Train Your Public Agency Problem Solving
Team In-House

All of our courses can be taught on your turf. The more students, the lower your per-person cost.

If your agency ever has some of its major proposals: – shelved – delayed – stopped – derailed – torpedoed, then call us (831-373-4292), or e-mail us to discuss what issues you face and how we can help by providing In-House training for you and your team. We will also send you a current fee schedule. (It is a fixed fee for up to 30 people, with a small charge for each additional attendee. Thus, the bigger the enrollment, the lower your per-person cost.)

These are courses that we host, and make them open to the public. Open-Courses are best suited for those who cannot hire us to do on-site training specifically designed for their team.

Just look to the far-right column (of this website) for the most current schedule of Up-Coming Open Courses.

(Should you need to cancel, we charge a $100 cancellation fee unless you reschedule to attend another one of our courses.)

To register by phone: please call Annemarie at 831-373-4292.

(Should you need to cancel, we charge a $100 cancellation fee unless you reschedule to attend another one of our courses.)

AN OVERVIEW OF THE COURSES WE CURRENTLY OFFER IN-HOUSE

 

SDIC 2.0

Systematic Development of Informed Consent SDIC is the most powerful approach to Public Involvement that professionals can use in public-sector problem-solving and decision-making. What is so powerful about it?

When you get the Informed Consent of your fiercest opponents, you also get your most important and controversial proposals implemented.

When you can work constructively with opponents — who conclude you are trustworthy, duty-driven, and concerned about negative impacts — you can’t help but be far more effective.

This course will cause you to have a paradigm shift needed that will give you the means to tackle your mission and no longer be hung up by politics, special interests, citizen sandbagging, or any of the frustrations of the average public-sector professional.

Watch SDIC Preview

Leadership

a Bootcamp for Guiding Complex Problem-Solving & Decision-Making Processes, especially when everything goes wrong! We will familiarize you with the several fundamental concepts that are at the root of problem-solving and decision-making, which will save you the pains of developing good judgment from experience alone. Some of the issues covered in this course include – The Augmentation/Meta Process – Using and Defending Against Strategies of Conflict – Negotiations, Mediation, and Conflict Resolution – Excellence and Productivity – Assessing Risk and Dealing with Uncertainty – Elementary Concepts in Applied Maximizing – The Role of Values

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Professional Ethics

“an Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Thousand Cures” If you are a public official, or if you practice a profession that exposes you to public scrutiny, we invite you to participate in this seminar on professional ethics. It’s designed just for you!

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CPO-2

Dealing with Domestic Terrorists and other Extremist Opponents to Legitimate Government Proposals and Actions This seminar is about those of your opponents who really, truly have gone, or are about to go off the deep end. While we hope you will never have to face such opponents, the public officials who do have to face them probably did not plan on it either. Like you, they are just trying to do their duty; they’re just trying to accomplish their mission . . . In other words, they are trying to be responsible. These public officials wind up asking themselves: “Why are some folks all of a sudden coming unhinged? Why am I perceived as a public enemy? I’m just trying to do my job! What am I to do?!”

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Crisis Management

for Managers Who Strive to be the Best, Even Under Enormous Stress and Pressure Once you’ve mastered basic management, you are ready for Crisis-Management. We’ll show you how to handle various scenarios such as: there’s a rumor circulating about your agency or your team. It’s a rumor about an extremely serious issue. You feel that ignoring it will cause problems,but so will addressing it! You get totally contradictory advice from your experts and advisers! You don’t have all the information — and for a long time won’t have the information — you either need to confirm or deny the rumor . . . You need a compass, a North Star, a strategy. . .

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COSTAR

Commission – Staff Relations Most organizations with important missions — both in the private and the public-sectors — have a professional Staff that reports to a “Commission”, a “Board”, and a “Council” . . . i.e. some kind of body that makes the big policy decisions. There are almost as many different Boards and Commissions as there are organizations, and their functions vary a great deal. The concerns of the Regional Water Commission are NOT the same as those of the local Hospice Program Board; the Board of Directors of a national environmental group does not deal with the same issues as City Council. And a manufacturing company’s Board of Directors does not worry about the same things as the local Mental Health Board. This course will help: – Make the organization more effective and more productive, – The decision-makers contribute in the area where they have the most to contribute; the values area, – The professionals get appreciated for what they are: professionals, and their work gets used — notwasted.

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Personal Decision-Making

Tools for Making Difficult Decisions that Lessen Regret This training session includes basic decision-making tools that lend themselves for improving one’s own personal decision-making. In this very short course we familiarize you with the concept of “Goal Fabrics;” one of the most powerful and most practical tools for making better personal decisions. A Goal Fabric helps you in two ways: – To make sure that you are making progress in your day-to-day living toward goals that are truly fulfilling for you, – To get a handle on your many competing, maybe even conflicting values.

Learn more about this course