PUBLIC AGENCY COURSE - "MANAGEMENT EXCELLENCE SERIES"
Succeeding in Challenging Conversations

Most managers will agree that holding people accountable for their actions is among the most crucial, yet most difficult, aspects of their job. In addition to their subordinates, managers have their own bosses and peers to deal with as well. Conversations about unfulfilled expectations, broken commitments, and negative behaviors can be even more challenging when the other party is a colleague or even your boss.

This workshop was developed to help experienced managers become more successful in the conversations that count the most. Through your active participation you'll learn what makes challenging conversations so difficult and some concrete steps you can take – starting immediately – to be more effective in having them.

Topics will include:
  • The experience, consequences, and benefits of challenging conversations
  • Discovering what makes them “challenging”
  • The foundation for success: understanding the dynamics of dialogue
    • Two enemies of dialogue
    • Six ways they show up in our and others' behaviors
    • ONE condition essential for dialogue
  • Self-Assessment - dialogue styles when the topic is touchy and the people are too
  • Six Strategies for starting and sustaining collaborative conversations – dialogues
Target Audience: Experienced middle managers who have attended training in supervisory or management skills.
DATES and LOCATIONS 2008
TBA
TRAINER:
Jim Boylan
Jim Boylan founded PathFinders Organizational Effectiveness Consulting in 1996, a consulting alliance focusing on individual and organizational development. He has spent more than five years integrating different approaches to those emotionally charged conversations almost everyone experiences at some time in dealing with others. He has applied them to this work as an executive consultant and coach, and to facilitating conflict resolution within groups, especially those working on high-stakes, controversial projects. Before devoting himself to consulting full-time, Jim served as vice president of Children's Hospital and Health Center in San Diego, where he was responsible for strategic planning, customer and community relations, marketing, and corporate communications.
COURSE CLASS HOURS: Start time:    8:30 AM    Finish Time NOON
  

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