In-House Courses

An overview of the courses we currently offer In-House

SDIC

Systematic Development of Informed Consent
SDIC is the most powerful approach to Public Involvement that professionals can use in public-sector problem-solving and decision-making.
What is so powerful about it?
- It gets your most important and controversial proposals implemented.
- Thereby, it makes you consistently more effective!
This course will cause you to have a paradigm shift needed that will give you the means to tackle your mission and no longer be hung up by politics, special interests, citizen sandbagging, or any of the frustrations of the average public-sector professional. 
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CPO

Citizen Participation-by-Objectives
This course picks up where SDIC leaves off, so SDIC is a prerequisite.  This is a hands-on management workshop where you roll up your sleeves and apply what you learned in SDIC to an actual, important, and preferably controversial project.  You will learn how to assess the project’s Citizen Participation Needs, and how to address those needs so that the project is successfully and efficiently implemented.  The Bleikers will also expose you to a number of CP Techniques and the unique way they suggest you do them that will set you apart from the average public-sector professional.
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Leadership

a Bootcamp for Guiding Complex Problem-Solving & Decision-Making Processes, especially when everything goes wrong!
We will familiarize you with the several fundamental concepts that are at the root of problem-solving and decision-making, which will save you the pains of developing good judgment from experience alone. Some of the issues covered in this course include
- The Augmentation/Meta Process
- Using and Defending Against Strategies of Conflict
- Negotiations, Mediation, and Conflict Resolution
- Excellence and Productivity
- Assessing Risk and Dealing with Uncertainty
- Elementary Concepts in Applied Maximizing
- The Role of Values
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Professional Ethics

“an Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Thousand Cures”
If you are a public official, or if you practice a profession that exposes you to public scrutiny, we invite you to participate in this seminar on professional ethics. It’s designed just for you!
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CPO-2

Dealing with Domestic Terrorists and other Extremist Opponents to Legitimate Government Proposals and Actions
This seminar is about those of your opponents who really, truly have gone, or are about to go off the deep end.  While we hope you will never have to face such opponents, the public officials who do have to face them probably did not plan on it either.  Like you, they are just trying to do their duty; they’re just trying to accomplish their mission . . .  In other words, they are trying to be responsible. These public officials wind up asking themselves: “Why are some folks all of a sudden coming unhinged? Why am I perceived as a public enemy? I’m just trying to do my job!  What am I to do?!”
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Crisis Management

for Managers Who Strive to be the Best, Even Under Enormous Stress and Pressure
Once you’ve mastered basic management, you are ready for Crisis-Management.
We’ll show you how to handle various scenarios such as: there’s a rumor circulating about your agency or your team. It’s a rumor about an extremely serious issue. You feel that ignoring it will cause problems,but so will addressing it! You get totally contradictory advice from your experts and advisers! You don’t have all the information—and for a long time won’t have the information—you either need to confirm or deny the rumor . . . You need a compass, a North Star, a strategy. . .
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COSTAR

Commission - Staff Relations
Most organizations with important missions—both in the private and the public-sectors—have a professional Staff that reports to a “Commission”, a “Board”, and a “Council” . . . i.e.  some kind of body that makes the big policy decisions.  There are almost as many different Boards and Commissions as there are organizations, and their functions vary a great deal.  The concerns of the Regional Water Commission are NOT the same as those of the local Hospice Program Board; the Board of Directors of a national environmental group does not deal with the same issues as City Council.  And a manufacturing company’s Board of Directors does not worry about the same things as the local Mental Health Board. 
This course will help:
- Make the organization more effective and more productive,
- The decision-makers contribute in the area where they have the most to contribute; the values area,
- The professionals get appreciated for what they are: professionals, and their work gets used—not wasted.
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Personal Decision-Making

Tools for Making Difficult Decisions that Lessen Regret
This training session includes basic decision-making tools that lend themselves for improving one’s own personal decision-making. In this very short course we familiarize you with the concept of “Goal Fabrics;” one of the most powerful and most practical tools for making better personal decisions.
A Goal Fabric helps you in two ways:
- To make sure that you are making progress in your day-to-day living toward goals that are truly fulfilling for you,
- To get a handle on your many competing, maybe even conflicting values.
Learn more about this course