Training
Our training doesn’t start or end with your experience on the actual course. We will be in touch before the training with information and questions to help us customise the training to your experience. After the training, we will facilitate follow-up with the group to help you put the learning into practice. We encourage you not just to join the training but to join a learning community that is committed to growth and change.
Our current courses are described below. Every course will be delivered by two trainers; find out more about our team. You can see a full schedule of dates for upcoming courses here.
People management and communication.
Whether you have been managing people for many years or are totally new to it, most people would agree it is hard! It involves staying in touch with the reality of what is happening, both in yourself and others, so you can focus the team on the behaviour you want to achieve. Being in touch with this reality enables you to give clear messages and feedback to others to move towards the results you want.
Content (3 days)
This course covers being aware of your own responses (at the head, heart, and body levels) to actively manage your reactions. We will learn strategies for being aware of and staying connected to your own and others’ motivations, enabling you to step into tough conversations and remain connected. We will also examine the concept of ‘psychological safety’ within a team and how to develop this while holding people accountable for their work without shaming or blaming.
Objectives
Manage your own responses to stay open to others in challenging situations
Develop strategies to foster trust within teams
Inspire others towards ethical and results-focused behaviour
Delegation and empowering others
We hear the word ‘empowerment’ often, but putting it into practice can be complicated. As leaders or supervisors, we can sometimes find ourselves moving between ‘micro-managing’ and not supporting at all. As we progressively become responsible for more staff, it can be hard to shift the focus from ‘doing’ to ‘managing’ in a way that makes the best use of the skills of the team.
Objectives
Give clear ownership of tasks with the resources to set up others for success
Value and use staff strengths in their development
Develop strategies to get precise information while not ‘micro-managing’ others
Content (2.5 days)
This course covers the concept of boundaries and how to understand and integrate them into a work environment. It also examines the under- or over-functioning dynamic and how to value and use individual strengths in a team situation. We examine techniques for balancing power and responsibility and approaches that support others in feeling empowered to carry out their own roles.
Assessing performance to build staff capacity
Most of us face some anxiety when it comes to assessment – whether we are being assessed or are the assessors. We may feel that we don’t have enough information or the right tools to make a precise, comprehensive assessment of others. Even where we do have information, we can be nervous about how the assessed person will respond, causing us to be unclear in how we communicate assessment goals and results. Yet most of us have experienced that accurate, clear assessments can help us to grow.
Objectives
Understand performance management principles and practices
Set clear objectives and expectations for staff based on clear analysis of their capacity and needs
Acknowledge and celebrate achievements at individual and team level
Content (2.5 days)
This course covers setting objectives and how to communicate and discuss these in a way to achieve shared ownership of goals. It also examines evidence-based performance assessment and the theory and practice of motivating others. You will explore skills and techniques for giving constructive feedback using behavioural rather than personal language and how to follow through on learning objectives with staff in their daily work practice.
Living into your values and resolving conflicts
Many of us experience moments when either we or others feel criticised or judged; as a result, we experience reactivity, either internally or externally. This reaction can be small or sometimes a substantial and apparent conflict. These issues we encounter with people come from differences in values; it could be in a team meeting setting or in your interaction with others on daily work. These differences in values can cause massive amounts of anxiety in a team and make it seem impossible to work together. However, we may struggle to identify our own values or know how to ask others about their values to find a way forward, making it difficult to resolve these conflicts, whether obvious or unspoken.
Objectives
Identify when a conflict is based on different values
Know your own core values and which of these is being violated in a conflict
Move through value conflicts while maintaining connection and relationship with others
Content (2 days)
This course starts with reflecting on your own values, clarifying them and learning the signs that someone is conflicting with these values. It deals with listening skills in these situations and how to name your values with others clearly and in a positive way while recognising and respecting differences. Finally, we examine techniques and attitudes that help move through value violations and emerge with a better understanding of the other person and ways to move forward together effectively.
Making decisions effectively
What often takes time in the decision-making process, both in minor decisions and major ones, are the things that pull us away from our focus, taking away our time and energy. The ability to facilitate others’ opinions and feelings, as well as manage our own internal conflicts, is crucial. Navigating those elements in the decision-making process can be complicated and time-consuming. With learning and practice, we can help people to look at the facts, own the process and follow through on the decisions made in a positive and productive way.
Objectives
Understand the information, standards and emotional content that can inform decisions
Facilitate the expression of opinions and ideas in a way that can be heard and that shapes decisions
Make decisions in an ethical and evidence-based manner with an awareness of the emotional base
Support team to follow through decisions with clear communications and rationale
Content (3 days)
This course covers both decision-making and how to set this in the context of clear policy, standards and practices that guide staff in their daily work. It will look at how to generate sound, open input from the appropriate people when making decisions and how to give your own opinion on those decisions in a factual, open way. We will understand the role of policy in shaping organisational decisions and how to refer to and use this effectively. Having covered getting the correct input into decisions, we will look at how to facilitate sensitive discussion and fair resolution of disagreements and how to know when decisions are within your own (or others’) expertise and scope. Throughout the course, we will pay attention to the emotional base of decisions and how to allow for this. Finally, we will look at communicating and following up decisions to ensure implementation.
Getting the right staff - and keeping them
Finding the right staff is critical to the success of any project, but identifying the person who is the best fit for the role through the recruitment process is challenging. If we can find the right people, we still need to orient them successfully both to the project and to the values and ways of working that belong to our organisation. Investing time in these processes in the midst of other work is difficult but can lead to great results and staff that are genuinely committed to the success of project and staying long-term; reducing the need to go through recruitment so often.
Objectives
Understand and apply behavioural interviewing in recruiting staff
Engage and orient new staff to be fully integrated into their new role
Understand the factors impacting staff retention
Apply reflective practice in staff supervision
Content (3 days)
This course covers recruitment practice, particularly behavioural interviewing, which examines actual behaviour to gain more insight into the interviewees’ patterns. We discuss the importance of onboarding staff and how to set meaningful and realistic probation goals. We examine the factors that impact staff retention and how managers can influence this. Moving on from probation, we examine a reality-based approach to staff supervision that encourages clear communication and ongoing development.
Project management
Most development work is conducted as a project – whether that be 6 months or 5 years in length. This requires being able to manage the numbers (both in terms of money and indicators) but also skills in paying attention to staff motivation, environment and self-care. In addition, the results need to be communicated to others, often in a different cultural context. Balancing these different elements – as part of a team - is a core skill for development leaders.
Objectives
Create clear and realistic project plans with measurable objectives at outcome, output and activity level
Allocate appropriate resources to projects, taking account of staff capacity and self-care
Engage with monitoring both systematically and by engagement with project staff directly to ensure a comprehensive understanding
Report on project plans and ongoing risk management with an awareness of audience needs
Content (3 days)
This course covers project design and setting clear and measurable objectives at outcome, output and activity levels. We will look at risk management and overcoming external factors likely to impact project delivery. The focus will go beyond a ‘logframe’ approach (although we will cover this) and look at how to ensure quality of project delivery through monitoring issues of staff capacity, developing a clear focus and incorporating self-care. Finally, we will look at how to communicate project implementation clearly and impactfully to different audiences.