Courses
Compliance Courses
Compliance Courses are typically required for a large segment of your employee base to comply with various legal, regulatory or risk management laws and regulations.
Preventing Sexual Harassment
- Today’s world can be a confusing place to determine appropriate behaviors when it comes to relationships between the sexes. This course educates employees at all levels of responsibility on what the law says about sexual harassment and what constitutes sexual harassment. It will also help define what is and is not appropriate personal behavior in a variety of specific situations and circumstances.
Preventing Workplace Violence
- This course deals with the difficult issue of workplace violence. Employees at all levels will learn how to recognize and respond to situations which have the potential to escalate into violence, what to do about it when the potential for workplace violence exists, and how to deal with situations that arise.
Diversity Management
- The American workplace is more diverse than ever before. Such diversity brings many benefits, but it also creates a responsibility for supervisors and employees to learn how to nurture and encourage healthy and vibrant interactions and teamwork in such a diverse environment. This course is about building bridges versus walls.
Drug and Alcohol Awareness for Employees
- Any employee who struggles with a drug or alcohol problem, or who comes to work under the influence, puts personal and other individual’s safety at risk, and creates significant potential for legal liability on the part of the organization. D & A Awareness for Employees teaches employees at all levels how to embrace leadership initiatives designed to create an environment of prevention, recognize drug and alcohol problems, and how to react appropriately when they occur.
Drug and Alcohol Awareness for Supervisors
- Any employee who struggles with a drug or alcohol problem, or who comes to work under the influence, puts personal and other individual’s safety at risk, and creates significant potential for legal liability on the part of the organization. D & A Awareness for Supervisors teaches supervisors how to institute leadership initiatives designed to create an environment of prevention, create an environment that rewards accountability, recognize drug and alcohol problems, and how to react appropriately when they occur.
Defensive Driving
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Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death and injury for Americans ages 3-33 and are in the top five leading causes of death regardless of age. Crashes on and off the job have far-reaching financial and psychological effects on employees, their co-workers, families, and employers.
Why does your organization need a driver safety program?
- To save lives and to reduce the risk of life-altering injuries within your workforce.
- To protect your organization's human and financial resources.
- To guard against potential organizational and personal liabilities associated with crashes involving employees driving on behalf of your organization.
- Your program should work to keep the driver and those with whom he/she shares the road safe. And, if necessary, the program must work to change driver attitudes, improve behavior, and increase skills to build a “be safe” culture. By instructing your employees in basic safe driving practices and then rewarding safety-conscious behavior, you can help your employees and their families avoid tragedy.
- Employees are an employer's most valuable assets. Workplace driver safety programs not only make good business sense but also are a good employee relations tool, demonstrating that employers care about their employees.
Any employee who operates city vehicles or equipment is strongly recommended to complete a certified defensive driving class. This class meets all TXDOT and Federal DOT standards. This course also meets insurance reduction and ticket dismissal requirements. Spouses and Children of your employees are welcome to attend at standard fee level.
Lead Worker Series
The lead worker series is designed for crew leaders and comparable positions who are expected to lead their crew, and who are likely candidates for future promotion to supervisor. It provides very practical, hands training for front line lead workers.
Transitioning from Peer to Leader (2 hours)
- Making the leap from peer to team or crew leader is never easy. In addition to dramatic change, new team leaders frequently struggle to balance their old co-worker relationships with their new responsibilities. Participants will learn skills and techniques to make this important transition a positive and productive experience.
Leading by Example (2 hours)
- This course explores the concepts of leadership and helps the participant recognize leadership opportunities in the workplace. Leading by Example focuses on the following observations:
- Each of us can be leaders regardless of our job in our organizations
- Everyone can earn to identify the characteristics of effective leaders and the role that personal values play in leadership
- All employees bear the responsibility to understand the dynamic relationship between leaders and followers.
Effective Listening Skills (2 hours)
- Although all of us talk and listen to one another, we may not be communicating. Most of us are so busy thinking of what we want to say next, that we often miss important cues for success. Participants will explore the process of listening more effectively and learn specific tools to maximize interpersonal communication.
Building a Respectful Workplace (2 hours)
- Building a respectful workplace is the foundation for successful teams. Participants will explore the principles in building a respectful workplace and steps to eliminate disrespectful behavior. The video resource, Meet on Common Ground is utilized as the central focus for dialogue and response in this highly interactive fourth course in the Lead Worker Series.
Supervisory Skills Series
The Supervisor Series consists of eleven courses that focuses on basic concepts that supervisors need to know in order to be effective and successful. Content covers the roles and responsibilities of a supervisor as they relate to employment laws, performance evaluation, effective communication, managing change, and leading teams. Other skills taught include: interviewing effectively, organizing and delegating, dealing with negative people, and managing different generations. The curriculum includes:
Now That I’m a Supervisor (4 hours)
- This course is the foundational and introductory workshop for a newly appointed supervisor. It is designed to help the employee in transition from the peer to supervisor relationship, and understand the basics of this new role. This course identifies the personal and professional transition elements involved when moving into supervision, and notes the critical factors of success for new supervisors, laying a foundation for the remaining core supervisory courses that delve into deeper detail in all areas. Participants will learn the four major roles of a supervisor and how supervision is carried out taking into consideration the workplace environment and the shared and invidual values of all employees.
Principles of Public Service (4 hours)
- According to the Ethics Resource Center's 2007 survey, 63% of local government employees observed various types of misconduct including but not limited to conflicts of interest, abusive behavior, and lying to employees. The ERC emphasizes the importance of good ethics and compliance programs along with creating strong ethical cultures. Research has shown that effective implementation of both has reduced incidences of misconduct. The ERC recommends there be strong ethical leadership, supervisor reinforcement, peer commitment to ethics, and embedded ethical values. Principles of Public Service discusses current business ethics, identifies areas of risk, and reviews leaders' accountability for setting an ethical standard and holding both themselves and others accountable to that standard.
Employment Laws and Supervisory Practices: What Supervisors Should Know (4 hours)
- The focus of Employment Law and Supervisory Practices is to inform participants of the nuances of multiple laws that can affect them as supervisors. The course also emphasizes supervisors' responsibility to comply with said laws at the leadership level. This requires open communication with their Human Resources department when issues surface that fall within supervisor/supervisee workplace relationships. If leaders do not allow employees to benefit within the legal guidelines required, lawsuits can ensue. A more important focus is how to stay out of trouble by using solid supervisory practices that provide an equal opportunity work environment and create a more positive workplace where employees will work hard and the city will benefit by avoiding costly lawsuits. The end result is higher organizational morale and a greater likelihood budget not threatened by litigation. (Please note we have two perspectives on this course; the HR perspective and the legal professional perspective. Please let us know your preference when booking this course).
Effective Communication Processes (4 hours)
- Effective interpersonal communication is critical to the success of any organization. This session identifies barriers to good communication, defines formal and informal channels of communication, and teaches the importance of good listening. This session achieves the following objectives:
- Learn a basic communication model and the elements of communication
- Understand the purpose of communication
- Understand the role self-concept plays in the communication process
- Learn the process of perception and the impact perception has on the communication process
- Understand the role that the receiver plays in the communication process
- Understand the variables for success involved with verbal communication
- Understand the purpose and effect of non-verbal communication on the communication event
- Review the characteristics of active listening
- Recognize other communication inhibitors
- Plan for effective communication
Hiring the Right Employee Begins with the Interview (4 hours)
- Hiring the right person for the job is one of the most important decisions supervisors make. Knowing what questions to ask and how to ask them to obtain an accurate and overall proper perception of a canditate's abilities is a key interviewing skill that participants will learn in this session along with to make legally defensible hiring decisions. The workshop covers: Beginning with planning the interview location and content, managing the interview conversation, and then closing the process. Information concerning interview details such as reviewing resumes, writing effective interview questions, and selecting the most effective interview process will also be covered. (Please note, this course can be taught from the perspective of Behavioral Interviewing if that fits your hiring processes more effectively).
Leading Teams (4 hours)
- Understanding the dynamics of leading a team, the characteristics of an effective team, and the different team-player styles that make up a team is essential to any organization's long term success. The challenge for leaders is to understand exactly what comprises a team and then how to effectively motivate and lead individual teams to organizational excellence, sometimes in work environments that recognize and reward individual accomplishment over team achievement. Leading Teams targets the following objectives:
- Define the characteristics of teams
- Identify why we should even concern ourselves with teams as an organizational element
- Identify the five phases of effective team leadership
- Identify four stages of team development
- Describe the use of teams in various work locations
- Create an action plan for increased teaming back home
- Identify one conflict situation in the workplace and work on a plan for successful resolution
Managing Change (4 hours)
- For any change initiative to be effective, the change process must be aggressively managed. This workshop trains supervisory and management personnel to lead and manage change successfully. The course starts with a personal, "self check for change," moves into a change management mode, and through case study and practical discussion defines the components of an effective change initiative. Participants plan the implementation of change facing their work groups as the closing application exercise. Managing Change offers individuals an interactive approach to understanding the dynamics of changes great and small. Participants will gain a heightened awareness into their own processes of adapting to fundamental change while gaining tools in understanding and guiding others through change.
Managing Employee Performance (4 hours)
- Meaningful performance management maximizes employee performance by communicating areas needing improvement, as well as areas of excellence in ways that ensure the employee understands what is being communicated, what the expectations are, and knows that the supervisor cares about helping the employee reach their potential. Performance management is a process which begins while the new employee is still on probation, continues through the career of the employee, and ends with the retirement party. The purposes of this workshop are: To define performance management, identify the components of the process, clarify leadership responsibility, and detail an implementation strategy for beginning a performance management process within a particular work team. Successfully managing an employee’s performance can be challenging for many supervisors. The key to success is following a performance management process. This course will teach participants the steps in that process and provide tools to successfully implement each step. You as a supervisor will then be better equipped to help your employees maximize their full potential.
Organizing and Delegating (4 hours)
- This session focuses on organizing employees in an effective manner to accomplish goals and maximize use of delegation. Participants will learn the benefits of delegating, how to overcome reluctance to delegation, and tools to avoid lower to higher level delegating. At the close of this course, you should be able to identify multiple ways to, "work smarter, not harder," leading to lower stress levels and higher morale.
Understanding and Managing Generations in the Workplace (4 hours)
- Today, more than any time in our history, different generations with broadly diverse outlooks are being asked to work together. Processing generational information is tremendously valuable because it helps explain the baffling and confusing differences between generations that often drive our assumptions of each other. Understanding generational information is critical to blending the generations at work and making them work for and not against an organization. Learn the secrets of successful organizations that accommodate employee differences, create workplace choices, operate from a sophisticated management style, and nourish retention to provide a positive and productive work environment for all generations. This workshop features the controversial 60 Minutes report, Here Come the Millennials.
Dealing with Negaholics (4 hours)
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Negaholism is a crushing, poisonous epidemic in the workplace! Do you know a Negaholic? Are you afraid you might be one? This course teaches you to learn the signs and how to deal with them; understand the symptoms, sources, and coping strategies; and remind you of the POWER of positivity! Our presenter uses the analogy of, "Pruning the Negativity Tree" to set your organization on the path of POSITIVE!
Join the campaign to eliminate the paralyzing forces of negativity!! You can survive -- and transform -- the negativity in the workplace with powerful tools and techniques to deal with the Negaholics you know. Reduce your stress level and watch your job enjoyment soar as you banish negativity from your life.
Management Skills Series
The Management Series consists of nine core courses (thirty-six hours) that explore advanced concepts of managing to help move employees from a supervisory role into a management level position. The core curriculum includes:
Tools for Successful Leadership (4 hours)
- Tools for Successful Leadership explores the concepts of leadership and helps participants recognize leadership opportunities in the workplace and community. The course also teaches participants to identify the characteristics of effective leaders and the role that personal values play in leadership. Through self-assessments, participants will learn more about themselves as leaders and how different personality styles impact leadership. Participants will also learn to recognize the dynamic relationship between leaders and followers as they identify the difference between management and leadership!
Honing Your Emotional Intelligence (4 hours)
- If leaders fail in the primal task of driving emotions in the right direction, nothing else they do will matter. Great leaders move their teams by igniting passion and inspiring success. Honing Your Emotional Intelligence acknowledges and applies the complex mix of social and interpersonal behaviors that incorporate intuition, character, integrity, motivation, communications ability, and relationship skills.
Building High Performance Teams (4 hours)
- New approaches to management and leadership have quickly taken hold in our dynamic business world. In order to keep up with this fast-paced change and the ability to manage change effectively, we need a commitment to establish a greater degree of teamwork among employees with more responsibility delegated across the organization. Building High Performing Teams focuses on the concepts of goal setting, empowerment, and measuring productivity. These tools will equip you to meet today’s challenge of doing more with less.
Celebrating Differences (4 hours)
- This session will discuss how managers are change agents for managing workforce diversity and the catalyst for celebrating differences. This course facilitates a better understanding of culture and diversity terms, how to respect and maximize individuality and how to keep an open mind while being able to communicate and discover how others need to be treated.
Customer Service Made Easy (4 hours)
- This session explores the myths surrounding municipal government service, looks at the guiding principles of customer service quality, and how we can deliver excellent, outstanding, and phenomenal customer service. Participants will identify their customers and discuss how the components of neighborhood service delivery help organizations achieve superior customer service.
Managing Conflict (4 hours)
- Conflict, strife, and opposing points of view are part of the workplace and part of life; that cannot be changed But we can change the way we react and manage conflict when it occurs. In Managing Conflict you will discover practical, proven alternatives that will give you skills to harness in the most difficult and frustrating situations.
This session achieves the following objectives:
- Define conflict
- Identify sources of conflict in the work environment
- Identify a series of key messages about conflict
- Identify the five basic methods of resolving conflict
- Describe the concept of control in the resolution of conflict
- Identify the differences between mediation and arbitration
- Review the characteristics of active listening
- Self-analyze personal conflict resolution style
- Identify one conflict situation in the workplace and work on a plan for successful resolution
Problem Solving and Decision Making (4 hours)
- Participants will gain understanding of problem-solving and decision-making techniques and apply these techniques either individually or as part of a team. Other topics include: What makes problem solving difficult, the challenges of working in groups, avoiding traps and pitfalls, and ways to stimulate creativity.
Strategic Planning (4 hours)
- Participants will learn how to conduct a SWOT (strenghts, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis and use that information to make decisions about priorities and the direction of the department/organization and how to identify what a department or organization envisions for its future and develop the necessary procedures and operations to achieve that future. As resources grow increasingly precious, planning the use of those resources to specifically support your organization's mission and vision becomes critical. A strategic plan serves as a roadmap, guiding the entire unit toward identified accomplishments through the years. It helps bypass unnecessary scenic tours; it shows how to accommodate road side rest stops with unexpected emergencies; and it identifies resources that could be used to address the issue, as well as the consequences of diverting those resources from their original intent. In short, Strategic Planning takes business planning to a whole new level. This session achieves the following objectives:
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- Learn how to design the planning process for the work unit
- Learn to gather previously compiled planning work
- Understand how to complete an environmental scan
- Learn how to create a business unit mission statement
- Understand how to identify and prioritize business unit lines of business
- Identify key stakeholders
- Learn to conduct a S.W.O.T analysis for your business unit
- Learn how to write business plan for your unit
- Learn how to develop an action plan
Budget and Finance for Non-financial Managers (4 hours)
- Participants will learn the basics of municipal budgeting and finance, including how the process works, how to read basic financial documents, and how to use basic financial and budget tools. This workshop begins the process of transforming mysterious financial language and concepts into tools that leaders, regardless of level in the organization, can use to help them make more successful operational decisions every single day.
This session achieves the following objectives:
- Review of financial terms and concepts
- Review cash flow and working capital management
- Understand the concepts and processes of setting, monitoring and complying with the budget
- Overcome the negative perceptions of the budgeting process
- Understand cost and break-even analysis
- Understand project analysis and evaluation
Customer Service Series
Customer Service - "Starting Strong" (4 hours)
- Customer Service Starting Strong utilizes the DiSC© personality profile assessment equipping customer service representatives to identify personality differences and how to effectively deal with them. Often someone will present their dominant temperament style within the first minute of conversation allowing the customer service rep to frame their responses accordingly.....i.e., the High "D" could care less about the process of resolving the issue, just the bottom-line solution while a High "C" will want to understand more about the process so as to be able to avoid it in the future. The High "S" person will want to know that the relationship is valued and that they are doing everything possible to resolve the issue. The material presented in this course is especially valuable as it relates to helping us understand and work effectively with our co-workers. This class is the foundational class for all SGR customer service courses.
Customer Service Made Easy (4 hours)
- This adapted to front line employees session explores the myths surrounding municipal government service, looks at the guiding principles of customer service quality, and how we can deliver excellent, outstanding, and phenomenal customer service. Participants will identify and learn the difference between their internal and external customers and discuss how the components of Neighborhood Service Delivery help achieve superior customer service.
Effective Communication Process - Customer Service Version (4 hours)
- This course will introduce and overview the process of communication, teach students how to effectively use the listening/speaking differential by narrowing the gap between intention and perception. Participants will also learn appropriate and inappropriate uses of communication media, stages of communication and the importance of consciously implementing each stage, and purposeful listening regardless of the amount of interference.
Customer Service -- Making The Right Call! (4 hours)
- Statistics have shown that 55% of the communication process involves body language. If that is true, then we lose over 50% of our ability to communicate when on the telephone. In some ways, it is like attempting a job with one hand tied behind your back! If good communication is the key to getting the job done right, then learning effective communication strategies on the telephone is crucial to any organization’s ongoing success. During Customer Service – Making the Right Call, participants will review basic telecommunications etiquette; telephone manners that make a good business impression; the correct way to answer the phone; speaking effectively on the phone; phrases to avoid; dealing with resistance and disgruntled callers, and much more! If you make or receive even a handful of phone calls each day, this four hour training initiative will continue paying dividends for years to come.
Time Management (4 hours)
- Even with fax machines, cell phones, PDA’s, computers, Blackberry’s, and so much more at their disposal, employees never seem to never have enough time to get the job done. This can lead to frustration which can directly affect relationships with internal and external customers. Time Management is designed to teach participants to head into the day focused and prepared for the tasks at hand. Participants will learn the importance of prioritizing their work schedule, delegating various tasks to team members, and maximizing effective use of every minute of every hour. This course is based on Emotional Intelligence principles, taking the participant through a much broader concept of time management that traditional approaches.
Conflict Management (4 hours)
- Conflict, strife, and opposing points of view are part of the workplace and part of life; that cannot be changed. However, we can change the way we react and manage conflict when it occurs. In Managing Conflict participants will discover practical, proven alternatives that will give them skills to not only deal with difficult and frustrating situations, but to learn from them thus creating a more productive and less stressful work environment.
Dealing with Negaholics (4 hours)
- Negaholics in the workplace affect morale, teamwork, and productivity. This session will explore ways to deal with Negaholics and overcome the effect they have on your team by learning how to constructively address negativity.
Learning the Language of Multiple Generations (4 hours)
- Today, more than any time in our history, different generations with such diverse outlooks are being asked to work together. Learning generational language is tremendously valuable because it often explains the baffling and confusing differences between generations that often drive our assumptions of each other. Understanding generational information is critical to blending generations at work and making them work for and not against an organization. In this workshop, students will learn the secrets of successful organizations that accommodate employee differences, create workplace choices, operate from a sophisticated management style, and nourish retention to provide a positive and productive work environment for all generations. Particular emphasis will be placed on dealing with the elderly in the external customer context and welcoming high school and college grads into the workforce in the internal customer context. This course also features the controversial CBS 60 Minutes report, "Here Come the Millennials,"
Celebrating Differences: Inclusion in the Workplace (4 hours)
- This session allow participants to, “walk a mile in their supervisor’s shoes,” specifically noting in the context of this course that supervisors are change agents for managing workforce diversity and the catalyst for celebrating differences. This course will facilitate a better understanding of culture and diversity terms, how to respect and maximize individuality and how to keep an open mind while being able to communicate and discover how internal and external customers need to be treated.
Electives
Beginning with the End in Mind: Successful Project Planning (4 hours)
- Participants will:
- Learn basic tools for managing projects.
- Explore opportunities for teamwork through team building exercises.
- Acquire positive communication techniques that enhance project success.
- Learn problem solving for project challenges and leadership opportunities.
Hitting Your Target (2 hours)
- Managing individual, team, or organizational goals requires managers to focus on key result areas and setting reasonable and achievable goals. This workshop will teach models of well-stated goals, pitfalls to avoid in setting goals, and strategically managing team goals.
Holding Successful Meetings (4 hours)
- Participants will learn the skills necessary for effective meeting management and learn to plan, organize, conduct, and participate in meetings in an efficient and effective manner.
Humor and Stress Management (2 hours)
- With the pace of life so fast, it seems as if being stressed out has become the norm. It has been estimated that more than half of all doctor visits are due to stress-related illnesses. When you do not have a healthy mechanism to deal with the stress in your life, it can lead to serious health problems. Many people tend to lose their sense of humor when they need it the most—that is, when they are stressed. People with a better developed sense of humor cope with stress better because they do not take their circumstances too seriously. The purpose of this workshop is to help you recognize the effects of stress and implement healthy ways to combat it.
On Your Mark, Get Set, Motivate! (4 hours)
- This session defines motivation in the workplace and explains its importance, identifies some of the classic theories of motivation, pinpoints some powerful needs that motivate people and how to relate motivators to them, and discusses how to develop motivational skills.
Presentations with an Impact (4 hours)
- This workshop is designed for those who provide formal presentations and who want to enhance their presentation skills. Participants will explore skill building on the following: using visuals & handouts effectively, managing presentation stress, and handling difficult questions & situations.
Business Writing Skills (4 hours)
- This workshop is designed for those who prepare written presentations, letters, memos and emails and who want to enhance their writing skills. Participants will explore skill building on the following: grammar, spelling sentence construction and effective written communication of ideas.
Managing Relationships (4 hours)
- "We recognize that we are all individuals, but then we act as though we are all the same..." Getting things done as a supervisor is all about dealing with people. This course will help supervisors be more effective in their job by being more effective in the way they deal with people, including employees, peers and their own supervisors, as well as citizens. This course will explore the unique individuality that each employee brings to the workplace, and then determine options that supervisors and managers can use to most effectively manage their relationships with unique employees. The purpose of this material is to increase leadership relationship effectiveness, which results in increased productivity and comfort in the workplace.
Contract Management (4 hours)
- This workshop is designed for those who are responsible for managing various types of city contracts. Participants learn to evaluate contract compliance, communicate clear expectations to contractors, and resolve issues.
Fire Training
Ethical Challenges and Competing Values in Fire Service
- Whether you are serving on the front-line, providing supervision as a mid-manager, or leading at administrative levels, everyone faces challenges to their individual and organizational values system. When values collide with cultural norms and real-world issues, the challenge comes in deciding how to best do the “right thing,” when there seems to be no good option. This program provides practical and thought-provoking, real-life, easy-to-use practical skills on how to effectively deal with these complex issues at work, at home, and any place in between. The course is designed to inform, inspire, and invigorate a healthy ethical climate that reinforces the core values at all levels of the organization. A real and practical must for every member.
Developing Collaborative and Functional Work Groups in Today’s Fire Department
- Whether you are part of a small work group or the organization’s administrative team, everyone experiences challenges, periodic conflicts, and distractions from the missions, goals and objectives. Designed around Patrick Lencioni’s national best selling book dealing with functional teams, this program provides participants the ability to identify the primary challenges to maintaining healthy, collaborative, and effective work units unique to the fire service. The program provides the skills necessary to take advantage of these challenges and to address both internal and external conflicts in a positive way designed to keep teams working like a well oiled machine. This highly interactive and enlightening program is suitable for every member of the department.
Cultural Diversity in the Fire Service
- Employment of fire fighters is expected to grow faster than the average for all other occupations through 2014. As the fire service evolves, research suggests we will experience unprecedented transitions in individual and organizational cultural boundaries. These cultural dynamics bring both challenges and benefits. Those organizations with the ability to nurture and encourage healthy and vibrant interactive teamwork will achieve the greatest successes. This course facilitates an understanding of cultural and diversity issues and provides a unique set of approaches on incorporating effective components of cultural diversity within an organization involving line staff, mid-managers, and administrative perspectives. Expect to be enlightened with some thought provoking ideas as this course creates a greater understanding of cultural diversity within the fire service.
Employee Evaluations and Effective Coaching-Counseling for Firefighters
- Members of a fire department live and work closely together under conditions of stress and danger for extended periods. Leadership qualities are necessary for officers, who must establish and maintain discipline and efficiency as they direct the activities of fire fighters in their companies, including evaluation of each member’s performance. When the time comes to review operations, no one enjoys close scrutiny with the possibility of criticism. Often times employee evaluations are considered by the affected employee as a formalized fault-finding forum. This course offers participants the opportunity to develop effective coaching-counseling techniques that assist in finding constructive approaches to fostering and reinforcing methods of achieving the desired objectives in their daily activities. An appropriate course for all members to maximize the benefit of the evaluation process.
Mediation and Dispute Resolution in Fire Services (Series): (48 hours)
- Dispute resolution offers one of the most challenging and rewarding professional opportunities today. Conflicting parties in business, education, legal religious communities, and even families are increasingly using mediation and dispute resolution methods to settle differences quickly and easily, minimizing the necessity for and often time avoiding litigation. Business and government recognize the benefits of hiring individuals with formal training and practical expertise in conflict resolution and negotiation, and these skills remain essential for today’s supervisor and administrator. This series of courses offers a comprehensive, interdisciplinary study and classroom instruction. Students learn formal conflict management skills in negotiation, mediation, domestic and personal relations, dispute system design and application of practical techniques under the guidance of master instructors. This series of instruction includes:
- Introduction to Fundamentals of Alternative Dispute Resolution
- Communication Techniques for De-escalation and Conflict Resolution
- Conflict Resolution Systems in the Work Place
- Legal and Ethical Issues Regarding ADR
- Negotiation
- Mediation and Advanced ADR techniques
- Upon completion of the series, the individual receives a certificate that meets the criteria for credentialing as a mediator acceptable for court-ordered mediation settlements. Seize the opportunity to grab this skill set today!
Police Training
Facing Down Ethical Challenges to Competing Values in Law Enforcement
- What is the best way to handle those tough situations in which there seems to be no “good” answer? Sometimes your values are challenged without even realizing it. Will you have the support when you need it the most? Whether you are serving on the front-line, providing supervision as a mid-manager, or leading at administrative levels, everyone faces challenges to their individual and organizational values system. The challenge comes in deciding how to do the “right thing” and survive, especially when values themselves collide with cultural norms in a workplace environment. This program provides practical and thought-provoking, real-life, easy-to-use practical skills on how to effectively deal with these complex issues at work, at home, and any place in between. The course is designed to inform, inspire, and invigorate a healthy ethical climate that reinforces the core values at all levels of the organization. A real and practical must for every member.
Developing Collaborative and Functional Work Groups in Today’s Police Department
- Whether you are part of a small work group or the organization’s administrative team, everyone experiences challenges, periodic conflicts, and distractions from the missions, goals and objectives. Designed around Patrick Lencioni’s national best selling book dealing with functional teams, this program provides participants the ability to identify the primary challenges to maintaining healthy, collaborative, and effective work units unique to the police service. The program provides the skills necessary to take advantage of these challenges and to address both internal and external conflicts in a positive way designed to keep teams working like a well oiled machine. This highly interactive and enlightening program is suitable for every member of the department.
Cultural Diversity in Law Enforcement
- As law enforcement evolves over the next five (5) years, research suggests agencies will experience unprecedented transitions in individual and organizational cultural boundaries. These cultural dynamics bring both challenges and benefits. Those organizations with the ability to nurture and encourage healthy and vibrant interactive teamwork will achieve the greatest successes. This course facilitates an understanding of cultural and diversity issues and provides a unique set of approaches on incorporating effective components of cultural diversity within an organization involving line staff, mid-managers, and administrative perspectives. Expect to be enlightened with some thought provoking ideas as this course creates a greater understanding of cultural diversity within law enforcement.
Employee Evaluations and Effective Coaching-Counseling for Law Enforcement
- Peace officers commonly provide “negative reinforcement” to persons who have been observed committing an offense, and officers work closely together under conditions of stress and danger for extended periods. Leadership qualities are necessary for officers, who must establish and maintain discipline and efficiency as they direct others, including conducting evaluations of personnel under their command. When the time comes to review operations, no one enjoys close scrutiny with the possibility of criticism. Often times employee evaluations are considered by the affected employee as a formalized fault-finding forum. This course offers participants the opportunity to develop effective coaching-counseling techniques that assist in finding constructive approaches to fostering and reinforcing methods of achieving the desired objectives in their daily activities. An appropriate course for all members to maximize the benefit of the evaluation process.
Mediation and Dispute Resolution for Law Enforcement (Series): (48 hours)
- Dispute resolution offers one of the most challenging and rewarding professional opportunities today. Conflicting parties in business, education, legal religious communities, and even families are increasingly using mediation and dispute resolution methods to settle differences quickly and easily, minimizing the necessity for and often time avoiding litigation. Business and government recognize the benefits of hiring individuals with formal training and practical expertise in conflict resolution and negotiation, and these skills remain essential for today’s supervisor and administrator. This series of courses offers a comprehensive, interdisciplinary study and classroom instruction. Students learn formal conflict management skills in negotiation, mediation, domestic and personal relations, dispute system design and application of practical techniques under the guidance of master instructors. This series of instruction includes:
- Introduction to Fundamentals of Alternative Dispute Resolution
- Communication Techniques for De-escalation and Conflict Resolution
- Conflict Resolution Systems in the Work Place
- Legal and Ethical Issues Regarding ADR
- Negotiation
- Mediation and Advanced ADR techniques
- Upon completion of the series, the individual receives a certificate that meets the criteria for credentialing as a mediator acceptable for court-ordered mediation settlements. Seize the opportunity to grab this skill set today!
Crisis Intervention and Handling Mentally Disturbed Persons
- Inappropriate response from peace officers relating to individuals with serious mental health issues has given rise to new concerns. Litigation over personal injury or wrongful death sustained by a mentally ill person as a result of actions taken by law enforcement officers is on the rise. Risk management dictates that crisis intervention training is an imperative training for all law enforcement officers. This course follows the learning objectives of the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Education.
Evidence and Property Room Systems
- The proper handling of property and evidence remains one of the most essential operations within a law enforcement agency today because of its ability to impact the success of all criminal cases and to even bring down a good agency administrator. Many agencies experience insufficient storage space and inadequate tracking systems. When evidence is mishandled, misplaced, or outright lost an agency’s reputation is placed at risk. This course sets the stage with some novel and proven approaches to maximization of space and compliance with all of the complex laws regarding storage, preservation and disposition. This course provides a full range of skills and system tools to make the evidence property system effective, efficient, and secure.
Basic Supervision (48 hours)
- A peace officer appointed to the officer's first supervisory position must receive in-service training on supervision as part of the course provided for the officer during the 24-month period after the date of that appointment. This course follows the learning objectives of the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Education.
Basic Instructor (40 hours)
- Classroom facilitation will be provided utilizing problem based learning techniques that will enhance Learning Objective Preparation, Lesson Plan Preparation, Instructional Media, Methods of Instruction, Testing and Evaluation, and Liability Issues related to training. Participants will be required to prepare and teach lesson plans on a law enforcement related topic. This course follows the learning objectives of the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Education.
Field Training Officer Program (40 hours)
- Law enforcement administrators strive to hire and train the most qualified applicants. A portion of the training program includes undergoing a field training program where they receive direct influence from their closest associate: their assigned field training officer. The FTO must possess a wide array of skills to serve as an instructor, a mentor, a coach, a counselor, and a supervisor. This course provides the necessary training and complies with the learning objectives of the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Education.
Telecommunications/Dispatch Training
Facing Down Ethical Challenges and Competing Values in Telecommunications
- What is the best way to handle those tough situations in which there seems to be no “good” answer? Sometimes your values are challenged without even realizing it. Will you have the support when you need it the most? Whether you are serving on the front-line, providing supervision as a mid-manager, or leading at administrative levels, everyone faces challenges to their individual and organizational values system. The challenge comes in deciding how to do the “right thing” and survive, especially when values themselves collide with cultural norms in a workplace environment. This program provides practical and thought-provoking, real-life, easy-to-use practical skills on how to effectively deal with these complex issues at work, at home, and any place in between. The course is designed to inform, inspire, and invigorate a healthy ethical climate that reinforces the core values at all levels of the organization. A real and practical must for every member.
Developing Collaborative and Functional Work Groups in Today’s Communication Center
- Whether you are part of a small work group or the organization’s administrative team, everyone experiences challenges, periodic conflicts, and distractions from the missions, goals and objectives. Designed around Patrick Lencioni’s national best selling book dealing with functional teams, this program provides participants the ability to identify the primary challenges to maintaining healthy, collaborative, and effective work units unique to the telecommunications service. The program provides the skills necessary to take advantage of these challenges and to address both internal and external conflicts in a positive way designed to keep teams working like a well oiled machine. This highly interactive and enlightening program is suitable for every member of the department.
Cultural Diversity in Telecommunications
- Telecommunicators receive calls for non-emergency and emergency assistance from the public, gather as much information as possible and practical, and relay information to appropriate responding units. Research indicates that the next five (5) years will result in exponential growth in the minority population seeking assistance and in the workplace. These cultural dynamics bring both challenges and benefits. Those organizations with the ability to nurture and encourage healthy and vibrant interactive teamwork will achieve the greatest successes. This course facilitates an understanding of cultural and diversity issues and provides a unique set of approaches on incorporating effective components of cultural diversity within an organization involving line staff, mid-managers, and administrative perspectives. Expect to be enlightened with some thought provoking ideas as this course creates a greater understanding of cultural diversity within law enforcement
Employee Evaluations and Effective Coaching-Counseling for Telecommunicators
- Telecommunicators work closely together under conditions of stress for extended periods. They must be dependable and able to get along well with others. Leadership qualities are necessary for supervisors, who must establish and maintain discipline and efficiency as they direct others, including conducting evaluations of personnel. When the time comes to review operations, no one enjoys close scrutiny with the possibility of criticism. Often times employee evaluations are considered by the affected employee as a formalized fault-finding forum. This course offers participants the opportunity to develop effective coaching-counseling techniques that assist in finding constructive approaches to fostering and reinforcing methods of achieving the desired objectives in their daily activities. An appropriate course for all members to maximize the benefit of the evaluation process.
Crisis Communications for Telecommunicators
- Crisis Communications training will provide additional understanding for the Telecommunicators to become more proficient and confident during emergency communications. This course is designed to meet TCLEOSE learning objectives, and is one of the required courses required for the achievement of a Telecommunications Intermediate Certificate.
Mediation and Dispute Resolution for Telecommunicators (Series): (48 hours)
- Dispute resolution offers one of the most challenging and rewarding professional opportunities today. Conflicting parties in business, education, legal religious communities, and even families are increasingly using mediation and dispute resolution methods to settle differences quickly and easily, minimizing the necessity for and often time avoiding litigation. Business and government recognize the benefits of hiring individuals with formal training and practical expertise in conflict resolution and negotiation, and these skills remain essential for today’s supervisor and administrator. This series of courses offers a comprehensive, interdisciplinary study and classroom instruction. Students learn formal conflict management skills in negotiation, mediation, domestic and personal relations, dispute system design and application of practical techniques under the guidance of master instructors. This series of instruction includes:
- Introduction to Fundamentals of Alternative Dispute Resolution
- Communication Techniques for De-escalation and Conflict Resolution
- Conflict Resolution Systems in the Work Place
- Legal and Ethical Issues Regarding ADR
- Negotiation
- Mediation and Advanced ADR techniques
- Upon completion of the series, the individual receives a certificate that meets the criteria for credentialing as a mediator acceptable for court-ordered mediation settlements. Seize the opportunity to grab this skill set today!
Confinement/Jail Training
Facing Down Ethical Challenges and Competing Values in Confinement
- What is the best way to handle those tough situations in which there seems to be no “good” answer? Sometimes your values are challenged without even realizing it. Will you have the support when you need it the most? Whether you are serving on the front-line, providing supervision as a mid-manager, or leading at administrative levels, everyone faces challenges to their individual and organizational values system. The challenge comes in deciding how to do the “right thing” and survive, especially when values themselves collide with cultural norms in a workplace environment. This program provides practical and thought-provoking, real-life, easy-to-use practical skills on how to effectively deal with these complex issues at work, at home, and any place in between. The course is designed to inform, inspire, and invigorate a healthy ethical climate that reinforces the core values at all levels of the organization. A real and practical must for every member.
Developing Collaborative and Functional Work Groups in Today’s Confinement Center
- Whether you are part of a small work group or the organization’s administrative team, everyone experiences challenges, periodic conflicts, and distractions from the missions, goals and objectives. Designed around Patrick Lencioni’s national best selling book dealing with functional teams, this program provides participants the ability to identify the primary challenges to maintaining healthy, collaborative, and effective work units unique to the confinement centers. The program provides the skills necessary to take advantage of these challenges and to address both internal and external conflicts in a positive way designed to keep teams working like a well oiled machine. This highly interactive and enlightening program is suitable for every member of the department.
Cultural Diversity in Confinement
- Confinement personnel guard inmates in penal or rehabilitative institutions in accordance with established regulations and procedures.Research indicates that the next five (5) years will result in exponential growth in the minority population. These cultural dynamics bring both challenges and benefits. Those organizations with the ability to nurture and encourage healthy and vibrant interactive teamwork will achieve the greatest successes. This course facilitates an understanding of cultural and diversity issues and provides a unique set of approaches on incorporating effective components of cultural diversity within an organization involving line staff, mid-managers, and administrative perspectives. Expect to be enlightened with some thought provoking ideas as this course creates a greater understanding of cultural diversity within law enforcement.
Employee Evaluations and Effective Coaching-Counseling for Confinement
- Confinement personnel work closely together under conditions of high stress for extended periods. They must be dependable and able to get along well with others. Leadership qualities are necessary for supervisors, who must establish and maintain discipline and efficiency as they direct others, including conducting evaluations of personnel. When the time comes to review operations, no one enjoys close scrutiny with the possibility of criticism. Often times employee evaluations are considered by the affected employee as a formalized fault-finding forum. This course offers participants the opportunity to develop effective coaching-counseling techniques that assist in finding constructive approaches to fostering and reinforcing methods of achieving the desired objectives in their daily activities. An appropriate course for all members to maximize the benefit of the evaluation process.
Mediation and Dispute Resolution in Confinement (Series): (48 hours)
- Dispute resolution offers one of the most challenging and rewarding professional opportunities today. Conflicting parties in business, education, legal religious communities, and even families are increasingly using mediation and dispute resolution methods to settle differences quickly and easily, minimizing the necessity for and often time avoiding litigation. Business and government recognize the benefits of hiring individuals with formal training and practical expertise in conflict resolution and negotiation, and these skills remain essential for today’s supervisor and administrator. This series of courses offers a comprehensive, interdisciplinary study and classroom instruction. Students learn formal conflict management skills in negotiation, mediation, domestic and personal relations, dispute system design and application of practical techniques under the guidance of master instructors. This series of instruction includes:
- Introduction to Fundamentals of Alternative Dispute Resolution
- Communication Techniques for De-escalation and Conflict Resolution
- Conflict Resolution Systems in the Work Place
- Legal and Ethical Issues Regarding ADR
- Negotiation
- Mediation and Advanced ADR techniques
- Upon completion of the series, the individual receives a certificate that meets the criteria for credentialing as a mediator acceptable for court-ordered mediation settlements. Seize the opportunity to grab this skill set today!
Parks and Recreation
Emergency and Safety Procedures for Park and Recreation Staff
- There is no more precious gift than that of a child, and the degree of safety for those children and adults visiting our parks and participating in various recreation programs depends upon the knowledge, skills, and response capability by park and recreation staff to threatening or emergency situations. This program is designed as a comprehensive overview of safety components in the following areas:
- Weather emergencies (indoors and outside)
- Protection against pedophiles and child-predators
- Playground safety
- Common facility hazards
- Vehicle transportation
- Medical emergencies
- Equipment safety
- Special needs for elderly and those with physical or mental disabilities.
- Policy and planning of response procedures for emergencies
- This program provides the fundamentals for prevention of injury and the disastrous results that may follow. This program provides valuable information and ideas for part-time and full-time recreation staff, senior center personnel, and supervisory staff from recreation to maintenance departments. Truly an important session for every park and recreation staff member
Safety Procedures and Emergency Responses for Park Maintenance Staff
- Many of the operations by park maintenance staff involve the use of complex mechanical equipment, the use of strong chemicals, and the transport of heavy machinery and materials that can all pose serious threats of injury or death if mishandled. This course focuses on the fundamental safety procedures to be considered by park maintenance staff, and it introduces the participant to legislative requirements and many practical tips to preventing injury to both the staff members and the public using the park facilities. This program is recommended for every park maintenance staff member, including supervisors. As the old saying goes, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and post event litigation.
School Crossing Guards
Traffic Direction and Control
- Who wants to step out in front of a moving vehicle, especially with a child about to cross the street? Answer: School Crossing Guards. In order to minimize the adverse effect on traffic flow while maximizing the safety of the pedestrian and vehicle occupants, each school crossing guard should understand the fundamentals of traffic direction and control. This course teaches how to get the drivers’ attention, how to properly direct the drivers as to the command given, how to help protect the pedestrians and cyclists using the crosswalk, and how to reinitiate traffic flow. This short course now can save countless hours of work and money losses later on and keep your operations safety conscious.
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