PLANNED 2010 CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

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IT'S NOTHING PERSONAL: Why Some New Workers Just Don't Get It!

The world of work often seems like a foreign land to new job-seekers. Inexperienced workers, especially those raised in poverty, often learn skills and attitudes that help them survive in their personal lives, but cause problems on the job. Unable to understand the unspoken rules of work, unskilled in professional communication techniques, many of these individuals take daily problems personally.

This workshop explores this problem and introduces an innovative cognitive-behavioral approach to helping workers develop self-awareness and people skills needed to succeed in today’s workplace.

By the end of the workshop, participants:
1. Define vital work-related soft skills;
2. Identify three reasons why many individuals fail to use these skills;
3. Explore the power of personal beliefs in motivating unprofessional behavior in workplace situations;
4. Contrast typical personal beliefs with workplace beliefs and expectations; and
5. Discuss cognitive-behavioral strategies for addressing this conflict.

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SAY WHAT?  Problem Solving with Hard to Serve Customers

Challenging job-seekers often learn aggressive or passive aggressive skills that help them survive in their personal lives, but cause problems on the job. Case workers, supervisors, and co-workers have difficulty problem solving with these defensive individuals, and often end up “treating them like children,” which of course, only encourages them to ACT more like children.

This workshop introduces a cognitive-behavioral problem solving approach to helping workers resolve workplace problems.

By the end of the workshop, participants will:
1. Describe the steps of the Conflict Cycle;
2. Describe the steps of Empathetic Problem Solving;
3. Identify elements of effective listening;
4. Identify a solvable problem statement, given a fictitious complaint;
5. Identify a reasonable goal statement, given a fictitious complaint. and
5. Identify a various solutions, given a fictitious complaint.

CODE SWITCHING: Making the Mental Shift from Corrections to the World of Work

Ex-offenders face unique challenges when transitioning from corrections to work. Already significant barriers are often overshadowed by antisocial thinking and behavioral patterns that helped them succeed in the chaotic world of criminality -- but sabotage attempts to gain employment. Psychologists refer to the need for “code-switching,” or mentally shifting from the mindset of criminality to one of work.

GOALS:
1. Describe the predictors of criminality and the approaches proven to be most effective in addressing them;
2. Identify thinking patterns justifying ex-offenders' self-defeating behaviors, in contrast to the unspoken expectations of employers in the workplace;
3. Identify successful cognitive-behavioral strategies to
address these issues.

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SURVIVING THE WORLD OF POVERTY:  Helping Hard to Serve Customers Make the Transition to Work

People raised in poverty often develop a specific set of values, skills and attitudes which help them survive the daily rigors of their harsh lives... but paradoxically keep them from escaping this life. Employers unspoken expectations often conflict with these values, skills and attitudes, creating significant problems in the workplace. This workshop provides human service professionals with a greater understanding of challenging customers from poverty.


GOALS: Participants will be abe to answer:
(1) What values, skills, and attitudes are needed to survive in the world of poverty?
(2) How do these same traits create adjustment problems in the workplace?
(2) What intervention strategies can ease the transition from poverty to the world of work?

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KIDS THESE DAYS! Preparing Youthful Offenders for Workplace Success

Youthful offenders often have problems with peers and authority figures in their personal lives, and bring these same issues with them to their first jobs. As a result, they typically have problems getting along with their co-workers and supervisors, and end up leaving otherwise promising jobs.

This workshop identifies 4 categories of critical soft skills in greatest demand by employers. It then examines several common beliefs of youthful offenders which conflict with the attitudes employers value most. It finally offers two cognitive-behavioral strategies for directly teaching and coaching for challenging negative attitudes and teaching more productive workplace behaviors.