Participatory Training Design and Delivery * What is your approach to training? * Sample workshops * Facilitator training * Support staff and their teams * Everybody needs mentoring About my work Mary Dingee Fillmore, Director Clients Projects	Tailoring Participatory Workshops Every workshop I do is designed with a particular audience in mind. In general, I interview the client and other key people, and read significant material about the organization, its mission, structure and accomplishments. On that basis, I design an agenda that specifically relates to the situation there. For example, in an organization which has been downsizing, communication skills need to be approached in a different spirit than in one which is growing. The topics I have worked with include: Reducing Suffering at Meetings The Journey of Listening The More Things Change Decisions, Decisions Career Strategies in Changing Times Consulting Skills for Everyone Communicating under Stress Preventive Conflict Management Team Tools The Changing Roles of Supervisors Motivating the Overworked Employee Reducing Suffering at Meetings helps an organization focus on ways to avoid meetings whenever possible, define what they are trying to achieve at meetings (often too much), clarify who really needs to participate, and change their approach to facilitation so that meetings serve both organizational goals and human needs. Most people put less energy into meeting design than cooking dinner, and it shows. The Journey of Listening gives participants an opportunity to learn and practice one of the most underutilized skills in our talkative society. Almost no major organizational mission -- productivity, customer service, advocacy, or whatever -- can be fulfilled if employees are not listening to each other and to the world outside. A practical, patient approach makes it possible for people to slow down and pay attention, not by using a formula, but by observing and building on their own behavior. The More Things Change addresses the sad fact that, although there can be major upheavals in organizational structures, the underlying informal systems often remain untouched. Whether change is inflicted from outside or to some extent chosen, it can only be optimized for organizational productivity if the human foundations are understood and taken into account. By acknowledging the huge stresses which go along with change -- and some of the features that "stay the same" -- participants can discover ways to cope with and even shape change. Decisions, Decisions provides criteria for participants to use in determining when to inform others of their decisions, when to give them input, and when to involve them actively. While every organization differs in these respects, the rules are often informal and not enforced clearly. By being more deliberate about what the decision making process should be for different kinds of choices, the organization can become more participatory and responsive to people at all levels. Career Strategies in Changing Times is for people who are frustrated by the lack of traditional "moving up" opportunities in the current environment. It is designed to help them modify their goals if necessary, learn more about their organization and how it really functions, plan to gain skills that will be useful in the future, and improve their visibility and ability to network both inside and outside the workplace. Consulting Skills for Everyone are useful in dealing with both internal and external customers. Many have found it useful to focus on model of an outsider who first helps a person identify their own needs and requirements, then develops a proposal in response, and finally makes a contract with the customer. The perspective shift means taking customers' needs more seriously, and making them the basis of programs and actions. Communicating under Stress is aimed at the many situations with co-workers or customers in which one person or the other is not at their best. Instead of being able to "roll with the punches", at least one party in the communication may be defensive or even hostile. In an organizational climate of upheaval and change, few exchanges take place in a relaxed setting. Preventive Conflict Management helps people avoid full-blown conflict by detecting and handling potentially hot issues before they get out of control. Many people are reluctant to deal directly with touchy issues such as interpersonal conflicts, flagging performance, or inadequate contribution to a team effort. Supervisors and managers particularly need to learn spot difficult individuals and situations and take early action lighthandedly rather than allowing things to develop into a confrontation. Team Tools include conflict management, assessment of self and others, setting mutual goals and planning to reach them, giving and receiving feedback, and other topics tailored to particular teams. Rather than presenting the topics in the abstract, the facilitator works with the group on the issues it is actually facing, and helps them assemble the tools they need to deal effectively with daily work and crises. The Changing Roles of Supervisors addresses the shift from a commander at the helm who tells people what to do, to a facilitator, mentor and supporter who helps the team in completely new ways. Because the process involves letting go and new behaviors, the session provides an opportunity to identify the changes, acknowledge the stresses and upheavals they involve, and develop specific strategies to take on the new roles. Motivating the Overworked Employee shows supervisors and managers how to keep employees -- and themselves -- from being overwhelmed by the volume of work to the point where they cannot function. In the absence of many traditional rewards (promotion and substantial cash awards), new ways must be found to keep people going.
© 1996 - 1998 Mary Dingee Fillmore, Changing Work <mfillmore@usa.net>. All rights reserved.