Speaking & Training Programs
Leadership
NEW! Managing Demographics, Generations & Change for Performance and Profit
Big changes are occurring in the demographics of the workplace. Organizations that manage this well will have a major advantage in the future. This program identifies action oriented strategies that need to be enacted by forward thinking organizations. Key areas of opportunity include;
- Understanding Changing Demographics
- Understanding Generations in the Workplace
- Building Successor Leaders for Capacity and Profit
- Enacting Effective Knowledge Transfer
- Maximizing Mentoring for Rapid Development
The key to being a successful organization in the future is to be proactive not reactive. A focus on assertive, creative and forward thinking strategies will be the difference between average and high performance organizations.
Seminar Format: 3-4 Hours Interactive & Small Group Model Or 2hr Large Group Format
NEW! High Profit High Performance Supervisor
Educate. Inspire. Motivate.
Tough markets require an extra edge. No one is more important in the profit equation than the Supervisor /foreman running the job. That foreman cannot run that job like they did last year or even last month and expect to succeed. Margins and competition are demanding higher performance for foremen to deliver results.
This high impact program is designed as a serious wake up call and strategy session for your foremen. They will learn;
- The 3 most powerful strategies to motivate and improve employee performance and production
- Effective methods to filter their workforce for high performance
- How to set and quantify goals that crews can understand and respond to
- How to coach, mentor and effectively critique worker performance
- How to professionally stand in the shoes of the contractor every day on every project
Keynote or seminar format: 2-4 hours – Companies, Office Staff, all field Supervision
NEW! Beyond the Stick and Carrot: Motivation and Performance in the Construction Industry
This seminar provides highly detailed information on the science, psychology and application of motivational principles. A product of two years of research, this program includes an assessment of the condition and consequences of poor motivational management in construction; the ROI of improved productivity and schedule, utilization of top motivational theories, generational differences in motivation; goal setting and reporting; and how to apply all these at an organizational level and on the jobsite.
Keynote or seminar format: 1-2 hours. Labor / Management / Contractors / Supervisors
NEW! The Perfect Storm: Navigating Change in Challenging Times
This program focuses on using challenging times as a foundation for change. Using the epic 1991 Perfect Storm as an analogy and case study, this highly interactive program looks at the advantages that crisis and challenge bring to leadership and strategy. The content includes many recommendations and strategies that must be enacted now in the face of market storms, competitive challenges and operational and political obstacles. Key areas for change include contracts, negotiations, benefit structures and liabilities, apprenticeship, member engagement, contractor management practices, reducing political risk and impact and more.
Keynote or seminar format: 1-2 hours. Labor and/or Management Leadership
The Leadership Commitment
This program focuses on key strategies for Owner – end user, labor and management construction leaders in the area of change management and engagement. The traditional models associated with leading and managing in the construction industry are based on tradition not best practices. How does a company, organization or industry effectively evolve for greater productivity, accountability, motivation, and performance? Through a combination of management, engagement, training and communication strategies. All these are included in this dynamic presentation. The common denominator among great leaders is their willingness to act in the face of risk and the demands of conformance. Learn how to break the bond of doing the same things for the same results. Be inspired and develop your plan of action for personal and organizational change for better results and higher performance.
1.5 – 3 hrs.
(Can be combined with strategic planning for half day / full day programs)
Alpha Dogs: Leading, Managing & Motivating in the Construction Industry
This presentation, focused on labor & management leaders, provides a strategic look at the "home grown nature" of almost every leader in the union construction industry. Self-taught and successful is not the way of the future. Effective and new strategies for leveraging an increase in quality and capacity of management and leadership in the construction industry are included. It focuses on "alpha leader" characteristics and analyzes today's challenges and tomorrow's generational leadership gap. It promises to show how to double market share in ten years and increase profit. It includes very specific recommendations on how to build a new leadership culture for the industry.
These recommendations can become an Action Plan on how leaders in the construction industry can not only take these challenges head on, but leverage them into greater market share, profits and control of their own destiny.
1-2 hours. Groups to 1000+
Ethics in Construction: A Competitive Tool and Strategy
The demands of an extremely competitive environment rife with conflict, politics and power puts a lot of strain on organizational and individual ethics. This presentation examines the challenges of ethics in the industry related to:
- Ethics and organizational performance
- Recruitment, ethics and orientation of Gen X & Y
- Ethics & values as performance drivers
- Strategies and tools for ethical practices and policies
This program was developed for the American Institute of Ethics and has been acclaimed as both eye-opening and instructional in nature.
1.5 hours: Contractors, owners, labor, academic and related audiences
Performance, Work Ethic & Attitude
Survival of the Fittest: Motivation, Responsibility & Rewards
This presentation focuses on the key roles that must be played by the union, the contractors and perhaps most of all, the rank and file workers. Primary challenges covered include the realization that the good old days do not exist any longer and cooperative and strategic initiatives must be agreed upon and acted on. The focus for rank and file is attitudes and behaviors. Skills are simply not enough any more; it is about who you are as well as what you can do. A complete analysis of necessary skills, attitudes and behaviors is included.
For integrated audiences of contractors, union members, apprentices or any one sub-set. Special programs for training centers and apprentices are combined with the Survival of the Fittest book and workbook curriculum.
For companies, Building Trades, Apprentice Groups and similar
(Minimum of 2 hours up to 1000+)
NEW! Legacy
This program is for all levels of field foreman, journeymen and apprentices, and is built around the idea of having a legacy career. The central concept of the program is that an individual work in a manner that is transformational, not transactional. Transformational thinking and behavior accounts for rapid change and development in the individual, the teams and the organization where one works. Transformational thinking is when serious thought is invested in the ripple effect that one has on fellow workers, work procedures, productivity and profit. A legacy is built on the long term accounting that comes with the awareness and attention placed upon it, and the transformational nature that it generates when goals are aligned with it. For an industry that is mostly transactional – where compensation and opportunity are traded for time and talent – this is a more powerful motivating force that brings purpose into the sphere of influence for workers who may never have even thought of it.
Key components and deliverables for Legacy include:
- Understanding the difference between transactional and transformational leadership.
- Understanding, and acting, on the impact points related to time, money and profit that each jobsite decision generates.
- Promoting mentorship and generational informational exchange; especially in different phases of one's career.
- Understanding self-directed behavior and how to create your own direction, even when challenged by a culture that does not always support it.
- Utilizing positive communication in the enhancement of teamwork and improvement of processes and productivity.
- Creating an acute awareness that personal and professional decision making will define opportunity, earnings, growth and one's career legacy.
1.5 hours- foreman, journeymen and apprentices
Supercharging Contractor Productivity: 10 Ways to Boost Field Performance
This program examines specific methods and ideas for improving field productivity and performance. These cover motivation, communication, planning and related strategies that contractors, unions, project managers and foremen can all utilize to increase performance and competitiveness. The program provides take-away ideas and strategies that can be put to work immediately.
1.5-2 hours
Labor and Management Cooperation
Partners at the Crossroads
This seminar closely analyzes labor and management mutual needs and the business approach that must be taken from a marketing; operations; collective bargaining; training; and financing standpoint. This is especially effective for L-M groups looking to start or revitalize their joint initiatives.
For associations, joint labor-management groups and similar.
(1-2 hours to 1000)
The Cutting Edge: Recruitment & Workforce Development
Now more than ever the construction industry will be challenged to find, develop and retain quality candidates for a career. This needs to be done in brutal competition with every other industry in North America. Learn what cutting edge strategies and best practices are being used both inside and outside of our industry. Adapt the best methods of reaching the new base of Generation X & Y candidates, and perhaps, most importantly, take a hard look at your workplace culture to see if you are properly positioned to be the company or union "career destination" in comparison with the multitude of other opportunities. The mutual interests of contractors, owners and unions is the nucleus of the presentation.
Also included is a look at the difficulty of balancing supply, demand, attribution, union politics and demographic trends.
Key content:
- Demographic generational curve with projections on attrition
- Implications of average apprentice at 27 years old instead of 18-21
- Key elements of workplace motivation and retention
- Respective roles of end user, contractor and union in process; current process is disjointed and non-aligned
- Operational and political obstacles to success
- Cross industry analysis of competition for 18-35 year old profile
- Strategies being used by Fortune 500 manufacturing, energy, transportation, law-enforcement and similar
- Strategies being used by military
- Strategies being used in conjunction with new media/web
- Best practices within labor-management across Breslin Strategies client base (all major International unions and dozens of L-M organizations)
1-1.5 Hours-Keynote Address or Workshop
Apprenticeship and Training: A Foundation for Market Recovery
This program outlines how to use the training programs, resources and staff to increase market share. Long ignored as an asset in this area, it is the most visible, tangible and valuable return on investment for prospective contractors and end-users.
For Training Directors, Coordinators, Organizers, Business Managers and Trustees.
(2+ hours to 500+)
Our Finest Hour
In tough economic times there is a lot of fear and despair, but these can also be stepping stones to future prosperity and growth. The resistance of individuals and organizations to necessary and strategic change breaks down when faced with adversity. An understanding, then acceptance and finally embracing of change is much more likely to be successful when external pressure is applied.
These are times for rapid and significant change. In the face of adversity people want two things; information and inspiration. It is the leveraging of each of these that organizations need to harness to use adversity as a change agent.
This presentation focuses on presenting compelling information and arguments for change and how to inspire and engage organizations and individuals in process of adoption. Circumstances may be dire, but the talent pool is very deep and the sacred cows of every organization are up for sacrifice. Status quo is acceptable only when times allow it. These are not those times.
1.5 hours
Economics, Politics and Reality
The challenges of the economic environment we are in are unprecedented; but meeting the challenges that labor and management face now are foundational to their common future. Contractors must remain competitive. Unions must fulfill their role as employee advocates to create security. Both of these must be done in a way that balances economics and market share. This requires change. But to set up change you have to get everyone on board. Progress can only be made through a common understanding of and commitment to each other’s needs. Economics dictates the marketplace; politics influence the pace of change and reality is the focal point for strategy. This program outlines specifically the steps to take to create a “change mindset”, remove political obstacles and deal with reality rapidly and effectively.
2-3 hours. Up to 1000
Can be extended to 6 hours with a post presentation facilitation and planning session for groups up to 300.
Service Summary
NEW! Strategic Planning Services
More than 30% of Breslin Strategies clients use us for strategic planning services. Depending on client needs we have more facilitated plans for more than 70 major trade associations, labor organizations, contractors, foundations, non-profits / charities and others. Many clients first develop their plan with BSI and then conduct an annual update. Planning programs that have been conducted in the past include some of the following areas of focus:
- Board of Directors Planning Retreats
- Organizational Change Initiatives and Management
- Employee Engagement Programs
- Productivity Improvement Plans
- Building Trades Strategic Plan Development
- Contractor Organizational Culture Improvement
- Developing A Communications Plan
- Association and Labor Organizational Mergers
- Development of Success Measures, Metrics & Key Performance Indicators
- New Policy Development & Implementation
- Bargaining / Negotiations Preparation
- Leadership Development Programs
- Succession Plan & Generational Development
Most clients use a series of one day programs over a period of time in order to develop, launch, refine and finally evaluate the results of their planning programs. Typical planning services include:
- Pre-planning conference call(s) to determine objectives
- Review of relevant material, policies and documents
- Development of an agenda and if necessary AV supplemented materials
- Facilitated planning discussions in both small and large groups
- Written Strategic Plan Report(s)
