The Ethics WorkOut©

Ethics is learned in the practice. Employees need a safe place for the discussion of ethical challenges, which are rarely black and white. In this highly engaging half-day program we help participants make their own meaning around ethical dilemmas, how personal values intersect with organisational values and when the latter take precedent. We have taken a large number of organisations through this Ethics Workout© and the feedback is exceptionally positive. What participants like is the opportunity to engage with management in a serious dialogue about what principles underly the organisations stated values and how it can translate into behaviours.

Business Acumen Workshops for Public Sector

The business model is changing. We have an ongoing need to balance efficiency with social equity and this is particularly important within the public sector. So what is meant by business acumen? Using Kolb's action learning framework, participants learn processes to understand what ‘business acumen' means in today's setting and what is it likely to mean in the future
We will discuss the need for individuals to drive innovation in service delivery within a social and cultural context, and how this occurs within the macro setting of the changing role of government.

 Values Alignment

for organisations who want to ensure that their systems and processes are aligned to their espoused values and principles, we put together coordinated programs that embody the following steps:

1. Assistance in the clarification of values and identification of the appropriate behaviours to support these: - Working in partnership with your company's designated working group to review a values and behaviour protocol document supported by a strategy and communication plan to embed the designated values into the organisation's key systems - recruitment and induction, performance management and reward and recognition systems- Review and refine core organisational protocols to ensure they are succinct, easy to understand and reflect contemporary norms and expectations of organisational ethical accountabilities

2. To design a workshop program that will: - Raise employee awareness of the organisation's values and skill members in value-based decision making- Promote a shared understanding of the types of behaviours that will represent the organisation's stated values- Skill members in identifying and responding to possible conflicts of interest- Provide participants with appropriate ethical problem solving models that can be applied in situations of concern- Provide employees with "a ladder of escalation" to encourage and assist them in responding to perceived issues of concern- Assist participants to better understand the macro context of social changes and the resulting new expectations of the public sector in NSW

3. To design relevant training materials that will: - Reflect the typical ethical challenges that employees may face- Engage and energise participants to accept personal accountability for the decisions they make in the workplace- Consult and incorporate feedback from key organisational stakeholders in identifying appropriate scenarios to be used as core materials in the workshop program to ensure relevance to the context in which participants find themselves- Design and facilitate a "train the trainer" session- Leverage workshop feedback to identify appropriate value based criteria for use in the development of business plans and individual performance plans. Our Approach Our core philosophy is that all training materials must be relevant to the typical situations people find themselves in. Our first task therefore will be to identify the unique organisational backdrop for this training initiative.We will gain a greater insight into these contexts by reviewing existing research on pertinent issues and interviewing key stakeholders.We will develop our materials to be engaging, humorous where appropriate, and a realistic portrayal of issues within the department. We favour a combination of instruction and experiential learning in designing workshops as it is important for participants to understand their own personal values and how these shape the way they see situations at work. We embed the values of the client organisation into the scenarios so that participants draw out their own meaning about how to contextualise them to their work role.

This "management of meaning" is critical to embedding workplace values and to creating a platform for discussion around what behaviours are and are not consistent with living the values.Managing Values will facilitate skills sharing to build organisational knowledge. We will share our intellectual property, experience and extensive research, and work with employees to co-design evaluation techniques.

Facilitation & Training

We have extensive facilitation experience and training and can assist with sophisticated facilitation in strategic planning, scenario planning, process management and organisational change management. We can also design facilitation training programs, custom made to your organisational context.

Clients have ranged from SME's to tripartite organisations involving government, private and NGO representatives.

Sustainability Education

Based on our experience in consulting in Sustainability over the past 10 years, we have put together this introductory training session for senior managers. Sustainability, global warming, climate change and stakeholder management have become mainstream issues for most businesses and, with new compliance legislation imminent, these will be critical risk issues for most organisations going forward.  On the opportunity side of the equation, the creation of a carbon trading market means that businesses large and small need to be across the sustainability agenda.

This one-day program brings executives up to speed on the evolution of this vital area and will help in developing strategies to integrate climate change into business processes.