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Sink or Swim Workshop

Sink or Swim: Leading in Uncertain Times


Are your leadership skills being challenged by the constant pressure to respond to rapid shifts in our ever-changing work environments?

Good News – You can learn to not only manage change but thrive in the midst of it!

This workshop will assist you to :

• Expand your knowledge about changing government policies and direction across many sectors • Learn how your leadership style and attitude affect your staff and partners • Implement adaptive leadership strategies to move your organization forward in the midst of change • Explore practical creative ideas for remaining relevant and progressive • Learn about ways that the private sector has reinvented its business to stay profitable • Utilize practical tools for managing the challenges of change

Recommended Audience: For those in leadership roles within the social service and health sectors.

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CONNECTING THE DOTS WORKSHOP

CONNECTING THE DOTS…..DEVELOPING YOUR POLITICAL ACUITY SKILLS

Course Description:
Building your political acuity will help you and your team to influence decisions, achieve organizational objectives and identify critical impacts and outcomes.
This one-day course will cultivate your political acuity by developing the skills and knowledge you need to:
• work with formal and informal systems
• build and enhance relationships
• utilize new and emerging practices and
• negotiate within organizational cultures
 Practical examples will be used to illustrate these skills. Learning will occur through individual and group exercises, case studies and discussions.
In this workshop you will learn about:
• professional and ethical responsibilities;
• political acuity – what it is, its benefits and how it can assist you in a brilliant career as a public servant;
• the importance of understanding, building and strengthening key relationships; 
• analyzing environments and understanding the implications on your organization and your work;
• strengthening your ability to provide strategic advice and direction.

This one-day workshop will include individual and group exercises, case studies and discussion and will draw upon the experience of those in the room to complement the knowledge of the workshop leader.

The workshop leader is Ronna Hope Warsh who is a seasoned public servant with experience in the not for profit, provincial and municipal sectors.

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Dichotomy in Leadership

Managing Risk While Being Innovative

Leaders must keep their attention on managing operational risk while working to stay ahead of the curve, and offer their customers innovative new products. This constant tension is a challenge for many leaders in today’s competitive culture.

My father taught me to “keep my eye on the store”. At the same time, the leader must keep in tune with customers’ changing needs and they must offer new products to maintain loyalty.

We all know private companies who had security breaches while trying to develop new products to lure new customers. Many of their customers migrated to other companies when they heard this news. We also know of restaurants that did not pass their health unit test for cleanliness and, as a result, quickly lost their customers. In this era of social media word travels fast!

Leaders in publicly funded organizations have many government mandated standards to maintain. Failure to do so can result in loss of government revenues.
These leaders must pay attention to the current government’s changing agenda. The need to ensure the delivery of services in a way that fits with the “new direction”. Current examples in Ontario include changes to funding for autism services for children, giving parents money directly to purchase services. Agencies who had base funding for staffing are now left trying to consider a re-engineer into a private pay model.

This tension between managing risk and continuing to innovate can be a source of ongoing tension for leaders.

Many of my coaching clients discuss this ongoing tension with me. Together we develop a plan to help them manage both ends of this dichotomy to ensure a strong organizational reputation with both the people they serve and their funders.