In addition to consulting, Zeisler Associates offers powerful developmental workshops and seminars.
All of our seminars and presentations are designed to incorporate the most advanced methods of adult learning. They encourage active involvement, use individual and group exercises, and incorporate business examples drawn from our years of experience in a variety of industries and markets.
Participants in our highly interactive and challenging seminars will improve their creative thinking skills and be better equipped to explore issues, creatively solve problems and approach opportunities from different perspectives - leading to better decisions, innovative solutions and improved competitive position.
Past corporate audiences worldwide have included Astra Zeneca Pharmaceuticals, British Airways, E. I. DuPont Company, Estee Lauder, IBM, Mobil Oil, Nestle, various universities and government institutions including the U. S. Army War College, and members of professional organizations such as Sales and Marketing Executives International, International Interior Design Association, American Executives for Management Excellence, British Psychological Society, Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Indiana Council, and the Institute for Management Studies.
Although most sessions are tailored to meet the specific needs of the group, following are a few of the basic offerings:
Leading Virtual Teams to Peak Performance (6 - 8 hours)
Getting peak performance from any team is a major challenge in today's fast paced business environments. While technology seems to make it easier for people scattered across geographies, cultures and time zones to work together without working face-to-face, leaders must learn new ways to direct and guide Virtual Teams to perform at higher levels in spite of the separation.
The session is highly interactive with opportunities for participants to explore and apply the ideas presented on their own Virtual Teams. Topics covered include:
The Rise and Challenges of Virtual Teams
- Factors contributing to demand for Virtual Teams
- The impact of distance on collaboration and performance
- Advantages and challenges of Virtual Teams
Stages of Team Development
- Assessing your Virtual Team
- Ensuring successful start-up of Virtual Teams
- Dealing with conflict virtually
- Establishing norms and straightening out
- Striving for peak performance
What Leaders Can Do
- Winning strategies and actions for leaders of Virtual Teams
- Four best practices for leaders of Virtual Teams
- Technological and process resources
"This workshop is an excellent resource for any team leader. It is invaluable when team members are spread across the globe and the team leader must rely on influence rather than line authority to get things done. The lessons from the workshop are easy to apply, practical and built on a research based framework. "
Global Product Manager
The Voyage Of Discovery (2 - 8 hours)
Challenging many of the common misconceptions about creativity, paradigms and change, The Voyage of Discovery teaches concepts and techniques to help participants move from "reactive" and "object-oriented" approaches to problems and issues towards creative and concept-oriented ones.
As they acquire new tools that will stimulate innovative ideas and practical implementation strategies, participants will:
- See problems and opportunities from fresh perspectives
- Generate new and innovative ideas and solutions
- Effectively move from idea to implementation
- Explore within and outside of paradigms
"Yours was the most stimulating thing that went on at the Conference. I was impressed with the exercises - they really worked. What you presented was way above what anyone else did."
National Sales Manager
Discovering Your Creative Style (4 hours)
The way individuals approach situations and opportunities can vary widely. Each of us solves problems, makes decisions, initiates change - is creative - differently. A better understanding of your own and others' creative style helps to produce more effective performance by valuing and making good use of diversity as well as similarity.
Participants will use a highly valid diagnostic tool to reveal their creative style and learn how to leverage it in:
- Teams and groups
- Idea generation and decision making
- Dealing with change
- Leadership and management
"The information is timeless and useful in everyday business. Your workshop was right on the mark - terrific, energetic, stimulating, interesting, just plain GOOD STUFF!"
Manufacturing Coordinator
Setting The Climate For Creativity And Innovation (1-3 hours)
Research has clearly demonstrated the importance of Climate on the ability of an organization to innovate successfully. Setting the Climate for Creativity and Innovation explores the critical issues and the responsibilities of leadership in shaping a Climate that ignites and nurtures organizational creativity in times of turbulence and change.
Participants will understand:
- Nine key dimensions of a Climate for Creativity and Innovation
- Importance of Leadership in shaping the Climate
- Tools and techniques for nurturing Innovation
"The most valuable use of my time in any training course I've taken. Exceptionally enlightening."
Director of Technology
The Six Thinking Hats ® (2 - 8 hours)
The Six Thinking Hats® is a powerful framework developed by Dr. Edward de Bono that engages everyone to think in a constructive, parallel way. Participants will learn a robust model and tools to:
- Reduce the adversarial approach in all interactions
- Draw upon diverse perspectives more effectively
- Keep egos and turfism in check
Six Hats establishes one distinct mode of thinking per hat:
- White: Information, data, facts
- Red: Feelings, hunches, intuition
- Yellow: Benefits, value, potential
- Black: Caution, concern, danger
- Green: Alternatives, new ideas
- Blue: Managing the thinking process
"Best Continuing Education Unit I've ever attended. The presenter is knowledgeable, attention-holding, has a fresh style and is an excellent facilitator."
Interior Designer
BREAKTHROUGH THINKING (1 - 2 days)
Breakthrough Thinking is the master-level workshop that incorporates many of the elements found in shorter seminars described on this page.
- Participants will learn:
- Tools for breaking through restrictive paradigms
- Creative problem-solving frameworks
- Weak Signal DetectionSM tools
- Techniques for unleashing organizational creativity and innovation
- Tools to uncover future possibilities
"Zeisler's approach in enabling participants to break mental barriers was truly inspirational."
Facilities Manager
WEAK SIGNAL DETECTION(SM) (4-8 hours)
Innovating successfully in times of rapid change requires that enterprises continuously learn new tools for anticipating the future. Paramount to this is the understanding of businesses, markets and organizations as Complex Adaptive (Chaotic) Systems and the necessary search for "Weak Signals", Weak Signals, often hidden in the surrounding noise of the system, environment or marketplace, are the true harbingers of the future because of their potentially disproportional effect on what might be.
Their detection must be accounted for both in planning processes and in carrying out the plan. Without deliberately searching for and learning from Weak Signals, the chances for innovation and sustainable success are diminished.
Weak Signal Detection workshops engage clients to:
- Explore Weak Signals and discover those ignored or discovered by innovators.
- Learn and apply Weak Signal DetectionSM Tools to identify weak signals.
- Apply the Weak Signal AmplifierSM
- Gain new insights and alternatives about the future of their organization, marketplace and industry.
Workshops may incorporate audio and visual media to illuminate and provide examples from business, the arts, military and organizational environments of Weak Signals and their significance.
"Your concept of 'Weak Signals' is a significant contribution to the area of Chaos."
University Masters Program Director