Decision Making
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100% SOLUTIONS
Inclusive Decision Making Through Communication, Collaboration and Trust

Integrated Solutions Teams, Mentoring/Coaching, Diversity, Conflict Resolution,
Interpersonal Skills, Creative Thinking & Problem Solving, Building Consensus,
Team Building & Development, Self-Managing Teams, Facilitative Leadership.

In the future, the effective manager and leader will be a consensus builder, problem solver, process leader, team builder, source of empowerment, change agent, and facilitator of conflict resolutions." So said the International City Management Association in 1991.

The future is here. To assist managers and leaders in mastering these skills, Winning Solutions has designed a training program that integrates the required skills into one cohesive educational experience: 100% Solutions: Inclusive Decision Making Through Communication, Collaboration and Trust. This core program of the WS skill and knowledge acquisition repertoire, meets the complex needs of organizations that want to stay at the forefront of today's increasingly competitive, reengineered, fast-paced world.

"100% SOLUTIONS is unique.
We have pieces of this training
in other programs, but not all in
one package and not in this format."
-Sandra Haire, Director of Human Resources
The University of Texas at Austin

Decision Management: Making Choices Consciously.

Inclusive decision making depends on decision management. Our decisions, big and small, lay the foundation for success or failure. Choices we've made in the past drive what is happening today. Yet so much of that decision making is unconscious.

Most of us, as a result of conditioning, have repetitious and predictable responses to the stimuli in our environment. We forget that we are making choices. 100% Solutions addresses those conditioned internalized responses and behaviors by maximizing the beneficial responses and altering the limiting ones. Participants become active observers of their choice-making habits in a supportive learning environment. Once people become aware of their limiting opinions, habits, behaviors, and reactions, they choose to do things differently and become committed to their choices.

Self-Discovery Learning Approach.

Winning Solutions uses a self-discovery, experienced based approach to support the program's central precepts of: recognition and respect of individual expertise, free and informed choice, personal accountability, and honest, direct communication. This model can be used to teach any principle, tool or strategy.

Built on a three-part methodology, this model provides a setting for participants to identify behavior that is inconsistent or consistent with the ground rules to help group members learn more effective behavior and choices. As they understand themselves and others better and discern what effect their decisions have, they become more self-evaluating and make decisions differently.

"I heartily recommend Winning Solutions
to any manager wanting to improve
communication, increase efficiency,
resolve conflict or instill a climate of
trust within his or her organization.
Thanks for a terrific experience!"
-Gary Grief, Director of Lottery Operations
Texas Lottery Commission

Part 1: Simulation:

A strategy or tool is introduced, then participants practice it through an activity, a game, or a simulation. Games and simulations make it easier for group members to examine their decision making process more objectively and less defensively by separating it from their real content issues.

During and after the simulated activity, group members mentor and coach each other. Simulation helps to improve performance in such interpersonal areas as giving feedback, building consensus, creative thinking and problem solving, collaborative communication, resolving conflicts, managing diversity, negotiating roles, and persuading others. These activities also increase levels of awareness of values, concepts and beliefs.

Part 2: Assessment.

Through review and debriefing of videotaped simulation, in addition to self and group assessments, participants evaluate their skills and learning as they apply to their own work setting and life. People learn from experience when they take time to reflect on that experience, derive useful lessons from it, and identify situations to transfer and apply these lessons.

Part 3: Facilitator Expertise.

Only in the third part of the model the facilitator(s) of the training explain the objectives, goals, and intent of the activity. The facilitator expertise is given at the very end to avoid biasing the participants and thus interfering with the participant's creative process of discovery.

"The interaction exercise on giving and receiving feedback was a revelation."
-JoAnne R. Harper, Regional Sales Director Pfizer Labs, U.S. Pharmaceuticals

Achieving Group Agreement for Better Decisions.

This process accelerates the ingenuity and wisdom of decisions that create your future. The tools we use are basic and universal, and thus they are useful in any organization. It leads to higher quality decisions, more harmonious relationships and a new perception of personal winning through group agreement. It accomplishes this by changing levels of awareness and methods of communication, not by changing people. The end result is an empowered and committed workforce.

"I recently completed a university credit semester on 'Small Group and InterpersonalRelationships'. Diana provided more in four hours than the entire college course offered!"
-Jerry Martin, Business Development Specialist Strategic Partnerships

100% SOLUTIONS is eminently flexible. It can be undertaken as a comprehensive program, or it can serve as the platform for a multitude of different kinds of trainings. In any case, Winning Solutions works in advance with you to learn about your organization and define your specific needs in detail, then carefully crafts the program to fit those needs for an individualized training experience.

Recommended Applications of 100% Solutions:

Change & Developmental Facilitation

Facilitative Leadership Skills: Choice Management

Shared Learning: Principles of Distributed Power

Inclusive Decision-Making Through Communication, Collaboration & Trust:

Integrated Solutions Teams, Mentoring/Coaching, Diversity, Conflict Resolution, Interpersonal Skills, Creative Thinking & Problem Solving, Building Consensus,

Team Building, Self-Managing Teams, Facilitative Leadership.

Life (Stress & Time) Management

Partnering with Customers & Colleagues

Project Management

Quality Improvement Process

"Super program. It's evident that you have done your research and that you believe what you share. Thank you for a wonderful learning experience.
--Virginia D. Moody, USAA

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Purpose of Course:

1. Maximize individual potential for the benefit of all.

2. Expand harmony in relationships regardless of the situation.

3. Demonstrate and practice practical tools, communication and collaboration principles instrumental in inclusive decision making.

4. Mature group decision making skills by acquiring higher quality, more creative courses of action that include each person affected by the decision.

The Training Highlights:

Shared experiences and feelings to create a climate of trust and safety.

Tools to communicate honestly without inflicting judgment.

Standards of valuing and honoring differences as creative and productive.

Ways to learn to observe self and others, to act not re-act.

Self exploration and discovery so that changes are made from the inside out.

Understanding of oneself and each other by letting go of limiting opinions, habits and reactions.

Community that works for the good of the larger system.

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COURSE COMPONENTS

Tool: Choices, the Fabric of Decision Making.

  • Choices are building blocks of information and power.
  • Future of company depends upon choices made by its work force.
  • Solicit information in all its forms.

Exercise Talent Scout: Accessing the Expert

  • Objective view of self and others by honoring individual uniqueness.
  • Acknowledgement of expertise.
  • Trusting your instincts.
  • Begin building trust and safety working in groups of two's.

Tool: Engagement Principles

  • Authenticity, intention, being present, accepting egalitarian attitude,
  • Enthusiasm, humor, playful creativity and rapport.
  • Encourages safety, appreciation of diversity and strengthens communication channels.

Exercise Career Game: Experience Co-workers From Different Perspectives.

  • Expand safety and trust working one on one.
  • Continue seeking out talent, expertise and unique qualities.

Tool: Labeling Communication.

  • Exercise greater direction over how and what you say.
  • Build honesty and precision into communication.
  • Accountability for quality of interaction and impact on others.
  • Stepping stones to learning and creating solutions.
  • Clearer, more accurate communication contributes to safety, valuing diversity, reducing stress while encouraging risk taking and creativity.
  • Clear and precise communication; avoid slang, acronyms, etc.

Exercise Making Assumptions: Challenge Prevailing Mental Models.

  • Explore stereotypical assumptions.
  • Utilize awareness of assumptions to better serve us and our organization.
  • Look beyond the boundaries of self-limiting perspectives.

Tool: Mentoring & Coaching.

  • Helping others learn through mistakes.
  • How to coach when: mistakes are made or there is the potential for developing skills.
  • Intervention: take time out from content to deal with the process.
  • Value of safety checks.
  • Encourage: team work, responsibility, awareness, risk taking, clear and precise communication.
  • Increase trust and safety, which reduces stress.
  • Bridge cultural and diversity gaps.

Exercise The Big Lie.

  • Instinctual communication.
  • Encourages risk taking and continues building trust in 3+ groups.

Information: Leaps of Abstraction.

  • Become self-evaluating.
  • Tendency to generalize observations without testing.

Information: Overcoming the Culture of Exclusion.

  • Trust ourselves, our abilities, our instincts, and our thoughts.

Exercise Cycle of Self Talk.

  • View video of "self talk" as portrayed in the movies.
  • Challenge limiting opinions, habits and reactions through understanding oneself and each other.
  • Develop new perspectives through self observation.
  • Enhance honest communication.
  • Feel more valued, in control, and supported by co-workers.
  • Be aware of gender and cultural differences that enhance safety.

Tool: Fact Vs Opinion.

  • Distinguish between fact and opinion.
  • Expose limitations in the thought process.
  • Uncover and defuse hidden agendas.
  • Recognize leaps of abstraction.
  • Expand thinking process and explore gaps in reasoning.
  • Discern and identify information that influences a decision.
  • Investigative participation: dialogue, discussion, inquiry and advocacy.
  • Examine the issue from all sides while balancing process and results.
  • Create accountability and responsibility in decision making.
  • Relieve stress by exploring cultural/ethnic/gender stereotypes.
  • Free up time by utilizing clear communication approaches.
  • Exercise Blind Square.
  • Exercise is videotaped for self and group observation.
  • Hands on practice of tools and strategies.
  • Fill out observation form while viewing video of exercise.
  • Fill out "self" and "group" evaluation instrument.
  • Debrief.

Tool: Feedback.

  • Positive techniques for giving and receiving honest, constructive feedback.
  • How to learn from both acknowledging and challenging feedback.
  • Acknowledge, specify, reaffirm rather than using "you-blaming" statements.
  • Heighten communication, enhance relationships, improve productivity, give job satisfaction while keeping in touch with what is happening around us.
  • Address issues of safety, stress, diversity, time, expectations and risk taking.
  • Expectations become reality; be honest with what one knows.
  • Transform teams into workplace communities.

Exercise Feedback.

  • Apply sequence of steps in giving and receiving both acknowledging and challenging feedback.
  • Continue working in small groups to build safety and trust.
  • Opportunity to coach and practice tools and strategies of training.

Strategy: Facilitating a Group Through Inclusive Decision Making.

  • Utilize steps of process for making timely, high level, inclusive decisions.
  • Strategy creates structure, community, respect, accountability, trust, timely decisions and consensus.
  • Balance process and results.
  • Learn how one's decisions and actions impact others.
  • Work for the good of the larger group.

Information: Effective Meeting Roles.

  • Expanded roles within a meeting group.

Information: Participant Responsibilities.

  • Take responsibility for being a part of a decision making group.

Information: Meeting Cycle Principles.

  • Cycle for inclusive decision making.

Information: Meeting Cycle Process.

  • Cycle for inclusive decision making process.

Information: Safety.

  • Addressing the issue of safety in groups.
  • Relationship of safety to decision making.
  • Lack of safety means fear, which leads to a shut down of ideas shared and loss of creativity for constructive and productive change.
  • Fear leads to anxiety, stress, lack of confidence, poorly timed decisions or lack of decisions, separation from team.
  • Use conflict to unify and build trust and safety.

Exercise Group Enterprise: Address Specific Needs Of Company.

  • Arriving at a decision/solution that all members can support and none oppose.
  • Making the best choices possible.
  • Utilize time to your advantage.
  • Practice and incorporate all the tools, strategies and information given.
  • Observation form filled out and critiqued.
  • Self and group evaluations filled out.
  • Levels of expertise rated on learning gained in training (individual & group evaluation).

Exercise The Whole Works.

  • Continue to address specific needs of organization.
  • Entire group integrates more fully tools and strategies applied in inclusive decision making process.
  • Observation form filled out and critiqued.
  • Realize effective time strategy for optimum performance.
  • Group communities become recharge zones for energizing and boosting individual and collective energy for becoming a more relaxed top performers.
  • Energize work relationships.
  • Goals on schedule: prioritizing goals and designing a schedule to realize them.

Exercise Cross Pollinating Resources.

  • Share observations and acknowledgments of expertise (talent scout report) of each group member to interweave into a tapestry of human potential.

Exercise Talent Pool.

  • Listing and soliciting of personal and group strengths and "weak" areas that need more development (skills development potential).

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Comments About 100% Solutions Training

"100% SOLUTIONS is unique. We have pieces of this training in other programs, but not all inone package and not in this format." -Sandra Haire, Director of Human Resources, The University of Texas at Austin

"I heartily recommend Winning Solutions to any manager wanting to improve communication, increase efficiency, resolve conflict or instill a climate of trust within his or her organization. Thanks for a terrific experience!" -Gary Grief, Director of Lottery Operations, Texas Lottery Commission

"The interaction exercise on giving and receiving feedback was a revelation."-JoAnne R. Harper, Regional Sales Director, Pfizer Labs, U.S. Pharmaceuticals

"I recently completed a university credit semester on 'Small Group and Interpersonal Relationships'. Diana provided more in four hours than the entire college course offered!" -Jerry Martin, Business Development Specialist, Strategic Partnerships

"Diana, I would like to thank you again for the wonderful job of facilitation you did on the course titled 'Dealing With Change' for Texas Instruments. In a word, you had the participants of this class 'pumped'. You immediately connected with the group with great enthusiasm and created a rapport that was open and inviting. The interaction between the class members was outstanding at the beginning and just improved as the class progressed. The excitement I sensed when I walked into the classroom was electric and participants were literally on the edge of their seats with anticipation. Some of the comments from the participants include":

"Wow! This is a must take."

"This is by far the most pleasing 8 hour class I've had here. First class that I would actually tell someone-ya gotta do it!"

"Totally appropriate for my current situation."

-Lee White, Manager, Organization Performance, Texas Instruments, Inc., Austin, Texas

© 2001-2010 Winning Solutions.
Austin, Texas 78746

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