State Government Special Topic Workshops

Behavioral Assessment
This course will provide professional assessment of personal styles, evaluate the benefits and detractions of a preferred style, and call attention to effective ways of employing alternative styles. It will also emphasize behavioral analysis and opportunities for adjustments.

Communication
Participants will explore the various components of effective communication and engage in interactive strategies to take in and deliver all types of messages—agreeable, neutral and difficult. This course will examine how to create and deliver effective communication in group and/or public settings. 

Conflict Management and Resolution
Participants will identify various personal conflict management styles and understand the sources and drivers of conflict. Participants will learn how to create alternatives and options leading to partial and complete resolution. This course will also include an overview of negotiation skills. 

Customer Service
Participants will examine how to create appropriate service environments and defined deliverables for internal and external customers. They will also learn how to address problem and complaint resolution. This course may also include the use of the customer roundtable concept, which consists of brief panel discussions by external customers to present real issues and expectations. 

Ethics
Participants will gain a greater understanding of the ethical implications of the choices they make. This course will examine ethical styles, differences, principles and issues relevant to public service and will include an examination of applicable laws and policies. It will also clarify and assess the public sector's various ethical dimensions. 

Leadership
Participants will learn to adapt leadership styles to various organizational, developmental and resource-driven environments, known as "situational leadership." This course will emphasize the transitional phase of a manager adapting to evolving roles, departments or teams. It will present alternative leadership styles that are dependent on situational needs at a given time.

This course will include:

• defining motivation
• examining methods of managing and reacting to motivational issues
• skill deficiencies and performance drivers
• personal and positional power
• understanding the relationship between power and influence
• determining methods of transforming power into influence and selecting appropriate influence strategies

Management
This course will help existing or new managers address general management and supervision skills, encompassing techniques and models necessary to effectively and efficiently oversee a unit, team or department.

Content areas include:

• steps and methods of choosing tasks and delegates
• how to structure the transition of duties to effectively achieve the successful transfer of actions
• providing appropriate, rational and timely messages that result in positive behavior adaptations
• methods for choosing the appropriate actions and communication styles to effectively interact with internal staff at the senior level, peer/co-worker level and with direct reports.
• appropriate communication approaches for external clients, customers and vendors
• how to manage the development process of direct reports and followers so that it leads to continuous improvement
• setting and maintaining accountability
• documenting actions

Problem-Solving and Decision-Making
Participants will discuss strategies for determining the appropriate situation review, problem review, decision review and future review approach in order to correctly evaluate each stage of the problem-solving process and determine the best overall outcome. This course will provide a rational structure for determining the root cause of problems, addressing symptoms and creating solutions and implementation models. It also will present situational decision-making based on data and circumstance analysis.  

Team and Group Dynamics
Participants will focus on understanding the role of teams and the roles on a team.

This course will provide insights into the stages of:

• group or team development
• management practices for matrix and silo organizations
• strategies for influencing others on interdepartmental, cross-functional and project teams