Services

PEOPLE 1^ST promotes the development of people in the workplace by encouraging leaders and employees to excel at what they do through a better understanding of human behaviours and communication techniques.

Our expertise is focussed on six key areas:

• Facilitation
• Teambuilding and Communications
• Training
• HR Planning and Management
• Culture and Organizational Development
• IT/IM Processes

We offer consulting services and unique, custom designed programs to meet the specific needs of individual clients in all of these areas. Before initiating any program, we work closely with all clients to analyze your current situation and develop a comprehensive proposal that clearly identifies your challenges, goals, and preferred working method for improving the productivity and workplace satisfaction of your team.

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Facilitation

PEOPLE 1^ST successfully facilitates and enables strategic planning in organizations of all kinds. Our facilitation functions on the premise that increased organization combined with better communication and careful planning will further your organization’s progress toward optimal productivity, efficiency, and strength.

Like an orchestra leader, a facilitator can play a powerful role in drawing out people, building shared understanding, and helping people construct powerful insights. With no vested interest in the specific outcome of your business solution, our facilitation services focus on the application of effective process, freeing your group to focus on the business objectives at hand.

Using proven facilitation techniques, PEOPLE 1^ST helps your group assume responsibility for their own success by coaching and providing feedback, asking appropriate open-ended questions, and establishing an atmosphere where cooperative learning and collaboration is valued.

National Or Regional Conferences

PEOPLE 1^ST facilitates national and regional meetings and provides teambuilding services to ensure maximum effectiveness for strategic management and staff retreats.

Facilitation Workshops

PEOPLE 1^ST also provides customized workshops to help employees develop their own facilitation skills.

The Effective Facilitator - A Facilitation Skills Learning Program

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Teambuilding and Communications

PEOPLE 1^ST is widely recognized for its experience and expertise in Team Building and Communications for the workplace. We offer a full slate of customized Team Building and Communications programs including Conflict Resolution and Coaching.

Team Building 
The primary focus of PEOPLE 1^ST Team Building sessions is to help employees understand how groups work together. These sessions provide an opportunity for the group(s) to step back, assess their current situation  -- progress, barriers, strengths and weaknesses -- and devise an effective game plan to move forward.

Effective Team Building can benefit the group and the organization through increased morale; enhanced communication; increased synergy, greater unity and goal-focus; a better understanding of each other’s needs and  talents; and more effective conflict resolution and feedback skills.

If you have a group that wants to understand each other better, needs to work more synergistically, or perhaps has a new or critical issue to resolve,  a customized  PEOPLE 1^ST  Team Building session may be just what you need.

Improving Team Motivation
Improving Team Effectiveness
Successful Innovation Teams
Team Effectiveness Series
The Team Development Process
Take One Day To Re-Energize Your Team!
Team Info (pdf) Work Expectations Info (pdf)

Communication

Communication is a fundamental skill. Most of us can do it well enough to get by, but we could all probably use some improvement. Unfortunately, communication is often regarded as such a basic skill that we rarely take time to sharpen our abilities.

At PEOPLE 1^ST we excel in helping people to understand the many styles of communication and how to recognize these differences so that they can respond effectively to avoid misunderstandings and build stronger relationships.

Adapting To Different Styles 
Communication Effectiveness Series 
Coping With Difficult People 
Understanding Personal Listening Approaches 
Understanding Yourself and Others 
Using Your Strengths To Your Advantage 
DiSC_PPSS (pdf) 

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Training

PEOPLE 1^ST offers a wide variety of Training services and programs to build individual and team skills for increased productivity and satisfaction in the workplace. Some of our more popular Training programs include: 

• Leadership Development

• Sales Development

• Customer Service

• Personal Development

• Motivation

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Leadership Development

Millions of dollars are spent on leadership training every year... to no avail. We still have a significant lack of leadership in all areas of society, and at all levels of business and government.

The missing ingredient is trust. A high level of trust is critical to leadership success, and yet so many leaders fail to build trust, despite all the training they have been given. Most leaders are personally trustworthy, in an honest, ethical, moral sense... and yet they continue to diminish the trust that their employees and customers have for them and the company.
 
PEOPLE 1^ST has been assisting leaders to understand and implement the specific behaviours that build trust for over 30 years.

Be An Extraordinary Leader
Developing Effective Leaders
The Management Development Process
Leadership Info (pdf)
DiSC Management Strategies (pdf)
DiSC Classic Info (pdf)

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Sales Development

It’s easy to forget how much diversity there is among customers. We often get wrapped up in our own way of seeing things and rely too much on a single well-worn sales approach. To be truly effective, salespeople need to learn how different customers really are and how their distinct differences can be appreciated.

At PEOPLE 1^ST we help salespeople learn to read and appreciate the buying needs of different people, and adjust their sales process accordingly. We help salespeople gain insight into why certain customers are difficult for them, and teach them better ways to respond in difficult situations. 

Being Responsive To Customer Differences
Building A Sales Relationship
Sales Strategies
DiSC Sales Action Planner (pdf)
DiSC Classic Profile (pdf)

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Customer Service

"They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you make them feel."
- Carol Buchner

Clients remember how they were made to ‘feel’ when they dealt with you or your organization. These feelings -- either good or bad -- often form the foundation for future business relationships.

PEOPLE 1^ST provides a variety of Customer Service training programs to help employees at all levels understand the needs and feelings of their clients and respond to them in a positive and helpful way.

Customer Service
Glad I Could Help
Telephone Courtesy Pays Off
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE WORKS Info (pdf)
DiSC CUSTOMER SERVICE Action Planner (pdf)
DiSC Classic Info

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Personal Development

The foundation of personal and professional success lies in understanding self, understanding others and realizing the impact of personal behavior on the people around you.

PEOPLE 1^ST offers a variety of programs to help employees develop positive attitudes and increased self-awareness for maximum workplace satisfaction and efficiency.

Adventures in Attitudes
Building Greater Self Awareness
Using Your Strengths To Your Advantage
Understanding Yourself and Others

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Motivation

Employee attitude is increasingly cited as the number one performance-related issue of companies, both large and small. Coping with the continuous changes of the downsized, team-oriented, and increasingly diverse workplace has left many people confused, fearful, and sometimes angry. As attitudes deteriorate, so do commitment, loyalty and performance.

PEOPLE 1^ST offers a variety of programs  to help you increase motivation and transform your working environment with positive and productive attitudes!

Adventures in Attitudes
Motivation: Dream it... Walk it... Believe it!
Adventures in Attitudes pdf

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Culture and Organizational Development

PEOPLE 1^ST has extensive hands-on experience with ongoing organizational development processes that require a long term commitment to strategy, buy-in from multiple constituents, and well executed plans that impact functions, departments, and entire organizations.

Our Culture and Organizational Development expertise can help you define your organization's vision, mission, values, objectives, measurements and internal alignment, and develop a high level strategy to be executed through a well-structured, implementation process.

PEOPLE 1^ST's Culture and Organizational Development consulting services include:

• Culture Shaping

• Vision

• Mission

• Values/Guiding principles

• Strategic Planning and Alignment

• Cultural Norms and Processes

• Cross-Organizational Consulting and Facilitation

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HR Planning and Management

PEOPLE 1^ST is experienced in strategic planning and human resources management with a particular emphasis on change leadership, team/individual development and assessment, and performance management/measurement. 

We work closely with clients on a consulting basis to identify new organizational processes, structures, skills and competencies that closely align resources and operations to the future requirements of the organization.

Managing Work Expectations

Work expectations are those things people consider likely to happen in their job situation, either now or in the future. Whether spoken or unspoken, met or unmet, expectations have a powerful impact on our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and play a key role in driving our attitudes. Research shows that people who have clearly defined, well-communicated expectations find more satisfaction and success in their work than people whose expectations go unspoken or unrealized.

PEOPLE 1^ST works closely with both individual employees and groups to identify expectations and develop effective strategies to realistically integrate personal expectations with workplace realities.

Managing Work Expectations – Transforming Attitudes

WORK EXPECTATIONS (pdf)

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IT / IM Processes 
Information Technology (IT) and Information Management (IM) are unique fields with unique issues.  At PEOPLE 1^ST,  our broad range of experience and understanding of people helps us comprehend and appreciate the creative  and highly valued professionals in the IT/IM business. 

We assist leaders who are struggling with the ‘people issues’ in their IT/IM teams by addressing the HUMAN side of technology. We have defused high stress levels within IT/IM groups in many organizations and our 'go to where the people are at' approach  results in meaningful and valuable exchanges and learning.

We often work with senior management to clarify group mandates and then follow-up with individual IT/IM teams to help them clarify their roles and responsibilities, improve their relationships and optimize their performance to meet strategic organizational goals.

Our success is discovering the strengths within the individual teams. We coach in a manner that emphasizes the value each person brings to his/her area of expertise, and we develop trust and communication between members of the team.  Our presentations are also highly interactive with participants doing ‘hands-on’ activities which they find interesting and fun.

Examples 

A Team In Conflict

PEOPLE 1^ST facilitate with IT/IM  technical staff to ensure that team members:

• understand their different communication styles 

• resolve issues regarding their roles 

• understand their interactions with clients, and other divisions and stakeholders throughout the organization. 

• determine requirements for optimum performance as a team 

• achieve agreement on how to attain optimum performance as a team.

A Team Needing To Establish Responsibilities 
PEOPLE 1^ST commence by team building and helping employees align their particular responsibilities and accountabilities to gain full potential within their team. Using the Team Dimensions  (view PDF) profile, PEOPLE 1^ST can identify the strengths of team members and help them assume responsibilities that match their preferred working style.

A Team Wanting To Be Better 
PEOPLE 1^ST has worked with many  teams that wanted to improve their team spirit and learn new ways of working better together. Using a variety of facilitation and interactive program techniques, PEOPLE 1^ST has helped these teams increase their trust level and also develop more understanding with each other, resulting in a significant and marked improvement in their work environment from all perspectives.

A Team Wanting To Review Their Needs 
PEOPLE 1^ST are experts in the development of Organizational Climate Surveys to provide a bench mark to managers and leaders in organizations.  We speak with clients and team members individually -- and confidentially -- to produce accurate results and written direction as to next steps in any group. 

A Team Wanting To Create A Vision And Goals 
PEOPLE 1^ST have helped numerous teams establish a living, working charter or 'vision'  of organizational goals.  When developed and facilitated from within the team or teams, this vision brings all players onto the same page and allows them to share ‘ownership’ of the common goals and vision of their organization. 

A Department Wants To Address Employee Survey Issues 
PEOPLE 1^ST have designed and delivered training sessions on many different ‘topics and needs’ chosen by management and staff: Often working with cross divisional teams, we have successfully motivated managers and employees to meet their respective goals while breaking down the barriers of regional disparities and the organizational silo effect.  Highlighting common challenges and opportunities provided by the national perspective, these sessions frequently deal with Management, Leadership, Team-work, Stress, Change and Transition, and inter-personal Communications.

Succession Planning And Knowledge Transfer 
PEOPLE 1^ST can assist in processing the transfer of critical information from present stakeholders to new incumbents often spanning generation gaps and knowledge gaps. This process includes communication and team building with the new incumbent and the existing team to promote quicker development of trust, understanding and solidarity.

Meeting A Variety Of “Human” Needs 
PEOPLE 1^ST can help Directors and Leaders implement specific goals and objectives.  We manage all requirements for the planning, customization and transformation process to provide an effective  view of the 'big picture' for employees. In some cases, a teambuilding retreat focussing on the Leader’s strategic plan for the future can be sufficient to increase motivation, reduce stress and facilitate adaptation to new management personnel and techniques.