Leadership Development Training is an important part of successful management. These skills do not automatically develop because we are in a management position! Effective leadership requires high levels of self awareness and emotional intelligence, the capacity for advanced communication skills, and a complex range of other skills.

 The Groupwork Institute provides a range of opportunities for Leadership Development. It can be at a one-on-one level,  using Manager Peer Learning Circles or by participating in our Advanced Diploma of Management.

The support we offer has a direct impact on manager’s confidence and self development – these are melded with practical leadership skills and processes, which in turn leads to better outcomes for their organisation. This Leadership Development Training can assist in your organisations long term success.

Course 1
May 4&5, 2009 Follow up days June 23, 2009 and August 18, 2009

Course 2
September 1&2, 2009 Follow up days October 7, 2009 and December 15, 2009

Cost: $850.00 per person

This Supervision model has been developed by the Groupwork Institute of Australia to deliver high quality, consistent and practical staff supervision. Upon completion, participants will have the confidence to implement this well tested model.
 
This workshop covers:

• What we can achieve through good supervision and performance management
• What are the underlying values and assumptions for our supervision
• The Super Vision model - a flexible container based on people’s specific work areas
• Refreshing the specific skills we need to facilitate supervision
• The role of supervisor - including being a ‘learner facilitator’
• Overcoming resistance and other hurdles
• Performance management - how it fits with supervision and ways to make it effective (and attractive!)

This comprehensive training spans 3 months and allows time for implementation and follow up.

Certificate
Participants successfully completing this course will receive a certificate of competency in Manage People Performance - BSBMGT502B.  This is a unit towards the attainment of a Diploma of Management.

Details

Times
9.30am - 5.00pm

Provided
lunch, morning and afternoon tea, workshop materials and handouts

Location
Gestalt Therapy Australia, 333 Heidelberg Road, Northcote
Adjacent to Fairfield Park, inner north east Melbourne.
Best to get onto the service road off the outbound lane
(between Jeffrey and Westgarth Streets)

Parking
Available within premises and on the service road

Download an application form here. Application is required a minimum of seven days before each workshop. Bookings are essential.

Accreditation of courses is offered through Groupwork Institute P/L, Reg. No. 22011 - the accredited training division of our organisation.

The accredited component of the courses is optional and thus only paid for by those who actually want the Diploma qualfication.  All students attend the same course blocks, and learn the same Units.  However, those who choose the Diploma level are required to do more substantial assessment tasks than the non Diploma participants.

Staff need some structured time and a process to reflect on their work.

This is traditionally done in individual sessions, with a senior staff member being the supervisor to other workers or with an outside coach or mentor.

Peer Learning Circles can be conducted in specific teams or in mixed groups from across the organisation.

The Groupwork Institute of Australia has developed a structured process for work practice reflection, challenge and support (Peer Learning Circles), which have been introduced to a variety of organisations over the last few years. These have been a great success with people reporting strengthened practice skills, greater sense of trust and team spirit.

In the life of an organisation there are significant events which deserve to be honoured.

Often however, they pass unmarked and people have no organisational processes to acknowledge the event. This lack saps emotional energy and does a disservice to the individuals and the organisation.

At the Groupwork Institute of Australia we have been involved in designing and facilitating many such processes. Some have been exciting and celebratory events to mark a large organisational success. Others have been sad occasions to mark a significant cut back, loss or death.

All have been much appreciated. In collaboration, we can design and facilitate a suitable process to mark your organisation’s significant event.

The life/work balancing act.

From our extensive work in a wide range of organisations, people seem to be working harder and harder, for longer hours and under increased pressure. In middle to upper management, the 12 hour day is becoming the norm. People’s stories of this experience is alarming. Yet, people are an organisation’s greatest asset.

How can we look after ourselves and others in the face of today’s pressures?

This workshop covers:

Understanding the effect of not taking care of ourself so well!
So why don’t we?!
The role of the unconscious interplay between external pressures and our internalisation of these
The relevance of our organisation’s culture
Practical tools for self awareness, taking care and ‘self-supervision’.

Our Strategic planning workshop explores a A Holistic Approach to ensure taht people’s individual priority and issues do not get lost within the organisations; ‘big picture’.

We will rekindle the ‘fire in your belly’ – the fundamental reasons why you do the work you do.

Strategic planning is often people can get lost as to where priorities and issues fit within their organisation’s ‘big picture’.

Strategic planning is often overlooked or done in ways that are not totally relevant to, or owned by the people who have to put them into action. Strategic plans need to be collaboratively developed, clear, simple to understand and useful to guide people’s daily practices. Such plans need to tap into why we do our particular work!

Our Strategic Planning Workshop is designed to build understanding and ownership of the strategic plan within the context of the overall organisation. We use group facilitation skills to tap people’s passion for their work, and then to develop a plan that is practical, realistic and whole heartedly owned by all involved.

Remember, we bring all of our ‘selves’ to work!

Unfortunately, many of the practical, logical solutions we craft to address organisational issues, fail at implementation. Often this is because we do not take into account what is going on at a deeper, ‘illogical’ or unconscious emotional level.

Wise solutions include all these levels we operate at. This workshop is especially helpful to managers and offers processes and frameworks for understanding the unconscious at work (ours and others!) There are a range of practical tools for incorporating these understandings to assist with the creation of wise outcomes. All this builds people’s actual emotional intelligence.

A wise decision results from a good process well facilitated.

There is now a widespread understanding that, on important organisational matters, best outcomes are achieved through collaboration. However, putting this into practice is complex.

This workshop will focus on:

The big issue – where should which decisions be made, how and by whom
The principles of collaborative decision making
Facilitating good decision making – a map to get there
Decision making continuum
Building a collaborative culture to underpin good decision making
Our own part in good decision making.

There seems to be as many understandings of ‘Team Building’ as there are teams!

However, teams do often need some re-grouping or enhancing, especially after significant upheaval or change. Teams can easily become a bit flat or lack the sense of collaboration and common ownership of principles and practice.

Our Team Building workshop begins with a thorough exploration of the particular team’s story, team values and key issues and strengths. There are often key issues that need to be addressed. Then, through well facilitated processes, we work on ways forward to redevelop the desired sense of team.

A Supervision model which builds on the wisdom within.

A key area of managers’ responsibility is staff supervision and performance management. However the reality is, that in our overcrowded work schedules we often let it slip or do it only when ‘necessary’. Our Performance Management Training course teaches the importance and benefits of responsibility, staff supervision and performance. 

Supervision needs to be a positive process, which builds on existing strengths. We need to do it regularly, and within a consistent structure.

This workshop covers:

• What we can achieve through good supervision
• Performance management – how it fits with supervision and ways to make it effective (and attractive!)
• The Super Vision model – a flexible container based on people’s specific work areas
• Refreshing the specific skills we need to facilitate supervision
• The art of giving ‘hearable’ feedback
• The role of supervisor – including being a ‘learning facilitator’
• Overcoming resistance and other hurdles.

Practical Training in Advanced Communication

Generally, most of us do quite well with our communication with colleagues, clients and the public. However, we still face some ‘challenging encounters’. This workshop focuses on the tricky end of communication where we need some deeper understanding and advanced skills.

We will look at:

Understanding our responses in challenging encounters
The role of the unconscious
Responding to challenging encounters
Giving and receiving feedback – the art of giving ‘hearable’ messages
Welcoming diversity
Influencing other people’s behaviour by changing our own.

This workshop includes collaborative staff supervision, performance management and a peer supervision model.

We need to have robust organisational cultures and practices that facilitate shared learning, innovation and the pursuit of excellence. However, to do this we need accompanying processes, which create supportive learning systems for staff.

This workshop will explore in depth the notion of Learning Organisation in your context, what is being done well and not so well. It will offer practical processes to breathe greater life into your Learning Organisation.

Stepping outside the square and unleashing innovation.

Usually our organisational culture is well embedded. It contains attitudes, habits and frameworks formed from years of practice. Sometimes despair, cynicism, denial, blame and lack of trust.

This workshop will focus on transforming your organisational culture and includes:

Understanding how organisational culture is formed
Tackling the key barriers to cultural transformation
Mapping our own particular organisational culture
Visioning together the culture we want – creative, innovative, passionate, confident, collaborative.
Influencing organisational culture – how can we personally effect cultural change
Empowering others to contribute to change.

Understanding the Cultural Transformation within an organisation can strengthen workplace culture and increase overall productivity.

This workshop will cover the nuts and bolts of managing conflict within groups and organisations.

Depending on the group’s particular needs, this workshop covers:

• The dance of the unconsciousness in conflict
• Understanding our own and others’ part in a conflict
• Conflict policy formation
• Giving and receiving ‘hearable’ feedback
• Practical well tried processes for conflict transformation
• Facilitating conflict resolution
• Welcoming diversity
• Converting conflict into collaborative problem solving.
• And when it actually happens, sometimes work teams or groups of individuals get into conflict which they feel unable to resolve without help. Such conflicts can become entrenched, go from bad to worse and cause great stress to everyone concerned. We can help if a conflict in your organisation has gone beyond the scope of managers, and an outside facilitator is needed.

We are highly skilled and experienced in this field. Our group process expertise enables us to create safe spaces where people can hear and be heard across strong differences and build solutions together.

Collaborative teamwork requires the active participation of the individuals involved.

This is easier said than done. Hierarchical models, often based on command and control, become internalised into our unconscious and reflected in our organisational culture. Managers may whole heartedly believe in collaboration, but this alone does not make it implementable! This management training includes a wide range of practical management tools and processes for making collaboration possible.

This includes:

• managing ourselves
• managing our staff
• managing up to our own managers
• influencing organisational culture.

The Advanced Group Facilitation course is able to be adapted and taken into organisations. This is an effective way of implementing a broad cultural shift within an organisation; a critical mass of staff members can have access to these practical skills simultaneously. Conducting this facilitation training in this fashion affords you the choice over who participates.

Most commonly these courses are adapted into 2-5 days of training. However, they can also be presented in installments over a longer period.

Content can be tailor made to meet specific needs within your organisation. Check the Advanced Group Facilitation Course for a range of modules to choose from.

Emotional Intelligence is the capacity to be ‘bold’ – to speak up, to share our ideas, take risks and use our full potential. It gives us greater strength to appropriately respond to workplace pressures and challenges and helps build robust, collaborative relationships.

Our experience shows that building actual emotional intelligence is vital to maximise effective workplace performance.

This includes:

• Self Awareness
• Awareness of Others
• Generosity of Spirit
• Communicating Across our Differences
• Understanding Power Rank and Diversity
• Holding the Big Picture
• Self Care

 

 

 

 

 

 

Information, Advice and Support Services
The Groupwork Institute is committed to integrating Access and Equity principles within all our educational services. All staff recognise the rights of learners and provide information, advice and support that is consistent with our Code of Practice.

Regardless of cultural background, gender, sexuality, disability or age you have the right to learn in an environment that is free from discrimination and harassment and be treated in a fair and considerate manner while you are studying with us.

If, at any time, you feel that any staff member is not abiding by our Code of Practice please report your complaints or grievance to your facilitator/trainer, or contact the office for our complaints and appeals form.

Student Selection and Enrolment
We provide clear information on the qualifications/courses that we offer. This includes the location of training, any required skills or knowledge and any additional training pathways.

Our enrolment process requires you to complete an enrolment form and provide as much relevant information as possible to ensure we provide training to suit your needs.  All information collected is kept confidential and subject to our Privacy Policy in this Code of Practice.

Course Information
Specific course information brochures and flyers have been developed for all of the courses that we currently offer.

Fees and Charges
Information on fees, charges are clearly documented in course brochures and flyers and is also available through our website.

Extra Support around Language, Literacy and Numeracy
We provide advice, support and help for any language, literacy and numeracy assistance on request.  We will also monitor the needs of our learner’s through the learning process.  If at any time we feel a learner requires any language, literacy and numeracy assistance we will either provide this or tailor learning and assessment materials to match learner needs.

Student Support
We currently offer support in (i) RPL assessment; (ii) options in learning; (iii) guidance on career options; (iv) one on one tutoring; (v) pre-course interviews; (iv) training needs analysis; and (vii) information on our website.

We will endeavour to provide for the welfare of all students through; (i) Occupational Health and Safety; (ii) review of payment schedules when requested; (iii) provision for special learning needs; (v) provision for special cultural and religious needs; and (vi) provision for special dietary needs.

Appeals, Complaints and Grievance Procedures
We have a documented procedure that covers any appeals, complaints or grievances.  Should you have an appeal, complaint or grievance contact the designated person for more detailed information.

Disciplinary Procedure
To ensure all learners receive equal opportunities and gain the maximum from their time with us, there are some ‘ground rules’ that apply to all people that attend any of our sessions.  Any person(s) who displays and continues to display disruptive behaviour may be asked to leave the session and/or the course.

Any person who is asked to leave a session or course has the right of appeal through our appeals process.  All efforts will be made to resolve such issues collaboratively.  However the ‘last resort’ right to ask someone to leave will be enforced if necessary.

Staff Responsibility for Access and Equity Issues
At the Groupwork Institute, all staff have been inducted in their responsibilities for our access and equity principles.  Our staff will act in accordance with our Code of Practice and ensure all learners are made aware of their rights and responsibilities.

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) Arrangements
Recognition of prior learning assessment is available where appropriate to all learners.  If you believe you have relevant skills and abilities that you have learned in your past please contact the relevant course facilitator/trainer.  They will discuss the evidence requirements you will need to provide and support documentation as required.

Refund Policy
As a learner you pay an agreed fee upon commencement of a course in which you are enrolled.  Course deposits will be accounted for separately and are not accessed until course commencement.  A 100% refund of any money paid will be given up to four weeks prior to commencement of any course.  A fee of $200.00 will be charged for any cancellation received between four weeks of commencement and the commencement date.

If you have valid reasons for withdrawal or decide the course is not for you, a sliding scale of refund will be available to students.  On commencement of the course a 50% refund is available within the first month, reducing to 40% within the second month and 30% within the third month.  After this time no refunds will be given.

Peer Learning Circles™ combine professional supervision with a peer support environment. The circles significantly increase participants’ skills and personal awareness. They comprise small groups, carefully chosen to ensure compatible skill levels and fields of work.

The Managers Learning Circle for people with direct responsibility for managing staff.

Glen has been offering one on one supervision/coaching for Managers for many years. The PLCs have been an addition to the array of training opportunities provided for managers around collaborative management practices. Glen also facilitates a number of PLCs for managers in particular organisations.

Benefits
These circles significantly increase participant’s skills and reduce manager isolation. Each circle consists of a small group which is chosen to ensure compatible skill levels and fields of work. All individuals have practice, support and feedback opportunities. Specific training input is negotiated with the group for particular sessions.

Focus of Support
These groups incorporate learning modules as required, but the main focus is clearly on individual’s work practices. To that end, a variety of techniques (including socio-drama) are utilised to bring out the learning embedded in challenging situations. This is done using real work place situations in a way that benefits all participants in the circle.

Each individual has intense practice, support and feedback opportunities. Additional content input will be negotiated around the particular group’s needs.

A Supervision Model which Builds on the Wisdom Within™.

Staff need the best support in order to give of their best. High quality staff supervision, which acknowledges strengths, encourages self awareness and builds on existing skills, is a corner stone of good management.

We believe the supervisor’s best role is that of learning facilitator, and that for supervision to be effective it needs to be conducted regularly, use a consistent format and be endorsed throughout the organisation.

The Groupwork Institute of Australia’s SuperVision™ model was developed by Glen Ochre based on her external supervision practice over the last twenty years.

Feedback from those who have done this training and are using the SuperVision™ model is extremely positive.  People find the structure clear and very useful without being ‘too rigid or formal’. People have been able to address long term unacceptable work practices with very pleasing results.

This training covers:

• what we can achieve through good supervision
• performance management – how it fits with supervision and ways to make it effective (and attractive!)
• the SuperVision™ model – a flexible container based on people’s specific work areas
• refreshing the specific skills we need to facilitate supervision
• the art of giving ‘hearable’ feedback
• the role of supervisor – including being a ‘learning facilitator’.

Good management has many components.  Our experience shows that managers who can manage themselves well, will in turn provide the spring board for capable management within their organisation. 

Our one on one professional supervision/coaching is designed to support you at all levels:

• Organisational practice
• Management skills and processes
• Interpersonal skills
• Personal development
• Self care
• Supervision can be tailor made around your requirements in terms of time and regularity and usually takes place in our consulting room in Thornbury.
• Dealing with personal blockages

Over twenty plus years, our expertise has focused on supporting managers - who play such an integral role in developing collaborative excellence within organisations in Australia.

Our support targets the following areas:

• Leadership Development – strengthening our leadership approach
• Management Coaching - Our one-on-one Management Training is designed to offer support and a range of skills to managers at all levels
• Super Vision Model - a whole of organisation model for supervising staff. We offer the very best in Performance Management Training and coaching to ensure managers are well equipped to effectively manage themselves and their organisation.
• Peer Learning Circles for Managers - combines professional supervision in a peer support environment

 

Further information on the above four areas, can be accessed via the navigation bar on the right of this page.

Welcome to the Groupwork Institute of Australia. Since 1984, we have been at the forefront of:

• Group Facilitation Training and Education
• Collaborative Management Training and Education
• Support to Managers
• Performance Management Training
• Training and Consultation in Organisations
• Emotional Intelligence Training

Our focus has two levels:

• A wide range of collaborative skills and processes that are easily understood
• Building actual Emotional Intelligence so people can readily apply these skills and processes to the wide range of challenges we encounter in the workplace.

We have used this 25 year journey to craft our own Model of Collaborative Practice.

Download a full copy of our Course Guide. Specific information on the Advanced Diploma of Group Facilitation and the Advanced Diploma of Management is available – go to that page.

Management Training
We have 25 years experience in tailoring our services around exactly what people need  in collaborative Management Training. We can provide training in your organisation for Cert 4 in Frontline Management, through to an Advanced Diploma of Management. Our Collaborative Management training is unlike anything else in the marketplace. This course is about far more than  management techniques – you will learn to apply a practical approach that fosters collaborative excellence.

Facilitation Training 
There is a growing recognition of the need for good facilitation training in a wide array of workplace settings. We have specialised in providing this training that has enabled us to develop the world’s first government accredited Advanced Diploma in Group Facilitation

Emotional Intelligence Training
The practical development of Emotional Intelligence in individuals - is a vital foundation for effective workplace performance. The more we understand ourselves, and can remain ‘centred’ amidst the array of workplace challenges we face, the more we and our organisations will benefit. At the Groupwork Institute of Australia we offer a range of courses and training in the building of emotional resilience and intelligence.

Training and Consultation
This has been our core business since 1984. Over that time we have developed a broad range of workshops for which we get regular requests – all to help people work effectively together.     

Option                                     Core Course                  Diploma

Early Bird Special                 $4400                            $5800

Before Course                     $4800                            $6200  

Installments                        $5200                            $6660

Early Bird Rate           Payable in full by Tuesday 31/07/09

Before Course Rate    Payable in full by Friday 02/10/09

Installment Dates      1st Installment payable by 02/10/09

2nd Installment payable by 01/12/09

3rd Installment payable by 01/02/10

4th Installment payable by 01/04/10

Installment Rates

Non Diploma - 4 x $1300
Diploma - 4 x $1650

Deposits - for before course and installment payment option a deposit of $500.00 will secure your place.

The above prices cover:

• all contact days
• all meals and accommodation at Sorrento
• lunch, morning and afternoon teas for Block 1 and Blocks 3-8
• accommodation for Block 9
• all course material and handouts.

The delight of learning together as a group is that we are always modelling the realities of group dynamics.  You can actively experience the skills being applied.

At the beginning of the course participants are guided to set their learning goals for the course.  These goals are based on the individual’s experience in work teams, management experience, a personal assessment of skills, and opportunities to practice outside the course.

In Collaborative Management training, there is no teacher like practice!  There will be work in large and small groups, roleplays, sociodrama, inner work, and exercises using art and drama techniques, personal reflection and fun!  People will be encouraged and supported to have a go at different learning techniques.

There will be some practical tasks to be undertaken in the workplace.

Groupwork Institute Assessment
For all course participants, assessment will focus on your practical skills development. Assessment tasks range from written work through to individual and group activities/presentations.

We place a strong emphasis on ensuring that all assessment tasks are practical and relevant to your work focus.  In many instances, participants are able to complete most assessment tasks in the workplace.

Advanced Diploma Accreditation
Accreditation is offered through our accredited training division and is accredited as an Advanced Diploma of Management

The accredited component of the course is optional and thus only paid for by those who actually want the Advanced Diploma qualification.  Accreditation is dependent on the gathering of evidence demonstrating current competencies.  Support will be provided to gather this evidence.

These informal sessions provide an opportunity to meet:

• course facilitators
• some past students
• other potential students

Sessions held at 31 Rennie St, Thornbury
Time: 7.30 - 9.00pm
Please ensure you book your place as per details below.

Monday May 11, 2009
Tuesday June 16, 2009
Wednesday July 15, 2009
Tuesday September 15, 2009

Bookings: Phone (03) 9443 8500, email all@groupwork.com.au, or use the “Contact Us” page. Bookings are essential.

Collaborative Management - Free Information Sessions

These informal sessions provide an opportunity to meet:

• course facilitators
• some past students
• other potential students

Sessions held at 31 Rennie St, Thornbury, 7.30 - 9.00pm. Please call to book in.

Bookings: Phone 03 9443 8500, email all@groupwork.com.au, or use the “Contact Us” page. Bookings are essential.

These dates are tentative and will be confirmed closer to the start of the course:

Block 1     Group Formation                              Tuesday 13th Oct 2009

Block 2     Residential Intensive (Sorrento)         Sun 18th Oct - Fri 23rd Oct 2009

Block 3     Input, Reflection, Practice                Fri 20th - Sat 21st Nov 2009

Block 4     Input, Reflection, Practice                Fri 11th - Sat 12th Dec 2009

Block 5     Input, Reflection, Practice                 Fri 5th - Sat 6th Feb 2010

Block 6     Input, Reflection, Practice                 Fri 5th - Sat 6th Mar 2010

Block 7     Input, Reflection, Practice                 Fri 26th - Sat 27th Mar 2010

Block 8     Input, Reflection, Practice                 Fri 23rd - Sat 24th Apr 2010

Block 9     Input, Reflection, Practice                 Fri 21st - Sat 22nd May 2010

Block 10   Graduation Celebration Dinner           To be confirmed

The course is conducted as a group, so that you can always see and feel how skills are actually applied.  Contact days are ’supportively challenging’.  You will learn great things about yourself and provide a much stronger and more practical foundation for your management skills.

The course comprises 11 key units that weave relevant theory and practice together.  In addition to the units outlined here, focus is placed on working in different management settings, and with your particular challenges.

Compared to other Advanced Diploma of Management courses which cover an average of eight days, this course covers twenty days over a ten month period.  After the first course formation today, there is a five day residential block.  In the subsequent two day blocks, we focus on the relevant learning learning unit.  To complement this, students bring issues from their work, and/or prepare for upcoming challenges.

Units

Unit 1. Organisational Dynamics and You!

So much of what goes on in organisations and groups has an emotional content. Do you ever feel puzzled by the way you respond to particular situations - why you may flare up or remain silent?  Much of this is the interplay between our conscious and unconscious selves.  Becoming aware of this dynamic  can dramatically improve our capacity to manage ourselves, and in turn others and maximise the potential for collaborative endeavour.
This unit includes:

understanding the organisational dynamics and our role in these

being conscious of our personal motivations

the unspoken components of organisational culture

Role Theory - roles people play in teams and how we can prevent getting stuck in these.

 
Unit 2. Leadership

The more we understand our personal motivation, the better managers we will be. Therefore self-reflection will be threaded throughout the course.
This unit includes:

• understanding The Unconscious at work
• our leadership styles and their impact
• working on our self-limiting messages
• building emotional resilience
• increasing confidence in risk taking

Unit 3. Creating a Learning Organisation

The success stories of the future are organisational cultures and practices that facilitate shared learning, innovation and the pursuit of excellence. This requires supportive learning systems for staff.

This unit includes:

Super Vision for staff – our staff supervision model

refreshing the specific skills we need to facilitate supervision

refreshing the specific skills we need to facilitate supervision

Performance Appraisal Circles

Peer Learning Circles - our peer supervision model

practical strategies for for risk taking and innovation

‘mistake’ making, evaluative reflection and learning from our practice

the art of giving Hearable Feedback.

Unit 4. Integrating your Values Within Your Organisation

We can’t be our best as managers when there is significant differences between our values and those of our organisation.

This unit includes:

• management values and beliefs
• understanding our organisation’s values and beliefs
• how can we change our practices to better match our values?
• our capacity to effect change and influence values

Unit 5 Planning - From ‘Big Picture’ to Detail

Strategic planning needs to be collaboratively developed, simple to understand and useful to guide people’s daily practices. This is often not the case!

This unit covers:

• connecting the every day to the big picture
• vision, principle, aims and objectives – clearly understood
• understanding the strategic plan within the overall context of the organisation
• organisational mapping
• management skills to ‘rekindle the fire in people’s belly’
• ensuring the strategic plan is whole heartedly owned by all
• evaluation - how to make it work hard for your organisation.

Unit 6. Quality Assurance

There are key practical methods to ensure that our workplace performance lives up to objectives. Happily, many of these methods are built into other components of good collaborative management practice.

This unit includes:

• service delivery check ups
• effective internal and external monitoring methods
• how to find out what clients really think
• from feedback to implementation of service changes.

Unit 7. Collaborative Decision Making

This unit focuses on facilitating excellence in collaborative decision making and enabling information systems.

This unit includes:

• collaborative decision making - why it is so powerful in its ability to bring about lasting change, and yet is so challenging to implement effectively
• mapping the different types of decisions to be made and establishing where within the organisation they are best made
• holding efficient, collaborative and rewarding meetings
• processes for clarifying boundaries between decision making, consultation and information sharing
• welcoming and working creatively with difference.

Unit 8. Cultural Transformation in Organisations

All organisations have a culture of stated and unstated patterns of behaviour.  This unit utilises strategies that strengthens workplace culture.

This unit includes:

• understanding how organisational cultures are formed
• mapping our own particular organisational culture
• tackling the key barriers to cultural transformation
• creating a vision for the culture we want
• how we can personally effect cultural change
• empowering others to influence organisational culture - practical tools

Unit 9. Organisational Rank, Power and Diversity

This area is often ignored in the study of organisational management. Yet marginalisation and the ‘them and us’ dynamic can present myriad challenges for managers.

This unit includes:

• understanding a structural view of power and rank
• dominant/non-dominant groups and their effect
• understanding how our own rank affects our management
• collaborative managers as leaders and elders
• fostering diversity.

Unit 10. Conflict and Challenging Dynamics

Most of us have some fears and various avoidance behaviour around conflict.  As managers we need to be confident we can welcome such differences.

This unit includes:

• understanding our own responses to conflict and strong feelings
• working with ‘hot spots’
• managing challenging behaviour
• converting conflict into creativity
• facilitating/mediating between others in conflict
• re-grouping after significant upheaval  

Unit 11. Self Care and Professional Development

It is so easy to get ’snowed under’ as managers and find there is just not enough time to look after yourselves. We need to get past the rhetoric of self care and ensure we are in good shape to give our best as managers.

This unit includes:

• mapping our key work areas and their expectations
• some practical tools for prioritising and tracking our objectives
• sorting the important from the urgent
• ‘managing up’
• taking care of ourselves as managers - what do we need to ensure we can sustain our best contribution.

Advanced Diploma of Management BSB60407 (Diploma optional)

Download a copy of information for this Management Course
Download an application form for this course

Our collaborative management course has been upgraded to an Advanced Diploma of Management.  Our definition of collaborative management is harnessing all the wisdom and experience in the organisation.

This management diploma is unlike anyting else in the marketplace.  This course is about far more than just basic management techniques - you will earn to apply the formula that fosters organisational excellence. 

The unique points of this course are:

• we have developed our own course units which are aligned to the Advanced Diploma of Management
• three more teaching units than a basic Advanced Diploma of Management
• more contact time
• far more comprehensive
• geared around offering practical support to participants’ actual workplace challenges.

Manager’s capacity  to embrace Organisational Change is vital to an organisation’s success. This in turn is an integral component of cultural transformation. This Advanced Diploma of Group Facilitation offers dynamic and practical support for managers facing the challenges of Organisational Change.  

This highly supportive course will expand your understanding of whole of person management.  It will give you the confidence to manage anywhere - and land on your feet no matter what happens.

Who Should do this Course?

Only prerequisite is that you are managing/supervising staff whilst studying.

It is suitable for:

• CEOs
• managers with direct responsibility for staff
• team leaders
• human resources managers
• task group co-ordinators

The diversity of participants strengthens the practical learnings.

About this Course
This course is practical, and balances theory with people’s specific learning needs. We build on your existing skills. Whatever level of experience you have, this course will definitely take you to the next level, and beyond.

There are plenty of opportunities to practise the skills relevant to your management context.

The course comprises key units that meld together relevant theory and practice. In addition to the units taught focus is planned on working with different types of teams and organisations, and your particular challenges and issues.

References from Graduates who have participated in our Major Courses

The Advanced Group Facilitation course is truly the work of Master Weavers. A deep respect for everyone is entwined with knowledge, powerful learning experiences and humour. The cloth they have woven is breathtaking in its richness.
– Dierdre Robertson

This has been a special kind of management course. It has been a journey of personal growth and development and provided excellent strategies for managing and working with others. — David Cook

The course simply and clearly identifies many of the skills to facilitate well. It provides the opportunity to acquire these skills through theory, modelling and practice. This all occurs within a container of generosity, humour and warmth. — Heike Hamann

Too often, the art of management is presented as a block series of ‘skills’ and processes leading to an idealised outcome. Taking part in this program renewed my sense of the human basis to all management work – human in all of its messy, chaotic, creative and wonderful senses. — Paul Di Masi

This course has been a great source of inspiration for ideas on how to get the best out of groups. It has increased my confidence and depth of understanding of how to guide and shape group process to bring about amazing results. — Rachel Donovan

Groupwork’s innovative, ‘hands on’ education approach has been as valuable as the course content. It has sharpened my skills and greatly improved my understanding of group facilitation. It has also given me a new level of self awareness, which I now know will make me a much better facilitator. — Libby Wilson

I have been able to experience the talents of a master groupworker. I was amazed at how quickly my skills have improved. — Carolyn Shurey

This course invites you to experientially understand groups, yourself and the interaction between the two. During the course the complex layers start to peel away, building the foundation for working with groups in a profound way. — Katie Wyman

At first I thought it was expensive, but after the five days at Sorrento, I knew I’d had my money’s worth already. — Colleen Strotton

 Glen Ochre
Founding Director of Groupwork Institute of Australia
Founding Director of Commonground Training Resources Inc.

Glen has a passion for groupwork and collaborative management.  Glen has been influenced by a number of theoretical perspectives.  These include Psychodrama, Gestalt Therapy, Process Orientated Psychology, Narrative Therapy, and the study of political power, and organisational and group dynamics.

Glen worked for 11 years (1972-83) at the Brotherhood of St Laurence developing and managing a variety of innovative programs.  Here she began to develop a kit bag of practical processes for collaborative management.

Since 1983, Glen has operated as an independent facilitator.  She has consulted broadly with large and small organisations in the public and private sector, plus a wide range of therapeutic and community based groups. Glen has been providing individual and group management coaching in a range of organisations for many years.

Glen’s passion is for the transformative potential of facilitatory processes in organisations.  Over the years she has developed a range of processes and techniques that build on individual strengths – beginning with self awareness in the workplace and extending through to embedding cultural transformation in a wide array of settings.

Glen’s resolve now is to train others in the art of facilitation, and collaborative management.

Ed McKinley
Founding Director of Groupwork Institute of Australia
Founding Director of Commonground Training Resources Inc.
Ed McKinley has been an independent organisational development consultant since 1985. He is a great believer in “good processes - well facilitated”.

He utilises powerful processes to facilitate team collaboration, which in turn maximises organisational effectiveness. He draws on 20 years experience in managing the dynamics of group interaction to create safe environments in which people can express diverse points of view on their way to developing a strong and unified sense of purpose.

Ed’s approach is down to earth and practical. He has a strong commitment to ensuring that clear outcomes are achieved, and can be implemented.

To complement this commitment he ensures that no matter what the focus, people stay engaged and the work remains lively.

Sarah Norton
Certificate in Advanced Group Facilitation, Groupwork Institute of Australia
Advanced Facilitation, Bob Dick, Southern Cross University
Certificate of Management, Open University, UK
National Vocational Qualification in Training and Development Level 3&4 (UK)
Post Graduate Certificate of Education
BSc (Hons) Zoology

Sarah has been a facilitator and trainer for 12 years. Her work experience in the UK and Australia is extensive - and extends across corporate, government, education and community sectors.

Sarah’s approach is lively, engaging and participatory. Her facilitation skills enable the creation of an environment where all participants feel heard - and views and concerns are discussed openly and productively.

Sarah is a graduate of the Groupwork Institute of Australia’s Advanced Group Facilitation Diploma – and currently co-facilitates this Diploma Course.

Associate Facilitators
We have a pool of experienced graduates from our major courses who work as appropriate with the training and consultation provided by the Groupwork Institute.
 
 

Our vision is to provide a comprehensive learning environment - where participants get the practical competencies to become robust contributors to their organisation’s endeavours.

We have been taking training and consultation into organisations since 1984.  Our aim has always been to create a dynamic and collaborative work environment.  We call it cultural transformation in the workplace – to ‘change the way we do things around here’.

Change Management Training teaches individuals the skills to recognise changes and effects with individuals, groups and organisations. 

We do this with a focus on;

• empowering individuals
• developing interpersonal skills
• collaborative organisational processes development

Our extensive organisational development endeavours provide the impetus to develop our own versatile, easy-to-use tools. Everything we offer is very practical, and has been well and truly road tested over many years. The comprehensive nature of our support can be funneled into exactly what you need.

Focusing on the emotional well-being of staff is a proven return on a organisation’s investment.

Most importantly, the benefits Change Management Training has to the workplace are clearly tangible.

They include:

• people taking fewer days off work
• staff retention
• staff taking more risks/initiatives
• staff taking pride in their work and their workplace
• individual ownership of organisational priorities
• better capacity to give and receive feedback
• greater willingness to deal with conflict constructively
• staff better equipped to embrace change
• staff remaining ‘adult’ in their relationships
• less burnout and get out
• increased productivity
• more emotionally robust staff

All workshops build on people’s existing experience and skills, work with people’s ‘live’ issues and focus on outcomes relevant to the group. Our approach is engaging, lively and participatory. All materials and handouts are practical and easily understood.

If the summary included here does not cover what you have in mind, please remember, we are specialists in designing workshops around specific needs.

You would be surprised at what we have been asked to do!

Summary of Frequently Requested Training

• Advanced Group Facilitation
• Building Emotional Intelligence
• Collaborative Management
• Creating a Learning Organisation
• Cultural Transformation in Organisations
• Dealing with Challenging Encounters
• Enhancing Collaborative Decision Making
• From Conflict to Collaboration
• Marking Significant Events
• Peer Learning Circles™
• Strategic Planning
• ‘Super Vision™’
• Taking Care of Ourselves
• Team Building Training
• The Unconscious at Work

 

 

 

Our venues are cosy and conducive to enjoying learning together.

Gestalt Therapy Australia

(Principal Education Venue)
333 Heidelberg Road, Northcote adjacent to Fairfield Park, inner north east Melbourne. Melways Ref. 30-J12)
Ph: (03) 9489 6300
Parking is available within premises and on the service road. ‘Best to get onto the service road off the outbound lane (between Jeffrey and Westgarth Streets)’

Oceanic Whitehall
(Residential - start of course)
A delightful guest house located a short walk from the surf beaches (and township) of Sorrento. (Ask for a brochure.) 231 Ocean Beach Road, Sorrento
Ph: (03) 5984 4166
We arrange exclusive use of the building, giving us the privacy required for our course. The space allows us a lot of freedom in what we do. Each participant has their own room. The residential nature of this first week provides an important opportunity for participants to get to know one another. And the food… gourmet!

For further information on Sorrento please go to their website www.oceanicgroup.com.au

Commonground Conference Centre
(Residential - end of course)
Located in the bush near Seymour, 95kms north of Melbourne. Your facilitators, Glen and Ed, co-established the Centre. Again used exclusively, this bush retreat provides a wonderful environment for final learnings and closure of the year. An ideal place to kick up our heels!

Bring your workplace realities to life in an engaging fun way. Glen Ochre has been an independent facilitator, trainer and motivational speaker for over twenty years. Glen’s talks are lively, engaging and fun and yes, you will leave with some ‘tools in your kit bag’.

Glen’s passion is for the transformative potential of both emotional resilience and facilitatory processes in organisations. Over the years she has developed a range of processes and techniques that build on individual strengths - beginning with self awareness in the workplace and extending through to embedding cultural transformation in a wide array of settings.

We would be happy to discuss Glen giving a presentation on a number of topics. A range of our workshop options are available on this website. We are happy to look at presenting a talk/speech on any of these workshop titles - just give us a call and we can discuss this further with you.

Course 1 - April 6&7, 2009
 
Course 2 - October 5&6, 2009

Cost: $440.00 per personWe bring the art of facilitation to life.  This short course is hands on - so bring your faciliation challenges to work on.  What you learn - you will be able to take away and use the next day.This two day workshop introduces participants to our facilitation micro skills and collaborative processes required for effective group facilitation.

This course is conducted in a lively manner, and we have lots of fun along the way!

Areas covered include:

• creating a group
• types of groups
• role of the unconscious in groups – ours and others
• principles of our Facilitation Model
• dealing with challenging behaviour
• hot spots
• flat spots
• outline design
• collaborative decision making, and lots more.

This workshop builds on people’s existing experience and skills, work with people’s ‘live’ issues and focus on outcomes relevant to the group.  Our approach is engaging, lively and participatory.  All material is practical and easily understood. 

Details

Times
9.30am - 5.00pm

Provided
lunch, morning and afternoon tea, workshop materials and handouts

Location
Gestalt Therapy Australia, 333 Heidelberg Road, Northcote
Adjacent to Fairfield Park, inner north east Melbourne.
Best to get onto the service road off the outbound lane
(between Jeffrey and Westgarth Streets)

Parking
Available within premises and on the service road

Download an application form here. Application is required a minimum of seven days before each workshop. Bookings are essential.

Prices for 2009 - Advanced Group Facilitation

                                                   Core Course                 Diploma Option

Early Bird Special                $4100                                $5500 

Before Course                   $4500                                 $5900 

Installments                      $4900                                 $6300 

Early Bird Rate           Payable in full by Thursday 19/12/08

Before Course Rate    Payable in full by Thursday 16/04/09

Installment Dates      1st Installment payable by 16/04/09

2nd Installment payable by 01/06/09

3rd Installment payable by 01/08/09

4th Installment payable by 01/10/09

Installment Rates

Non Diploma - 4 x $1225
Diploma - 4 x $1575

Deposits - for before course and installment payment option a deposit of $500.00 will secure your place.

The above prices cover:

• all contact days
• all meals and accommodation at Sorrento
• lunch, morning and afternoon teas for Block 1 and Blocks 3-8
• accommodation for Block 9
• all course material and handouts.

If you’d like to have a real live ‘taste’ of what the course is like, come along to a free information session. If you have any lingering questions relating to the course, this is the perfect opportunity to get an answer.

The sessions are run by Glen Ochre, our Principal Educator.

These informal sessions provide an opportunity to:

• meet course facilitators,
• some past students and
• other potential students

Sessions held at 31 Rennie St, Thornbury, 7.30 - 9.00pm. Please ring to book in.

• Wednesday 11th November, 2009
• Tuesday 8th December, 2009
• Wednesday 10th February, 2010
• Tuesday 16th March, 2010
• Wednesday 7th April, 2010

Bookings are essential. To book: Phone 03 9443 8500, email all@groupwork.com.au, or use the “Contact Us” page.

These dates are tentative and will be confirmed closer to the start of the course:

Block 1     Group Formation                        Tue 27th April, 2010

Block 2     Residential Intensive (Sorrento)  Sun 2nd May - Fri 7th May, 2010

Block 3     Input, Reflection, Practice          Fri 28th - Sat 29th May, 2010

Block 4     Input, Reflection, Practice          Fri 25th - Sat 26th June, 2010

Block 5     Input, Reflection, Practice          Fri 23rd - Sat 24th July, 2010

Block 6     Input, Reflection, Practice          Fri 27th - Sat 28th August, 2010

Block 7     Input, Reflection, Practice          Fri 24th - Sat 25th September, 2010

Block 8     Input, Reflection, Practice          Fri 22nd - Sat 23rd October, 2010

Block 9     Final Learnings and Closure       Fri 19th - Sat 20th November. 2010

Block 10   Graduation Celebration Dinner   To be advised

The delight of learning together, is that we are always modelling the realities of group dynamics.  You can actively experience the skills being applied.

At the beginning of the course participants are guided to set their learning development goals for the course.  These goals are based on the individual’s experience with groups and work teams,  and a personal assessment of skills and opportunities to practice outside the course. 

In groupwork training, there is no teacher like practice!  There will be work in large and small groups, triad work, roleplays, sociodrama, inner work, and exercises using art and drama techniques, personal reflection and fun!  People will be encouraged and supported to have a go at different learning techniques.

Facilitation Micro Skills
Group facilitation involves a wide range of specific skills – the primary reason we initiated this stand alone year long course! Through over 20 years of practice, we have developed these techniques into a set of Key Facilitation Micro Skills.

This set is the A-Z of practical facilitation skills. It begins with A for Awareness, through S for Summarising Skills to W for Wondering (what is going on in the group!). These micro skills will be introduced at the 5 day residential, and then threaded throughout the year’s work.

Groupwork Institute Assessment
For all course participants, assessment will focus on your practical skills development.  Assessment tasks range from written work through to individual and group activities/presentations.

We place a strong emphasis on ensuring that all assessment tasks are practical and relevant to your work focus.  In many instances, participants are able to complete most assessment tasks in the workplace.

Diploma Accreditation
Accreditation is offered through our accredited training division and is accredited as an Advanced Diploma of Group Facilitation.

The accredited component of the course is optional and thus only paid for by those who actually want the Diploma qualification.  Accreditation is dependent on the gathering of evidence demonstrating current competencies.  Support will be provided to gather this evidence.

The course is conducted as a group, so that you can always see and feel how skills are actually applied. Contact days are ’supportively challenging’. You will learn great things about yourself and provide a much stronger and more practical foundation for your facilitation skills.

The course comprises key units that meld together relevant theory and practice.  There is a strong emphasis on developing facilitation micro skills which includes developing Effective Communication   Skills and Leadership Development. The course teaches Group Facilitation Skills which emphasise working with different types of groups as well as exploring particular challenges and issues effecting individuals.

There are 20 contact days spread over the year.  After the first course formation day, there is a five day residential block.  In the subsequent two day blocks, we focus on the relevant learning unit.  To complement this, students bring issues from their work, and/or prepare for upcoming challenges.

Group Facilitation Skills 
Our ‘hands on’ approach to learning will help you understand the dynamics of group interaction. This awareness will not only make you a better facilitator but will inspire you in how to get the best out of your group. We teach an array of Facilitation principles and Effective Communication Skills vital for successful interaction in any group. We foster Leadership Development, as it is vital to understanding our own leadership styles and their impact. We teach how to work on our own self-limiting messages, how to build emotional intelligence and how to cultivate our own facilitation style.

Unit 1: Develop and Use Self Awareness and Emotional Resilience in Groups

The more we understand ourself, the better facilitators we will be.  Becoming conscious of unrecognised ‘drivers’ can dramatically improve our capacity to first facilitate ourself!  Therefore, self reflection is threaded throughout the course.

This unit includes:

• a model for understanding ‘The Unconscious at Work’
• mapping our own Community of Selves™
• getting to know and working on the fears and other self limiting messages that hold us back as group facilitators.

Unit 2: Develop and Apply Facilitation Practice Principles

Facilitation practice needs to have a strong, clear value base.  As facilitators we need to be able to articulate our values and principles, for ourselves and for the groups we facilitate.

This unit includes:

• exploring and articulating our own values
• developing faciliation practice principles
• applying these principles to group process design
• applying facilitation practice principles during facilitation

Unit 3: Understand and Work with Group Dynamics

So much of what goes on in groups has an emotional content. Much of it is to do with our unconscious. It is understanding this dynamic that enables the full potential of the group to be realised. Participants will learn to identify the signs of unconscious dynamics and their effect and develop the skills to work with these towards the group’s purpose.

This unit includes:

• understanding the full spectrum of group dynamics
• the role of unspoken, unconscious dynamics
• working with different aspects people bring into groups
• understanding the roles people play, and can get stuck in
• Field Theory - understanding all the ‘players on the field’.

Unit 4: Create a Group

A collection of individuals is different to a group.  A group has the capacity to achieve great things together.

This units includes:

• different types of groups and approaches to groupwork
• establishing a group and setting the scene
• setting clear group agreements
• ’safety’ and belonging, facilitating group ownership
• resources for formation of groups

Unit 5: Design, Plan and Evaluate Group Processes

To develop the most appropriate process, we need to balance leadership, planning, flexibility and a willingness to negotiate with the group.

This unit includes:

• different facilitation roles including co-facilitation
• negotiating with groups about your role
• design, planning and preparation of group processes
• scribing and writing-up
• evaluation

Unit 6: Use Facilitation Micro Skills to Work with a Groups Purpose

A competent facilitator needs an array of interpersonal communication skills. The Groupwork Institute has clarified these by developing our own set of facilitation micro skills. Many of these skills may be well known to you, but never before articulated in such a useful way.

This unit includes:

• learning the Groupwork Institute’s facilitation micro skills
• setting learning goals
• developing the micro skills so they become second nature

Unit 7: Manage Rank, Power and Diversity in Groups

This area is often overlooked in the study of groupwork. Yet marginalisation can take many forms and brings with it myriad challenges for facilitators.  We ignore it at our peril!

This unit includes:

• understanding how rank and power is played out in groups
• encouraging and working with difference
• dominant/non-dominant groups and the effect on group dynamics
• understanding how our own rank affects our facilitation

Unit 8: Facilitate in Organisations

Organisations have their own function, structures and culture.  As facilitators, it is desireable to have frameworks to guide our work with organisations.  Competency in this arena is strategic for career development.

This unit includes:

• framework for organisational mapping
• negotiating a clear facilitation role
• strategic planning
• balancing organisational expectations with wishes of the group you are facilitating
• making organisational training more dynamic

Unit 9: Facilitate Collaborative Decision Making in Groups

All groups are required to make decisions throughout their life as a group. A collaborative Decision Making process is vital when working in any group environment. We teach a variety of Decision Making Skills which can be implemented in everyday situations. 

This unit includes:

• different types of decision making approaches and their applications
• developing decision making principles
• collaborative decision making – why it is so powerful in its transformative capacity and yet so challenging to implement
• the decision making process and how to facilitate it.

Unit 10: Manage Conflict in Groups

It is important to manage conflict in group situations. Therefore, it is important to develop Conflict Resolution Skills in order to manage personal and other people’s feelings and their reactive behaviour.  This unit works on identifying and using group processes to achieve Conflict Resolution.

This unit includes:

• understanding our own and other’s responses to conflict
• identifying the common causes of conflict in groups
• working with ‘hot spots’ and ‘flat spots’
• identifying and using group processes for confict resolution
• managing challenging behaviour
• challenges to your facilitation

Unit 11: Practice Self Care and Professional Development

To remain focused in our work we need to be personally centred and in good shape.  We all know it is essential to take care of ourselves, however, this is easier said than done.

This unit includes:

• understanding and addressing the difficulties involved in facilitation and the effect this has on us
• ways of taking better care of ourselves
• practical tools for prioritising and tracking our objectives
• assessing our professional development needs

Advanced Diploma of Group Facilitation - 21930VIC

Download of copy of information for this Group Facilitation Course
Download an application form for this course

There is growing recognition of the role of facilitation in effective workplace practice.  It is a combination of this recognition, and our own endeavours in teaching facilitation over the last 25 years - that has enabled the Groupwork Institute to develop the only known government accredited facilitation qualification in the world.

Part time over eight months, this is the most comprehensive and practical facilitation education available in Australia.

Who Should Do This Course?

Only prerequisite is that you are practicing facilitation whilst studying.

It is suitable for:

• trainers and consultants who want to work at deeper levels with groups
• task group co-ordinators
• people involved in community capacity building
• people invovled in facilitating public consultation
• therapists
• facilitators working in a wide range of therapeutic and mutual support groups
• group facilitators in educations settings
• work team facilitators
• those involved in community based groups.

This course is practical, and balances theory with people’s specific training needs. We build on your existing skills. Whatever level of experience you have, this course will definitely take you to the next level, and beyond.

There are plenty of opportunities to practise the skills relevant to whatever facilitation context interests you.

There are 20 contact days spread over 2010.  The Diploma level is optional.

Our advanced Group Facilitation courses are adapted to meet your specific needs. 

Our work is based on this understanding –

Empowered people, taking personal responsibility enhance creative capacity and effectiveness in any organisation, group or community setting.

Drawing on a wide range of theoretical and practical approaches, we have crafted unique processes, models and tools that build on your experience and strengths.  There is formula to collaborative excellence!

We have developed our own Model of Collaborative Engagement.  It begins with emotional resilience – self awareness in the workplace.  It then embraces interpersonal skills which in turn, support the implementation of effective collaborative processes.  All this is housed within the spirit of collaboration - to help build a just and sustainable world.

Using participants’ ‘live’ work issues, we teach practical skills that can be clearly taken back into your workplace.

The formula for success is being able to foster emotional resilience, within a framework of proven collaborative processes.

Our training is hands on, lively and engaging.

We look forward to working with you!

31 Rennie Street
Thornbury Melbourne 3071
Victoria Australia
Tel: +61 3 9443 8500
Fax: +61 3 9443 8400

If you have any questions, or would like some additional information, please use the following form. Note that the fields marked * are required.

Download a current application form here for the Advanced Group Facilitation Course

Connecting the Everyday to the Big Picture

Vision, principle, aims and objectives.

In our work with the ‘hands on’ people who work at the service delivery face of an organisation, we often find a disconnection to the organisations Big Picture.

People often feel that the organisation’s overall vision or strategic plan doesn’t translate well to their daily work reality. This can mean that much hard planning work lies wasted and people just get on with their work as usual! It can also mean that valuable ‘hands on’ wisdom is lost. Many a Strategic Plan is at rest in a bottom draw!

This workshop involves a very practical process to facilitate ownership and connection to wider organisational vision and plans, where relevant and hands on service delivery wisdom may influence such plans. It will clearly and supportively affirm, challenge and link the activities undertaken at service delivery with the big picture.

Getting Along at Work

Advanced Interpersonal Skills

As we know, interpersonal communication is the backbone of good work relationships which in turn are the foundation of effective outcomes.

While most of us may be quite good communicators, there are deeper and more ‘advanced skills’ that can be extremely helpful.

This is especially so when things are complex and need to be handled especially well.

This workshop will focus on:

Understanding the various levels at which we communicate, especially the unconscious
Understanding different preferred ‘styles’ including our own
Giving ‘hearable’ messages
Coping with criticism
Tools for gathering and pooling ideas
Handling challenging behaviour.

From Groupwork Institute of Australia Newsletter - April 2008

Effective Meetings

Lately we have been doing a lot of work within organisations around maximising the effectiveness of meetings.

This is an ‘old’ topic – yet people still regularly feel there are ‘too many meetings’ and that ‘meetings are a waste of time’. Badly facilitated, badly structured meetings are frustrating, ineffective and therefore are a waste of time!

Given how incredibly busy, everyone is in their workplaces now, meetings need to be well thought through to ensure that they are (a) necessary and (b) effective. When we gather a group of people together it costs time and dollars, so they need to be there for an important reason. When appropriate and effective, people actually appreciate a good meeting!

Here are some meeting pointers, that people genuinely find helpful:

• What people call meetings are in fact, often actually briefings. A briefing is where a group of people are brought together to be given information. People often describe these as a ‘waste of time’ – ‘sitting there listening to someone talk at them’. If it is just about disseminating information, ask people how they feel it can best be received.
• Meetings will work best where there are opportunities for people to discuss important issues, and contribute their wisdom and experience. Again, people feel meetings are a waste of time, if the issues are not of significant importance, or that their contribution will not be considered when decisions are made. It is very important that the right people are there, and that the issues are of a level of importance to warrant their contribution.
• For meetings to be effective, they need to be well planned. There needs to be a mechanism for people to contribute to the agenda. Agenda items need to be prioritised with times allocated to each item. Otherwise, agendas are too crowded, and we either go over time, or items fall off the agenda (frustrating those involved in that item).
• Facilitation of meetings needs to be taken seriously. It involves considerable skills. Rotating facilitators is a good idea only as long as people have the skills.
• Meetings go better if they begin with a brief moment of ‘centering’ to allow people to ‘arrive’. This can be followed by a short ‘catch up’ to see how people are. This gets people involved from the word ‘go’, and helps them to be present.
• It is a good habit to end each meeting ON TIME, and with a very brief informal, ‘how did we go evaluation?’ This demonstrates that we take our meetings seriously, and allow the whole group to continuously improve meeting practices.

We hope this checklist helps, and trust that people will appreciate a good meeting!

The Groupwork Institute of Australia sends out a newsletter via email approximately four times per year. Listed under the following seperate pages are excerpts from those Newsletters over the last two years. We hope they prove to be useful.

From Groupwork Institute of Australia Newsletter - February 2008

Time Budgetting

‘In Australia, we rack up one of the longest working weeks in the world’ – Carolyn Barker, Love at Work – Australian Institute of Management 2006

So…. some thoughts about Time Budgeting, as we gear up for 2008. By Time Budgeting, we mean working out the key areas of our work, the expectations under these, and then how much time they require. Utilising our time wisely only works if we have enough time to allocate!

Through our work in a wide range of organisations, and our coaching work we see people being expected to take on more and more work without any increase in their available time.  They are simply expected to ‘manage their time’ to fit it in. Organisations do financial budgeting but are often poor at time budgeting.

Here are some ideas we use in our training and coaching, that might help you get on top of your time management issues before the year gets away from you!

·        Organise your work tasks under 5-7  Key Work Areas. Eg -  it might include Staff Management; Administration; Direct Client work, etc

·        Under each of these Key Work Areas, define all the relevant Performance Expectations 

·        Performance Expectations are developed by asking ourselves what do I do, how often, or how many in a particular time period. This means we define Performance Expectations in specific, behavioural and measurable’ terms.

·        Check this against your formal job description, or other relevant documents.

·        It is useful then to check with your manager, to ensure you have an accurate and agreed understanding of your work expectations and boundaries.

·        Take time to reflect on each Key Work Area and Performance Expectation and ‘guesstimate’ how much time you need to spend on each area to do the job well. You can then check these ‘guesstimates’ against how you are actually using your time. This is best done over a 6 week period, under each Key Work Area. This task can be very helpful, and is less tedious than you think! Compare the results with the amount of hours you are paid for (this can cause some surprises!).

You are now equipped to begin Time Budgeting. If your working hours are much less than your assessment of the time required to fulfil your work expectations - you have the basis for negotiating/prioritising to achieve a better fit. If new work or programs are required, you can negotiate with your manager to work out the Time Budget. If you are to do new tasks  - where will you get the required time? 

Yes, even finding the time to do what we are suggesting here is a challenge! However, people we work with find that Time Budgeting gives them a greater capacity to ‘manage up’ – to clarify their role, and overall save time and stress.

From Groupwork Institute of Australia Newsletter - November 2008

Workplace Manners

Getting along at work would appear to be just basic common sense.  Alas, our experience regularly shows that workteams can have real trouble working out together what ‘good workplace manners’ are!!  We recommend that teams develop their own set of agreements about what they expect of each other. For such agreements to work, they must be developed collaboratively! What follows is some ‘snippets’ from the list of behavioural expectations we have developed. It may seem expedient to start with such a list – but resist the temptation, and start with your own. This builds ownership!

·        Allow yourself and others to make mistakes, acknowledge yours quickly, apologise and forgive others when they apologise.

·        Maintain an awareness of how others in your team are travelling.  Check out assumptions or concerns you may have, offer support and work collaboratively to alleviate work pressure.

·        When there is misunderstanding, or tension building – check it out with the person before making assumptions.

·        Listen without interruption to understand a person’s views and feelings before arguing back.

·        Prepare ourselves to engage in challenging encounters.  Take time to centre yourself, deal with unhelpful emotions and consider your best approach.

·        Refrain from speaking negatively about people to others. Do not engage with others who do so, but stand by the person being spoken about!

·        Observe common politeness rituals of the workplace – eg. greetings and farewells to all, thanking people, letting others know where you are.

·        If you want to talk to someone about an issue, or ask them some questions about a topic - check out with them if this is an okay time.

·        When making a phone call to someone about a topic that is lengthy or tricky – ask them if this is an okay time to talk.

·        If unexpectedly confronted by a request or a difficult issue – buy time to think about your response, rather than simply reacting.

·        Immediately an email exchange becomes tricky, and strong opinions are expressed – abandon email contact in favour of face to face, or phone contact.

·        Remember – it is often not what we say, but how we say it! When you have strong feelings about a topic, and are communicating about it to others – watch the tone and volume of your expression.

From Groupwork Institute of Australia Newsletter - September 2008

Collaborative Policy Formation

We have undertaken a lot of work this year where organisations have benefited significantly from using our collaborative policy formation approach. It is very simple, but still all too often senior managers write a policy, and then seek to have it adopted ‘down through the ranks’ and wonder why there is a low ownership rate.

The process we use is as follows:

• Gather all relevant people together and rough out the key elements
  of a first draft. Make sure that you canvas widely the key elements of
  the policy and gather all people’s ideas on the detail of each element.
• This is then given to a small group to support through to adoption.
  The group is selected at this first meeting. They write the policy up in
  a first draft incorporating any other additional information required -
  such as legislative requirement or broader organisational policy.
• This is then taken back to the original participants for feedback.
  You may be surprised how few drafts needed - because of the ‘magic’ of
  having all people involved in the first round!
  
  

From Groupwork Institute of Australia Newsletter - March 2009

When Grieviences Go Off The Rails

Lately we have been seeing many examples of complex, painful and protracted organisational processes associated with the handling of grievances. Most of these have been grievances against managers.

All of these processes have been very stressful for the people involved and extremely costly to the organisations. With one of our clients, we calculated the direct costs of the process to be $32,000 over the months it took to resolve.  This did not include the problems caused by the stress leave and work cover issues or the detriment to people’s
work performance while the process was going on.

In any organisation you can expect formal grievances to be made from time to time. However, what we are noticing is that often the managers involved do not have the necessary level skills to prevent some of these getting to the formal grievance stage, or to handle them well when they do become formal.

We also see examples of some very poor processes being used.  Sometimes this seems to be because the organisation’s processes are not adequate.  Sometimes other managers get involved at various levels, and act unwisely.  This can quickly make a bad situation much worse.

There are now stronger and wider definitions of OH&S which include issues around ‘bullying’ and ‘harassment’. These are important. However, we do see examples where this is misused or misunderstood. Some grievances, which eventually prove to be unfounded, start when a manager attempts to deal with a work performance issue.  The staff member involved feels, for one reason or another, ‘harassed’ or ‘bullied’ and makes a formal complaint.

The rights to a proper grievance process are essential to maintain.  In addition however, we need to further manager’s skill in all aspect of these processes. 

Below are a few pointers that may be helpful:

• Know, and clearly understand, your organisation’s grievance process in detail - before trouble strikes.
• Understand the definition of ‘bullying’ and ‘harassment’
• Develop, with your team, a clear process for addressing differences and conflict as a step prior to grievance processes. Make sure staff understand this in detail and have the skills to use it.
• Talk to the team about how it would be best to handle issues they may have with you as their manager, so that formal process might not be needed. Consider building in a regular ‘how are we going?’ review so issues can be caught early.
• Address any work performances you have with staff very early!  Unattended, small performance issues get bigger. As managers we become more exasperated and angry!
• Prepare well for addressing a performance issue with a staff member.
  

Some useful steps are:

• Clarify the issue in you mind; what is the behaviour you are concerned about?  Don’t focus on your judgments (they don’t care; they’re lazy etc).
• How does this behaviour relate to their performance expectations?
• Are they clear about these expectation?  Are these written?
• What are the things the person does do well?
• What might be causing the underperformance?  This may not ‘excuse’ the underperformance but when acknowledged it does make your message more ‘hearable’.
• Make sure you have prepared emotionally for your discussion with the staff member so you can act from a clear but compassionate place and not be driven by your anger or exasperation.
• Understand and acknowledge that receiving criticism is hard for all of us and some defensiveness is normal.
• Make a follow up time soon after you initial discussion to see how the person is going after having some time to digest your discussion.
  

Finally, make sure you get support from you supervisor or another appropriate place. Performance management is challenging.  But handling it early and well can prevent some very costly and stressful grievance handling mistakes.