Professional Development III

Decision-Making

Participants will come away from this session with a better understanding of the process that leads to effective decisions. In addition, you will also learn to better communicate the process and consequently garner more support for your decisions.

Developing Effective Workplace Policies

Does your organization rely too heavily on the “institutional knowledge” of longtime employees? Do you struggle to get staff to read (or follow) your agency rules? Are your existing policies outdated? In this session, the trainer will provide you with critical tools for creating “reader-friendly” rules, such as:

Learn what policies should (and shouldn’t) include.
How to plan policies before you write them.
Editing policies for clarity & brevity.
Formatting policies so they’re easy to skim.

Purpose Driven Leadership

Understand how leadership affects your success. Assess your leadership strengths and how your leadership affects your work and decision-making. Discover what leadership is and isn't.

The Social Side of City Hall: Intro to Government & Social Media

Through social media, government agencies can engage directly with the communities we serve, exchanging dialogue, news, and information in real-time. But social media also presents unique challenges for government agencies. In this session, we will cover how to use social media at your organization, including:

Who uses different social media platforms and why
How to stay current with social media best practices and trends
Why you should incorporate customer service into your social media strategy
How to plan and create content for your channels
What to know about the First Amendment and social media public records

In addition to social media fundamentals, we will participate in interactive exercises and a Q&A session.

How Can I Help? De-escalation in the Workplace

As observations of escalated behaviors have increased, outward facing staff need fresh tools for realistic expectations, healthy boundaries, and authentic connection. In this highly interactive workshop, we look at the crucial role of purpose, keys to prevent power struggles, and what to do when you need to exit an interaction. This workshop focuses on escalation prevention, and mental health for staff and clients or patrons. This workshop does not address conflict that includes physical violence, but rather the cumulative weight of increased anger, outbursts, and anxiety in the public sector. At the end of this workshop participants will have practiced skills in the following areas:

Reconnecting with the importance of purpose in seasons of high stress.
Uncover what is at the root of most escalated interactions
Use fresh language tools to circumvent power struggles
Identify before, during, and after work practices for mental health support

Crisis and Media Management for Clerks: Navigating the Storm

In this engaging and interactive course, participants will delve into the world of crisis and media management with a blend of academic insight and light-hearted humor. The session begins with a foundational understanding of crises and encourages participants to identify the diverse range of crises they may encounter in their roles. From natural disasters to public scandals, this discussion sets the stage for exploring effective media management strategies that mirror the crisis.

Through real-life case studies and interactive exercises, participants will learn how to navigate the tumultuous waters of media communication during times of crisis. Emphasizing the unique dynamics of community-based crises, the course provides practical insights into crafting key messages, managing social media engagement, and coordinating with various stakeholders, truly a basic look at media and crisis.

Throughout the session, a touch of humor ensures an engaging and memorable learning experience, encouraging participants to approach crisis management with confidence and resilience. By the end of the course, participants will be equipped with the knowledge and skills to steer their department through the storm of a crisis and media management with professionalism, grace, and even a hint of humor.

Understanding Harassment, Discrimination, Bullying and Retaliation

Even though harassment and discrimination laws have existed for several decades, there remains a lot of confusion regarding what behaviors are and are not acceptable under those laws. This interactive workshop will provide the attendee with a comprehensive understanding of the following:

The impacts of harassment and discrimination on the work environment
The federal laws governing workplace harassment, discrimination and retaliation
The role of the supervisor in preventing harassment and retaliation
The importance of not allowing emotions that may arise in response to a complaint to generate behaviors that may be retaliatory
How to minimize and respond appropriately to complaints
Other behaviors that may trigger complaints

Effective Presentation Skills: How to Engage Your Audience and Inspire Them to Action

This one-day interactive program will equip city clerks with practical strategies to enhance their skills and confidence in presenting material to others. Participants will walk away with techniques to overcome nervousness, learn a process to organize their presentation, and discover easy to implement tips to engage their audience. Some participants will have the opportunity to practice in a comfortable setting and will receive feedback from the instructor and their peers with emphasis on what they are doing well with a few opportunities for improvement. After attending this workshop, clerks will be able to:

Overcome nervousness and distracting body language
Learn how to create a logical flow to their presentation
Control their environment and manage group interaction
Create and use visual aids
Recognize strategies to engage their audience and inspire them to action

Note: This workshop will allow some of you to practice your presentation in a safe and comfortable setting with others. For the size of our workshop, we only have 10 slots available. Please come prepared with a presentation topic that you are familiar with to use for your practice. The topic can be personal or professional in nature but a topic that you are knowledgeable about is key. Plan to present for a 4-7 minute time period and you are welcome to use slides but it is not required. Please email Jan@JanDwyerBang.com by May 1 if you would like to be one of these 10 people. The first 10 of you who respond will be selected to present.

Power Talk

You find yourself sitting at a table of clerks/recorders sharing work-related experiences. What questions would you like to ask your peers? Questions related to social media, software and tools used to increase work production and efficiencies, working with elected officials, supervision and motivation strategies, records requests and records management tools, other best practices in the world of Clerkdom? We have so much to learn from one another in spite of our diversity. In this session, we will Power Talk about these topics and more using a roundtable format. You will gain a fresh perspective on a variety of topics; and, you will walk away with a list of resources, contacts, tips and strategies to help you in your pursuit of excellence.