Consulting Services (PDF, ) 

ELITE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT CONSULTING SERVICES

ELITE Professional Development provides consulting services to units, departments, and groups so they may become more effective and productive. Staff members partner with each client to customize the approach to help clients respond to current challenges and set specific goals for future direction and action.

Services

• Individual Consulting
• Retreat Design for Team and Group Development
• Meeting Facilitation
• Strategic Planning
• Assessments
• Referral Services

Our Process

How we collaborate and lead processes:

1.   Initial conversation. When you contact us, we will discuss your current situation and your desired outcome. That is, what do you want to achieve or walk away with when our service is provided? We will also ask you to share any data (qualitative or quantitative) that will help us to understand the current situation’s effectiveness and function.

2.   Diagnosis and discussion. Either during or after the initial conversation, suggestions may be offered for your consideration and feedback. We will design a plan that will meet your needs within the time, space, and budget you have. Depending on the diagnosis, additional conversations may occur to ensure planning is meeting the desired outcome.

3.   Planned event. The plan is implemented and may consist of meetings or activities for individuals, teams, or multiple groups.

4.   Closing conversation. A final discussion allows both parties to evaluate the process and outcome and if it met your goal.

Individual Consulting

We meet with individual employees who seek our subject matter expertise. Faculty members usually seek help with instructional design, pedagogical assistance, online teaching, instructional technology, current trends in classroom methodologies, and student needs. Staff members and administrators seek help with skill building in personal development, interpersonal matters, management approaches, and team building. We are available to meet and discuss your needs and help you meet your goals.

Retreat Design for Team and Group Development

We will help plan and lead retreats for leaders who want a customized learning or team-building experience for their department or unit. Retreats provide a space where people removed from their day-to-day work can focus deeply on issues and develop appropriate strategies to address them.

Retreat design is a science and an art and we have experience and an understanding of group behavior and dynamics. We partner through the design process and during the retreat facilitation to ensure we are arriving at the desired outcome. We recognize the time and resources that a department invests into a retreat and ask for at least two months’ notice when requesting our service.

Meeting facilitation

Our experience designing meeting agendas ensures your meeting time is used efficiently; the group stays focused and higher quality decisions are made. We can help to design your agenda and, if needed, facilitate your meeting if

1) the situation is very sensitive and needs a neutral third party,

2) the leader does not have the background or expertise needed to address particular complex or sensitive issues, or

3) the issue to be discussed requires the input of all members, including the leader.

Strategic Planning

We can assist leaders who want to identify their current state, envision the future, and translate the vision into broadly defined goals and objectives and develop an action plan to meet the goals.

Assessments

We are certified to administer several assessments that can be integrated within team and group development retreats when appropriate.

• DiSC: provides information on one’s behavioral style
• Firo-B: provides information as to one’s interpersonal needs of inclusion, control, and affection
• Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI): provides information on one’s relative stages of comfort and competence across differences
• Intercultural Effectiveness Scale (IES): provides information on adaptability and flexibility
• Intercultural Conflict Style Inventory (ICSI): provides information in behavior and conflict within a multicultural framework
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): provides information on one’s personality
• Pearson-Marr Archetype: provides further information into why one behaves in a pattern
• Personality Dimensions: provides information about one’s personality in four color dimensions (temperaments)
• Thomas-Kilmann Instrument (TKI): provides information about one’s preferred way of approaching conflict from among five means.

Referrals

We maintain a list of external consultants awarded college contracts through MC’s competitive bidding process. Depending on your needs and budget, external consultants may be needed or the best option.