Alberta Resource Center for Quality Enhancement

(Presenter: Marilyn Conner)

Leading an effective team in a positive work environment supports quality service delivery. This workshop offers a foundational basis on which to lead child care organizations and their staff. Recruiting and retaining top talent in a tough economy and with tight budgets is vital to an organization’s success. Whether your organization has engaged in accreditation or not, this workshop will empower leaders to strengthen their organizations into the future. This leadership workshop can be adapted to meet the needs of various groups including child-care teams, management, owners, boards of directors, and principals.

Relates to Accreditation Standards – Child Care 6 and 7 – SAC – Standard 5

Leadership begins when management leaves off. Early Childhood Professionals continue to strive for excellence in the learning and care of young children it’s important to self reflect and make conscious choices to enhance relationships between other professionals, parents and children as the key to longevity and true change. Accreditation Standard 6 directly addresses the importance of leadership within program. This three hour workshop gives tangible strategies for working within every level of service to young children.

Relates to Accreditation Standards – Child Care 6 and 7 – SAC – Standard 5

This session discusses key skills of Administration in Early Childhood Setting such as: Motivate & Retain Staff, Staff Qualifications, Wages & Compensation, Child Assessment & Inclusion, Business & Financial Practices, Planning Quality Programs, Collaboration between Program & Families Community Relations, Technical Resources.

Relates to Accreditation Standards – Child Care 6 and 7 – SAC – Standard 5

In this session we will look at direct practice observations of over 1,000 front line caregivers completed over the past year across the province of Alberta.  We will review the subsequent impact on quality and consistency of interactions and learning’s relating to Reflection of Practice (R.O.P) reports.  This workshop is geared to practitioners, administrators, licensing officers and college instructors interested in exploring impacts of trends in caregiver practice.

Relates to Accreditation Standards: Child Care 6 and 7, OSC Standard 5

ARCQE is pleased to announce their partnership with Certified Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Trainer, Bunmi Obateru, in piloting a new training series specific for early learning and care administrators and professionals. The six part series includes beginner through advanced programming specific to Leadership and Business Practices. This series is subject to presenter availability and travel expenses.

Session 1 – Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI) - Personality Inventory
This full day session provides the opportunity for early learning and care professionals to access the official Myers Briggs Type Indicator – Step 1. “The purpose of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI) personality inventory is to make the theory of psychological types described by C. G. Jung understandable and useful in people’s lives. The essence of the theory is that much seemingly random variation in the behavior is actually quite orderly and consistent, being due to basic differences in the ways individuals prefer to use their perception and judgment.” (http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/)

Session 2: MBTI and Leadership (Part 1)
This full day session builds on individual and team leadership dynamics identified through the MBTI related to the following areas.

Improving Communication: This workshop will include identification about preferred communication styles of each type and the areas of frequent misunderstanding between people of different types. This module affirms an individual’s natural style and identifies ways he or she can modify that style to be more effective.

Dealing with Conflict: This module will identify the common sources of conflict between directors and staff with opposite preferences, and using type to provide bridges for resolving conflict that are not specifically about type differences.

Problem-Solving and Decision-Making: Directors and staff will present one of their recent real decisions, and the workshop will help you recognize what you have included in your decision making, and what may have been left out from a type perspective. During this workshop, you will get insightful glimpses into the areas you usually ignore.

Session 3: MBTI and Leadership (Part 2)
This full day session builds on individual and team leadership dynamics identified through the MBTI related to the following areas.
Managing Change: Directors and staff will identify common shared concerns of the center during change, such as incorporating the ‘Making Spaces’ grant. Participants will draw on the module on communication to ensure that all types receive the kinds of information they need to accept and support change.

Stress: Stress is an integral and perhaps inevitable part of a childcare center. The variety and continuity of stressors in this environment provides the opportunity for you to recognize the distinctive ways in which your staff of each of the 16 types experience and react to stress. This knowledge encourages type-appropriate ways of managing stress.

Teams: Team type analysis will ask the questions: what preferences dominate in the group? Which are missing? What are the dominant functions? How MBTI distributions affect working together? Recognizing these questions will lead the team to form new agreements around day-today functions.

Session 4 – Business Plan (Part 1) - Introduction to the Business Plan
In this workshop, directors will be introduced to an accreditation-focused Business Plan. Each element of this Business Plan will be introduced, and examples will be given to illustrate successful and not-so-successful childcare center experiences. A practical checklist will be provided to guide each participant in this process. Homework will be assigned. Some elements to be covered are:
•    Executive Summary
•    Childcare Center Philosophy, Policies, Procedures
•    Organization Chart
•    The Marketing Plan
•    Financial Information
•    Stakeholder Analysis and Management

Session 5 – Business Plan (Part 2) – Creating an Evidenced Based Business Plan - Using the checklist from Day 1, participants will go through a step-by-step creation of the accreditation-focused Business Plan. Areas of strength and weakness will be identified. Opportunities and threats to all elements of the Business Plan will also be addressed. An interactive session, participants will be able to present their unique perspectives, and possibly learn from both the instructor and fellow participants.



Session 6 – Business Plan (Part 3) - Stake Holders Analysis & Management
Research has proven that a childcare center that is connected to its community is not only successful, but has longevity. Therefore, accreditation standards recognize that to have a successful childcare center, the center must strategically manage its stakeholders. This course will take participants through the process of identifying stakeholders, and their interests. Furthermore, participants will create specific tactics and strategies to manage this very important aspect of quality childcare.