Corporate Programs and Keynotes
Jim's workshops and programs are filled with stories
and activities that leave participants thinking and behaving in
new ways.
Program content is customized to your organization. Program length
is also flexible; we will create a learning session that meets your
needs in the most purposeful and functional way.
 Click
on any of the links below to jump to a detailed description:
Strategic Planning Retreats
Ready, Set, Change?! If you're wanting to shift the leadership
or company culture, let's kick it off properly for you. I will
work with you/your leaders to hone the "message," then design
and help you run a high-impact, highly interactive, one or multi-day
management meeting focused on that message, e.g. corporate Mission/Values
or specific change issues occurring in the organization. This
may include creation or "reinvention" of the organization's
Vision/Mission or Strategies. Meeting theme and activities will
be designed around the needs of the organization and the participants.
Whether your team is 10 or 100 leaders, we'll engage them through
facilitated activities and the application of creative problem
solving tools. Participants will leave with a renewed sense of
commitment to organizational goals and concrete personal or team
action plans.
Integrating the Change(s): Sorry, but one-shot meetings don't
change culture. That only happens over time and with a lot more
attention from leadership. Oh, and then there's that "Modeling
the behavior" thing that is so elusive. So I won't abandon you
to return to the workplace and fall into old habits. Together,
we'll plan follow-on events to bring people back together to process
and deepen the change. We'll look at what's working or not, and
change the tactics. Or perhaps we'll design a coaching strategy
and/or a communication plan/process to reinforce the message over
and again until the change gets into your organizational DNA.
Organizational Follow-up: The entire organization must understand
and buy in to the Vision/Mission to make it a reality. I can help
you develop and run internal programs for the rest of your people
to help them examine internal and external processes and behaviors
in the context of the Mission, Values and Goals. Participants
will identify changes that need to occur to better align what
actually happens with what is supposed to happen, and will leave
with personal action plans for change.
Keynotes on Happiness and Positive Emotion
Happiness @TheSpeedofLife: Five Prescriptions for Happiness!
Happiness is a state of mind that can have a huge impact on our outcomes. This session will review the foundational principles of living a happier, more balanced life. You will leave with five specific actions you can practice to improve the strength of your "positive emotional muscles" and increase the experience of happiness in your life and work. Come to change your outlook on life and self, reduce stress, and move closer to what YOU define as happiness. Why is this important to you? Hey, happier people make better employees, leaders, partners, parents, and friends. It's all about you! When you show up stronger and more resilient, you are more likely to feel confident, be perceived as competent, and have a greater capacity to counsel, coach, and lead change.
Duration: 20, 30, 45, or 60 minute sessions.
Happiness @TheSpeedofLife: The 13 Principles of Happiness
 Being
"Happy" is a state of mind a person can carry with them
regardless of what is going on in the world around them. It comes
from under-standing what is important (to you) and from learning
how to manage your attitudes and the environments in which you
operate. Happiness is more likely to occur when you shift the
way you look at yourself and what goes on around you.
We live in a 24/7 environment, and as the speed of life accelerates,
we need to pay more attention to our coping skills. Studies in
the area of Positive Psychology have proven that people who experience
more positive emotion in their lives not only cope better, but
are more creative, more productive, and live healthier lives!
This program will introduce you to a "menu" of 13 simple Principles
you can apply to your own life, to move closer to what you define
as happiness. Some of them you may already know, while others
will be new. You need only apply a few of them to dramatically
reduce stress and increase your own level of satisfaction with
life.
For those who manage or coach in the workplace or at home, the
principles provide you with an additional tool to help others
address personal and workplace issues. You will walk away with
an action plan as well as a new tool to use in coaching others
in the workplace. The benefit to you: happy people make better
employees!
Come prepared to think, to examine possibilities, and to have
a little bit of FUN!
Duration: 45, 60, or 90 minute sessions
Happiness 201: Life Skills for Stressed-Out Professionals
Attention,
stressed-out professionals! Research demonstrates that people
who experience more incidents of positive emotion in their lives
are not only happier, but also more productive, more creative,
and more physically and mentally resilient. Such people “bounce
back” from stress and adversity more quickly than those who experience
the world thru a more negative lens. The good news is that you
can LEARN how to be happier! Regular application of a few simple
activities can increase your awareness of the good in your world,
and lead to an increase in the incidence of positive emotion in
your life. This program will introduce you to information and
tools you can apply to your own high stress life. You can also
use these to coach others—and wouldn’t it be great to work
with a bunch of happy people?!
Duration: versions of this program can be delivered in 60 or 90 minute sessions, or in a half-day (3 hour) workshop format.
Building a Positive Culture: Why Happiness Matters
 Jim brings the science of Happiness and Positive Psychology into the workplace to help leaders create organizations that respect and engage people while also delivering great results. In this interactive session, Jim will help you:
- Understand the financial impact of Positive in the workplace and how fostering happiness in your employees can improve your bottom line.
- Learn how to make happiness an agenda item equal in importance to sales and profit—because in an era of instant access to infinite data, the only thing that differentiates you from your competition is your people. You need to have Real Conversations about happiness, starting at the top of the organization.
- Practice appreciation and happiness across the whole system, weaving it into the operational fabric of your organization.
- Embody happiness yourself through intentional actions that are simple yet powerful, and which you will learn and practice in the session.
Duration: 45, 60-75, or 90 minute sessions.
Keynotes on Leadership, Trust, and Coaching
Leadership @TheSpeedofLife: A Hands-on Clinic for Leaders
Leaders have it tough—everything’s moving fast, and they
have to manage it all... yet they are still human beings experiencing
the same "trauma" as everyone else when the world is changing
every second. In this hands-on clinic leaders will examine several
practices they can adopt to help themselves and their teams deal
with stress. We will also cover the Five Rules for Effective Conversation,
how to create a culture of Accountability, and the power of Choice.
And all this in 90 minutes. Life’s fast!
Duration: 90 minutes, more with additional exercises
Trust Is A Verb: What you can do, shouldn’t do, and must do to engage the people in your organization
Consider what is on the "issues" list for many leaders:
building teams, improving communication, leadership development,
diversity, hiring, retention. Every one of these issues succeeds
more or less to the degree there is trust—trust in the process,
in the people, in the leaders, in the organization. No matter
how good the "best practice" you employ to accomplish
your goals, your impact will be diminished without a solid foundation
of trust. Meanwhile, LACK of trust is a leading factor in turnover
and disengagement. Too many leaders dismiss trust as unimportant—"it's
an emotion," they say; "and this is business..."
What is this elusive thing, Trust? In this session we will explore:
- Why Trust is critical for organizations
- Definitions and Types of Trust
- Trust as an emotion—and as an action
- Common Practices that destroy Trust
- Why giving it is more important than receiving it
- Actions leaders can take to build Trust
Duration: 60 to 90 minutes;—also
up to half-day hands-on workshop.
Personal Coaching: What it is. How it works. Why you want it.
Enough with dry programs on the ROI of leadership development! Let's get personal here: have you ever thought about hiring a professional coach for yourself or a key leader in your organization, but hesitated because you didn't understand the process? We'll explore how coaching looks and "feels" in real-life, how coaching can serve both the individual and the organization, how to measure effectiveness, how to use coaching within your OD budget, and how to find and select the right coach for the job.
Duration: 45 to 60 minute program
Powerful Questions, Powerful Results: Coaching in Organizations
Asking the right question at the right moment in a conversation can move a person from "stuck" to fast forward on making a decision, closing a deal, or taking action. Coaching—the hottest management tool of the 21st Century—also uses questions to get people "unstuck" and moving forward faster toward improving their effectiveness. Not just any question will do, however. To get the best results, a coach/leader has to focus on matching questions to the context and on laying appropriate groundwork for employees to move themselves forward through providing their own answers to those questions.
Participants will learn how powerful coaching works and how to use some specific coaching techniques to help others—at all levels—solve their own problems better and faster by tapping into their own resources and intuition.
Duration: 60 to 90 minute program
New Manager Assimilation
This extraordinarily effective teambuilding process is based
on the premise that the effectiveness of a manager and staff's
relationship is impacted by their degree of shared understanding.
Built on the Johari Window communications model, this highly interactive
exercise provides a "safe" and structured process for
a new manager and work group to get to know how each other operate.
When conducted within a new manager's first three weeks on the
job, it can accelerate the "getting to know the boss"
process by up to six months, so everyone can focus on the business.
A modified form of the exercise can be used to help a more tenured
manager and work group exchange balanced feedback.
P.S. This is one of my lowest cost programs—yet one of the
highest impact facilitations I deliver. It's a great way to see
what a skilled coach and facilitator can do for your team, without
risking a lot. I guarantee you'll be thrilled with the outcome!
Duration: Four hours total, although not all parties are present for the entire exercise.
Generational Diversity: Managing Millennials
Alternate Title: Why Can’t We All Just Get Along? – Skills
for Managing Four Generations in the Workplace
The Millennials (aka Gen Y) have arrived, and the other generations
are still hangin' around. What are the implications of this reality?
What conflicts might arise between generations when work habits,
communication styles, and value systems collide?
This interactive program uses stories, short exercises, and debriefing
to create understanding of the issues of generational differences—and some things we can do to both work with and capitalize on
them. We will draw on participants' experiences to build a better
framework for effective communication (special emphasis on Millennials
and potential cross-generational friction points).
Typically, participants say that the session really opened
up their understanding of issues unique to each of the four generations
currently in the workplace, and helped them to understand how
and why Millennials are not wrong... they're just different, and
so require some new approaches to engage them and keep them connected
and motivated.
NOTE: Participants will receive a comprehensive handout for reference
post-meeting.
Duration: Presentation—1 hour;
hands-on workshop—3-4 hours
Full Contact Communication: Creating Accountability
This program focuses on creating personal accountability for communication. For leaders as well as teams, this program is essentially "sensitivity training" in communication. Participants will explore the nature of communication, with particular emphasis on creating awareness of personal filters and the multiple messages they may be sending and how those might be received and interpreted by others. Participants will learn important distinctions that can make an enormous difference in how they are perceived by others.
Topics can also include: non-verbal communication, primary learning/receiving styles, selecting appropriate communication channels, group communication tips, and the power of language to create reality. Participants may take a listening skills assessment and practice Full Contact Listening.
Duration: Customized; anywhere from 2 hrs up to two 4-hour workshops
Need more information on any of these programs, contact Jim.
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