The areas that we regularly conduct training in are listed below. Click on a topic to go straight to  information on it.

As well as conducting formal training programmes Ross Gilmour is a sought after conference speaker for both national and international events.

Management Training (Back to top)

The management training programmes that we conduct vary from three day workshops (usually consisting of three single days separated by a 4 week gap to enable participants an opportunity to practice the skills and report back), through to half day sessions. The focus of these programmes is to teach participants core principles for motivating and managing people.

We tend to concentrate on areas not covered in ‘traditional’ management training. For instance, managers are often taught to give feedback to their staff, and we add to this by explaining the highly predictable outcomes if they become too busy to give feedback. We explain factors such as - how managers can become a sinking sensation in staff members’ stomachs (and vice versa) together with strategies to ensure this does not occur. We also focus on skills such as - how to chat to someone and quickly identify what motivates or demotivates the person; how to use questions to focus staff members’ attention on specific areas, etc.

The programmes are popular because we not only explain the theory behind the skills, we also give many day to day examples of how the principles and skills can be applied, not just at work, but in people’s private lives.

Click to request a two day outline on
‘Key Principles For Managing And Motivating People’

Safety (Back to top)

We have developed a niche market in the safety area with workshops that teach participants how to programme their subconscious so that they will continue to do a job safely even if their concentration lapses. Ross Gilmour conducts training on this topic throughout New Zealand and, since 2003, he has travelled to the UK on a regular basis to conduct training for staff who work in the oil and gas industry, both on-shore and off-shore. Indeed the outline mentioned below titled 'Making Personal Responsibility for Safety Happen' has been developed specifically for this market. The "safe subconscious habits" workshops dovetail superbly with the ‘Behavioural Based Safety Observation’ programmes that many organisations have already implemented.

The workshops vary in length from a few hours to a day. When the client’s operational requirements only allow for staff to be released for 2-3 hours, we often support the brief session by providing participants with a self paced DVD and workbook programme titled ‘Turning Your Intentions into Actions’.

We also conduct training for managers on how to create an organisational safety culture that will result in people throughout the entire company lifting their safety performance. The principles and skills taught are the same key principles that we teach in our general management training programmes, but a strong focus is placed on how to apply these skills to influence safety cultures.

Click to request a one day workshop outline on
‘Turning Safe Actions Into Subconscious Habits’

Click to request a one day outline on:
'Creating a Culture where Safe Actions become Subconscious Habits'

Click to request more information on the DVD and workbook programme titled
‘Turning Your Intentions Into Actions’

Click to request more information on a comprehensive programme titled  
'Making Personal Responsibility for Safety Happen'

Stress  (Back to top)

When Ross was involved in clinical work, he successfully treated large numbers of people who were experiencing burnout and/or anxiety problems. He then developed programmes designed to stop people arriving at this stage. Our ‘Thriving on Stress’ programmes stem from this work and they teach people how to benefit from the positive aspects of stress while avoiding the potentially harmful effects. We also offer training for managers on how to manage stress in their organisation now that it is included as a potential hazard under OSH legislation.

Click to request a half day outline on:
‘Thriving on Stress’

Click to request a one day outline on:
‘Building Resilience to Pressure and Thriving on Stress’ 

Click to request a half day outline on:
‘Management Responsibilities For Stress & Fatigue’

Ross was also the prime developer of an E-Learning Stress and Anxiety Management programme which is at www.stressproofing.com

Sleep  (Back to top)

Our Sleep Management programmes are targeted at shift workers and they are well received because they teach people how to programme their brain so that they: fall asleep quickly; stay asleep once asleep; sleep through all household and neighbour noises and yet wake instantly to any unsafe sound; and sleep well when it’s daylight. 

As part of our sleep programmes participants receive an audio programme that is very effective at getting them off to sleep quickly and ensuring that they stay asleep until they wake. Our one day programme teaches additional skills that focus on strategies for maintaining: good health, fitness levels, a good diet, sport and leisure activities and positive relationships.

Click to request a half day outline on:
‘Sleep Well Regardless Of The Shifts You Work’
Click to request a one day outline on:
‘Thriving On Shiftwork’

Ross was also the prime developer of an E-Learning Sleep Management programme which is at – www.sleepwell.co.nz

Team Building  (Back to top)

Because our clients’ teambuilding needs are diverse, the programmes have varied from half day to four day workshops. The range has included situations where: 

• It is an entirely new team and the broad objective is for people to quickly get to know one another 
• The team consists of people from two organisations that previously competed with one another
• The teambuilding programme was to be a fun ‘reward’ for good performance throughout the year
• The teambuilding programme was designed to address conflicts occurring within the team

Our teambuilding programmes often involve yacht based or other outdoor activities and frequently include segments on team personality profiling. Because of the diversity, no ‘standard’ outlines are available, so please call or email us to discuss your needs.

Managing and Motivating Poor Performers  (Back to top)

If managers are not careful they can end up spending a disproportionate amount of time dealing with poor performances and this often comes at the expense of spending time developing and encouraging good performers. Our programmes therefore normally start with a focus on how to avoid people becoming poor performers in the first place. They then focus on early recognition signs so that managers can intervene before a person becomes a “problem child”.

There are times, however, when managers do have to deal with poor performers, either because they have inherited them or they didn’t see the problems brewing. The primary focus of the workshop is therefore on constructive techniques for turning people’s performances around. We also show managers how to deal with situations when the person is not able to meet the required standards and how to deal with staff who suddenly claim they are stressed when performance issues are raised.

Click to request a one day outline on:
‘Managing and Motivating Poor Performers’

Resolving Conflicts  (Back to top)

Managers and Human Resources personnel frequently find themselves in a situation where they need to act as facilitators to resolve conflicts between individuals, teams or staff and management. This can be challenging and the costs if the situation deteriorates can be high (unresolved conflicts have underpinned many of the stress claims taken in New Zealand). We teach participants positive strategies for facilitating conflict resolution meetings, negotiation skills and how to resolve conflicts without appearing to be directly involved. We also explain how and why, if the conflict is intense, that people can feel physically ill or tense in the presence of the other person/s. We then outline strategies for overcoming this, as, if this aspect is not dealt with; there is little chance of the conflict being resolved.

Click to request a one day workshop outline on:
‘Positive Strategies For Resolving Conflicts’

Time Management  (Back to top)

When it comes to time management people often know what they should be doing but there is frequently a significant gap between their good intentions and their actions. Our one day programme is very highly regarded because participants find that the workshop does result in a marked improvement in how efficiently and effectively they work. The first half of the day is therefore spent on showing participants how they can reprogramme their subconscious to become much more effective at turning their good intentions into actions.

The second part covers material on how to structure the physical environment to reduce interruptions from others and themselves. It also includes material on and practical tips for; ensuring that meetings become effective; prioritising work and constructively managing overload situations; and dealing with e-mails. Our one day Time Management workshop combines superbly with the one day stress programme to make a very popular two day workshop.

Click to request a one day outline on:
‘A Time Management Programme That Works!’

Dealing With Difficult People  (Back to top)

The key focus of our dealing with difficult people programmes is on teaching people skills that enable them to stay calm, professional and polite when others are being obnoxious towards them. We have run these programmes for Police, Immigration officers, ACC personnel, bus drivers and a wide range of Council Staff such as parking enforcement personnel, dog rangers, health and building inspectors, pool staff and noise abatement officers.

We have also conducted programmes for staff who receive abuse over the telephone, as opposed to, a face to face situation. These have included situations where organisations have established a specific ‘hotline’ to deal with issues of concern, and for hospital staff who phone people to inform them that their surgery has been postponed.

These training courses are tailored to the specific groups that we are working with but they often contain the core components that are detailed in our one day programme.

Click to request a one day outline on:
‘Positive Strategies For Dealing With Difficult People’

Advanced Interviewing Skills  (Back to top)

Behavioural/competency based interviewing has become the norm and is the prime focus of most interview skills training programmes. While this approach does have some advantages it also has some significant disadvantages. For instance the questions that are likely to be asked are predictable so people who prepare well for interviews will do well, even thought they may not be the best applicant. The biggest disadvantage is, however, that a person may have the skills to do a particular task, but not be motivated to do it. As people are drawn to the areas that motivate them, a mismatch between competencies and motivation is a certain recipe for performance problems.

Our Advanced Interviewing Skills programmes teach people how to overcome these problems by using an interviewing by chatting procedure to identify motivators and by focusing on the behaviours occurring in the interview (instead of just focusing on the content of the reply). The length of the workshops vary depending on the approach the client wants to adopt. For instance, some clients want to add the techniques we teach to their existing competency based interviewing process, while others are prepared to move to an entirely new process.

Click to request a one day outline on:
‘Advanced Interviewing Skills That Complement A Behavioural/Competency Based Interviewing Process’

Change Management  (Back to top)

Our experience in assisting organisations undertake change management processes goes back to the mid-1980’s when we worked with many government departments as they restructured and implemented major changes. Most of these were associated with significant numbers of job losses as the departments ‘downsized’. Since that time we have had ongoing work with government departments and have also been involved with numerous mergers and restructurings in private organisations and SOE’s (State Owned Enterprises).

The training we conduct in this area falls into two categories. The first category is targeted at those managers and supervisors who lead and implement the changes, it includes topics such as:

• Managing and motivating staff during change (including when your own job is at risk)
• How to get staff ‘on board’ when restructuring
• Informing staff of job losses
• Debriefing workshops for change management teams

The second category is workshops to support people during a change process, these include:

• Taking charge of change (which has an emphasis on how to do well out of change regardless of what happens)
• How to ensure your CV gets you invited to interviews
• How to succeed in job interviews
• Positive strategies for dealing with a job loss – should it occur.

Because of the diversity, no ‘standard’ outlines are available, so please call or email us to discuss your needs.

Managing Your Manager  (Back to top)

The title of this programme might sound somewhat threatening to managers but in practice this programme works well for both the participants and their managers. A fundamental approach in these workshops is to get participants to view their manager as a very important customer. Managers are customers as they pay staff (suppliers) to deliver work each week. However, when staff treat managers as customers it changes their perspective on who should take the lead in communication, giving and receiving feedback, etc.

Another key component of this workshop is that it shows participants how the same skills that a manager should use to manage and motivate staff can be applied to influence the behaviour of their manager. These skills are safe to use as long as the staff member remembers that, like all good suppliers, they need to act in the best interests of their customer!

Click to request a one day outline on:
‘Managing Your Manager’