JPA for Governance

Managing Your Business, Part 1

Based on a tried and true system of management used successfully by U.S. and international companies, this program can increase your internal performance, customer service and satisfaction, and your bottom line by as much as 20-25%.

You will learn how to identify and evaluate the “critical points for success,” how to implement proper procedures, and how to control the information and processes that will ensure success. Properly implemented, this management methodology can change the direction of a department, district, or your whole company.

Join the 5000+ companies in the U.S. alone who have used this “management system” to create their own success story!

The full program agenda includes:

1. The “management system” and how it will work for you
2. Your company and its evolution
3. Your company’s performance vs. comparable companies in the industry
4. Hard questions on current management structure and company organization
5. The importance of management participation and support
6. Defining “critical points for success” in your business
7. Corrective actions for the management control process
8. Customer service procedures
9. Setting up policy guidelines
10. Delineating roles and responsibilities
11. Evaluating resources – $’s and people
12. Establishing training goals
13. Communicating management’s support for the process
14. Setting up checks and balances – the audit process
15. Accepting responsibility for the process

Managing Your Business, Part 2

This program is designed for mid-level managers and all staff involved in the operational activities of the company. It is based on a well proven management system used successfully by thousands of U.S. and international companies, and can increase your company’s internal performance, customer service and satisfaction, and your bottom line by 20-25%. This is a “must” for companies doing business in today’s competitive and rapidly changing business environment.

Managers and staff will learn how to identify and evaluate “critical points for success” within their departments and/or functional areas, how to implement proper procedures, and how to control the information and processes that will ensure success.

This precise methodology for performing operational activities further results in a dramatic increase in staff morale and motivation through ownership of the process, reduced wastage in time and materials, and a customer base that keeps coming back for more.

The full program agenda includes:

1. Review of current processes
2. How processes roll up to impact and meet company goals and objectives
3. Identify and define “critical points for success”
4. Making a commitment
5. Define activities, terms, and/or quality that need to be achieved
6. Documenting the process
7. Functional/departmental coordination
8. Meeting objectives – verification
9. Meeting objectives – review
10. Ways of improving service
11. Follow-up procedures
12. Taking responsibility

The course covers:

1. Leadership
2. Motivation
3. Social styles of leaders
4. Relationship management
5. Communication techniques
6. Decision making, delegation, and problem solving
7. Performance management

In this two-three day seminar, the focus is on understanding the different types of presentations one can give (depending on the results you want to achieve), how to get the type of presentation you want down on paper into an appropriate format, and then practicing in front of others.

A special segment on overcoming the fear of speaking can be built into the training or be given as a break out session at a conference.

“Joan’s course was a big help, for me personally and my colleagues, when I was tasked with helping our team become proficient in facilitating workshops. I facilitated my first workshop a month after taking the course, and it helped me go in well prepared and confident. A few years later, when I was the Director, I brought Joan in to teach the course a second time. In addition to the obvious value , the skills and principles that Joan teaches are very useful in a broader context. They help you be a better manager and a better communicator.”
Dave Eden, Site Infrastructure Manager, New Nuclear Project, Ontario Power Generation

You will learn:

1. The 3 most important ways people both communicate and influence others.
2. Dozens of strategies and examples to demonstrate how these components operate in different areas of your work.
3. Similar and different communication approaches of leaders and what this means to you.
4. Practice exercises on subtle influencing skills.

The course is specifically designed for leaders who require a technical, thorough application of business process mapping as a part of daily operations. Attendees not only learn how to:

1. Do process mapping and assessing
2. Assess root causes
3. Sell “changes” to process owners
4. Facilitate the individual and group dynamics involved in obtaining information from clients
5. Apply techniques and skills to special projects designed mainly to assess efficiency and effectiveness using a collaborative, client-centered approach

This program covers the following topics:

1. Five main steps for managing the audit from beginning to end
2. The design phase
3. Planning
4. Building and maintaining a successful team
5. Implementation and monitoring of the audit
6. Other issues related to project management, discussed as needed

(Please contact us for a full course outline.)

This is a mult-day event. Call for more detail.

1. Introduction
2. The Seven Components of Effective Meetings
3. Core Communication Skills for Excellent Facilitation of Meetings
4. The Opening Conference
5. The Interim Meeting
6. The Closing Conference
7. Extremely Useful Tools for Increasing Meeting Effectiveness
8. Practice, Practice and Practice

In this breakout session or seminar, you will learn how to listen!

You will also learn that listening is actually a very active mental and physical process, and you will practice the single most important behavior that will guarantee your ability to listen will increase exponentially.

You will also learn how to break any and all bad habits related to poor listening: interrupting, daydreaming, poor rapport- building and many many more.

The session or seminar will be tailored to the specific roles and responsibilities of the participants. Again, when you leave, you will know how to listen!

call about customized outline of this program

As a seminar, this session focuses on both the communication skills and also the procedures that need to be put in place to make both giving and receiving bad news as constructive a process as possible.

All content is tailored to the group, be it managers, executives or in-charges. Good managers know how to give bad news.

In the seminar you will learn:

1. How to set up a very simple system for managing performance, continuous communication, and preventing problems
2. Understanding, and getting to, the real problem(s) when they arise
3. Taking positive and proactive action to address the issue(s)
4. A step-by-step process for giving bad news in any type of management situation
5. Specific steps for handling specific types of difficult situations and employees
6. What to do when you have to prepare for dismissing an employee
7. How to build a good strong employee (or audit) team to minimize many workplace problems in the future

In this session you will learn:

1. A step by step process for creating and/or building upon a high-performing team at any level and with any group (i.e.; management teams, project teams, departmental teams, cross-functional teams).
2. The power and importance of accountability in teams, and what that means.
3. A few words on a quicker and much easier way to develop vision and/or missions and how to actually use them as valuable tools for teamwork.
4. A powerful process for addressing the “difficult people” issues that come up when people work together.
5. A powerful process for setting up goals and key performance indicators (or critical success factors) and how to measure progress towards results.
6. Important comments about facilitating this process, when it may be necessary to use an outside expert, and how to know you are getting a truly qualified person to help you.

This is a very meaty session jam-packed with information you will not want to miss. The results attained are long lasting and measurable; it is effective for any type of team, including management teams. Our system of team development is often used company-wide to transform the organizational culture into both a customer- and team-driven environment. It will increase your bottom line.

This workshop will cover the important issues related to building partnerships with others across the organization, addressing the unique issues that those in audit especially face in detail. Participants will learn:

1. Networking skills
2. Non-manipulative persuasive communication skills
3. Many strategies for managing both their own emotions and others
4. The behaviors that actually create the perception and the reality that you are collaborative in your approach.
5. At the same time, participants will actually feel an increased sense of self-empowerment and leadership as they see themselves obtaining better results while increasing professionalism.

The session is highly geared towards information-sharing and interactive exercises, for a very full and practical session with a strong focus on increasing self-awareness and communication skill level. We promise this: being able to be both collaborative and able to provide real solutions to real problems is the best marketing tool you can have in your company.

You will learn:

1. How to make better decisions, manage negative emotions, increase positive experiences (and why this is so critical to your health and your success)
2. How to read others much more accurately, all of which just increases your leadership skill
3. What leadership is not, when leadership is unhealthy and/or just plain ineffective, and
4. How can we prevent, or stop, bad leaders.

What you learn will help you in all areas of your life, and especially increase your effectiveness in your organization.

call for a complete program outline

In this session, we will look at:

1. Fundamentally different approaches to leadership and perspectives on doing business, none of which are necessarily bad, but they can create much stress.
2. Your fundamental business perspective and what it means through a powerful assessment you will take during the session!
3. Using leadership styles to learn how to give constructive feedback about performance issues, changes you want see happen, and manage subordinates better in general.
4. How and when to use positive and constructive feedback as a means of influencing and motivating others.

1. Differences in leadership styles between technical and non-technical professionals, and how to use this information to influence and increase “buy-in.”
2. How to communicate clearly technical information and what results you want to see happen.
3. Using leadership styles to learn how to give constructive feedback about performance issues and changes you want them to make and manage subordinates better in general.
4. How to use positive feedback as a means of influencing and motivating others.

This program is custom made for the level of audience. Please contact us for a tailored outline.

1. A specific overview of differences- and similarities- between people from different cultures.
2. The four core components that make up our different cultures around the world.
3. Unintentional positive and negative stereotyping, and how and why we ALL do it.
4. Some basic but powerful strategies for communicating better with those from different backgrounds.

In this seminar, the following topics will be covered:

1. How conflict evolves and where negotiation fits in.
2. Your own conflict management and negotiation style, with its strengths and challenge areas.
3. Other negotiation styles, along with numerous conflict management and negotiation strategies for handling all types of situations you encounter.
4. How to know the difference between “unknowledgeable” people, “stubborn” people and “manipulative” people, and how to handle each.
5. Negotiation and conflict management skills with subordinates, peers and even your boss, or others at the highest levels of the organization.
6. Ongoing applications to the challenges finance executives and managers face today.
7. I’m So Stressed! The final word on what really works to manage stress. (2 hours to 1 day)
8. What causes stress- it’s not all bad!
9. Your stress threshold and what triggers it.
10. Everything you can do to build a powerful stress management program.

“Joan, Not surprisingly, yours was one of the most popular sessions, with more than 300 attendees, and you received very high speaker evaluation ratings. Great job as always.”
Paul J. Sobel, Vice President, Internal Audit, Mirant Corporation

Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is a process, effected by an organization’s board of directors, management and other personnel, a key part of strategy and applied across the enterprise, designed to identify potential events that may affect the organization, and manage risk to be within its risk appetite, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the achievement of organization objectives. ERM is a complex area that challenges organizations and Board of Directors in deciding how to effectively implement this critical process. We will discuss how to obtain a Return On Investment (ROI) for your ERM process, and how sustainability is an important part of ERM.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn How to Determine The Risks For Your Organization – How To Get Started On The ERM Journey
• Learn How to Weight Risk To Determine The Key Risks – Not All Risks Are Created Equal
• Learn How to Develop a Common Risk Language – ERM Has A Language That Needs To Be Customized For Your Organization
• Learn To Determine Risk Appetite – Learn The Steps to For Establishing Your Organization’s Risk Appetite
• Learn Which Is The Appropriate Risk Framework For Your Organization – Evaluate The Different Risk Frameworks
• Learn How To Develop and Prioritize a Risk Portfolio – Develop An ERM Heat Map
• Learn How To Develop Your Management’s Risk Tolerance – A Tactical Consideration For Your ERM Journey
• Learn Who Is Responsible For The Risk – What Are The Roles Of The Board Of Directors, Executive Management, Chief Risk Officer, and Internal Audit
• Learn How To Decide To Avoid, Accept, Reduce, or Control A Risk – How Do You Respond To The Risks Identified
• Learn The Appropriate Risk Monitoring and Reporting Processes – How Do You Prepare a Presentation To The Board Of Directors And Executive Management
• Learn How To Perform Risk Assessments Effectively – Risk Assessments Are A Critical Part Of ERM, And Are Part Art, And Part Science
• Learn How To Calculate The ROI On Your ERM Process
• Learn how sustainability is an important part of the ERM process

Who will Benefit:

This course is designed for people that are beginning their ERM journey, or people looking to advance their ERM process. Following personnel will benefit from the course:

• Chief Risk Officers
• Risk Management Professionals
• Internal Audit Professionals
• Compliance Professionals
• Finance Professionals
• Chief Actuaries
• Anyone interested in learning more about ERM

Organizations are complex, just like people, and the more you understand how your organization works and where the implementation of risk fits in, the better off you will be.Learn the secrets from someone who really knows- an organizational psychologist! In this session, you will learn:

1. What the research shows that makes change work in companies
2. What causes change efforts to fail in organizations- and a lot of them fail
3. The specific type of organization and organizational culture you are a part of and the change approach to use with each
4. A step-by-step process for implementing a change management program in a company, regardless of the size of the company
5. Examples and case studies given

This presentation will explore how ethical behavior is part of every organization, and developing a strong ethical culture is important to the success of any company. Corporate Social Responsibility is an important commitment by a company to be ethical and contribute to the economic and quality of life of the workforce and their families, the environment, and society.

Why should you attend – Fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) liner for the marketing purpose (Between 250 – 500 words):

The negative consequences of unethical behavior can be detrimental to a company, and can cause significant damage to the brand. Creating an ethical culture is more than “Doing the right thing”, and requires a lot of different touch points. We will explore areas such as conflict of interest, gifts and entertainment, and financial integrity. Recent headlines such as the “Bangladesh Factory Inferno Witness: Managers Ignored Fire” and “Your iPhone was Built, In Part, by 13 Year-Olds Working 16 Hours A Day For 70 Cents An Hour” are two examples of many stories that show the importance of a comprehensive Corporate Social Responsibility program. Such an effective program includes strong support from Executive Management, definitive policies within the Company and for the Suppliers, audits and inspections, and a corrective action process.

Areas Covered in the Session:

• How do you develop an ethics culture?
• How does a person make an ethical decision?
• What are the elements of an effective ethics program?
• What are the communication touch points for a successful ethics program?
• Why Corporate Social Responsibility is an important ethical issue?
• How do you audit/inspect the suppliers to ensure compliance with your policies?
• What is a zero tolerance violation, and how do you handle the violation?
• What is a effective corrective action program?

The enforcement of FCPA has increased significantly by the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has established a specialized unit for FCPA. The top 10 FCPA settlements have occurred since 2008 with the first conviction through criminal trial under FCPA in May 2011.

The U.S. Government has added emphasis on the enforcement of FCPA, and a record number of companies have been assessed fines and penalties. This is a challenging area for multinational companies to enforce compliance in each country they operate regardless of the size of the operation. In addition to the U.S. corruption law many other countries have similar laws such as the United Kingdom, China, Columbia, India, and Canada. The FCPA has two key parts which are the Anti-Bribery provisions and the Accounting provisions. We will explore each of these key provisions, and how you can implement a practical program to mitigate your risk in this area.

Areas Covered in the Session:

• Understand the elements of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)
• United Kingdom Bribery Act
• Key anti-corruption and bribery laws that regulate business conduct
• Recognize and avoid potential FCPA, UK Bribery Act, or local law violations
• Identify when and where to seek assistance
• Establishing a proactive program to mitigate risk in this area

In this session:

1. Learn ten typical ways professionals justify doing things that in their gut they know are wrong, and if people in your work area are vulnerable.
2. Brainstorm and discuss specific situations people like yourself face, and ways to handle them.
3. Learn what you need to do if you are pressured to commit wrongdoing, or to know of it but “look the other way.”
4. Learn critical elements of whistle blowing and how it applies to ethics and ethical behavior.

DAY ONE

1. What is risk?
2. How should risk best be assessed?
3. Enterprise risk management vs. risk assessment vs. control (and risk) self-assessment
4. Two fundamental approaches: the typical/traditional one and the one that works
5. Gaining people’s buy-in to do risk assessments
6. Action Plan Part One
7. Your risk assessment: Yet other considerations

DAY TWO

1. Your risk assessment: Other considerations (Cont’d)
2. Fitting control self assessment into the RA
3. Practice, practice, practice
4. Action Plan Part Two (Final)

The seven steps you will learn to do are:

1. Gain (or increase) senior management and workforce “Buy-In” and sponsorship to identify significant risk exposures.
2. Educate yourself on the evolution of risk management (ERM/Risk Assessment/ Risk Self-Assessment), how they all fit together in the audit profession, and compare it to what you currently have in place.
3. Get a comprehensive overview on what is involved in implementing ERM and get a chance to compare tools and techniques you are using with others.
4. How to facilitate a structured and proven workshop with any level or group of clients and employees with your organization to identify significant risks related to their function and/or the larger organization.
5. Assess the existence and strength of controls against the risk exposure.
6. How to introduce risks that you may see exist but your clients don’t and gain their “buy-in” to addressing these areas.
7. How to use results to update your audit universe and audit plan.

The focus of the 2nd and 3rd days especially is on learning some key facilitation tools for making it safe for people to open up and share deep information (information that you will be able to use to enhance many of your audits), for probing details to get to root causes, to get people to speak up about risks (and even potential frauds) you may or may not know occur, and to have a lot of fun in the process! A special focus will be on learning how to use business process mapping and documentation (BPM) to assess risks and controls.

Many areas of risks –and control vulnerabilities- can be determined through organization-wide assessments and then mapping business processes at the larger organizational level, as well as the business unit levels, whether financial, operational, IT or more. The techniques taught can also be applied to one-on-one interviews, but you will learn why it is far superior to gather information regarding risks and controls from groups of people instead of single person interviews. You will learn what type of flowcharts to use (traditional flowcharting has its strengths and limitations with groups), and what to do when the process is not well-developed and easy to chart.

This model was originally developed by Joan Pastor, PhD with Pacific Bell and Verizon specifically for the audit profession, and has gone through many refinements by Joan and her team to its current level of high effectiveness. Joan also contributed extensively to the development of the CCSA certification, and has been involved throughout the years in the development of goal-directed, risk-based practices in auditing. You will find many applications of this model to your risk, compliance and audit methodologies in general.

Organizations are complex, just like people, and the more you understand how your organization works and where the implementation of risk fits in, the better off you will be.Learn the secrets from someone who really knows- an organizational psychologist! In this session, you will learn:

1. What the research shows that makes change work in companies
2. What causes change efforts to fail in organizations- and a lot of them fail
3. The specific type of organization and organizational culture you are a part of and the change approach to use with each
4. A step-by-step process for implementing a change management program in a company, regardless of the size of the company
5. Examples and case studies given