Regulatory Focus
CODE OF CONDUCT
This workshop covers the core components of a council code of conduct including bullying, harassment, sexual harassment and discrimination. The session covers the definitions of bullying, harassment and sexual harassment and explains the blatant, as well as underlying behaviours and actions that can be perceived as inappropriate in the workplace.
Throughout the session, real-life examples and scenarios from the public sector are utilised to highlight inappropriate behaviours and the potential consequences of non-compliance with the Code. This session is often delivered in combination with Employee Responsibilities and Ethics.
EMPLOYEE RESPONSIBILITIES AND ETHICS
This workshop explains employee obligations under the Local Government Act 2009, Public Sector Ethics Act 1994, Public Interest Disclosures Act 2010 and the Integrity Act 2009. It educates council staff on how to abide by Council’s legal and ethical responsibilities for each and every interaction and transaction. Employees learn the importance of recognising potential conflicts of interest, the need to protect organisational assets, maintain confidentiality, protect private information and data and their responsibilities for receiving gifts.
The session is designed as an employee focused, interactive course that teaches your employees how to mitigate legal and financial risks through local government real-life examples and ethically-challenging scenarios. This session is often delivered in combination with Code of Conduct.
LEGISLATION TRAINING
This programme is tailored for each council to increase awareness of the provisions of the Local Government Act 2009 or other legislation or when changes to the legislation occur. The training includes a range of hands-on, workshop style sessions to maximise practical application and learnings.
EMPLOYEE INDUCTION
Councils provide employee induction which generally focusses on the council-specific requirements of employees. LGMA can extend this training to include the wider context of local government. This is useful as it builds understanding of the system of government in Australia.
The programme highlights to all employees where the lines are between regulatory requirements of the organisation (i.e., those imposed by other tiers of government) and organisational decisions. It also provides greater understanding of the role of local government across the state, explaining restrictions but also showcasing the important role local government plays for Australian communities.
PROCUREMENT ESSENTIALS
Targeting officers who may have involvement in some part of the procurement chain (but are not procurement professionals), this workshop is designed to provide the information you need to stay on the right side of the law including understanding basic procurement, quote, tender, preferred supplier, panel and evaluation and selection arrangements.
Council Essentials
REPORTING TO COUNCIL
Council reports are the primary mechanism for staff to communicate with Council. The high volume of Council reports requires that they be concise and to the point and follow the council template. It can be challenging to take a complex, technical issue and express it effectively in a concise format.
Planning the information that will be contained in the council report is the key to obtaining a positive council resolution. Quality reports, that consider an issue from all perspectives, develop trusting relationships and enable better decisions, and important goal for all councils.
Participants will learn valuable reporting principles and how to put these into practice by composing and reviewing council reports.
MAKING MEETINGS MEANINGFUL
Meetings in large organisation fulfil a range of roles, most of them unrelated to the purpose of the meeting. Breaking down the habit of meeting for the ‘wrong’ reasons, this workshop teaches how to make meetings meaningful, purposeful and effective. It provides ideas to assist in designing the right meeting format to suit the purpose, ensure the meeting delivers on that purpose and that the people who need to be there are there. Importantly, it provides a list of Don’ts that will keep your meetings effective and efficient.
DEALING WITH DIFFICULT, CUSTOMER ISSUES
Complex issues involving customers can be challenging to address in the council context. This workshop provides tools to assist officers in better understanding customer needs, empathising with customers and, ultimately, assisting them through what may be an anxious process.
The programme also assists officers in dealing with aggression from customers and de-escalating situations. Participants will also consider tools to build resilience to confronting situations and explore the importance of debriefing and support.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
This workshop is focused on reviewing basic group process techniques to create effective forums for dialogue. This session will include interactive activities and practical tips to assist participants to avoid the common problems encountered in community engagement activities. The session will cover selecting, using and evaluating a range of public participation activities.
High Performance Teams
ENNEAGRAM WORKSHOPS
The challenge of leadership adopting an approach which gets the best out of those you seek to lead. But every person is different. Conscious leaders recognise these differences and modify their approach based on an understanding of their own and others’ needs, motivations and values.
In this conscious leadership workshop, participants learn to apply a highly effective tool for personal understanding, development and transformation: the Enneagram. Understanding Enneagram profiles will assist officers in interacting effectively with people they work with or manage. It is an excellent tool for improving professional and personal relationships, communication and overall functioning.
The workshop is interactive and set within the context of the need for self-aware, high performing staff.
BELBIN
Belbin Team Roles are used to identify behavioural strengths and weaknesses in the workplace. Whether developing people, resolving conflict or fine-tuning high performance, Belbin Team Roles provide the language to ensure that individuals and teams communicate and work together with greater understanding. Dr Meredith Belbin originally identified the Team Roles as part of a unique study of teams that took place at Henley Business School which included a business simulation game. In 1969, Dr Belbin was invited to use this business game as a starting point for a study of team behaviour.
The term 'Team Role' refers to one of nine clusters of behavioural attributes, identified by Dr Meredith Belbin's research at Henley, as being effective in order to facilitate team progress. The research indicated that the most successful teams were made up of a diverse mix of behaviours. Each team needs access to each of the nine Belbin Team Role behaviours to become a high-performing team.
Using Belbin can give individuals a greater understanding of their strengths, which leads to more effective communication in the team. Managers can put together great teams, enhance the performance of existing ones, and ensure that everyone feels that they are making a difference in the workplace.
The nine Belbin Team Roles are: Resource Investigator, Teamworker and Co-ordinator (the Social roles); Plant, Monitor Evaluator and Specialist (the Thinking roles), and Shaper, Implementer and Completer Finisher (the Action or Task roles).
LGMA is Belbin accredited.
MANAGING AND LEADING
Leading and managing people is a complex and ever-changing process. LGMA delivers tailored programmes to officers in supervisory and leadership roles, providing best-practice and cutting-edge tools and processes to ensure managers are confident and capable to manage council teams. Select from a suite of focus areas based on the specific needs of council and target content as needed, for example, to people making the transition from team player to team leader, the current management team or executive leadership.
Each module can be delivered in bite-sized chunks focusing on critical areas (for example, performance management, feedback and delegation, the concept of exchange) or can be delivered in a single block. The programme can be structured to include team building across your management team and troubleshoot communication and trust issues.
CONFLICT MANAGEMENT IN TEAMS
Cognitive conflict is invaluable and the capacity to debate effectively is the sign of a healthy team. Unfortunately, the capacity to manage conflict in and across teams is less common than often thought. In this programme, participants learn the indicators of constructive and unconstructive conflict and tools to shift from the negative to a more positive position. They also learn how to deal with personal attacks and to shift conversation to a business focus.
The tools provided, assume an absence of positional power and can be utilised effectively by officers at all levels across the organisation.
PROBLEM SOLVING
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein.
This workshop provides a series of processes that will allow participants to consider problems in different ways. Selecting the right tool for the right problem can open teams to consideration of different solutions and thinking. This is not about linear problem analysis and suits teams and individuals who have the need to find creative or innovative options. It teaches participants to consider whether the ‘problem’ is actually a problem and look at alternative thinking in relation to the issue.
This programme is recommended for engaged teams and will extend their capacity for creative thinking.
UNDERSTANDING AND SHAPING WORKPLACE CULTURE
Workplace culture has gained considerable traction as a concept over the past decade and now enjoys increased focus in organisations. However, many offices struggle to define and understand the cultures of their organisations and teams. Even harder, is knowing how to shift culture.
This workshop explains how you can ‘know’ what your culture is, learn what behaviours, policies and rituals are supporting that culture and develop processes to either reinforce the culture (where positive) or shift it where it is not aligned with the values of the organisation.
Interactive and potentially challenging, this workshop stresses accountability of all staff for the culture in their teams and offers mechanisms to make change. It is suitable for all teams at all levels.
COACHING TEAMS
Coaching works on the principle that if you tell someone how to do something, they will be able to do it in that instance but unable to replicate, but if you help that same person work out the problem for themselves, they will be able to solve it alone next time. Too often, we can convince ourselves that the best use of our time is to tell someone how to do something – it is the fastest route at that time. However, over the longer term, this does not free us from the need to ‘direct’ in the future.
The coaching teams programme coaches managers in the skill of coaching their staff. It explores when to use coaching as a tool and how to apply coaching for the most benefit in a workplace situation. The programme challenges managers to support their staff through coaching and then get out of the way and let them deliver, all while holding accountable for performance.
Officer Development
COMMUNICATION SKILLS
Effective communication forms the basis of successful relationships, but it involves more than just speaking or listening well. To communicate effectively, you must adapt in response to particular people and situations, and this requires a willingness to develop your self-awareness, manage assumptions and ask open and meaningful questions.
This course will equip you with the skills to communicate with confidence and improve your workplace relationships through an increased understanding of yourself and others. Participants have the opportunity to plan and practice having successful conversations.
TEAM BUILDING
One of the greatest challenges a manager/team leader has is moving his/her team through the various team development stages. If a manager/team leader has no, or little experience of teams and team dynamics, then taking over a team and leading them, can be a very stressful experience (for everyone).
In this workshop, your team will be guided through models and activities that highlight how the elements of emotional intelligence cultivate cooperation and trust; the stages a team goes through and the steps to take at each stage; how to ensure that the team has embedded the essential elements to become a high performing team; and the role the leader plays in creating a well-integrated and high performing team.
A range of activities hands-on team building activities are also available – designed to suit the nature and size of the team and reflecting the particular challenges of the team.
WORK/LIFE SATISFACTION (BALANCE)
Work/Life balance - everyone wants it, but how many of us actually know what it looks like for us? This fun, thought-provoking and interactive session seeks to encourage officers to explore their own needs and priorities in order to better understand what makes them tick and how they can get the most out of their time and energy.
While work is often given the blame for a ‘lack of balance’, invariably the issues are far broader and, in many cases, work is the least of the problem. Instead of looking for fewer hours, more flexibility or amended working conditions, participants in this session will look for ways to take control and better manage conflicting priorities. This programme is suitable for all officers and can be a useful tool for breaking down silos.
UNDERSTANDING TEAM INTERACTIONS - NEUROSCIENCE 101
Workplace interactions are complex and difficult. Often, we work alongside people who we would not normally choose to associate with — people who are very different from us. This can create uncertainty, conflict and distrust. The Neuroscience 101 of Workplace Interactions workshop provides a tool to understand individual differences and thereby breakdown mistrust.
Understanding the basic needs of our brains and the differences in how we work and interpret the world can go a long way not only to explaining why we clash, but also how to avoid clashes in the future. Presenting cutting-edge research from the field of neuroscience, this programme is suitable for people at all levels who are looking to better understand why they are able to work conflict-free with some people but not with others. You don’t have to know anything about the brain; you just have to want to understand and improve relationships with people.
DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS
One of the common failings of managers and teams is that they are conflict adverse. Individuals and managers do not want to have the ‘difficult’ conversations and avoid them as long as possible. This tends to exacerbate any problems and create uncertainty, anxiety and resentment. One of the reasons people avoid difficult conversations is that they do not feel confident to raise matters effectively.
This workshop provides tools and skills to tackle difficult matters in a constructive and calm way. Participants practise conversation and can work through specific matters to build confidence in addressing the issues that arise. A crucial skill for anyone managing people, this can be delivered as a stand-alone programme and it is generally included in Leading and Managing Teams.
TIME MANAGEMENT
In the 2020s, time management is as much about managing distractions as it is about how we diarise our time. This programme provides officers with an understanding of how distractions are impacting their daily performance and offers a range of tips to better manage those distractions for improved output.
Eye-opening and challenging, participants will be encouraged to change some common practices that are hindering their success.
360° FEEDBACK
Constructive feedback can be a critical element in understanding your impact on those around you. The 360° Feedback surveys delivered by LGMA seek to deliver constructive and direct feedback from colleagues, supervisors and reports on the perceived performance of an individual across a range of key behavioural areas. This can be illuminating and lead to improved performance and understanding.
Delivery can be for an individual or at a team/organisational level.
MENTOR TRAINING
Many organisations recognise the benefit of cross-organisation (or even external) mentoring. However, sometimes efforts fail because mentors have not been supported to undertake the role of mentor and struggle to separate their role as leader and manager from their role as mentor.
Mentors need to understand the discrete role they will play as separate from their role as supervisor, colleague or friend. This session focuses on teaching potential mentors to understand their role and practice the specific skills of questioning, exploring and rephrasing that are critical to good mentoring.
