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Courses

EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP: LEADING CHANGE

Industry leading organizations consistently innovate, capitalize on emerging opportunities before their competitors do, and demonstrate flexibility in changing business conditions. These successful entities steadily exhibit the ability to establish an organizational vision and to implement it in a continuously changing environment.

The ¹ú²ú¶ÌÊÓƵLeading Change curriculum is focused on managing organizational change. This core skill involves the ability to bring about strategic change, both within and outside the organization and to meet organizational goals. In this dynamic curriculum, you will learn how to lead an agile organization—one that blends best practices, innovation, and transformative change. By studying market-leading companies and self-reflecting on your current methods and path. You'll explore new ways to balance creativity with performance, explore new strategic innovations, and successfully transform your company while paving a path to greater industry relevance.

Two-Day Course Learning Objectives

• Understand the impact of Strategic Change
• Learn how to create a Shared Vision and increase the effectiveness of your organization
• Learn how to maximize opportunities in a dynamic environment
• Learn how to tackle close-minded thinking and increase creativity and innovation
• Leadership development reinforcement mechanisms and accountability
• Learn how to build teams and increase retention of personnel through personal relevance

Core competencies addressed

• Creativity and Innovation
• External Awareness
• Strategic Thinking
• Vision

 

EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP: LEADING PEOPLE

The fast-paced globally connected business environment of today requires leaders to meet high demands with a wider spectrum of skillsets and approaches. As different cultures become more interwoven, successful leaders must continue to lead people toward meeting the organization's vision, mission, and goals. Inherent to this skill is the ability to provide an inclusive workplace that fosters the development of others, facilitates cooperation and teamwork, and supports constructive resolution of conflicts.

This hands-on curriculum is designed to provide a unique opportunity to take your leadership to the next level. It will help you identify your current leadership strengths and enhance them with cutting-edge tools and approaches. Taught by a cadre with vast international experience, the program will help you meet today's challenges through more effective talent management, handling of conflict, and developing subordinates. Participants will capitalize on current strengths and hone additional skills to bring them to even higher levels of effectiveness.

Two-Day Course Learning Objectives

• Learn how to provide an inclusive workplace that fosters the development of others
• Learn how to facilitate cooperation and teamwork
• Learn how to effectively engage difficult co-workers and managers
• Learn how to become a Positive Sphere of Influence
• Understand how to manage expectations and prevent friction within organizational environment
• Understand and demonstrate key elements of conflict resolution

Core competencies addressed

• Conflict Management
• Leveraging Diversity
• Developing Others
• Team Building

 

EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP: DRIVING TO RESULTS!

In business, as in life, results count. Successful leaders do not arrive at work and think, "What do I have to do today?" their tasks are simply vehicles to accomplishing their vision. This "Results Driven" curriculum provides practical tools to make an immediate impact in driving to results. This course hones the ability to meet organizational goals and customer expectations and to make decisions that produce high-quality results by applying technical knowledge, analyzing problems, and calculating risks.

Participants in this program will develop insight into their own best practices as each topic becomes relevant to them self. The curriculum includes both classroom discussion and practical exercises that increase retention of material and provides immediate impact by fostering these insights and developing these skills. The practical application also provides an effective means to increase the participant's internal and external cognitive abilities. The course goal is to provide a competency-based approach to the deliberate development of anyone with the desire become a positive sphere of influence within their organization and be more effective in accomplishing personal and organizational goals.

Two-Day Course Learning Objectives

• Increase personal ability to meet organizational goals and customer expectations.
• Learn how to make decisions that produce high-quality results by applying technical knowledge, analyzing problems, and calculating risks.
• Understand the Impact of Exponential Leadership
• Understand the power of value alignment and keeping organizational relevance into the future
• Learn the importance of and develop greater Executive Presence

Core competencies addressed

• Accountability
• Decisiveness
• Problem Solving

 

EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP COURSE: LEADING WITH ACTION

The highly competitive nature and zero deficit orientation of a globalized business environment can be overwhelming. However, leaders must not allow present-day demands to stifle strategic risk-taking and innovation, integral to personal and professional development.

As people become increasingly averse to "risk" in response to these challenges, leaders must adopt an approach that actively encourages hands-on engagement, collaboration, and risk-taking while utilizing mistakes as an opportunity for growth and learning.

In a Leading with Action (LWA) environment, leaders value diverse opinions and actively seek alternative ideas and contributions. The goal in LWA is to develop a culture of trust, collaboration, inclusion, communication, and "buy-in," all of which become vital and versatile.

LWA leadership involves actively mentoring, coaching, and developing leaders. This means leading by example as you afford others greater opportunities for growth and decision-making. Here, the leader is not always in charge but empowers others to lead, make decisions and take action. This is consistent with an environment of encouragement and collaboration — it's a "We can do this," not a "You go do this."

The hands-on curriculum in Leading with Action is designed to provide a unique opportunity to take your and your team's leadership to the next level. You will identify your current leadership strengths and opportunities for improvement and learn how to enhance further and develop them.

Two-Day Course Learning Objectives

• Learn how to foster a collaborative workplace that promotes professional and personal development
• Learn how to facilitate calculated risk-taking that encourages innovation and teamwork
• Learn how to mentor and coach others through error that promotes learning effectively
• Learn how to unleash energy and enthusiasm to encourage creativity and trust
• Understand how to set, manage, and exceed expectations while embracing diverse ideas to encourage innovation
• Understand and demonstrate key elements of Leading with Action.

Core competencies addressed

• Embracing Risk Taking
• Leveraging Creativity
• Mentoring and Coaching
• Team Building

 

STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS

Communications become strategic when they are placed at the center of forging collaborative relationships. The Strategic Communications course will prepare participants to become better communicators in today's complex and competitive global environment. The course will combine core competencies at a conceptual level with practical applications providing an opportunity to apply real world communication challenges to their own professional careers. Participants will learn to effectively communicate, shape ideas, persuade and influence with the aim of developing strategic relationships within and across their organizations both in the government and the private sector.

This program introduces new thinking, based on leading research, on how to maximize the likelihood of influencing others by via a three-step process. The first step involves developing a deep understanding of existing interactions from the other person's perspective. The second step develops the habit of communicating in a purposeful and strategic manner in the service of accomplishing goals. The third step develops a deep appreciation for how potential audiences make sense of communication from their cultural perspectives.

In discussing these three steps, participants will develop insights into why they have succeeded or failed in communicating in the past, as well as learn practical techniques for maximizing the likelihood of succeeding in the future. The course will introduce several important, yet underappreciated topics about the dynamics of communications across cultural differences that can greatly affect outcomes and relationships. The course is designed to prepare participants to become better communicators in complex cross-cultural business and conflict resolution contexts and develop skills that can manage or prevent conflict. It also presents an introduction to cross-cultural conflict resolution—especially in conflict zones—with an in-depth practitioner's case. Specific attention is given to religion, tribalism, ethnicity, language, race, and gender, which is necessary to developing a comprehensive approach.

Participants will accumulate new knowledge, insights, and thinking that will help them meet the 21st century challenge of strategic communication and negotiations. The course will emphasize interpersonal skills, crisis communication, professional writing, social media, and analytics to strengthen the productivity and influence of your organization.

Two-Day Course Learning Objectives

• Learn how to utilize effective strategic communication skills
• Understand the process and fundamentals of strategic communication
• Understand your communication style
• Learn how to build successful collaborative relationships and cross-cultural communications
• Develop a dynamic approach to strategic communication

Core competencies addressed

• External Awareness
• Flexibility
• Conflict Management

 

STRATEGIC NEGOTIATION

Negotiations become strategic when they are placed at the center of forging collaborative relationships to develop practical solutions. This program introduces new thinking, based on leading research, on how to maximize the likelihood of influencing others by introducing a three-step process. The first step involves developing a deep understanding of existing interactions from the other person's perspective. The second step develops the habit of communicating in a purposeful and strategic manner in the service of accomplishing your goals. The third step develops a deep appreciation for how potential audiences make sense of negotiations from their cultural perspectives.

In discussing these three steps, participants will develop insights into why they have succeeded or failed in negotiations in the past, as well as learn practical techniques for maximizing the likelihood of succeeding in the future. The course will introduce several important, yet underappreciated topics about the dynamics of negotiation across cultural differences and conflict resolution that can greatly affect outcomes. The DiSC assessment will be used to explore how behavioral style impacts negotiation, and how to recognize where adapting behavior to fit another's style can improve results. The course is designed to prepare participants to become better negotiators in complex cross-cultural settings and conflict resolution contexts and develop skills that can manage or prevent conflict. Specific attention is given to religion, tribalism, ethnicity, language, race, and gender, which is necessary to developing a comprehensive approach.

Participants will accumulate new knowledge, insights, and thinking that will help them meet the 21st century challenge of strategic negotiations. Through a highly interactive program you will be introduced to the practical skills and techniques of strategic negotiation through group activities, in-depth practitioner's case studies, simulation exercises and practice.

Two-Day Course Learning Objectives

• Learn effective skills and techniques to help you prepare and succeed in different types of negotiations
• Understand the dynamics of international negotiations and conflict resolution, and examine how culture can impact the outcomes
• Learn how to deal with difficult people and complex challenges
• Learn how to build successful collaborative relationships
• Understand your communication and negotiating styles
• Learn how to choose and apply negotiating tools

Core competencies addressed

• Influencing and Negotiating
• Customer Service

 

STRATEGIC ENGAGEMENT

This two-day professional development course delivers strategic and policy-level outcomes that are informed by the local realities and social complexities of the modern security arena. Security challenges today are uniquely unstructured and are exacerbated by political and economic risks. The complex nature of security problems requires unprecedented collaboration across organizational seams. This presents an additional challenge. It is extremely difficult to achieve inter-organizational relationships and strategic security outcomes in a world that is exponentially more digitally-connected yet diffuse and at times regionally. In this sea of human complexity, relationships are a critical asset for framing and solving today's security dilemmas.

At the completion of this course, you will have the mindset, skillset, and toolset to become the most relevant person in the room regarding situational understanding of complex problems, reading human domain for potential opportunities, starting and fostering key relationships, and serving as a 'strategic sensor' to your organization concerning even the most sensitive and senior - level issues.

Two-Day Course Learning Objectives

• Appreciate the operational and strategic environment you face as liaison officers and advisors
• Understand the relevant aspects of human domain and social dynamics that create these engagement challenges and opportunities
• Learn the timeless engagement principles that exist below the levels of most human perception
• Learn a mindset and skillset to "go local" on even the most intricate problem.
• Develop visceral human connection skills that make you the most relevant person in the room
• Enhance your catalyst/connector skills that enable you to bridge into diverse cultures and networks in order to build multi-disciplinary communities of practice

Core competencies addressed

• Partnering
• Political Savvy
• Problem Solving
• Technical Credibility

 

EXTRAORDINARY LEADERSHIP COURSE (ELC)

The ¹ú²ú¶ÌÊÓƵExtraordinary Leadership Course (ELC) is an intensive program in developing leadership strengths, understanding how to gain greater levels of self-knowledge and knowing the differences between good leaders and extraordinary leaders.

The ¹ú²ú¶ÌÊÓƵExtraordinary Leadership course is designed to develop key competencies of both those in leadership positions and individual team members regardless of seniority, level of authority, or experience. Whether an individual is in a formal leadership role or in a contributory position, the Extraordinary Leadership curriculum will provide a platform from which to drive each person to higher levels of effectiveness.

Those focused on developing leadership skills are constantly looking to increase their influence and effectiveness. This course focuses on developing strengths rather than trying to improve your weaknesses, so that you can go from being a good manager to an extraordinary leader. During the three-day curriculum participants will develop the inherent strengths found within their personalities and skill sets that each brings to the table. Students will examine the 16 core competencies that all mangers must have and know how to master them. Each participant will also explore the Five Fatal Flaws that may lead to failure in leadership, and understand methods for identifying and correcting them.

Two-Day Course Learning Objectives

• Understand the difference between good leaders and extraordinary leaders
• Learn how to develop leadership strengths, instead of focusing on improving weaknesses
• Examine the core competencies that all leaders must have, and know how to master them
• Develop the strengths inherent in every manager's personality and skill set
• Explore the Five Fatal Flaws that may lead to failure in leadership, and understand methods for identifying and correcting them
• Understand the effects of active listening
• Understand the difference between Emotional Intelligence and Self-Knowledge

Core competencies addressed

• Resilience
• Flexibility
• Vision
• Decisiveness
• Influencing

 

STRATEGIC THINKING AND PLANNING

An effective strategy must be at the core of an organization striving to maintain competitive advantage. The test of leadership is developing a vision for an organization and leading change to achieve it. Creating a strategy that keeps your organization relevant into the future requires team commitment, innovation, and an organizational environment that communicates well and is built on trust. This trust is the cornerstone of aligning the organizational culture with the values of stakeholders and that allows their organization to keep its winning edge. Participants will breakdown the strategic planning process and translate strategic objectives into an executable plan along with developing systems for coordinating a comprehensive strategy across their organizational units.

In "Strategic Thinking and Planning," participants will discover new methods for leading change and how these methods also underpin vision development, refinement, and adaptation. Leaders will learn techniques to understand the competitive structure of an industry and a company's competitive advantage.

The program begins by exploring the participant's current thinking on how to lead change identifying what works well and what works poorly in their organizations. Building on existing processes for leading change, a framework is introduced that provides a new way to think about whom to engage in the change process, when to engage them, and how engagement may differ across constituencies. Participants will depart the program not only with a better understanding of vision and leading change but also with many practical tools, processes, and tips for elevating their own leadership abilities.

Two-Day Course Learning Objectives

• Learn a process of refining or developing an implementable vision for your agency
• Understand and anticipate the changing needs of your agency
• Develop and articulate visionary goals which unite people in the pursuit of those goals
• Learn how to identify and engage broad interests and constituencies when leading change efforts

Core competencies addressed

• Vision
• External Awareness
• Team Building

 

PROBLEM SOLVING THROUGH CRITICAL THINKING (BROOKINGS)

Leaders too often focus on problem solving instead of problem formulation—focusing on making a decision instead of thinking processes. How many times have you and your team spent time, energy, and resources to solve a problem only to end up circling back and starting over again? How often do "solutions" fail to solve the right problems and waste countless resources? Creatively and effectively solving these problems often involves leading a diverse team, which presents its own challenges. Indeed, these teams can end up solving the wrong problem. The ¹ú²ú¶ÌÊÓƵProblem Solving Through Critical Thinking provides an introduction to critical thinking and helps leaders proactively manage their organizations and agencies for long-term success.

The program begins by introducing a framework for critical thinking, focusing on challenges that arise with individuals. In addition to understanding the components of Critical Thinking, participants also practice critical thinking with respect to not only various case scenarios but also regarding their own experiences and agencies. Participants will also learn basic facilitation skills for helping teams engage in problem formulation and problem-solving activities.

In Problem Solving through Critical Thinking, you will use a set of principles to comprehensively formulate challenges using appropriate frameworks so that you can solve the right problem the first time and proactively manage your work assignments and teams for long-term success.

Two-Day Course Learning Objectives

• Define critical thinking and how it applies to team activities in government agencies
• Understand the difference between problem formulation and problem solving and develop the capacity to run processes for both
• Recognize, identify and overcome common pitfalls in implementing problem formulation and problem-solving activities.

Core Competencies Addressed

• Problem solving

 

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The International Economic Development is a two-day dynamic and interactive course that provides practical policy-oriented practitioner's experience to participants who desire to enhance their understanding of economic development and reconstruction in post-conflict and conflict-affected fragile states. This is an introductory course designed for participants who have little to no economic foundational or theoretical experience. The course will introduce students to the complex international interventions where economics and security intersect. The focus of the course is to gain a better understanding of basic principles of economic development, the relationship between the state and its citizenry in enhancing income and employment growth and how these principles can influence local and broader politics.

The International Economic Development course provides military, private sector and non-governmental professionals with an in-depth understanding of how instability and violence manifests themselves in extreme environments and how development can play a role in resolving or exacerbating these trends. In addition, the course explores how poor and/or unequable economic development can and is being used by insurgents to capture popular support in gray zones through the world. To combat these trends, the course explores the synergy between development and security and how effective development interventions can set the stage for stability and sustainable peace. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of international economic development approaches by examining a range of international best practices and lessons learned from international organizations such as United Nations, USAID, World Bank and IMF.

The course discusses US Government's overall development policy and in particular takes an in-depth look at USAID's institutional culture, strategic planning, and program development and implementation cycle allowing participants to develop better communication and negotiation strategies in real world situations.

The course is designed to prepare participants to strengthen their coordination, communication and negotiations skills with international development organizations and in particular USAID to harness the synergy between economic development and security. Participants will accumulate new knowledge, insights, and thinking that will help them meet the 21st century challenge of reconstruction and stability in VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) environments.

Two-Day Learning Objectives

• Upon completion of this course participants will be able to:
• Understand basic principles of international economic development
• Identify the roles and responsibilities and critically examine economic development approaches utilized by governments, military and international organizations
• Identify links between economic development and security interventions
• Examine the importance of economic development as force multiplier
• Learn how to build successful collaborative relationships with USAID and other international development organizations
• Develop a dynamic personalized approach to international development assistance collaboration

Core Competencies Addressed

• Political Savvy
• Conflict Management

 

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Businesses today operate in an international environment, with global markets, suppliers, alliances, and partnerships. The basic principles of management are universal, but they are often interpreted and applied differently around the world. This program focuses on the strategic challenges faced by international businesses operating in a global context and provides participants with an understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced by business organizations in an era of globalization. In addition to teaching the conceptual knowledge and understanding of international management issues with an emphasis on cultural differences, this course will develop a set of skills and attitudes critical for the success of the international manager. Participants will sharpen their understanding of cultural differences and tolerance in cultural diversity, ethical reasoning in decision making, communication skills, interpersonal effectiveness and teamwork in an international context, and an ability to use current business press and electronic sources of international business information.

Two-Day Learning Objectives

• Demonstrate an understanding of cultural differences and tolerance in cultural diversity.
• Describe ethical reasoning in decision making in a global context.
• Identify communication challenges across cultural differences and demonstrate ways to adapt in an International environment.
• Identify important issues in negotiations in a multicultural environment.
• Identify challenges in developing international strategies and entering foreign markets.
• Recognize leadership differences and motivating employees in a global context.
• Recognize human resource management challenges in an international context.

OPM core competencies addressed

• External Awareness
• Political Savvy
• Human Capital Management

 

WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP

The Women in Leadership course is a collaborative executive education course that provides insight into the experience of women in leadership positions as well as the evolution of the concept of leadership. Through exploration of the concept of women in leadership and a historical development of leadership as a concept, this course will provide a foundation for practitioners to work with, for or to manage women more effectively in the workplace. This course will discuss the paradigmatic changes in the concept of leadership. From the great man approach through to collaborative servant leadership approach, there have been great changes that are important for leaders to understand. This course is designed to look at the influence that women in leadership have had on these changes and how all leaders regardless of gender association can benefit from understanding the struggles, biases and triumphs of women in leadership roles. This course is also designed to help all executives more effectively communicate and work with women. Diversity in the globalize workplace is not only a reality but an asset for organizations. To benefit from and embrace diversity, however, practitioners need understand the obstacles faced by women and those faced by others working with women as well. Through candid discussion, this course not only provides practitioners with the knowledge to more effectively work in a diverse setting, it also provides a personal evaluation of one's own biases and assumptions that influence how the individual operates in the workplace.

Two-Day Course Objectives

• Discover the influence women have had on changing the concept of leadership.
• Explore why we still need to talk about minorities in leadership roles.
• Understand gender roles and how they influence how we perceive women in leadership.
• Learn how to better work for, with and manage women in leadership roles.
• Understand the importance of reflexive exploration.

OPM core competencies addressed

• Political Savvy
• Human Capital Management
• Leveraging Diversity

 

GLOBAL ENTERPRISE LEADERSHIP

The growing reality in today's government is that more and more of the challenges leaders face extend beyond their narrowly authorized charters. In today's rabidly and changing chaotic world, the problems that leaders must address are increasingly complex, cross-jurisdictional, amorphous, difficult to solve, and require enterprise-wide solutions. Successful global leaders develop a savviness in business acumen that surpasses conventional mindsets and is able to promulgate and relay a clear and obtainable vision to team members. This type of enterprise leadership is based on an ability to manage human, financial, and information resources strategically and make pragmatic decisions. These leaders are also able to reduce internal and external frictions by being able to build coalitions internally and with other organizations to achieve common goals. Participants in this course of study will gain a keener understanding of; the benefits of partnering to build alliances, the economies of collaboration, and the ability to build consensus through give and take.

Participants in this interactive course will engage in case studies, group discussions, and role-playing scenarios. Individual and group exercises will provide opportunities to reflect on and analyze personal behavior and decision-making that guides and defines organizational culture. Keener insights into how to coalesce a diversified team and influence organizational culture will increase overall organizational effectiveness.

Two-Day Course Objectives

• Learn how to shift from a formal, authoritative role to a collaborative one
• Learn how to manage partnerships across the enterprise
• Gain practice in applying program tools in government settings
• Learn how to use five levers for building and maintaining partnerships

OPM core competencies addressed

• Building Coalitions
• Partnerships