Order, Disorder, Re-ordering: The Leader’s Task for 2021

Session 1: 9:00 – 10:30 a.m. – Not the New Normal but Even Better (1.5 F2F)

Description: Have you found the common saying that we are experiencing the “new normal” just a bit irritating? One friend confined to her home like the rest of us said, “Well, duh, yeah! Of course, it is new, it just better not stick around for much longer!” This term has been attributed to the virus, but every parent also knows this can be attributed to the growing child. When her adolescent daughter found her voice one day the mother felt a certain ‘new normal’ may have begun! Her husband said, “Well we are not in Kansas anymore Toto!” His response and the ‘new normal’ were not found to be very helpful! In this workshop we can move beyond the anxiety producing ‘new normal’ to a few more places with more control, independence, and solution-finding…to a better place!

Objectives: At the completion of this workshop the attendees will be able to:

· Decide the state one is in as a response to factors out of one’s control.

· Develop a personal plan for practicing the skills that can be used to move forward.

· Analyze one’s personal response in relationship to the leadership one needs in order to better engage a team, a family, even a husband!

Session 2: 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. – Don’t Manage Conflict: Lead with it to Cooperation (1.5 F2F)

Description: There are many ways to fall into, enter into, avoid, inflame, begin, and end a conflict. Some will even get you what you want! In this workshop we will work on the skills you can choose to use in conflicts large and small. When things are going well (ie: the way we want them to go!) we call that ‘cooperation.’ Actually, when we successfully ‘operate together’ we and others are successfully using a set of skills that will help the many engage usefully with one another…not always in 100% agreement but working together. Our job is not so much to manage as to lead…with skill.

Objectives: At the completion of this workshop the attendees will be able to:

· Decide what particular skill is used in a conflict in order to lead others to a productive goal.

· Develop a personal plan for practicing these skills on a routine basis as part of one’s leadership style.

· Analyze not only what is being said in conflict, but perhaps more importantly, what is not being said that needs to be said.

Kevin O’Connor is a Certified Speaking ProfessionalTM and a specialist in educating and coaching professionals charged with leading professional peers—particularly healthcare leaders and their physician partners. His major areas of focus are leadership, influence, innovation and the development of healthcare executive/physician leader teams. Mr. O’Connor teaches at Chicago’s Loyola University and taught previously at Columbia College, Chicago’s performing arts school. He holds three master’s degrees and is the author or co-author of seven books, including the most recent, Fearless Facilitation.