Developing Political Awareness & Sensitivity

This workshop is an interactive opportunity to develop your awareness and understanding, share experiences and opportunities and stimulate ideas and possibilities. Although touching on commercial ‘options’ the workshop is more about creating a shared understanding to go beyond the rhetoric and build a culture that supports this aspect of organisational change.

Organisational change and shifts in organisational culture present challenges not only in maintaining morale and motivation but also ensuring the well-being of your teams and yourself. The way in which change is handled and specifically the communication around it is notoriously bad. The impact, although hard to measure, can be significant both in terms of the performance of the organisation and the physical and mental well-being of people. This workshop helps to develop an understanding of what goes in during organisational change, the impact and the practical steps you can take to move forward positively. It touches on many aspects of management behaviour and is a challenging opportunity to build your knowledge and become more self-aware of the impact you have. In addition, it is a chance to consider your own well-being and how you can enhance it.

Projects tend to mean change and change tends to mean projects and in the environment of constant change that is Local Government, an ability to manage and participate effectively in projects has become a major staff development issue. For major projects certificated approaches and methodologies are important. However, there is also a need to equip people on the fundamental principles in a way that can be scaled-up for use on any size of project. This workshop will give participants a thorough understanding of good project management process in an easily accessible and practical way. This will equip you to be effective members of project teams, serve as a useful refresher for established Project Managers and provide a foundation for new Project Managers. It is based on the principal of 8 key steps or documents!

The workshop is ideal for managers or specialists who have a strategic role or who are looking to develop a better understanding and skills in the area of longer team planning and strategy. Essentially this is about effective change management and creating a coherent vision of the future at team, function and organisational level. Strategy or being ‘strategic’ can by its very nature seem quite a vague concept in organisations although a term that is frequently used. The training is designed to cut through that mist and provide a clear understanding and the tools to think strategically but also to influence and implement strategy. The workshop will particularly focus on the challenges of creative strategic thinking in a politically led and fast changing organisation. This is about thinking strategically rather than strategic planning!