BUILDING HEALTHY ORGANIZATIONS

Training and Services for:

The following workshops are described in a general way. They can be custom-designed to meet the needs of many different types of organizations: small or large; community-based, provincial or federal; commercial or non-profit. We are happy to work with the staff of a single organization or with the members of an interagency team. We are also happy to develop a workshop which combines several of the topics described below.

If your organization feels that it could benefit from a number of the workshops described below, we would welcome the opportunity to discuss the possibility of designing a learning plan for your organization that involves a series of workshops and seminars over the space of several months or a year. This approach would help your organization integrate the new knowledge and skills in a realistic way and to have each session build on and reinforce the one before it.

MOVING FROM RESPONDING TO CRISES TO FOCUSING ON THE IMPORTANT

Many organizations and many managers feel like they are simply responding to one crisis after another without ever having the time or resources to focus on what they really believe is important. They feel like they can never develop long-term plans or deal with the root causes of the issues they keep trying to put bandaids on. This situation can lead to a deep sense of frustration as well as to high rates of employee turnover.

This two-day workshop offered by Four Worlds in designed to help organizations and managers shift their focus from the urgent to the important. The participants of this session will learn how to effectively manage their time and resources so that they can achieve their long-term plans while at the same time dealing effectively with the everyday issues and problems which always come up.

TEAM BUILDING

Feelings of isolation and competition are common in many organizations. Sometimes different departments or individuals do not share information and resources in an effective way and sometimes they even undermine each other’s efforts. These problems can make it difficult for an organization to provide the best services they possibly could.

This two-day workshop offered by Four Worlds is designed to help the staff of an organization become an effective team as they learn new ways to communicate and experience the excitement and the challenge of solving problems in a cooperative way. The participants will also have the opportunity to develop a common vision statement which will help to guide their work during the months to come. They will also have the opportunity to practice skills which they will be able to use long after the workshop is over.

MOVING FROM ATOP-DOWN TO ACIRCLE APPROACH TO MANAGEMENT

Many managers and organizations want to work in a way that allows every staff member to contribute his or her talents freely and that encourages everyone to take full responsibility for the success of the organization. In spite of these good intentions, however, many organizations end up working in a way that leaves some people out of the decision making process and that creates an atmosphere of distrust between the management and the staff of an organization.

This two-day workshop being offered by Four Worlds helps the managers and the staff of an organization examine the way that things are currently being done in the workplace and to think about different management models. The participants will also gain new information and skills which will assist them to practice a more participatory, circle approach to management in the future.

MONITORING AND EVALUATION

Evaluation is a process that can be used either as an enemy or as a friend of an organization and its staff. When an organization learns to clearly define its mission, objectives and strategies and to describe the indicators which can be used to measure progress, evaluation can become a powerful tool for improving effectiveness rather than a process to be feared. By learning some basic skills, organizations can help define the evaluation process in ways which will meet their own needs rather than just the needs of some outside agency (such as a funder or supervisor).

This two or three-day workshop (depending on the organization’s needs) being offered by Four Worlds is designed to help the staff of an organization learn the difference between monitoring and evaluation and some tools to carry out each of these important processes. The participants will also learn how to develop clear success indicators which can serve as the foundation of a useful evaluation process. As well, techniques for assisting managers to carry out effective staff performance evaluations will be discussed. The trainers of this session will assist an organization to apply these ideas and tools to a specific evaluation process which the organization is facing.

WRITING EFFECTIVE FUNDING PROPOSALS

Do you feel that you are able to write clear and persuasive funding proposals? If you think that your lack of skills in this area is preventing you from getting the resources you need to carry out your program, this workshop can help you become more effective. Topics covered will include how to research funding possibilities, establishing a relationship with potential funders, the components of an effective proposal, and following up on your proposals.

We encourage people to come to this two-day session with a specific proposal for which they require assistance.

MOVING FROM TALK TO ACTION

Many organizations, or some of the departments in them, seem to have a hard time moving from talk to action. They have no difficulty coming up with good ideas or developing plans, but seem to lose their focus when the first obstacles or difficulties come up.

This one-day workshop is designed to help an organization analyze the particular problems it encounters in attempting to move from program planning to implementation. The participants will also learn tools for regularly assessing their success in reaching their goals and for mobilizing people, both agency staff and client groups, to action.

BECOMING ALEARNING ORGANIZATION

The climate in which organizations are attempting to work is changing very quickly. New political, social and economic pressures are creating an environment which can seem both confusing and frightening. In order to survive and to thrive in today’s world, organization needs to keep learning. An organization that is not learning new skills, information and attitudes can soon be left behind.

This two-day workshop being offered by Four Worlds in designed to assist an organization to develop a learning plan which will allow it to prosper in a rapidly changing world.

Participants will have the opportunity to examine the mission and objectives of their organization and to determine which new skills, information and attitudes they need in order to be successful. They will also be assisted to develop a plan which will allow them to acquire them while still carrying on their day-to-day responsibilities.

MOVING FROM A SERVICE DELIVERY TO A COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT APPRAOCH

One of the biggest challenges facing many community and government organizations today is the need to switch from a service delivery to a community development approach. It is generally agreed that a service delivery approach, which expects organizations to define the needs of the people they serve and to develop programs to meet those needs, is not cost effective or producing the needed results. A community development approach, on the other hand, can be defined as the process of helping a community to look critically at its own situation and of helping it to make and carry out plans about how it is going to create the type of life it wants.

This three-day workshop is designed to assist the staffs of organizations to make the switch from a service delivery to a community development model will be presented and some techniques for involving community members in needs assessment, program development, implementation and evaluation will also be shared.

NEW APPROACHES TO ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The field of organizational development has recently put forward some very interesting new models and approaches. This two-day workshop is designed to familiarize the participants with a broad range of new ideas and to give them the opportunity to discuss the relevance of these ideas to their own situation. This is an introductory session and would, ideally, be followed up with a more in-depth workshop about the model chosen by the participants as the most relevant to their own circumstances.

OTHER WORKSHOPS ABOUT BUILDING HEALTHY ORGANIZATIONS

Four Worlds offers several other workshops which are useful for organizations interested in learning to operate more effectively. Please contact us if you want more information on any of the following topics:

Building an Effective Network; Building a Common Vision; How to Get Community Participation; Program Development; the Link Between Personal and Organization Development; and Becoming an Effective Leader

SERVICES

In addition to providing training about the many topics described above, Four Worlds offers the following services to assist organizations to improve their effectiveness.

TAKING THE PULSE OF THE COMMUNITY

The Four Worlds team is prepared to facilitate a participatory community assessment process which will help organization develop and implement programs based on real conditions in the community and on the shared goals for the future of community members.

EVALUTAION

The Four Worlds team can be contracted to carry on an evaluation of the full range of an organization’s services or one particular program. We can assist with all steps of the evaluation process, from the design of appropriate success indicators, evaluation instruments and an overall evaluation plan, to th application of the evaluation instruments, and to the preparation of the final evaluation report.
 
 

LONG-TERM PLANNING

The Four Worlds team can assist an organization to develop a clear mission statement, relevant objectives, appropriate strategies for fulfilling those objectives and an effective action plan for implementing the chosen strategies. Four Worlds is prepared to provide technical assistance to this planning process as well as help with the documentation of the resulting plan.

LEARNING BY DOING

It is also possible for us to combine training sessions with the above services, so that the staff of an organization can "learn by doing" by working with the Four Worlds trainers to develop short and long-term plans, to carry out community-based research, to conduct wholistic program evaluations, or to develop new program initiatives. In this way, organizations can get a badly needed job done in a way that will make it possible for them to do it on their own the next time.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ANY OF THE MATERIALS AND WORKSHOP DESCRIBED ABOVE, PLEASE CONTRACT:

Phil Lane, Jr., International Coordinator, Four Worlds International Institute for Human and Community Development

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FOUR WORLDS/FOUR DIRECTIONS INTERNATIONAL

347 Fairmont Boulevard, Lethbridge, Alberta T1K 7J8 Canada

Phone: (403) 320-7144 Fax: (403) 329-8383 E-Mail: [email protected]