Well, it’s the time of year for “best of” and “Top 10″ lists, so in honor of the brand new 2010, we thought we’d share a run-down of the most popular training topics our clients are planning for this upcoming year:

1. Behavioral Interviewing
There is nothing more important than hiring the right people. Hiring the right person for the right job provides tremendous organizational benefits by increasing employee productivity, reducing training time, and controlling the high cost of employee turnover—not to mention the positive impact on team morale. You’d think, with double-digit unemployment rates across the country, that it would be easy to hire right now…right? Well, maybe. Read more…

2. Business Writing
Many experts estimate that as much as 90% of human communication comes from non-verbal clues such as voice inflection and body language. In business writing, however, you have only the words to get your meaning across, so the way the writer uses those words becomes more important. On-the-job writing matters—to your company, to your readers, and to you as a writer. From sales proposals to client emails to internal communications, your employees represent your organization every time they write an email or craft a document. Read more…

3. Coaching/Mentoring
Coaching can help managers and supervisors provide a structure for enabling their employees to achieve high performance. But the bewildering array of both available resources and management duties can complicate the process. What situations call for coaching vs. counseling? What’s the difference in coaching and performance management? How exactly do you give constructive feedback? Read more…

4. DiSC
There are, of course, many different assessment tools that rate behavior, preference, attitudes, etc. and provide a framework for understanding the way in which you see the world and the differing ways in which others may approach the same set of facts or circumstances. Myers-Briggs/MBTI, Emergenetics, Lominger, Insights and many others remain popular, but the most common tool we see clients utilizing is the DiSC. Read more…

5. Emotional Intelligence/EQ
All managers can relate horror stories about employees or team members who were clearly intelligent, technically capable, and able to perform the duties their job demanded…and who wreaked havoc on their teams because their social skills or self-management capability was lacking. When it comes to individual and team success, IQ is not enough; in fact, the skill set known as Emotional Intelligence (EQ) has consistently proven to be a better indicator of workplace success. Read more…

6. Facilitation Skills
Most of us feel like we spend too much time in meetings. Meetings that are too long. Meetings that have too many participants. Meetings that don’t have clear objectives. Meetings that get sidetracked by off-topic discussions. Meetings can be a waste of time…but with an effective facilitator, that doesn’t have to be the case. Read more…

7. Harassment Prevention/Respectful Work Environment
Even when training budgets are tight, harassment prevention and awareness remains a topic of interest to many organizations due to the legal liability issues that can be involved. Ensuring that both individual contributors and managers understand the policies/procedures and responsibilities of the organization is essential, but may not be enough. Read more…

8. Networking Skills
Networking…it isn’t just for salespeople! Although for many people the word “networking” conjures up a cringe-inducing image of a pushy salesperson shoving a business card into every hand she can find, the reality is that networking is about serving as a resource—about giving, not taking—and it’s essential for both individual and organizational success. Read more…

9. Project Management
In past years, much of the project management training offered by organizations was geared towards those employees who were planning to become a Project Management Professional (PMP) and whose job title or function specifically encompassed a formal project management role. Today, however, we see organizations recognizing that many employees manage projects (albeit on a less formal basis) and recognizing the benefits of a project management overview. Read more…

10. Work-Life Balance/Stress Management
It goes without saying that the state of the economy, mass layoffs, and ever-increasing demands on our employees’ time creates a perfect storm of stress. The negative impacts of stress can range from the physical to the mental and can have devastating impacts on both individuals and teams. Organizations are exploring a variety of resources they can offer to help weather the storm. Read more…

Wishing you an excellent and productive 2010!

Ashley Andrus is President of Zoe Training & Consulting. Her passion is making HR folks and meeting planners look like *rock stars* by providing one-stop access to 90+ speakers, trainers, facilitators, coaches, and consultants.

What is strategic planning? And what do you need to know about the process to determine how strategic planning could benefit your municipality? This article provides a brief overview of strategic planning—the benefits, process, obstacles, and strategies for insuring accountability and follow-through.

Strategic planning is a systematic process where you identify why your local government exists, whom it serves, benefits derived from the services you provide, and your administration’s vision for serving its citizens. Your strategic plan serves as a blueprint for how your local government will achieve its vision, and it answers three basic questions: “Who are we?” “What do we want?” and “How are we going to get what we want?” At each stage of the process you will need to involve various people and groups, and this is where the power of strategic planning comes into play.

Does strategic planning sound like a long, drawn-out process?  Well, it can take a while to do it right.  What’s the old saying?  “Anything worth doing, is worth doing right.”  This may be quite true, but we think there needs to be a lot of benefits for embarking on a time-consuming and sometimes difficult process.  Participants in previous strategic planning workshops determined a number of benefits for undergoing this process:

• Helps engage the community and involve a wider group of stakeholders
• Creates a plan that has the community in mind
• Focuses on broad issues
• It’s fun to envision the future
• Identifies clear impacts and decisions
• Helps us keep a focus
• Proactive v. reactive (not crisis management)
• Assesses resources, strengths, and weaknesses
• Makes it easier to measure success
• Adds to the stability of the community
• Gives us a sense of achievement
• Provides stability through term-limits / changes

There are many, many approaches to strategic planning; however, there are a couple of common threads among most plans.  The predominant starting point is a solid understanding of the organization: its vision, mission, values, history, key contributors, accomplishments, and setbacks, all answering the question of “Who are we?”  Being able to see the organization within the environment in which it operates is also beneficial.  There are a variety of environmental scans that help organizations understand the pressures and dynamics that are affecting them and that could affect their strategic plan.

In our workshop we asked participants to conduct an environmental scan on trends in local municipalities.  Here are some of the trends they came up with:

What would you add to these trends?

Still answering the “Who are we?” question, one common thread in most strategic planning processes is to conduct a SWOT analysis to explore the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of the organization.  In the Technology of Participation ToP®* Strategic Planning Method, we also look at the benefits of success and the dangers of success (unanticipated consequences of success that you might want to plan for).

Once the group has a pretty good handle on its identity and environment, the next couple of steps have to do with setting goals, objectives, strategic directions, and developing action plans to accomplish them. This helps identify “What We Want” and “How We’re Going to Get It.”  The ToP®* method of strategic planning includes the following process:

We’re not suggesting that strategic planning is an easy process. It requires a strong commitment from both your executive level and governing board. To secure top-level support you will need to assess the resources needed to develop and implement a successful plan. Resources to consider include staffing needs and compensation for their time, hiring a professional facilitator, your organization’s technological ability to design, implement, and monitor the plan, and meeting and facilities expenses. If the roof has caved in and you’re in crises mode, strategic planning is not the best method for dealing with the crises. Take care of the crises first and then consider creating a strategic plan.

Additional challenges include identifying who makes the decisions at each stage of the process and when you need to build consensus.  Using a skilled facilitator can guide you through this, and utilizing a participatory method—such as the ToP® Methods—when appropriate can make it a more inclusive process.  Making sure you have included all important stakeholders will help you avoid creating a plan that is unsupported.  When done right, strategic planning should engage and excite your staff and citizens in shaping the future direction of your local government.

The final plan should include specific information about goals, objectives, and clearly defined action steps that identify who is responsible for each action item, what resources are needed, when the action item is due, and how you will monitor progress and measure success.  As a basic rule, you should regularly review your action items; a good practice is to conduct quarterly and annual evaluations.  However, more frequent than four times a year may be necessary depending on external circumstances. To keep people committed and on track, communicate and publish results regularly and acknowledge departmental and individual accomplishments as they occur.  It may be helpful to research other municipalities’ strategic plans or to benchmark your processes.  Keep your focus on the strategic plan and strategic directions.  Many leaders get off track because they focus most of their time on operational or tactical issues and don’t think strategically. Leaders who spend about 20 percent of their time thinking strategically and working their plan are more likely to be successful achieving the goals and vision of their strategic plan.

If your organization has never engaged in the strategic planning process, it can be helpful to start with a project or department to get some experience and success before embarking on a plan for the whole municipality.  Utilizing a professional facilitator can help your municipality navigate the strategic planning process.

Penny McDaniel, MA, has more than fifteen years of experience working in the field of training and development, facilitation, and personal growth. Penny specializes in helping people develop their leadership skills, improve new and existing team effectiveness, and assist individuals in connecting with and achieving their personal vision and creating shared vision in their organizations. Penny believes that every individual and every organization should be challenged to reach his or her highest potential. Her commitment as a trainer and facilitator supports that process.