Unlocks employee retention with an exploration of motivation. Examines the current challenge of retention, reviews some classic motivation theory, introduces Grimme’s 3-Factor Theory, presents hard data from recent landmark studies that support the theories, reveals the secret and his Top Ten Tips to turn on talent and turn off turnover, and launches participants on an application to apply all of this to their staffs.

Tool #2: Unleash Their Productivity

Releases employee productivity by exposing a phenomenon that is impairing it – increased job demands. Examines that phenomenon, including highlights from recent studies, shares the secret for dealing with it, provides tips to ameliorate the negative impact of job demands, and includes activities for application to participants’ workplaces.

Different Strokes:

Tool #4: Embrace Diversity
Unlocks workplace diversity: what it really means, its myriad manifestations in two dimensions, the changing workforce, differing perceptions, preconceptions, stereotypes, and how to embrace diversity in participants’ workplaces. Many individual, paired and group activities are included.

Tool #5: Get a Grip on Generations
Opens up differences among generations, specifically the four generations currently in today’s workplace – Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X and Millenials. Examine the events and experiences that shaped each generation’s world view and values, potential conflicts between generations, and the most effective ways to communicate with each.

Tool #6: Focus On Ability
Concentrates on people with disabilities and reveals how to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act. Explain the rationale and essence of the Act, comments on appropriate language, introduces four core concepts, defines and explains key terms and provisions, and outlines participants’ responsibilities as leaders.

Leader Effectiveness:

Tool #7: Tell Them What Worked … and What Didn’t

Participants learn how and why to give feedback – both positive and constructive. Explains what feedback is (and isn’t), teaches when and how to deliver each type of feedback and how to combine the two types, and provides opportunities to begin applying this skill with their own employees.

Tool #8: Ask Them … Then Listen

Unlocks the other side of the two-way communication coin – inquiry to solicit employees’ ideas and opinions, and active listening to ensure that you hear them and that they feel heard. Discusses why inquiry and active listening are so important (but are underutilized), gives participants an opportunity to assess their current effectiveness, teaches how to inquire and listen, and launch them on activities to practice the skills.

Optimizing Contributions:

Tool #9: Diagnose Problems

Solves how to diagnose performance problems (examining five root causes) – a necessary precursor to any form of intervention, e.g., coaching. Provides opportunity to begin applying this skill with participants’ own employees.

Tool #10: Coach the Good Ones … and the Not So Good
How to Prevent Harassment in the Workplace

Participants learn how to coach marginal employees to improve their performance … and good employees to become even better. Includes the 4 Steps of a Coaching or Mentoring Dialogue, coaching practice scenarios, tips, and an application to their own employees.

Tool #11: Mentor the Great Ones
Unlocks how to mentor your already great employees to grow and advance. Includes the 4 Steps of a Coaching or Mentoring Dialogue, tips, Mentoring Prep Sheet and an application to participants’ own employees.

Tool #12: Turn On Teamwork
Looks at participants’ employees as a group and reveals how to optimize the performance of that workgroup and, perhaps, transform it into a real or even high-performance team. Examines “why teams don’t work” (but how they can), five types of “teams”, the stages of team development, common problems with teams (and what to do about them) and the high risk/high reward of teams. Teaches two of the essential team processes teams: brainstorming and consensus. Includes many skills practice and team-building activities.

Personal and Interpersonal Effectiveness:

Tool #13: Blow Away Burnout
Unravels job burnout – its increasing prevalence, negative consequences, indicators (including a Burnout Inventory), causes, and four arenas of attack to blow it away. Included is an application to help participants minimize burnout

Tool #14: Stay on Top of Stress
Addresses the broader issue of stress and how to stay on top of it. Participants discover what stress really is, the thinking processes at its root, and personality traits that encourage a stress response.

Tool #15: Accentuate the Positive
Participants learn about the importance of attitude (and how to improve it). Presents three types of people exhibiting three different attitudes, describes what such attitudes look and sound like, demonstrates the importance of a positive attitude, and teaches how to transform their attitude using self-talk and six other tips. Included are several activities to apply all this to their own life.

Tool #16: Assert Yourself … and Deal With ‘Difficult’ People
Unlocks assertion. Starting with a self-assessment, participants learn what assertion really is (contrasted with aggression and submission), why it is a virtue, and how to become more assertive. Also included are a workplace scenario, various applications, and a 10-point guideline for dealing with difficult people.

Tool #17: Own Your Anger … Don’t Let It Own You
Unveils the five rules of anger – how to acknowledge it, experience it, process it, express it, and then let it go – effectively and nonviolently. A self-assessment and practice activities are included throughout.

Tool #18: Rise to the Challenge of Change
Reveals the various manifestations and potentially devastating impact of change, including how to deal with the fear that change often triggers, and teaches six steps to rise to the challenge.

Eliminating Conflict:

Tool #19: Prevent All Forms of Harassment

Unlocks the legal and interpersonal ramifications of harassment in the workplace – why it still occurs, its various forms, how to avoid and respond to harassment, and how to prevent it. Includes an introductory quiz, the shape of harassment, two secrets, its broad scope, myriad examples, simple guidelines, the two-prong role of line managers, three practice scenarios, and 10 Tips to Protect Against Harassment Charges.

Tool #20: Prevent Workplace Violence

Participants learn about workplace violence: two prevailing myths, its true nature and scope, and how to prevent violence from scarring their workplace – using a behavioral profile of potential perpetrators and by identifying warning signs and triggering events. Includes an introductory quiz, the iceberg of workplace violence, Grimme’s POSTAL formula, several case studies and notorious examples, and how to apply each element of POSTAL. Longer sessions also include detailed 10 Steps to Manage Workplace Violence and how to conduct a risk assessment.

Tool #21: Defuse and Protect

Also contends with workplace violence, but here the focus is on how to handle actual violent incidents. Participants learn how to defuse a potentially violent person and how to protect themselves and others when threatened with physical violence. Includes Grimme’s DOGS formula, step-by-step guidelines, practice activities, “What Would You Do If” scenarios, and self-protection tips.

The Next Generation:

Prepare for the Impending Leadership Crisis

Reveals the nature of the impending leadership crisis and the secret to surmounting it. Includes the nine essential traits of leaders, four methods for spotting the traits, the “Harry Truman Factor”, and application activities.

Articles by Don Grimme:

• Violence in the Workplace: The Realities and the Options
  
• Grimme`s Top Ten Tips to Attract, Retain and Motivate Employees
  
• An American Crisis: Attracting, Retaining & Motivating Employees