WORKSHOPS

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ESPECIALLY FOR MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS

The brief descriptions found below are a starting point. All Acorn workshops are tailored to meet your organization’s specific learning and staff development objectives.

WRITING THAT WORKS

This workshop will help you understand how to write in a way that is compelling, engaging, and targeted to the specific audience you are trying to reach. Even well-written material can miss the mark if it’s aimed at the wrong target. Fortified with an understanding of the different ways people prefer to receive and process information, you will learn how to adapt your writing in order to meet the style needs of your audience. Whether writing to inquire, inform, summarize, or persuade, this workshop will help you understand your audiences and what it takes to “speak” their language. The workshop also includes:

UNDERSTANDING BEHAVIOR -- THE KEY TO EFFECTIVE RELATIONSHIPS

Developing the ability to work effectively with others is one of the most important skills you can learn. Successful relationships are crucial both to personal satisfaction and to effective work performance. In this workshop participants:

TIME MASTERY -- HOW TO MANAGE YOUR TIME MORE EFFICIENTLY

We all face a daily dilemma: too much to do and not enough time to do it. Shorter deadlines, competing priorities, endless meetings, interruptions, and ever higher quality expectations are just some of today’s time challenges. This program offers principles of time management in twelve critical areas. Action planning for improved habits, plus tried-and-true tools, tips, and techniques are all part of this personal development seminar.

THE ART OF SPONTANEITY

Adapting quickly and responding appropriately are the marks of a true professional. Some of the best role models for these abilities can be seen in improvisational theater. Discover the secrets professional improv players use to build collaboration and teamwork. In this fun and energizing workshop session we will use some of the warm-up activities improv players use before a performance to prepare themselves for great interactions with one another. It’s all about attitude, fluidity, and the art of paying attention. Doing it all with a sense of humor? Now that’s a bonus.

HOW TO DELIVER FIRST-CLASS CUSTOMER SERVICE

This practical skill-building seminar will help your customer service staff:

THE ART OF EFFECTIVE MEETING MANAGEMENT

Most meetings occur too often, last too long, and accomplish too little. The difference between a stimulating discussion and a productive meeting is ... results. This program focuses on managing meetings for results by helping participants learn how to plan, schedule, and control meetings for maximum effectiveness.

ESPECIALLY FOR MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS

COACHING FOR STAFF DEVELOPMENT

For our context, a coach is defined as someone who helps others develop and grow.

Develop in the sense of closing skill gaps and improving personal performance;

Grow in the sense of learning new and different skills that maximize one’s strengths and help in living up to one’s potential.

In this workshop managers learn the five essential competencies of the Coaching Model and how to adapt their coaching style to the needs of each individual.

UNDERSTANDING MANAGERIAL STYLES

Managerial behaviors profoundly affect employee motivation. This session will help managers and supervisors understand what is required to establish a positive work climate to maximize employee commitment and performance. A self-assessment questionnaire helps managers and supervisors understand their current style tendencies and learn about alternative approaches for increased effectiveness.

MANAGING YOUR EMPLOYEES’ LEARNING

This highly experiential workshop offers a hands-on understanding of how different people learn differently. You will learn how to leverage the knowledge your individual employees already have in order to increase team effectiveness and identify new strategies for helping your employees to learn on the job.

TEAM DYNAMICS

This module invites leaders to focus on the group perspective. We begin by creating a list of characteristics of an effective team. Then through a series of increasingly complex team activities and experiential initiatives, participants will evaluate their own performance as team members and as team leaders, in relationship to their list.

Participants receive complete instructions, as well as debriefing guidelines, for many of the activities so they can conduct them with their own teams.