Labor-Management Cooperation
Professional Development Training Program

Overview

The Professional Development Training Program was designed for and by labor/management cooperation professionals of the Ohio Labor Management Cooperation Program (OLMCP). The OLMCP is a network of Area Labor Management Committees and Centers funded by the Ohio Department of Development to foster economic development through better work place relations.

In 1997 and 1998, nine seminars were presented in a sequence designed to provide a basic platform of skills for the labor-management cooperation professional. All seminars were reviewed by members of the Ohio/Midwest Labor Management Committee, and advisory board of Ohio's labor and management leaders. While this series is not offered on a regular basis, some or all of the seminars could be run upon request.The nine seminars are divided into three "tracks" or focus areas:

Track One: Basic Technical Skills
These seminars provide a platform of basic skills for work within a client organization. They also provide Area Labor Management Committees with the tools they need to hire trainers with the right mix of skills for local clients.

· Instructional Technology: This is the first platform skill seminar of the professional development sequence and is a critical tool box component for the labor/management cooperation professional. Topics range from: adult learning, training material preparation and presentation, and adaptation of standard training materials, to the evaluation of training impact on the client organization.

· Assessment Techniques: How can the labor/management cooperation professional gauge commitment? Assessment Techniques I demonstrates a unique, hands-on approach to testing commitment to joint work. Assessment Techniques II provides a survey of quantitative and qualitative techniques. Taken together, these seminars provide the skills to know whether a client is ready for joint processes and which statistical assessment tools may be appropriate.

· Theory and Practice of Organizational Change: An overview of the components of organizational change: establishing a mission and vision, phases in moving toward change, steps in implementing change, and the internal communications needed to support a lasting commitment to the joint process.

· Process Consulting: Overview of the basic issues in providing good consulting work from assessment through evaluation. Importantly, this seminar addresses what a neutral organization can and cannot do in the work place. These nuts-and-bolts skills enable the labor/management cooperation professional to move beyond the short term, response-based relationships and into long term, supportive relationships with work organizations.

Track Two: Running a Successful Labor/Management Committee

· Establishing and Sustaining and ALMC: Basic technical skills needed to run a successful area labor/management committee. Topics include personnel administration; fiscal functions; marketing and fund raising; recommended activities; and more.

· Training for Board Members of the ALMC: Roles and responsibilities with regard to activities, staff, executive director, and constituency. Models of successful boards.

Track Three: Emerging Issues in Work Place Participation

· Open Book Management: Sharing financial information with employees may empower them to increase productivity. However, they must first understand what they are reading. This course trains the labor/management cooperation professional in the basics of understanding and teaching about financial statements.

· Advanced Facilitation Skills: Moving beyond group processes, this course offers train-the-trainer materials in TQM, statistical techniques and other advanced methods designed to take teams from involvement to continuous improvement. This course assumes participants will have an understanding of basic facilitation skills.

· Training Leadership in the Joint Process: The mission and vision may be there, but do the leaders know the nuts-and-bolts of moving their people from here to there? Too often, leaders in the firm--union stewards, supervisors, and other officers of the union and company--don't get the critical training necessary to enable them to coach, teach, and lead. This course offers introduction that will train the labor/management cooperation professional in skills to pass on to in-plant leaders.

For more information on FMCS/OLMCP training contact:
Ohio Employee Ownership Center
Kent State University
113 McGilvrey Hall
Kent, OH 44242-0001
Voice: 330.672.3028
Fax: 330.672.4063

Ohio Employee Ownership Center/Kent State University, Copyright© 2001
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