Workshop Titles
We offer a wide range of workshops that can be delivered either in-house to members of your organization or to the general public.
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Workshops For Individuals
- Managing Your Energy Resources
For many adults, balancing the multiple demands of our work and life becomes an exhausting ordeal. The end of the work week leaves us drained and frustrated that we didn’t achieve everything we’d set out to. We recover somewhat during the weekend, provided we aren’t burdened too much with domestic chores. But, when the alarm goes off Monday morning, we wonder if we can make it through another week of deadlines, tight schedules, and unrealistic demands…And so it seems to go. How do we find the energy to continue? This workshop focuses on
- How to establish reasonable and realistic expectations for yourself;
- How to deal with unreasonable and unrealistic demands from other people;
- How to establish priorities for spending your energy;
- How to eliminate notorious “energy bandits;”
- Why “working non-stop” and “going flat out” is usually counter-productive;
- Why “doing nothing” during leisure hours can be counter-productive;
- How to select energizing recreational activities;
- How to harness the energizing effect of physical exercise; and
- How to eat and drink right for maximum energy.
- Resilience
Why do some people appear to “throw in the towel” at the slightest set-back and misfortune? Why do others display remarkable perseverance and stamina in the face of enormous challenges and obstacles? Why do some folks, who have failed dramatically, pick themselves up and move on to tremendous success? How can we teach ourselves, and those whom we love and care about, to overcome life’s inevitable adversity? This workshop is for those of us who’d like to get better at “moving on,” and “bouncing back.”
- Planning Your Life’s
WorkPassionThroughout much of human history, work has represented a burdensome activity in which humans have engaged primarily to survive. More recently, however, our expectations of work have increased significantly. Most of us are no longer satisfied performing work simply to survive. Instead, we seek work that will be interesting, fulfilling, challenging, and rewarding in ways that go far beyond our need for a decent salary. At the same time, most of us want to have work that allows us the time and energy to pursue other important parts of our lives. Are we asking too much? Is the notion of deeply rewarding, yet balanced, work nothing more than a romantic notion that we should abandon? Or are we selling ourselves and our lives short if we settle for work that is unfulfilling and/or all consuming? This workshop introduces participants to skills for choosing and planning the kind of work and life that we desire. It helps us answer such questions as:
- What do we want to do with our lives other than earning and spending money?
- What priority do we want to give work in relation to our family, friends, health and leisure?
- What work would we really enjoy doing?
- Are we interested in devoting time and energy to unpaid work?
- Are we interested in working for ourselves?
- How do we balance work commitments with other legitimate responsibilities?
- How do we know when we’re working too hard, or too little, for our own well-being?
Workshops For Learners
- Figuring Out (Sort of) What You’d Like to do With Your Life
Teenagers, young adults, and even some older adults often feel enormous pressure from their parents, spouses, and themselves to decide what they’re going to do with the rest of their lives. More often than not, the focus of this pressure is choosing a career or an educational path that will lead to a career. But how do you figure out what you want to do, what you’re capable of, and what career will provide you with the life you aspire to? This workshop focuses on
- How to exercise the courage of choice and patience in planning your life and career;
- How to decide what kind of life you’d like to have;
- How to identify the place of work in that life;
- How to identify the role that non-work will have in that life;
- How to identify potential careers suited to the kind of life you’d like;
- How to identify whether you’d like to work for yourself or somebody else;
- How to identify training and education that will help you obtain the work and life you’d like; and
- How to maintain flexibility and adaptability in your career and life plans.
- Balancing School with “Other Stuff”
For many of us, our success in school plays a large role in achieving our career and life goals. So it’s perfectly understandable why we might come under a certain pressure to succeed academically from our parents, teachers and even ourselves. But can we place too much emphasis on academics, at the expense of other important parts of our lives? Do we sometimes become slaves to our own academic aspirations and those of our loved ones? Alternatively, do we sometimes devote too little attention to succeeding academically, thereby jeopardizing our goals? Where’s the balance? This workshop, which is directed at high-school and college students, as well as their parents and mentors, focuses on these issues:
- How to plan a balanced high-school and college experience;
- How to establish reasonable targets for how much you should study;
- How to maximize your academic efficiency to achieve satisfactory results in a reasonable amount of time;
- Why studying too much can be as unproductive as studying too little;
- How to responsibly use the help of friends, educators and family members to achieve your academic and life goals; and
- How to deal effectively with the stress of going to school and still having a life.
- Preparing Yourself for Tests and Exams
Most of us become at least a little nervous at the thought of having to write a test or an examination; some of us become extremely nervous. In fact, some of us become so nervous by tests and exams that we are unable to accurately demonstrate what we have actually learned. This doesn’t have to happen. Like most other things in life, succeeding on tests and exams is a skill that can be learned. In this workshop, students will learn the following:
- What information you should request from your teacher, instructor or professor so that you can prepare properly for a test or exam;
- How to use effective study strategies to prepare for tests and exams;
- How to prepare physically for the challenge of tests and exams;
- How to prepare psychologically for the challenge of tests and exams;
- Why cramming and “pulling an all-nighter” are usually not effective strategies; and
- How to budget your time effectively during tests and exams.
Workshops For Adult Educators and Trainers
- Basic Instructional and Training Skills
In most of North America, elementary and secondary school teachers are typically required to have an undergraduate degree in Education. That, however, is not always the case with respect to post-secondary education, where university professors and community college instructor are usually hired primarily on the basis of their subject matter expertise. In fact, often these adult educators have no training in teaching methodologies. The same can be said of many trainers in industry, many of whom are employed in the training department because of their technical expertise and experience. Without an understanding of basic instructional and training skills, many post-secondary educators and trainers can be at a distinct disadvantage.
In this workshop, we focus on:- Characteristics of adult learners;
- Basic principles of adult teaching and learning;
- How to use instructional and training resources;
- How to deliver theory-based instruction and training;
- How to assess the knowledge of adult learners;
- How to deliver skill-based instruction and learning; and
- How to assess the skills of adult learners.
- On-the-Job Training
Here is a situation that takes place every day in countless workplaces throughout the world. A supervisor approaches an experienced and trusted worker and says, “We’ve got a new person starting today. You know what you’re doing and I trust you. Can I ask you to spend a couple of hours showing this person how to do their job?” The experienced and trusted worker says, somewhat tentatively, “Sure, I guess so.” The important question that often goes unasked and/or unanswered is this: Exactly what does the experienced and trusted worker know about training somebody one-on-one? Sadly, experienced and trusted workers, who are thrust unprepared into a training role, often deliver inefficient and ineffective training.
In this workshop, we focus on how to:- specify accurately and completely the tasks you’d like a new employee to perform in his or her job;
- identify the knowledge, skills and attitudes you need to teach a new employee;
- identify a new employee’s existing knowledge and skills;
- establish priorities for training a new employee;
- evaluate a new employee’s competence to perform the job;
- plan and deliver an effective one-on-one training session;
- conduct effective demonstrations;
- guide a new worker’s job performance;
- provide constructive feedback for a new employee;
- ask and answer questions effectively; and
- communicate effectively while conducting one-on-one training.
- Developing Printed Learning Materials
Notwithstanding the increasing popularity of Web-based and other types of electronic learning, printed learning materials remain a very popular and cost-effective option in both academic and workplace environments. Indeed, there are some indications that printed materials are regaining some of their lost prominence within the education and training communities as the initial appeal of electronic learning has been tempered somewhat by both practical and theoretical concerns. This workshop focuses on the following topics:
- The advantages and disadvantages of print as a medium for education and training;
- How to develop theory-based printed instruction;
- How to develop skill-based printed instruction;
- How to use graphics and principles of page layout to enhance printed learning materials;
- How to make printed learning materials more interactive for students and trainees;
- How to use principles and procedures of plain language to improve printed learning materials;
- How to determine the reading level of printed learning materials; and
- How to respect copyright in developing printed learning materials.
- Collaborative Learning in Colleges and Universities
Collaborative learning is a technique in which college and university students collaborate with each other, either inside or outside the classroom or lecture hall, to learn course content. As opposed to passively listening to a lecturer and taking notes, students are actively involved in their own learning and that of their peers, while the instructor facilitates the learning process. This workshop focuses on the following topics:
- How does collaborative learning differ from traditional modes of teaching and learning;
- How does collaborative learning differ from cooperative learning and other types of group learning strategies;
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of using collaborative learning in a college environment;
- What is the evidence in support of collaborative learning in a college environment;
- What are some of the major collaborative learning techniques that can be used in a college environment; and
- What collaborative learning resources are available to college instructors.
- Problem-based Learning in Professional Education
Problem-based learning is a teaching and learning strategy that is widely used in the training of professionals, including doctors, dentists, pharmacists, nurses, engineers, teachers and others. The fundamental premise of problem-based learning is that, in their everyday practice, professionals are constantly confronted with challenging and multi-disciplinary problems. Frequently, curricula that have been organized according to subjects and topics are of limited value in the solution of these problems. In contrast, experience with problem solving is indispensable. Moreover, in an era of rapid change and constant innovation, the generic skill of problem-solving enables a professional to effectively respond to unanticipated and novel challenges. This workshop focuses on the following topics:
- How does problem-based learning differ from traditional modes of teaching and learning;
- How does problem-based learning differ from cooperative learning and other types of group learning strategies;
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of using problem-based learning in a college environment;
- What is the evidence in support of problem-based learning in a college environment;
- What are some of the major problem-based learning techniques that can be used in a college environment; and
- What problem-based learning resources are available to college instructors.
- Classroom Assessment Techniques
In many post-secondary institutions, class sizes are steadily increasing from year-to-year. In this environment, instructors and professors often feel compelled to rely exclusively on the lecture method to transmit content to students. While the lecture method unquestionably has its strengths, it is widely recognized as having serious limitations in terms of student learning. A major limitation is that students and teachers alike often receive very little indication as to what students are actually learning until “exam time.” Classroom assessment techniques (CATs) are a means of overcoming this limitation. These techniques consists of very brief, non-graded activities that an instructor or professor can include in lectures to assess and facilitate student learning. This workshop focuses on the following topics:
- The general features of classroom assessment techniques;
- The benefits and drawbacks of CATs;
- The research support for CATs;
- How to select CATs to match the subject area you are teaching;
- How to select CATs to match the type of learning you are intending to facilitate; and
- How to incorporate and manage CATs effectively.
- Systematic Approach to Training
The systematic approach to training (SAT), also known as instructional systems design, is a well respected and highly methodical approach to designing an entire training and educational program. In some industries, such as those involving the nuclear fuel cycle, SAT is the standard approach to training and education required by government regulatory bodies. In other industries, organizations that aspire for world-class education and training programs voluntarily adopt SAT as their standard approach. In this workshop, you will learn:
- How SAT differs from less systematic approaches to training and education;
- Why industries and organizations benefit from the adoption of SAT;
- How to complete the Analysis phase of SAT;
- How to complete the Design phase of SAT;
- How to complete the Development phase of SAT;
- How to complete the Implementation phase of SAT;
- How to complete the Evaluation phase of SAT; and
- How to benefit from the experience of other industries and organizations that have implemented SAT.
- Universal Instructional Design
Universal design is a concept that originated in architecture and involves the deliberate design of products and services to make those universally accessible to a diverse population of users. Recently, universal design has been applied to the design of instruction, primarily, though not exclusively, at the post-secondary level. In part, the emergence of universal instructional design is due to the recognition by post-secondary educational institutions that instruction has predominantly been designed to meet the needs of only a segment of the student population. In contrast, universal instructional design is intended to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population.
In this workshop, we focus on:- Why universal instructional design is preferable to dominant modes of post-secondary instructional design;
- The nine principles of universal instructional design;
- The evidence supporting universal instructional design;
- Resource requirements for implementing universal instructional design; and
- Strategies for overcoming practical problems in implementing universal instructional design.
- Assessing Lower-order Thinking Skills
Intuitively, almost every educator knows that thinking skills range from simple to complex. We know, for example, that the ability to memorize information for a short length of time is less demanding, and likely less worthwhile, than the ability to integrate information for problem-solving, creativity and critical thinking. Nevertheless, because we recognize that lower-order thinking skills form the foundation for higher-order thinking, we need to assess these foundational skills effectively.
In this workshop, we focus on:- How to distinguish lower-order from higher-order thinking skills;
- How to recognize different types of lower-order thinking skills;
- How to select methods for assessing lower-order thinking skills;
- How to construct effective test items for assessing lower-order thinking skills; and
- How to analyze the quality of test items that assess lower-order thinking skills.
- Assessing Higher-order Thinking Skills
Almost every day, it seems, we hear press reports that we live in the information age, we have a knowledge-based economy, and that our economic and social prosperity depends on our ability to “think outside the box.” It is not surprising, therefore, that society and employers are demanding that our graduates know how to be creative, solve problems and think critically. But how do we assess whether students possess the higher-order thinking skills sought by society and employers?
In this workshop, we focus on- How to recognize higher-order thinking skills;
- How to recognize different types of higher-order thinking skills;
- How to select methods for assessing higher-order thinking skills;
- How to construct effective test items and other instruments for assessing higher-order thinking skills; and
- How to evaluate the quality of assessment instruments that assess higher-order thinking skills.
- Assessing Performance
Once most of us leave educational institutions and proceed into our careers, we probably will have very few, if any, written tests or examinations. Instead, we will be judged almost exclusively on how well we perform. This point is sometimes overlooked by educators and trainers, who perhaps spend too much time assessing student knowledge and too little time assessing student performance of real-world tasks. This workshop will help educators and trainers design authentic performance assessments. It focuses on:
- Choosing between restricted and extended performance tasks;
- Selecting the focus of the performance assessment (procedure, product, or both);
- Designing the appropriate degree of realism in the assessment;
- Designing the performance situation;
- Selecting the best method of observing, recording and scoring student performance; and
- Designing more authentic performance assessments.
- Assessing Attitudes and Values
Surveys and interviews of employers, in a variety of industries, have consistently revealed that the most sought-after employees are not necessarily those who are highly knowledgeable or skilled, but rather, those who possess the right attitudes and values. Accordingly, the education and training system is increasingly expected to teach and assess appropriate student attitudes. At the same time, many educators and trainers are reluctant to assess student attitudes for fear that they’ll be accused of being too subjective and arbitrary. In this workshop, you will learn
- How to identify which attitudes and values employers expect educators to teach and assess;
- Why it is appropriate to be subjective, but not arbitrary, in assessing student attitudes;
- How to guide students in developing appropriate attitudes and values;
- How to conduct effective assessments of attitudes and values; and
- How to answer criticisms that you are being too subjective in your assessment of student attitudes.
- Avoiding Burnout in Teaching and Training
Throughout the world, teachers have one of the highest rates of burnout of any professional group. The consequences of burnout for the affected teachers, as well as their students, families, colleagues and employers can be profoundly negative. Moreover, as increasing numbers of teachers approach retirement age, teacher burnout represents a significant human resource challenge for the educational system in terms of attracting and retaining sufficient staff. This workshop focuses on the following topics:
- The estimated incidence of burnout in the teaching profession and its areas of specialization;
- The causes of teacher burnout;
- The impact of teacher burnout on the teacher and his or her loved ones;
- The impact of teacher burnout on students;
- The impact of teacher burnout on colleagues;
- What individual teachers can do to prevent and remedy burnout;
- What school administrators can do to prevent and remedy teacher burnout; and
- The legal implications of teacher burnout.
Workshops For Health Care Providers
- Providing Culturally Competent Care
A variety of research studies in North America have indicated that patients of white European ancestry receive a higher quality of care than do those from other racial/ethnic groups. These studies have led to a number of policy initiatives by health care professions to redress this inequality of patient care. Increasing the cultural competency of health care professionals has been suggested as one means of improving the quality of patient care for all racial and ethnic groups. Accordingly, cultural competency training is becoming quite common in the curricula of educational programs for health care professionals.
This workshop focuses on the following topics:- The definition and elements of cultural competence;
- North American standards for culturally and linguistically appropriate services in health care;
- The three major approaches to cultural competence education;
- Research findings concerning the effectiveness of cultural competence training;
- Strategies for improving the effectiveness of cultural competence training; and,
- Challenges to implementing effective cultural competence training curricula in educational programs for health care professionals.
- Avoiding Burnout in the Health Care Professions
Although burnout is a hazard in many occupations, it is particularly common in health care professions. It is an increasingly global phenomenon amongst these professionals and afflicts those in virtually all areas of clinical practice. Moreover, it is a significant danger not just among front-line health care providers, but also amongst health care managers and those involved in the education of health care professionals.
This workshop focuses on the following topics:- The general definition of burnout;
- What distinguishes burnout in health care professions from burnout in other professions;
- Evidence and prevalence of burnout in specific health care professions;
- Causes of burnout amongst health care professionals;
- The impact of burnout on health care providers;
- How the burnout of health care professionals impacts their patients, colleagues and loved ones;
- Individual strategies for preventing and remedying burnout;
- Organizational and systemic strategies for preventing and remedying burnout.
- Avoiding Burnout in Human Services Professions
Most of the original research and writing related to the phenomenon of burnout focused on the human services professions. Groups such as social workers, counselors, criminal justice professionals and social assistance providers are highly susceptible to occupational stress and burnout. Because they involve constant and frequently intense interaction with people in distress, these professions continue to attract much attention from burnout scholars. Much has been written and learned in the past 40 years about the causes, prevention and treatment of burnout in human services professions. This workshop focuses on the following topics:
- The unique features of human services professions that make them susceptible to burnout;
- The impact of burnout on the health and well-being human services professionals;
- The impact of burnout on the quality and quantity of service provided by these professionals;
- What individual human services professionals can do to prevent or overcome burnout;
- What human service organizations can do to protect their professionals from burnout; and
- The responsibilities of governments and public service advocacy groups in preventing burnout.
- Assessing Clinical Competence
This workshop integrates research from medical education, nursing education, and allied health care education in providing an overview of contemporary practices and challenges related to the assessment of student clinical competence. It focuses on the following topics:
- Components of clinical competence in various health care professions;
- Differences between student-centred and teacher-centred assessment of clinical competence;
- The role of professional judgment and subjectivity in assessing clinical skills;
- Methods and instruments for assessing lower-order clinical thinking skills;
- Methods and instruments for assessing higher-order clinical thinking skills;
- Methods and instruments for assessing clinical performance skills in simulated health care environments;
- Methods and instruments for assessing clinical performance skills in authentic health care environments.
Workshops For Business Professionals
- How Much Work and Stress are Too Much?
The self-help sections of reputable bookstores and libraries are chock full of books and electronic resources on time and stress management. Yet most well-educated, employed adults will tell you that they've got too much work and stress in their life. Moreover, many of those super-achievers and peak-performers who assure everyone that they thrive on pressure and stress have families, friends and doctors who beg to differ. What’s going on here? Have we become a generation of self-indulgent whiners who no longer know how to work like our forbearers? Or have we become overly-ambitious, stress junkies, who are working ourselves to death? This workshop addresses the following questions:
- What does the psychology and health literature tell us about how much stress we should have in our lives?
- How do we distinguish healthy and unhealthy stress?
- How hard should we work, if we want to be healthy?
- How do we recognize and remedy workaholism?
- What are enlightened employers doing to help their people manage work and stress more effectively?
- Avoiding Professional Burnout
Burnout has been described as the greatest occupational hazard of the 21st century. Moreover, there is a general consensus amongst specialists in this area that increasing numbers of workers will become afflicted by burnout, as the pressures of everyday working life intensify. As we learn more about the consequences of burnout, and as the scarcity of talented workers grows more serious, minimizing and overcoming this occupational hazard are crucial to the health of both individuals and organizations.
This workshop focuses on the following topics:- What is burnout and how is it different from fatigue and depression;
- What is the estimated prevalence of burnout in the workplace and within various groups of people;
- What are the individual and organizational consequences of burnout;
- How can burnout be measured;
- How can individuals prevent and remedy burnout; and
- How can organizations prevent and remedy burnout within their workforces.
- Avoiding Burnout in the Legal Profession
According to numerous studies and surveys, the practice of law has become increasingly hazardous to both the physical and mental health of lawyers. Legal professionals work in environments marked by relentless time pressure, fierce competition for clients and adversarial relationships that can foster hostility, conflict and cynicism. Such climates are fertile breeding grounds for burnout. Without protecting themselves from this hazard, lawyers can lose both their perspective and effectiveness. This workshop focuses on:
- The unique features of the legal profession that make it highly susceptible to burnout;
- The impact of burnout on the health and well-being lawyers and their families;
- The impact of burnout on the quality and quantity of representation provided by lawyers;
- What individual lawyers can do to prevent or overcome burnout; and
- What law firms and other organizations that employ lawyers can do to protect their professionals from burnout.
- Assertiveness Skills for Professionals
In today’s high-pressured work environments, our own best interests don’t always seem to fit with those of our supervisors, colleagues and clients. Those with whom we work sometimes make demands on us that seem unreasonable and inconsiderate. At the same time, our supervisors, colleagues and clients sometimes fail to give us what we need, when we need it. Despite, our best intentions to establish and maintain mutually respectful and beneficial working relationships, sometimes it seems impossible to do so. How should we respond in these situations? This workshop focuses on the following questions:
- What options do we have when supervisors, colleagues and clients don’t treat us the way we would like?
- What are the costs and benefits of becoming aggressive with supervisors, colleagues and clients?
- What are the costs and benefits of becoming submissive to supervisors, colleagues and clients?
- How can we negotiate “win-win” solutions to conflicts with supervisors, colleagues and clients?
- How can we prepare ourselves in advance for conflicts at work?
- How can we recognize when we are in an abusive or dysfunctional work environment?
- Coping with Job Loss
Some people lose their jobs through organizational restructuring and down-sizing; others by being fired; still others through mandatory retirement; and some of us leave our jobs voluntarily. Regardless of the cause, for many of us job loss is a frightening and humiliating experience that threatens our sense of identity and security. But does it need to be? Some people who have lost their jobs look upon the experience as “the best thing that could have happened to me.” This workshop focuses on
- How the notion of secure, permanent, full-time employment is increasingly becoming a myth;
- Why our work is so integral to our identities and self-esteem;
- How to manage our careers in the larger context of our lives;
- How to deal with guilt, fear, anger, inadequacy and other negative emotions often associated with job loss;
- How to protect our best interests through the job separation process; and
- How to pursue fulfilling, well-paying work opportunities.
View A List Of All Workshop Titles
Workshops Conducted on Request
About
An organization can request any one of our workshops for a specific time and place. The length of any workshop can vary, depending on the group’s interests and needs.
Fees
Unless you are otherwise notified, your group registration fee will include all workshop materials, but not complimentary coffee breaks and lunch. The fee for each workshop will vary depending on the workshop length and size of group being accommodated. In addition, your group will assume all travel expenses incurred by Finucan-Peterson Consultants Ltd. in bringing the workshop to you. Depending on the amount of travel involved, Finucan-Peterson Consultants Ltd. may also charge travel time to the client, at a mutually agreeable, pre-determined rate.
| Size of Group Registering 5 | Fees per Workshop Length | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Half-Day | Full-Day | 2-Day | 3-Day | |
| 1 - 10 persons | $600 | $1200 | $2300 | $3400 |
| 11 - 20 persons | $700 | $1300 | $2400 | $3500 |
| 21 - 30 persons | $800 | $1400 | $2500 | $3600 |
| More than 30 persons 6 | $900 | $1500 | $2600 | $3700 |
4 All prices are subject to change without notice. Goods and Services Tax (GST) of 5% will be added to all fees.
5 Should it be necessary for your group to cancel, Finucan—Peterson Consultants Ltd. will refund 100% of the workshop fee provided we receive written notice of the cancellation a minimum of 10 business days before the workshop. We will refund 50% of the workshop fee for cancellations or re-scheduling requests received in writing less than 10 business days before the workshop. No refund will be provided to no-shows on confirmed seats. The client will also assume any expenses incurred by Finucan—Peterson Consultants Ltd. for the cancellation of travel reservations. In the event of a workshop being cancelled for any reason, Finucan—Peterson Consultants Ltd.’s liability is limited to the return of the registration fees only. Please use caution when booking non-refundable airline tickets or hotel rooms
6 Finucan—Peterson Consultants Ltd. reserves the right to limit the size of a group registration, depending on the nature of the workshop activities and location.
Note: Finucan—Peterson Consultants Ltd. will consider requests from non-profitable and charitable organizations for discounted fees. These will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Request a Workshop
To request workshops by phone, call (306) 982-4975 or (306) 961-6380. For other methods, use the form below.