Creative Decision Making

One day

Course Description
You have probably been taught to use your logic and reasoning to make the best decisions. Although this is certainly sensible advice, the future is unpredictable, and uncertainty can never be eliminated from the decision-making process. The key is to be positive about uncertainty, which is approaching every decision with an open mind to create more future possibilities, even while assuming that change is inevitable. Creative Decision Making helps you do just that by presenting four paradoxical principles designed to expand the way you think about the decisions you make. This revised course includes discussion on using positive uncertainty to manage information overload and what you can do to decide creatively in today's more rapidly changing world.

Course Outline
Introduction: The What and Why of Positive Uncertainty

• Are You Ready for Positive Uncertainty?
• What Is Positive Uncertainty?
• Why Be Positive About Uncertainty?
• Getting Started with Creative Decision Making

Part 1: Paradoxical Principle 1

• Be Focused and Flexible About What You Want
• Identify Barriers to Knowing What You Want
• Use Goals to Guide You, Not Govern You
• Take Your Eye off the Target
• Treat Goals as Hypotheses
• Uncover Future Phobia
• Mine Goals from Past and Future Events
• Clarify the Big and Little Things You Want
• Postscript

Part 2: Paradoxical Principle 2

• Be Aware and Wary of What You Know
• Question the Validity of Information You Receive
• More Information Can Cause More Uncertainty
• Case Study: Coffee Culture
• Watch Out for Info-Mania
• Open Your Mind to New Knowledge
• Expand Your Thinking about Other Possibilities
• Postscript

Part 3: Paradoxical Principle 3

• Be Realistic and Optimistic About What You Believe
• Recognize That Reality Is in the Mind of the Beholder
• Be Wary of Your Dogma
• Perceive Perceptive Paralysis
• Treat Beliefs as Prophecy
• Dream Precisely to Create a Positive Future
• Uncover Your Beliefs through Metaphor
• Explore Your Personal Metaphor
• Use Scenario Rehearsal in Decision Making
• Postscript

Part 4: Paradoxical Principle 4

• Be Practical and Magical About What You Do
• Treat Intuition as Intelligence
• Become Aware of Your Decision Strategies
• Recognize Reverse Paranoia
• Learn to Plan and Plan to Learn
• Visualize Outcomes with Decision Trees
• See the Bigger Picture in Outcomes Windows
• Postscript

Summary

• Actions for Practice
• The Perennial Decision-Making Questions
• Positive Uncertainty Exercises

Diversity Courses

Dynamics of Diversity

One day

Course Description
Diversity is a key element in any successful workplace, but to be successful, a diverse workforce must learn to work together. This course helps you implement a company-wide diversity training program. Learn how to expose key issues, get your management's buy-in, develop and implement your plan, and more.

Course Outline
Part 1: An Overview of Diversity

• What Diversity Is
• Why Do Diversity Now?
• Why Big Business Supports Diversity
• What Can I Do?
• EEO, AA and Diversity: What's the Difference?
• Why Some Diversity Programs Fail
• Involving Senior Management
• How Organizations Benefit from Diversity

Part 2: Implementing a Five-Step Diversity Training Process

• Step 1: Start with a Vision of Diversity
• Step 2: Conduct a Cultural Audit
• Design a Comprehensive Cultural Audit
• Step 3: Form a Diversity Task Force
• The Role of Human Resources
• Step 4: Design a Diversity Training Program
• Training Design Basics
• Diversity Training is Unique
• Co facilitation Enhances Training
• Step 5: Train People to Train
• The Training of Trainers
• The Ultimate Diversity Trainer
• Summary

Putting Diversity to Work

One day

Course Description
Putting diversity to work in today's organization is everyone's job. More and more, organizations are seeing that true success occurs on not just one, but on three bottom lines: profit, people, and planet. This course focuses on the business case and best practices for bringing the best out of all kinds of people. It is for people who manage people and care for the places in which people work.

Course Outline
Making the Business Case for Diversity

Part 1: Enabling Your Organization to Embrace Diversity

• Improving the Bottom Line through Diversity
• Taking Advantage of Diversity in Your Organization
• Identifying Your Stakeholders on a Mind Map
• Facilitating Stakeholder Synergy
• Five Organizational Traits That Support Diversity
• Diversifying Your Organization's Supply Chain
• Benchmarking to Improve Diversity Practices
• Embracing Diversity Strategies from Benchmarking
• Return on Invested Capital (ROIC)
• Recognizing the Sings of Success

Part 2: Developing Yourself to Embrace Diversity

• Common Ideas about Diversity
• What Exactly Is Diversity?
• 66 Ways We Differ
• Exploring Your Values
• Rethinking Your Biases and Assumptions
• Learning about Others
• Becoming a Diversity Leader
• Making Diversity Your C-H-O-I-C-E
• Getting IN-IN-IN to the Diversity Mind-set
• Transitioning Through Change
• Progress Check

Part 3: Leading and Communicating

• Outlining Diversity Competencies for Managers
• Communicating Face-to-Face
• Asking Questions to Create Rapport
• Increasing Employee Involvement
• Ten Tips for Managing Multicultural Employees
• Putting Diversity to Work Electronically
• Showing Your Organization's Diversity Online
• Leading and Managing Diversity Online
• Using Electronic Tools Effectively
• Ten Tips for E-Mailing Across Borders and Cultures
• Progress Check

Part 4: Diversifying Your Workplace Successfully

• Recruiting for Diversity
• Examining Your Attitudes about Job Candidates
• Rethinking Your Beliefs
• Questions to Avoid During an Interview
• Finding Employees Who Will Stay Long-Term
• Introducing New Employees into the Organization
• Retaining Diverse Talent
• Choosing Employees for Promotion
• Supporting Diverse Leadership Styles
• Encouraging Input from Everyone on the Team
• Analyzing Diversity Challenges
• Understanding Conflict Resolution Styles
• Managing People in Conflict
• Dealing with Sexual Harassment
• Progress Check

Ethics Courses

Ethics in Business

One day

Course Description
In this course you will learn the five rules of ethical behavior, explore ethical approaches to employee discipline, examine how personal values influence professional behavior, and follow a ten-step process for solving ethics-related business problems. Ethical management practices are essential to every business's success. Managers must make sure organizational rules and codes of conduct are being followed, as well as handle ethical issues concerning relationships. This course will help you recognize and think through ethical issues when they arise, correct unethical practices that may have been previously unnoticed or ignored, and communicate the need for applying ethical principles at all organizational levels.

Course Outline
Part 1: Understanding the Problem and the Need

• Some Important Objectives for the Reader
• Definitions of Ethics
• Identifying Your Ethical Concerns
• Case Study 1-Harass Him until He Quits

Part 2: The Forces That Shape Ethical Behavior

• When and Where Do We Develop Ethical Values
• Ethics and Your Job
• Factors That Modify Ethical Values
• Case Study 2-The Dilemma at the Build Big Company

Part 3: Ethical Considerations in Transactions with Employees

• Ethical Implications in Choosing Between People
• Ethics and Performance Appraisal
• Case Study 3-The Dance of the Lemons
• Ethics and Communications with Employees
• Ethical Approaches to Maintaining Discipline
• Administering Reward Systems

Part 4: Ethical Consideration in Transactions with the Boss

• Following Orders and Directives from Above
• Case Study 4-Just a Modest Change in the Records
• Supporting and Communicating with the Boss
• Ten Ethical Mistakes to Avoid

Part 5: Ethical Considerations in Transactions with Your Peers

• Supporting and Communicating with Peers
• Collaboration-A Beneficial and Ethical Tool
• Constructive Problem Solving
• Case Study 5-The Dueling Managers

Part 6: Solving Ethical Problems

• An Organized Approach
• Solving Ethical Problems: The Ten Step Method
• Case Study 6-Is Process Insurance Enough?

Part 7: Review and Suggestions for the Future

• Reading Review
• Five Rules for Ethical Behavior
• Design a Life Plan for the Future
• Responses to Cases