Quality Conversations - Better Decisions - Improved Behaviours.

Psychological Services

Just as people have medical problems occasionally, but still go to work with the cold or flu, so also do we suffer mental problems and take them to work. No one is immune, and at any one time a portion of any workforce is burdened with emotional or psychological challenges.

In contrast to how readily we seek medical aid, only a small proportion of the 1 in 5 people who will suffer a mental disorder this year will go and seek help that could provide relief and shorten recovery. Not many people know that 4 of the 10 leading causes for personal disability are mental disorders, or that about 10% of those 18 years and older will have a depressive episode this year.

These problems are so important to recognise and deal with that the Australian Government has facilitated interaction between medical doctors and providers of psychological services. By seeing a GP people can have a mental health program developed that will enable them to see a Psychologist for as many as 12 sessions in any year, and receive Medicare funding.

Counselling Services

Sometimes we can get into a mess that is more about poor communications, poor relationships, or poor decisions rather than ‘something psychological’. The high divorce rate is testimony to our ability to ‘get things wrong’. Counseling can help reduce the likelihood, and minimise the damage from, such events. Counselling is largely about seeing things differently – and then behaving differently.

Organisational interventions, Organisational change, Training & Coaching

It would be great if organisations always ran smoothly, but they don’t – because they are full of people. That, plus the pressure to improve the organisation’s performance, applies an increasing pressure to change – to be adaptable, flexible, effective & efficient. There is one component common to all these conflicting demands – ‘communication’. We have demonstrated substantial improvements in organisations that heed this message and get communication to a high quality of purpose and execution. Strategic Conversation can be learned, and organisational climate can be planned. Managed properly, people can make it a great organisation.

This approach to organisational change gets to the core of how change and development happen – through the conversations within the organisation, and between its members and key external people.

Our programs (workshops & coaching) cover all three aspects – what people should talk about, who they should converse with, and how they should communication with each other. Research results from a program conducted to test the effects of learning and using Strategic Conversation provide strong statistical support for this process.

Our programs to promote organisational change, high-performing teams, and high performing individuals can be delivered as ‘King-Hit’ workshops where the focus is on maximum gain for minimum cost and time, or through longer ‘Development Programs’ where the emphasis is on professionalism and depth of application of learning.

• Decision-
  making
• Mediation
• Persuading
• Counselling
• Motivating
• Coaching
• Relationships
• Inter-
  personal
• Business

How we do it

Services

Deltapoint services operate from Brisbane (Australia) and can be delivered to or conducted at your premises, or ‘away’ at a suitable venue, or over video-conferencing facilities.

Mediation Services

Mediation can assist in the resolution of disputes in the workplace. The dispute may be seen to be important by the organisation, or by those disputing, or by only one disputant. Mediation is used to manage conflict between people or groups of people in an independent, fair, and professional manner. Use mediation to help prevent issues causing damaging workplace conflict that may otherwise lead to litigation.

Lesley Johnson, one of Deltapoint’s two directors, is a qualified and accredited mediator and member of the Institute of Arbitrators and Mediators Australia (IAMA), has a Master’s Degree in Human Resource Management – and twenty years experience as a manager to bring to alternative dispute resolution in the workplace. Ian Johnson, the other Deltapoint director, is a qualified practising psychologist and can support mediation where psychological counselling may be helpful in preparing for mediation, or helping someone adapt to (accept) mediation outcome.

Counselling Services

Some organisations have found it worthwhile to provide access to psychological or counselling services for their employees, and even the families of employees. Such a supportive service is not linked to the organisation’s profit outcome, although it often has unexpected beneficial outcomes for the sponsoring organisation. It is often attached to an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) to provide limited access to this support.

Coaching Services

Training, development, mentoring and coaching are all options for improving organisational skills, knowledge or attitudes, impacting capabilities and capacities. Coaching is regarded as ‘just in time’ training on a one-to-one basis. It is cost effective and becoming a favoured delivery mechanism. We offer coaching services to those seeking development, or those who need help – at any level.

Training Services

We can provide a range of tailored workshops to meet your training and development needs as well as provide via training and Development Programs. We are uniquely placed to apply the combination of teaching (information and skills delivery) with the psychology of learning and motivation (information and skill uptake). Ian Johnson, one of Deltapoint’s principals, is a registered psychologist, with a professional focus on organisational conversation, learning and performance.

For organisations interested in nationally recognised training, we can identify and work with RTOs to ensure that appropriate training programs are tailored to meet the requirements of your organisation. Deltapoint’s other principal, Lesley Johnson, has been a senior manager with the Australian National Training Authority, is a qualified teacher and trainer, and has extensive contacts in vocational education and training.

Facilitation Services

Facilitation focuses on ‘process’ rather than content, making efforts to help the passage of some meeting or event from start to finish in such way that appropriate standards of ethics, behaviour, and fairness are followed. A facilitator will also attempt to enhance the meeting’s adherence to its purpose. The facilitator has no power to direct, but relies upon rules that were agreed at the beginning.

Organisational Climate Survey

A successful organisational climate survey (assessment) and review starts long before the climate survey is done. It starts with getting the climate ready for a climate survey – and that will usually (99.9% of organisations) mean getting help. Otherwise, it will be about as effective as ‘typical’ – and they’re not effective according to most research on the topic. However, when done properly – that’s a different story.

Workshops

The workshop ’packages’ are designed for busy organisations that want to get the biggest actual and measurable bang within the shortest timeframe. Each package has a strategic focus and begins with a workshop of one or two days duration. The workshop is followed by an implementation support program that provides additional assistance, and monitors outcomes. This follow-up is important to the organisations benefit from these workshops. The packages are intensely practical, research-based, results driven, and people-friendly.

Better Meetings – Workshop

At the end of the workshop, delegates will be able to use key steps to prepare for and manage a meeting. They will be able to identify multiple agendas and map topic development. Delegates will use the tools in several practice meetings. They will have analysed a real meeting and have planned, engaged in and reviewed a repeat of that meeting. Delegates will apply the skills and demonstrate measurable changes in meeting efficiency and effectiveness.

Better Decisions – Workshop

At the end of the workshop, delegates will be able to outline the process of decision making, and to apply these steps to identified problems. They will be able to use the psychology of decision making and know the difference between deferral and procrastination. They will have gained real skills and greater confidence in their decision making. Delegates will apply the skills in their work and demonstrate measurable changes in their decision-making in action.

Welcoming Change – Workshop

Delegates to this workshop will be able to relate the pressures for change to their own organisational situation. Understanding the inevitability of change, and their own contribution to the pressures on other organisations to change, helps change the view towards change. They will be able to identify why change so often fails, why it succeeds, and how to use key aspects of successful change. Delegates will have practiced interactional situations that arise in change scenarios. They will have developed a plan for their own systematic approach – and that we follow through with them – to apply some form measurable and ‘welcomed’ change.

Managing Stress – Workshop

Stress is a dynamic condition in which an individual is confronted with an opportunity, constraint or demand for which the outcome is perceived to be both uncertain and important. Of course, stress is not always bad – it might be exciting. Where there are high levels of ‘felt’ stress in an organisation, the effects can be damaging both to the individuals and to the organisation. There is no kudos for producing broken people – or being part of the executive team of a sick organisation – and it is so easily avoided. This workshop is about recognizing symptoms of stress and acting to reduce stressors and managing stress levels for individuals and organisations. Even in a competitive environment, it is possible to pursue the status of ‘preferred employer’.

Applying Systems Thinking – Workshop

This workshop sets out to simplify the understanding of complex systems (not complicated systems). It begins with understanding and refining a single organisational system, and moves towards understanding interaction, integration and alignment between organisational systems that characterizes systems thinking.
More details – Back to Top of page

Organisational Purpose – Workshop
Most organisations are suprised with the difficulty posed by this topic, and yet it is only when the organisational purpose is clear and agreed by all, that strategic goals can be set and strategies be formed. Only then can other members of the organisation base decisions on supporting those strategies. This workshop is designed to facilitate an exploration or a review of the core purpose of the organisation. Why does the organisation exist? This is where all organisational development begins – and it’s harder than it sounds.

Organisational Capabilities – Workshop

Organisational Capabilities Development is an inherent part of Strategic Planning and a precursor for Workforce Planning. A ‘Fit for purpose’ mix and optimal use of capabilities is becoming increasingly important in a global market. This workshop provides a theoretical and practical overview to support a clear assessment of organisational capability in connection with strategic intent, including identification of potential areas of waste or risk.

Planning a Strategic Organisational Climate – Workshop

Organisation climate is mostly an accident – it results from all the decisions and actions of the past. Many organisations conduct surveys to find out what of the organisations climate is like – ‘what it’s like to work here’. However, a survey is unlikely to be useful, and research does not support the use of climate surveys. Climate surveys can help identify areas to improve, but how do you improve it and by how much do you need to impove it, and which parts are more important? Instead of being accidental, and to allow the climate survey to be a strategically useful part of organisational management, the climate could be “planned”. This workshop is designed as an introduction to climate planning – a more strategic approach that identifies the aspects of organisational climate that best support your organisations development.

Workforce Planning – Workshop

Workforce Planning is an inherent part of Strategic Planning for all organisations and is becoming increasingly important in an era of greater reliance on knowledge workers and profound demographic change. Participants to this workshop will consider the balance of emphasis on current versus future workforce capabilities. Importance is placed on ‘getting’ and ‘keeping’ the right people, which means developing strategies for recruitment and retention. The group will develop an action plan for the workforce planning process – to guide the establishment or upgrading of a workforce planning initiative within your organisation.

Strategic Risk Planning – Workshop

This workshop uses the dynamics of strategic conversation to take delegates through a new and high-level view of risk in terms of the strategic planning loop. At the end of the workshop, delegates will have focused on strategic risks and opportunities in possible future ‘stories’. They will have taken the existing strategic plan and subjected it to an intense ‘SWOT’ analysis to identify risks and opportunities at each stage of the strategic planning loop. The workshop first provides the ‘systemic’ view of strategic risk, then the delegates undertake a ‘systematic’ assessment of risk to identify key strategic areas for attention. An expected outcome of the workshop will be a series of recommendations for risk mitigation, management and review.

Organisational Development Programs

The Development Programs series are intended for organisations that want to conduct ongoing ‘people and organisational development’ – on the job. These are not training programs, although skills-transfer occurs. They are ‘development’ programs that ensure maximum transfer and application of new knowledge and skills. – Back to Top of page

Conversation Strategies – Development Program

Conversation is the most frequently done human activity, other than breathing – so why is it that when it matters we make so many mistakes? Do you attend innumerable meetings that never seem to reach a conclusion – or never get acted upon? Conversation strategies can make a difference.

A conversation strategy is a plan for an intended response or reaction by the listener(s). Such a strategy attempts to guide both the process and content of thinking by the listener(s), and from that can follow the desired actions. A comprehensive strategy might include ways to reduce or circumvent difficulties, and use input from the listener(s) as feedback to evaluate progress of the strategy.

We first learn these skills as children when we want something from our parents, and refine them over time. However, we then begin to lose the skills as adults when promotions and other gains in personal power (e.g. being a parent, being a manager/executive/CEO etc) reduce the need to use such strategies – it’s more economical to use directives and similar authoritative edicts.

But do those lazy communication styles get the same results?

A professional approach to conversation will include responsibility for listener reaction or response (they are different), and use an array of ‘tools’ (e.g. questions) and ‘tactics’ (e.g. ‘face’ management) to be effective AND efficient.

Develop Strategic Conversation – Development Program

At the end of the program, your delegates will be able to select and maintain the chosen strategic purpose for the conversation. They will be able to select and develop topics for Strategic Conversation and ensure ‘fit’ with the strategic planning loop. They will be able to choose and use appropriate conversation forms and to demonstrate strategic orientation in their participation in Strategic Conversation. Your delegates will be modeling strategic conversation and in a position to foster implementation through the organisation.

Decision Making – Development Program

An organisation is where it is today because of the decisions made in its past, and the effectiveness of the implementation of those decisions. Had those decisions been of better quality, and implemented more effectively, the organisation might be even more successful now. To improve the outlook for both the immediate and distant future, would it help to improve this important skill? One decision right now could be to decide to improve decision making skills, and another to improve implementation effectiveness. To not make this decision – is to make the decision to NOT improve this most important skill.

Relationship Development – Development Program

It is essential to get basic communication (conversation) right. An important part of that is concerned with building and using relationships. We all know that it’s worthwhile having a good working relationship with people with whom you interact – but exactly how do you build a good working relationship? What does it look / sound like? How do you manage to build a good working relationship with someone you might not even really like?

Prepare Organisation – Development Program

This organisational development program is about preparing the organisation for change by shaping attitudes about change. The outcome for this program is therefore a new state of readiness for organisational change. It achieves this by introducing ’conversations’ that concern organisational change, allowing members to explore the organisation and understand the need for change, and begin to understand how to do it so it will ‘stick’.

Strategic Systems – Development Program

This program is intended for the executive team and appropriate ’planning’ managers (strategic – operational – administrative), and those being cultivated for such positions. At the end of the program, delegates will be able to apply systems approaches to important organisational activities, and link such systems to the other relevant organisational systems. This high level of ‘professional management’ introduces a form of quality assurance to key strategic organisational processes that have previously been too slippery or complex to ‘get under control’.