a personalized set of data that you work with during the program. This data typically includes an individual feedback component, a self-knowledge questionnaire, a team climate audit and a customer survey. The focus is on the individual and how he or she works in a team context to achieve team goals and satisfy customer expectations.
Participants will learn:
- S • Self Awareness: Using brief questionnaires, you will gain powerful self-knowledge and a greater understanding of your role on your team.
- T • Team and Individual Awareness: You will discover your preferred communication and problem-solving styles and those of each of your team members.
- R • Receiving and Giving Feedback: You will learn coaching skills how to give feedback and to solicit feedback on your own performance.
- E • Emotional Intelligence (EQ): You will work with this new concept and discover the attributes that contribute to your EQ. You will understand how these elements impact on the work of your team.
- T • Team Project: You will all work together on a project. You will have the opportunity to analyze your team dynamics and evaluate the team's performance.
- C • Conflict Management: You will learn how to de-escalate inevitable disagreements and orchestrate resolutions by using new techniques based on the team's profile.
- H • High Performing Teams: Great teams are able to solve problems collaboratively; they are empathetic, achievement-oriented, clear communicators and have a strong organizational awareness.
Innovation
Looking for new ways to do things in the workplace is the hallmark of the "learning organization". Learning to leverage the creative thinking skills of each and every person, stimulates the organization and the people within. Asking questions like, "Why not?", "How might we?" and "What's stopping us?" puts everyone in a positive frame of mind. The organization and its people are the mutual beneficiaries of the resulting innovation.
What you will learn:
- Definition innovation
- Linking innovation to the creation of the exemplary workplace, high performing teams and the learning organization
- Knowing the characteristics of the innovative organization
- Appreciating the role of managers in supporting the creation of the innovative workplace
- Overcoming three types of obstacles to innovation: personal, team and systemic
- Four types of innovation and the relation to modern organizations
- Managing the eight-step innovative process
- Managing organizational change to support innovative ideas
- Controlling creativity to develop innovative ideas that actually work
- Understanding the concept of systematic incrementalism and its relationship to creative problem-solving
Conflict Resolution and Management
Conflict is not only an inevitable part of life, it can be a positive force if managed properly. Effective managers have a clear sense of the importance of the negotiation process as society moves toward a consensual, team- oriented approach to management. As managers rely less on their formal power and authority to get the job done, they will have to rely more on their ability to negotiate with others, as individuals and in groups, to find creative ways to resolve disputes. This course will help you hone your skills so you can negotiate win-win agreements with anyone.
Participants will:
- Discuss what conflict is and what it isn't.
- Discuss the common causes of conflict.
- Understand common reactions to conflict.
- Understand their personal reactions to conflict through a self-scoring questionnaire.
- Learn about the conflict-distress cycle.
- Learn about the anger cycle.
- Learn strategies for conflict resolution.
- Discuss power and confidence issues in conflict.
- Learn the basis of win-win problem solving. Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution.
Change Management
The vast majority of executives say that learning to manage change has increasing importance as organizations struggle to succeed in a new environment one characterized by more information, globalization, budget pressures and increasingly demanding customers and workers.
Change doesn't mean simply re-engineering your work systems. True change means:
- Reshaping the culture of an organization.
- Doing things in a completely different way.
- Questioning the reasons for actions.
- Eliminating unnecessary barriers and rules which diminish people's productivity.
Participants will:
- Evaluate the current status of their organization.
- Understand how an organizational culture must evolve to support a change effort.
- Identify the forces leading them to consider changing.
- Identify attitudes and reactions to change theirs and those of the people they work with.
- Develop a Change Action Plan based on the lessons learned by other organizations.
- Discuss the communication strategy to support the change effort.
Diversity training
The increasingly non-traditional, multi-cultural workforce in most Canadian companies is a positive asset that puts pressure on everyone to develop the proper attitude and knowledge about diverse cultures. Managing with thoughtfulness and sensitivity in this new environment can be a challenge for many managers. This is not only a skill-building course but also an information-sharing discussion lead by an experienced facilitator.
Participants will:
- Think about and discuss diversity issues and challenge assumptions and biases that might otherwise go unexamined.
- Consider other points of view from the perspective of other cultures.
- Evaluate their own Diversity Awareness with an Assessment Tool which measures participants' knowledge of general and business-related multicultural information.
- Evaluate the level of their organization's commitment to diversity.
- Evaluate the level of their personal commitment to diversity.
- Appreciate the biases which we all have.
- Plan how to control personal reactions.
- Understand harassment in all its forms.
- Think about power and how others see it.
Customer/Client Service
In today's environment, where two thirds of all employed people are in service jobs, the consistency of quality service can often make the difference between successful transactions and mediocre encounters. It is, quite often, the one characteristic which sets one organization apart from its competitors. This course will allow staff to deliver consistently top-notch service to customers and clients.
Participants will:
- Discuss the importance of behaviour and attitude to the image of a company.
- Learn about customer service "style".
- Discuss the service standards of their organization.
- Recognize the difference between internal and external customers.
- Learn to demonstrate sensitivity and sincerity in relations with customers.
- Learn to ask questions which make customers comfortable.
- Practice good, active listening skills to recognize the true intent of the words.
- Learn to making concise statements which convey a clear meaning.
- Learn to deal with difficult customers.
- Learn to be empathetic to customer complaints.
- Demonstrate that they truly know and care about each customer.
- Develop confidence when confronted with difficult, demanding or angry people.
- Be assertive when the situation demands it.