Contemporary Management Practices
Course Overview
Course Content
This is a five-day course that teaches management fundamentals to managers in the field, regional offices and home office headquarters of humanitarian aid organizations. It is intended for people who are new to management. It is also for those already in management who learned how to manage on the job and who now feel they would profit from an opportunity to compare their own practices with those coming from the best-researched experience.
An Introduction to the Program
(Typically conducted the evening before the workshop commences)
We begin with a meeting about an hour in length to allow all participants and staff members to meet one another. The instructor gives a brief overview of the course and a description of the work everyone will do together. The meeting concludes with a Question/Answer period to answer any logistical or administrative concerns that participants may have.
Day One: Management Styles and Practices
The first day is given over to an examination of the roles, responsibilities and behaviors required of managers and leaders. We present a variety of management styles currently favored by modern organizations and examine the advantages and disadvantages of each. We explore the reasons why people choose a specific management style, why they persist in it and what payoff they expect to get from it. We also examine how different management styles affect the basic job of management: assigning work, monitoring its progress and dealing with workplace problems, challenges and hurdles.
Day Two: Communication Styles and Practices
The second day, we study the best ways of speaking effectively to one another. If the first day of the program is essentially a study of power (i.e., how managers acquire it and then use it effectively), the second day is essentially a study of influence (i.e., how managers get things done through interpersonal skill). We examine together how managers: sell their best ideas; communicate in a direct, authentic, game-free way; recognize conflicts and differences and resolve them effectively; solve problems in a group; and arrive at consensus.
Day Three: Management Time and Priorities
On day three, we help managers organize themselves and their work. We show them how to establish priorities, plan and schedule their work, balance special projects with routine work responsibilities, handle paperwork and reading, and facilitate efficient meetings. In general, the day focuses on helping managers deal effectively with a variety of personal and electronic interruptions and the competing time demands of people trying to get their attention.
Day Four: Recruiting, Selecting and Placing Staff Members
The fourth day focuses on teaching a process for selecting and managing people in a way that maximizes their contributory strength. The discussion leads naturally into an examination of pre-employment interviewing techniques for hiring and placing successful job candidates as well as managing those candidates to achieve their full potential.
Day Five: Appraising, Coaching and Developing Staff
On day five, we explain the many methods successful managers use to improve the competencies and performance of the people who report to them. The session:
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Helps managers analyze performance problems in order to find their root cause
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Shows them how to engage in coaching discussions
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Teaches them how to give effective feedback
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Demonstrates how to create an effective developmental plan.
We also include a brief discussion of the Agency’s practices in conducting the annual performance appraisal. The day and the workshop conclude with an opportunity for participants to reflect on the things that were learned and make a personal commitment to begin incorporating them into their behavior as managers.
Methodology
All five days are highly interactive. Participants listen to brief lectures on the key concepts and tools that make up the course. Then, in a wide variety of role-plays, problem exercises, discussions, cases and other simulations, participants in small groups begin to apply the lessons to concrete situations. There is ample opportunity to question, to challenge and to offer one’s own experience. Participants learn not only from the instructor but also from each other in these exchanges.
There are two instruments that participants complete in order to find out their preferred style of managing activities and communicating with people. Participants also have an opportunity to discuss their reactions and reflections with each other during mealtimes and in the evening.
Schedules
Each day, classes begin at 8:15 AM and conclude no later than 4:30 PM. We have a lunch break of approximately one hour from noon to 1:00 PM. There are two beverage breaks each day at approximately mid-morning and mid-afternoon. In general, evenings consist of free time, though there are occasional homework assignments that will take 20 to 30 minutes to complete.
Preparation for the Course
We ask participants to spend about an hour during the weeks before they arrive to:
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Reflect on problems and issues they have encountered that are likely to be addressed in this course
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Put together a short list of questions they would like to see addressed in the program
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Think a bit about their own management practices and experiences, which they can then share with other participants in the workshop
