Facilitation Services Workshops and Webinars Organizational Communications

Workshops and Webinars

Nancy Settle-Murphy, principal consulant and president, is a sought-after conference speaker whose straightforward, substantive topics and engaging, interactive style give attendees the strategic and tactical insights they need to get things done.

Because of Nancy’s commitment to enhancing the productivity of global and remote teams, all of her talks are available as webinars. Here are some of Nancy’s most popular topics. Contact us today to schedule a workshop or webinar.

From Good to Great – Facilitation Skills Training

Purpose:

Learn what it takes to plan and run exceptional facilitated face-to-face and remote meetings

Intended results:

  • Participants and meeting sponsors are well prepared to contribute
  • Roles and objectives are clear
  • Agendas are structured to enable groups to make the most out of every minute of real-time interaction, whether face-to-face, remote or both
  • Ideas flow freely while conversations stay on track
  • All participants contribute fully
  • Next steps, actions and follow-up activities are clear
  • Participants are enthusiastic about attending the next meeting!

Structure:

We work with clients to:

  • Customize case studies and exercises to meet the needs of each group
  • Place the appropriate emphasis on certain content areas
  • Determine the best venue for delivering the course

In most cases, this two-day workshop is delivered on a client’s site for up to 15 participants. Participants who have some facilitation experience or training will gain the most benefits. The participant guide includes a CD-ROM with customizable templates and examples.

Getting Started:

Please contact us to see if Good to Great is right for your organization. Meanwhile, we invite you to read our related information sheet for more details.

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Transforming Technical Consultants into Great Meeting Leaders

Purpose:

Provide technical consultants with practical tools, tips and experiential learning activities to develop competency and confidence in leading important client meetings

Intended results:

  • Position technical consultants as value-added business consultants and trusted advisors
  • Enable technical consultants to identify, qualify and pursue lucrative new opportunities as part of their consulting work
  • Increase the billable time and hourly rate of technical consultants
  • Strengthen teamwork between technical consultants, salespeople and client team members

Structure:

We work with clients to:

  • Assess participants’ needs via telephone interviews
  • Create a facilitation scenario for each participant based on an actual client engagement
  • Create agenda for one-day workshop based on skills and competencies most needed
  • Agree on follow-up plan for each participant
  • Provide coaching and guidance to enable participants to apply what they’ve learned with confidence

Each day-long workshop is delivered at the client’s site. We customize each workshop based on a host of variables, such as client’s business model, skill level of consultants, roles, client types and nature of services. Each participant receives a workbook with tools, templates and actual examples. Please see our information sheet for more details.

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Bridging the Distance –a webinar series designed to strengthen remote or virtual team collaboration

Purpose:

Learn tips, techniques and best practices associated with great collaboration --from afar

Intended results:

  • Leaders of remote or virtual teams distinguish between skills and competencies especially critical for helping groups work from a distance
  • Facilitators plan and run effective same-time, same-place meetings designed to achieve objectives in a compressed period of time
  • Remote team members learn new ways to build and demonstrate trust, and learn how certain cultures and personality types perceive trust differently
  • More participants can contribute in multiple ways, even when schedule conflicts arise
  • Global teams navigate through cultural differences and learn how to capitalize on diverse perspectives
  • Team leaders select the best combination of technology and other communication channels to achieve business goals

Structure:

Each 90-minute workshop provides practical principles, tools, tips and techniques that can be put into practice immediately. Simple prework makes the best use of workshop time. Participants will be encouraged to share real-life situations, giving the group an immediate opportunity to apply lessons learned. Attendees will participate via through the simultaneous use of audio-conferencing and web conferencing technology.

Two types of sessions are available. We invite you to join any of our public workshops, which are scheduled periodically. We also hold customized workshops for organizations that will benefit from more customized training to meet their unique needs. Click here for more information.

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Collaborating Across Cultures – Experiential Learning Activities

Purpose:

Enable global team members to work together more effectively by acknowledging, understanding and reflecting cultural differences in all manners of collaboration

Intended results:

  • Develop a better understanding of how stereotypes are likely to affect working relationships
  • Learn how different cultures process, receive and convey information differently, as well as the underlying reasons
  • Make well-informed decisions about how global teams can work together most effectively
  • Create agreed-upon norms and operating principles that work for all represented cultures
  • Establish team communication plans that work for all cultures
  • Anticipate how cultural difference are likely to affect teamwork
  • Apply tips, tools and techniques for surfacing and addressing issues related to cultural differences

Structure:

We work with clients to:

  • Assess participants’ needs as well as existing levels of “cultural literacy”
  • Discover issues and challenges best met through a better understanding of cultural differences
  • Develop a customized set of learning activities including creation of experiential learning activities using real-life situations for immediate application
  • Identify important prework that will contribute to learning
  • Ensure that workshop output can be put to immediate use

This one-day workshop covers a variety of topics most likely to affect the success of a multi-cultural team, whether team members are located next door, or half-way around the world. Activities include brief lectures, facilitated large group discussions, case studies, breakout sessions, flipchart exercises, and simulations. Some prereading is required. Click here for the info sheet.

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Creation of Customized Action Learning Workshops

Purpose:

Create unique learning opportunities for client organizations that rely on interactive conversations to develop competencies, skills and confidence needed to show measurable performance in critical business areas

Intended results:

  • Accelerate time to performance improvement
  • Maximize participation by tapping into a variety of methods and channels
  • Participants learn key concepts and develop and practice new competencies using real-life business situations

Structure:

We work with clients to:

  • Clarify business objectives and determine where performance improvements are most critical
  • Link specific competencies, skills and knowledge to desired areas of performance improvement
  • Define target audiences and learning objectives for each
  • Assess needs and determine current proficiencies of each audience
  • Agree on important parameters such as method of delivery, number and type of participants, total duration, prework required, and delivery dates
  • Design a set of experiential learning activities geared toward improving performance in defined areas
  • Create train-the-trainer material and related training
  • Pilot workshops as needed
  • Solicit feedback and revise content prior to rollout
  • Create overall project plan

Please contact us to discuss how we can help you boost performance through memorable, interactive learning experiences. We’d be happy to share how we’ve helped other clients facing similar challenges.

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facilitation skills training, workshop training and design

“Nancy won’t spend time on something that she doesn’t believe will deliver business results, so she challenges her clients continuously to see that her work is delivering what they are paying for. This builds a huge bank of trust for the clients.”

Barbara Callan-Bogia
Organizational Development VP, F200 Office Products Retailer

“Thank you so much for leading us through an excellent program.  When I was an employee of an international corporation, I participated in countless virtual meetings, and I always dreaded them.  You stimulated my thinking in unbelievable ways about the possibilities.  Virtual meetings can actually be worthwhile, productive, painless, and even fun!”

Principal of an international management consultancy

“The webinar on Planning and Running Effective Remote Meetings was great.  I am delighted I signed up for your session.  I work in a remote location from my own headquarters and am already thinking about applications for the lessons I am learning.”.

Director, United Way in Western U.S.

“Thank you for two excellent facilitated sessions, all your prework, and for the materials you have shared with us.  I have found it very valuable to participate in this manner; to be in the shoes of the customer; to think carefully about all the variables and possible contingencies.  There is much more thinking to be done, on my part.”

 Administrative manager, large southern college