It's hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse. Adlai Stevenson

• Advisory board – development, effectiveness, performance
• Coaching
• Creativity and innovation
• Customer service approach
• Decision making
• Delegation
• Effective communication
• Emotional intelligence
• Enhancing your listening skills
• Facilitation skills
• Interview techniques for hiring managers
• Managing change
• Myers Briggs personality type
• Negotiation
• Problem solving
• Process simplification
• Preferred learning styles
• Relationship building
• Ropes course team training
• Strategic planning
• Team building
• 360-degree assessment and feedback

Organizational Consultation

The LDC team provides organization development services within the University community. These services focus on improving and developing the workplace environment and its related structures, but with an emphasis on the human system.

The organizational development services provide a longer-term working relationship with the client generally averaging 3-12 months. Many UVa departments and organizations have benefited from the following organizational development services.

Change Management

Preparing an organization to deal effectively with change and managing that process successfully can be a challenging task. Our consultants will work with your department to foster an understanding of both organizational and personal change. Our staff will aid in designing a process where your employees have a role in planning and implementing change while acquiring new skills and behaviors. As part of the overall change management effort we will assist you with:

• departmental planning
• educational seminars and training
• facilitated group sessions, and
• targeted communications

Human Capital Development

Whether supervisors or individual contributors, employees must be well prepared to meet the challenges they face every day. We can help you and your employees identify areas for self-improvement and in preparing an individual development (or action) plan. This occurs through facilitating learning experiences and growth opportunities that contribute to your or your employees goals for personal and professional development.

Organizational Redesign

When structural changes are needed within an organization, we can assist you in organization redesign and capacity building. The need or desire to make organizational changes is usually triggered by the presence of a new manager/leader, or the exit of such a person. We can work with you and your leaders to assess the multiple impacts these structural changes may have on your staff and workplace effectiveness.

Strategic Planning

Strategic planning is a vital component in the overall life of any organization. We can assist you and your management team envision the desired future, define goals, clarify mission, and develop strategies for reaching your desired objectives. We can engage your leadership team in ongoing strategic planning discussions that foster a clear sense of direction and purpose. We can also provide consultation on developing methods for monitoring and evaluating the strategic plan implementation process.

Focus Groups, Retreats & Team Development

The LDC can provide the following services to small and large organizations both academic and administrative.

Focus Groups

If you are an organizations seeking input from faculty, staff, or students you can often benefit from conducting focus groups as part of your new initiatives. Information coming from focus groups conducted with your key stakeholders or target audiences can be used to enhance existing programs or clarify organizational priorities and strategy. We will assist you with planning, facilitating, and documenting your focus group sessions as part of our ongoing consulting service.

Meeting Facilitation

Meeting facilitation allows people with different backgrounds to communicate more effectively when attempting to accomplish new initiatives or business results. Having LDC facilitate your meeting will maximize the involvement of all members to achieve the desired results. We provide a path to reach the meeting objectives by ensuring full participation and helping resolve conflicts. This type of service includes assistance with facilitating meetings, retreats, and focus group sessions and custom designed workshops. We will:

• Help construct a shared understanding of a problem that may be poorly defined, or defined differently by different parties
• Help your group work together to more readily solve complex or unusual problems
• Help your group make quick decisions when crisis situations require it
• Encourage total group participation
• Align organizational goals and team strategies

Retreat Planning

We will work with your department or business unit to identify and define your retreat objectives. In addition to facilitating the retreat, we will assist you in developing the event's format, agenda, timeline, and communication process. We believe that your group members are true experts in their field of expertise, and as such we will aid in creating a retreat format that allows them to dialogue and work productively. Our consultants will provide a structure and process by which your employees can work to accomplish the task at hand.

Team Development

Inspiring teams to work more collaboratively requires a process that helps team members to better understanding themselves and co-workers. Team development activities involve facilitated retreats and workshops that help members understand and appreciate the differences that affect communication, and ultimately, the ability to work together. Team development can also improve the diagnosis and problem-solving abilities of employees as they work together to meet the expectations of their managers.

Workshops and Seminars

University employees who are not members of one of our three leadership networks, but whom still seek a unique leadership development experience, can register for one of our many open enrollment Leadership Workshops and Conferences that focus on building leadership understanding and ability. Our innovative programs take employees on a journey of exploration that challenges them to think differently about the way they lead others. Customized programs can also be created for intact work groups seeking specialized attention.