The following list of workshops are offered routinely, on a rotating basis. Any of the topics below can also be offered to your unit on request. Please send your request to Leigh Larkin.

A Road Trip: The Art of Managing Expectations

Whether stated or not, expectations exist between all of us with regard to our relationships and activities. Unmet expectations lead to diminished outcomes and can result in relationships that are less than ideal. If expectations were understood and discussed up front, they could be managed so that the end result was optimum. The concept of meeting expectations will be captured through an experiential exercise working with a family vacation.

Being Effective in Times of Uncertainty

A high level of uncertainty in organizations will affect each of us differently. Some of us may thrive in ambiguity. Others are dominated by feelings of anxiety, fear, and doubt which can impact clear thinking and productivity. This class will be an open conversation to explore choices and strategies that will allow us not only to cope, but to continue to be effective.

Building Bridges to Achieve Results

Creating strong relationships is vital to developing win-win outcomes in today's work environment. Developing these connections goes beyond the simple exchanging of tasks--it requires long-term planning and day-to-day practice. Discover how the PRAM model can help you develop and effective strategy for building your network. This process is important to build credibility and a trusting relationship. Building trust in groups will be a component for this workshop.

Choose Your Attitude

Understand the relationship between your attitude, and your beliefs and behaviors, and learn about the “Wallenda Factor” and how self-fulfilling prophecy effects outcomes. 

Coaching: A Process for Developing Talent

Coaching is a powerful way of developing talent. People that seek a coach are often really good at what they do, but want to elevate their performance to the next level. By working with a coach, they will get there more quickly. Participants will be introduced to, and practice, a coaching model that is process, not content-driven. When the process is applied in a systems manner, "coachees" can develop their unique talents resulting in higher level performance.

Core Curriculum for Supervisors and Managers

The OSU Core Curriculum training program is designed to give you tools to help you be a successful manager/supervisor at OSU. The program consists of online prerequisite learning followed by a 2-day classroom on in more in-depth knowledge sharing.

You will learn about and be able to find resources for:

Dejunking Your Life

"I have files and things to read that are over a year old"..."I organize my projects by piles that have taken over my desk"…"My e-mail is out of control"…"I find it difficult to focus because of the dozen items I'm juggling every day." This program is designed to help you manage the small and big things in life that clutter your psyche. Specifically, we'll work with the concepts of bringing items to completion, being more fully present and organizing your self to minimize clutter.

Delivering Exceptional Customer Service

What is the cost of mediocre service to your unit? Meeting the needs and expectations of those doing business with you is critical to your unit's overall success. Environmental factors and interpersonal skills can affect the customer relationship. Examining strengths, identifying areas for growth, and developing strategies to improve customer service will highlight this program.

Five Conversational Themes for Enhancing Community

More than ever, a leader's role requires engaging members in purposeful conversation. To effectively engage a group, the questions a leader asks are often as important as the answers the group provides. Thoughtful questioning can generate dialogue that not only brings about meaningful answers, but also enhances the quality of community and invites ownership through the process. Five conversational themes that a leader needs to develop will be shared along with the related questions. This class is designed to be interactive to experience introduced methods.

Foundations for Running Effective Meetings

A meeting is a series of conversations intended to produce a set of outcomes. Yet, most meetings are not run very well. Great meetings don't just happen--they're planned. The emphasis of this program will be on understanding and applying fundamental principles that can improve meeting productivity. Many of the ideas can be applied whether you lead the meeting or serve as an active member.

Giving Feedback: A Gift or a Brick?

Giving and receiving feedback is a skill-based tool that can significantly enhance performance. When done well, feedback is a valuable gift that helps to improve skills. When not, it is transformed to a ton of bricks to be dragged about, slowly eroding performance. This class is focused for those who supervise, but is open to all. Feedback as a conversation will be dissected into its parts. Strategies and tools for both giving and receiving feedback will be emphasized. At the end of this training, you will be able to:

Handling and Turning Around Employee Complaints

Employees have complaints at times and that is good; it demonstrates they care about their job and workplace. But not all employees know how to express their concerns constructively and some workplaces discourage employees from airing concerns. If employee complaints are not handled, a climate of resentment, low morale, low productivity and higher turnover can reside. We will address effective ways to bring up and resolve complaints, with strategies offered to create a healthy work environment.

High Performing Teams

Why do some teams consistently produce outstanding results and other teams perform moderately at best?  We will examine distinguishing characteristics of high performing teams and provide tools and principles you can use to develop high level teams.

Increasing Productivity through Time Awareness

Too much to do and not enough time? We can't add more hours to the day, but we can be more aware of how we spend our time and make better choices about how we use it. As part of this session, you will learn how to increase your awareness of time-task relationship, empowering you with a useful tool when considering how to best use your time.

Integrating New Employees

The key to helping new employees get off to a great start lies in how they are integrated into the workplace. The emphasis of this program will be on what managers and work units can do to assimilate new employees so that they can be productive in their new positions. Creating a an environment that is supportive of new employees will contribute to their overall success.

Listening Enables Speaking

Intentional, focused listening enables meaningful conversation. When it is present, people are more likely to share and ideas will emerge. Sometimes even upsets disappear. This course emphasizes techniques to help you be a more effective listener. Getting back in touch with this interpersonal skill is critical to our success.

Managing for Context and Performance Outcomes

(SUITED FOR MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS WHO HAVE COMPLETED CORE CURRICULUM FOR SUPERVISORS AND MANAGERS.) This program breaks down the performance outcomes concept emphasized in the Core Curriculum, and illustrates how to put it into practice. A parallel idea is that leaders create a context and healthy work environment that allows talent to flourish, leading to a high level of employee effectiveness. Putting these two concepts into practice creates a results-driven organization where people enjoy their work.

Managing People Through Change

If progress requires change, why can change be so difficult? Understanding how the change process impacts us is important to directing change efforts. As a participant, you will learn what to expect in the cycle of change and how to work with each phase to ease transitions for yourself and others.

Managing Your Career

Work is evolving and changing; where do you fit in? Strategies for managing your career in an ever changing work environment will be explored. Examining your current skill set relative to where you would like to be and committing to on-going development are keys to positioning yourself to take advantage of future opportunities.

Moving Beyond Scarcity: Reaching your goals when resources are tight

When times are tough, it is common for our thinking to become limited and confined by the scarcity issues for which we are confronted. In this workshop, you will experience a process designed to help you identify the limits you may be placing on yourself and your unit. This process will be explored further to help you move beyond scarcity to pursue your organization’s aspirations.

OSU Training Days

Training Days is a free two-day conference that provides over 56 brief informational sessions presented by OSU topic experts. You will be introduced to the latest policies, procedures, technical processes, innovations, and tools and tips so you can carry-out your work with ease.

Performance Goal Setting

Goal setting techniques serve to focus and direct the efforts of a work group towards project completion. This program is designed to increase goal setting skills and abilities, and provide some practical steps for writing goal statements and carrying them out. The performance goal setting tools explored in this workshop will empower those who are part of shaping the outcomes of their department, unit or group.

Performance Management Cycle

Effective performance management is one of the most important contributions a supervisor can make towards achieving excellence at OSU. As a cycle that continues throughout the year, successful performance management aligns the efforts of supervisors and employees with department and campus objectives, and motivates all employees to perform at their best. 

Principles of Moving from Good to Great

What does it mean to be great as opposed to being just good or average? The "great" explored in this workshop is not that which is driven by ego, but that which is focused and with good intentions--a focus that will consistently produce solid results at work and in other domains of our life. These principles be explored with an emphasis on applying them for ourselves. Implications of these ideas at the organizational level will be shared as well.

Running Effective Meetings

When time is well spent it in meetings, it contributes to a group’s productivity. A well-run meeting promotes inclusive dialog, clarity of direction, alignment—overall a good experience. Whether you are participating in or leading meetings, this workshop is designed to provide you with tools and principles that lead to positive outcomes.

Situational Leadership

(ESPECIALLY SUITED FOR CLASSIFIED EMPLOYEES IN A LEAD WORK ROLE OR ANY EMPLOYEE WHO SUPERVISES STUDENTS.)  The Situational Leadership model illustrates how to adapt your supervisory or lead work style to support a range of employees, from new to experienced, as a way of bringing out the best in their performance. Scenarios will help you to gain practical knowledge and readily use the ideas to encourage employee development and success.

Stretch Goals: Taking Your Performance to the Next Level

To take your performance to another level, you have to be willing to imagine greater possibilities and work outside of your comfort zone. This means setting both short- and long-term goals that you don't necessarily know you can reach. A key to success is to develop a support structure that keeps you working towards the desired goal. This concept will be explored by illustrating both work and non-work examples. Achieving goals that stretch your current ability ultimately increases your effectiveness, takes your performance to the next level, and makes the extraordinary possible.

The Power of Your Network

Establishing a solid network is important to your success. People who develop strong networks and understand how to use them are more effective, especially during difficult times--not unlike that in which the university currently faces. This program will provide an opportunity for you to examine your network, engage with others in the class, and explore how you can more fully develop your network to increase your effectiveness. A facilitated discussion and participant interaction will be emphasized.

Three Legs to a Balanced Workplace

Personal and organizational pressure to produce results, particularly in difficult times, can actually diminish work performance. Paradoxically, by promoting a workplace that does not over emphasize results alone and places more value on the complete work experience, performance will improve without additional resources. You will learn the three legs for creating balance within your unit and explore implementation strategies.

Understanding Communication Styles

The same message can mean different things to different folks. You will be asked to complete the SDI instrument. This will be used to identify your communication style under two conditions: when everything is going well and when faced with conflict. Awareness of your own and others' communication style can help strengthen or improve work and personal relationships. Great course for a working group or team!

Unleashing Human Potential: FISH! Philosophy

Imagine a workplace where everyone chooses to bring positive energy, passion and a great attitude each and every day. An environment in which people are truly connected to their work, to their colleagues and to their customers. Impossible? Not at all. The video Fish! will be featured as a motivational tool towards creating such a culture. The Fish! philosophy of "play, make their day, be there and choose your attitude" will be explored. If you are looking for something to lift your spirits, this is it.

Work Balance and Integration

The essence of work life balance is to integrate effectively work responsibilities with the domains (or buckets) in our personal lives. We will share counterbalancing techniques, and you will have an opportunity to get started by mapping out your responsibilities and other “buckets” unique to your situation.

Working through Problems

Problems are a part of work and life. Broadly speaking, committees, work groups, initiatives, task forces and the like are formed to resolve issues, create something with the goal to improve an effort, or act on an opportunity. These efforts are important to moving business forward. In the process, problems will arise that require an empowering perspective.  Specifically, we’ll illustrate how simple agreements or processes can be used to enhance team or group effectiveness.

Working with Metrics for Increased Performance

"Work not measured, cannot be managed." A significant shortcoming of many organizations is the lack of performance metrics. Without adequate standards of performance, "running" a unit successfully can become a burdensome process. In this workshop, you will learn to identify areas to measure, how to gather data, and how to manage standards to increase performance

You Can Lead a Horse to Water...

But will it drink? The institution is in tremendous transition. And what do we know about change? Research shows that information alone seldom influences real behavioral change. So what models, techniques and tools exist that can increase a leader's ability to implement successful transitions? A least five will be presented. This program is geared towards managers, but not limited to managers.