SERVICES

Your program is important. Let GTS help you give it the special attention it deserves!
Use one or all of our quality services:

Conference and Workshop Services
Training
Project Management
Consulting
Options for Engaging Citizens
GTS Consultants & Trainers

CONFERENCE AND WORKSHOP SERVICES

Use one or all of our quality services:

• Program design and development
• Speaker identification, contact, confirmation
• Promotional materials designed, prepared & distributed
• Facility and logistic arrangements
• Registration processing (on-line options)
• Fiscal management
• Conference website services
• Trade show marketing and management
• Facilitation for group effectiveness
• Many more!

Take advantage of our team of skilled professionals:

The GTS staff includes those with advanced degrees in continuing education or training and development, meeting planners with years of experience in all venues, individuals with specialized marketing, technology or financial skills

For further information, contact: Carol Schoeneck, Program Specialist, 651-222-7409 x205, cschoeneck@mngts.org

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TRAINING FOR THE TIMES — What You Need – When And Where You Need It!

SKILLS FOR TODAY’S CHALLENGES

• most available in 2 or 3 hour modules as well as full-day offerings
• brought to your designated location on your selected date
• dynamic, proven trainers with extensive public sector experience
• offers an affordable training alternative
• Options to maximize your training dollars: coordinate with your neighboring communities or multiple agencies; piggyback with regularly scheduled group meetings (e.g., regional commissions, district meetings of state associations)

Workshops Especially for Elected Officials, Advisory Commissions and Management Staff

Policy Leadership for the 21st Century:
Using the Carver Governance Model

John Carver proposes a specific framework for helping Boards, Councils and other leadership groups stay focused on policy making. During this half or whole day workshop, participants first learn about “policy governance” and then explore how applying this model enables leaders to stay focused on results, long term success, and policy making.

This workshop is available as a facilitated meeting of an existing Board or Council. During this session a members learn the basic concepts of policy governance, and quickly move to deciding whether to employ this method of leadership. Discussion includes the advantages of policy governance - such as avoiding “rubber-stamping” staff decisions, or micromanaging their organization. Disadvantages are exposed, and Board / Council members engage in a facilitated discussion that enables them to skirt the disadvantages, or choose not to use policy governance.

Building Consensus: Process & Product

Consensus is both a process and a product. As a process “consensus building” it describes the means by which groups can productively resolve issues, make choices or develop strategy. As a product, “reaching consensus” represents a resolution that satisfies all of the participants. Building consensus involves a group of people willing to take the time to study an issue and find a better solution to a problem. This workshop will examine what consensus “is” and “is not,” when it should or should not be used and will provide tools for utilizing this technique.

Advisory Boards: Clarifying Expectations & Relationships

An Advisory Board can be a great asset to local governments by creating meaningful citizen involvement OR it can be more hassle than it’s worth. It all depends on the quality of relationships among the council, boards, and staff. Establishing clear expectations, roles, goals, motivation, rewards, feedback and communication processes are essential to assure that everyone is pulling in the same direction and everyone understands their scope of contribution. This experiential workshop will help participants understand

• The difference between policy boards and advisory boards
• Process to develop meaningful goals and roles of board members
• Steps to help with teambuilding and conflict resolution
• Methods of communication and feedback
• Tools for building successful relationships
• Cultivating and developing people on boards for succession plannin
• Avoiding burn-out of volunteers and ways of keeping them motivatedSticky dilemmas in managing advisory boards
• Getting comfortable with authority and managing peer relationships

Collaboration Workshop: Success in a New Environment

Collaboration is an essential strategy during budget cuts and program delivery changes. This workshop is designed as a primer to help organizations cope with the challenges of collaborating with other organizations. As a result of this seminar participants will be able to:

• Distinguish between collaboration and other types of partnerships, and know where each type of partnership is most useful.
• Understand the collaborative process.
• Identify key factors that contribute to a collaboration’s success or failure.
• Specify the four steps that develop collaboration’s strengthExplore specific techniques for dealing with tourism and hidden agendas.

This workshop relies on short lectures, dialogues, exercises and participation. It’s focused on the Minnesota environment for collaboration among non-profit, education, health, social service and community and government organizations.

The Nimble Collaboration: Making it Work for You

This one-day workshop has been tailored specifically for existing collaborations. You are encouraged to bring other partners with you to the workshop, and to work on real issues for your collaboration. Whether or not you come with others, you can expect discussions, practicums and lectures where you will explore:

• 4 steps for developing an effective collaboration which meets its goals.
• options for governance structures and efficient decision making.
• getting the other leadership to buy into this process!
• sorting out accountability and expectations for you and your partners.
• assessing the successes - and challenges - of your partnership right now.
• determining what is most important to accomplish next.

A centerpiece of this workshop is the Ten Principles of Resilience. These specify the specific strategies for leadership, equity, shared power and decision making that make collaborations deft and flexible….in a word, nimble.

Workshops Especially for Staff

Navigating in Whitewater Change

No matter how brilliant the technology may be or how urgent the need may be—change doesn’t happen on “demand”. The latest brain research provides a roadmap for understanding why we all resist change and what forces need to be in place to engage people in constructive change. Critical factors will be drawn from fields of Emotional Intelligence and Systems to provide a framework for initiating and sustaining change efforts. This lively and experiential session will apply the research to the dilemmas faced in government and empower participants with a practical toolkit and skills to help themselves engage in change or in becoming a successful change agent. Topics include:

• Three parts of the brain and how each functions in change
• Research on emotional intelligence and the power of moods
• Tools for engaging emotions and creativity
• Skill practice for supporting change

Negotiating Without Alienating

Based on years of research from the Harvard Negotiation Project, this session focuses on those settings in which you need to negotiate with people with whom you must have an ongoing, positive relationship. Traditional, hardball tactics can destroy future dealings. Learn how to always do both what is needed for your immediate task, as well as the long-term relationship.

Effective Communication in the Workplace

The most often cited problem in any workplace is “communication.” This session boils that broad complaint down and teaches specific skills to improve communication unilaterally, that is, even if no one else in your workplace knows or uses the skills.

Resiliency: Skills & Tools to Create a More Resilient Workplace

We all face challenges in our lives, whether it is a change in business, job loss, or maybe some kind of health related crisis. In the face of life’s challenges, do you have what it takes to regain your balance? Do you have a renewed sense of optimism? Resiliency is about whether you bounce back in the face of these challenges. This course will take you through each step of learning how to become more resilient.

In this workshop you will gain:

• A better understanding of what resiliency is and why it is important to individuals, workgroups, and organizations.
• A greater awareness of the personal and organizational assets of resiliency.
• An opportunity to complete a confidential, individual resiliency assessment, pinpointing your areas of strengths and areas to be strengthened.
• Tools for becoming more resilient.
• Strategies for helping the people you work with become more resilient.
• Skills to help create a more resilient workplace.
• Create an individualized resiliency action plan.

Lateral Delegation Skills

Unlike up—down delegation (which may only require a bigger title), lateral delegation takes a different set of skills to get projects completed. This full-day workshop is designed to help all levels of your management team work together. Some of the topics covered are:

• Module One: Defining Leadership and Its Most Important Characteristic—The Ability To Build Trust:
• Module Two: The Role Communication Plays In Delegation:
• Module Three: Lateral Delegation And The Barriers We Use:
• Module four: Transferring Roles Versus Delegating Job Tasks:

Serving Resistant Customers

Repeatedly working with angry or disappointed customers while staying calm and confident is far from easy. Being the bearer of bad news opens us up to many, often stressful, reactions from customers. This half-day workshop will help front-line staff serve demanding customers, while maintaining an image of calm, courtesy, and confidence. Note: This is not intended for law enforcement that deal with violent or potentially violent encounters with citizens.

Topics:

Other Customer Service Training Programs Tailored For Your Needs:

Dealing with difficult people
Developing a service philosophy
Developing strategies to improve customer service
Dealing with "internal" customers

For more information, contact:
Mary Sabatke, Program Planner - msabatke@mngts.org
651-222-7409 extension 208

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PROJECT MANAGEMENT

GTS is a resource to organizations seeking experienced staff to:

• manage a short-term training and development project
• act as a neutral facilitator for intergovernmental program efforts
• handle ongoing administrative functions as well as educational programs

EXAMPLES:

SECRETARIAT

• Provide staff support to association board, handle promotion and finances, plan and present educational programs and/or conferences
  (Ramsey County League of Local Governments)

COMPREHENSIVE STATEWIDE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM FOR A SPECIALIZED AUDIENCE

• Conduct needs assessment, obtain grant funds, utilize design teams for various curricula, enroll participants in certificate program, provide logistical support, present programs
  (Mental Health Managers Training Program)

MAJOR INTERGOVERNMENTAL AND INTERDISCIPLINARY PROGRAM

• Facilitated steering committee and design teams as well as provided the delivery system for input conferences/work sessions, topical conferences and workshops
• Project deliverables included 15 training curricula, 3 manuals and protocols, publication of a book, creation of a professional video
  (PROJECT IMPACT, A three-year, statewide effort to enhance the ability of the criminal justice system to respond effectively to sexual abuse of children; involved nine state agencies, with funding from a federal grant)

Interested? Questions?
Call Helene Johnson, Executive Director
651-222-7409 x206; hjohnson@mngts.org

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CONSULTING FOR THE TIMES
What You Need – When and Where You Need It!

ORGANIZATIONAL TOOLS FOR TODAY’S CHALLENGES

In this era of fiscal crisis, re-defining of priorities and increased citizen expectations, it is critical that local governments focus on long-term solutions rather than short-term “fixes.” No government entity can afford to just react to changing events. More than ever before, elected & appointed officials and staff need to be forward-thinking, informed decision-makers, and willing to work with all sectors of the community. More than ever before, your role and responsibilities require new skills, effective group processes, and perhaps even different attitudes.

GTS provides consulting services to help guide and support constructive change through intensive and ongoing consulting and training that focuses on the elements of leadership—at all levels.

Call us for:

• Team-Building and Goal-Setting to clarify roles, goals, communication and style differences.
• Planning to determine goals and strategies to achieve desired results
• Consensus Building
• Needs Assessment to assess needs and provide feedback and facilitation in a neutral forum
• Process Consultation to guide group process for increased effectiveness
• Performance Management to develop an organization wide system which, while focusing on the customer, plans for future activities as well as evaluates past practices by examining roles and responsibilities
• Coaching to "improve "strategic" thinking by gaining the perspective of an outside party
• Enhancing Response to Citizens to develop a customer service strategy by prioritizing customer service barriers, finding solutions to those barriers, developing an action plan to address customer needs and developing standards of service

For more information, contact:
Mary Sabatke, Program Planner
651-222-7409 extension 208
msabatke@mngts.org

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OPTIONS FOR ENGAGING CITIZENS

Community Visioning
Exploring Models for Neighborhood Associations
Facilitating Community Forums and Town Meetings
Using Audience Participation Technology

Options for Engaging Citizens

Community Visioning: What is it? Why do it?
It is the collective recognition that the future is to be achieved and managed by people thinking and working together because they care about their community. No community can afford to just react to change and events. Leaders need tools to "take charge" of the future.

Benefits

• It gives people the opportunity for involvement.
• It provides city and county officials a long-term perspective and framework for goal setting, establishing priorities, and creating policy.
• It helps people define their values. They understand what they want for themselves, their families, and their community.
• It provides an opportunity to reflect upon a community’s history and generate ideas for the future.
• It creates excitement and a sense of adventure about the future.
• It creates a sense of "we" and "we will" as the basis for establishing the relationships and commitment to get things done -- a barn-raising "can do" mentality.

Exploring Models for Neighborhood Associations
The demographics of our cities are changing. Today’s neighborhoods are more likely to be comprised of people of different ages, lifestyles and ethnic backgrounds who may not share many of the traditionally common experiences of work, play, education, worship or socialization. These differences can be seen as barriers to building community or they can be seen as assets—opportunities to learn from each other as we develop a shared future for our community.

An effective way to both create citizen awareness and to stimulate a discussion about the usefulness of neighborhood organizations is through a workshop. The sessions can expose participants to the experiences of existing neighborhood associations in Minnesota and around the country and then engage attendees in small group discussions. Neighborhood associations can provide many opportunities for people to work together at the grassroots level on initiatives that benefit their own neighborhood and strengthen the entire community.

Citizens who participate in the Workshop can:

• Have an opportunity to build relationships and interact with immediate neighbors and others in the community
• Be challenged to think in terms of personal and collective responsibility to the neighborhood and community at large
• Learn of possible group structures that enable community-oriented “bottom-up” neighborhood-focused problem solving

Facilitating Community Forums, Town Meetings & Regional Summits

As communities and agencies tackle significant and often contentious public policy issues, there is an increased need for constructive citizen discussions. Sometimes, this involves an educational forum that presents the latest thinking on a subject for the benefit of all the stakeholders. In other cases, it involves viewing draft plans and getting input on various scenarios. Sometimes it is a work session that leads to decisions. Or it can be a combination of all three.

Central to the success of any of these events is a neutral facilitator versed in creating a program format and process that achieves the objectives with sensitivity and professionalism. Besides these attributes, GTS consultants possess an in-depth understanding of the public sector context and resources.

Using Audience Participation Technology

This tool offers a way to make meetings more engaging and more productive. Our consultants can help you create a plan from setting goals to editing questions to integrating data effectively. With guidance from an experienced facilitator, groups using electronic keypads can obtain valuable feedback for use at the moment and for the future.

If you would like more information on these and other approaches to engaging citizens, please contact:

Mary Sabatke, GTS Program Planner and Facilitator
651-222-7409 x208, msabatke@mngts.org
or
Helene Johnson, Executive Director
651-222-7409 x206, hjohnson@mngts.org

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MEET GTS CONSULTANTS & TRAINERS

Barbara Arney is a coach to individuals and teams in envisioning, igniting, and containing the fires of change. Over the past 25 years, she has consulted with corporations, social service, religious, and government organizations throughout North America and Asia to strengthen leadership practices in communication, direction-setting, gaining alignment and professional development. Her methods for developing people and maximizing organizational performance weave together the latest brain research and tools (utilizing both right and left brain for maximum results), systems thinking, and the ability to facilitate open, engaging, positive culture for collaboration and problem solving.

Sharon Klumpp is an organizational and management consultant for local governments and non-profit agencies. She specializes in providing interim management and project management services as well as strategic planning, team building, performance management, and meeting facilitation services. Ms. Klumpp has held a variety of management positions in government and business, most recently serving as interim assistant city manager/ director of public works for the city of Brooklyn Center. Her business experience includes managing the Twin Cities office of a global engineering, design, and planning firm and providing financial and management services to local governments as a consultant with Springsted Incorporated. As a former city administrator and the associate executive director of the League of Minnesota Cities, Sharon has extensive experience in staff development and implementing strategic initiatives through staff teams.

Jack Mateffy heads up a Minneapolis firm which designs and presents employee development and training programs for many of the nation’s leading businesses and organizations. These include workshops for numerous cities, counties and local government associations in Minnesota. He and his company have received many training-related awards. He has an extensive background in the training field. After receiving a degree from the University of Minnesota in Adult Learning and Political Science, Jack worked at American Media, Inc., making training films with Zig Ziglar, Tom Peters, and John Nesbitt. He then traveled as a seminar presenter for National Seminars and American Management for six years, speaking on soft skills topics.

Carl Neu, author and consultant, is recognized nationally as an authority on, and an experienced practitioner of, the theory and application of governance and leadership to city councils and county boards, local government managers, and community leaders. Carl has worked with several hundred local government entities, state and national municipal and county associations since 1976. Additionally, he is an experienced government official having served on the Lakewood, Colorado, city council and as chair of the city’s charter commission. He currently serves as president of the Lakewood Public Building Authority.

Craig Rapp provides organizational development, strategic planning, and economic development services to clients in the public and private sectors with a commitment to delivering creative, real-world solutions. For over twenty-five years, Craig held chief administrative and senior executive positions in city and regional governments as well as private firms, and delivered strategic direction, group facilitation and mission-driven change. He specializes in leadership and management training, team building, and facilitating educational forums on public policy issues.

Karen Ray has helped to found dozens of collaborations and consulted with hundreds of others across the United States during the last 20 years. She has a Masters Degree in Applied Behavioral Sciences and post-graduate work in leadership and systems change. She splits her time between training workshops and leading on-going partnerships. Her organization development consulting practice specializes in collaboration, innovation and leadership in non-profit, education, community and family agencies, health and the government sector. Her second book "The Nimble Collaboration” has just been published by the Wilder Foundation, and summarizes what she's learned about effective collaborations. It is a follow-up book to “The Collaboration Handbook”, published in 1994.

Bob Ryan has been consulting with public, non-profit and business organizations since 1985 with a focus on achieving greater effectiveness and productivity in the workplace. He works with you and your people to build stronger, smarter systems that get the results you want to get. Typical projects include strategic planning; designing quality systems; coaching and mentoring executives; building healthy, productive teams; and working through intergroup and interpersonal conflict.

Mary Sabatke, GTS Program Planner and Facilitator, works with a variety of public sector, non-profit and collaborative client groups to tailor in-house consulting and training efforts to address issues from an organization-wide basis. She serves as a group facilitator and trainer in specific content areas. She also works with planning groups to design, market and implement major conference and/or specific workshops. Her areas of expertise include performance management training, employee motivation and project facilitation.

Larry Schanus has a Doctorate in Counseling Psychology from the University of St. Thomas. He has recently completed a post-doctoral fellowship at 3M’s Employee Assistance Resource Center, and continues to teach at 3M. He has 25 years experience as a manager with the Minnesota Department of Transportation. In addition, he has seven years experience as a therapist at an employee assistance program in St. Paul, providing personal consultations to individuals, couples, families, and groups.

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