Profitable Management Workshop (PMW)


Day One

Session 1.1 - Welcome and Introductions
           Sets student expectations for the program. Students explore the objectives for the PMW, review their role in the learning
experience, and share their top concerns. Students get a chance to meet each other, including those at their team table.

Session 1.2 - Industry in Transition
           After reviewing some research statistics on what is happening in the industry and analyzing trends, students accept the
fact that things will not stay the same and that the industry is undergoing significant changes. This is a starting point for the
remainder of the PMW, which shows them how to meet the new challenges.

Session 1.3 - Business Situation Analysis
           Strategic planning for the agency is discussed, along with the importance of planning 3 years in advance. Students,
along with their team, review pre-workshop materials that help analyze current agency staff, markets and products. Students
discuss their agency's philosophy, mission and vision and determine if their current organization is in alignment with them.

Session 1.4 - Agency Mission and Philosphy
            A more in-depth look is made into the agency philosophy and mission with the intent of possibly modifying it by week's
end. The agency's philosophy and mission is compared to that of the company's. Students do a "Philosophy of Life" exercise
and a SWOT analysis of their agency to determine strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
 

Session 1.5 - What Will Your Agency Look Like in 3 Years
            This session provides a look into the future. Students do a visioning exercise and learn how to effectively communicate
their agency vision to others. Having diagnosed the current agency situation in the last session, the students now set objectives
of what they want their agency to look like in 3 years.

Session 1.6 - Developing Job and Function Descriptions
            Not only will companies and agencies be different in the future, but jobs within the agency will change, too. The students
begin to think about how different their agent's, unit manager's, functional manager's and administrative staff's jobs will change to
meet the new challenges. Finally, students will build a job description for a selected "new" position of the future.
 

Day Two

Session 2.1 - Group Simulation Exercise
            This session emphasizes the importance of teamwork. Students participate in an exercise that tests their ability to
survive over almost insurmountable odds. Using scoring grids, students can see the difference in results between individual effort
and team effort.

Session 2.2 - Group Development Principles
            Students are introduced to a cyclical process through which teams go in their formation - from initial creation strategies
through the final stages where they reach peak performance. These stages are related back to the previous session, and
students will identify those they experienced during the simulation exercise.

Session 2.3 - Group Development and Agency Team Building
            Capitalizing on all that has been learned about group development in the previous sessions, students now focus on
how they can affect group development in their own agencies and build effective teams. Students analyze their own effectiveness
as a team builder and then analyze how the needs of the team members in their agencies affect team performance.

Session 2.4 - Leadership Principles and Situational Leadership
            The importance of leadership is covered in detail in this session. Students learn various styles of leadership and then
complete and score a questionnaire which helps them determine their own leadership styles. Situational leadership emphasizes
the importance of identifying which styles to use in which situations, and students are shown how to do it.
 

Session 2.5 - Using Situational Leadership
             Using case studies, students will practice identifying leadership styles. Using role-play, students will build skill in
choosing the proper leadership style for a particular situation that could present itself in their agency.

Session 2.6 - The Centralia Challeng I
             This is the first of four sessions dealing with Centralia that helps bring together all the elements of the Profitable
Management Workshop and enables students to use what they learn. The Centralia Challenge puts the student in a "corporate"
frame of mind". Students assume the roles of home office decision-makers assigned to "turn around" a company in decline in the
mythical country of Centralia.
 

Day Three

Session 3.1 -- Marketing
        This session begins by defining marketing and having students analyze some of the great companies in the world
known for marketing. Using a sample agency and an outline for creating a marketing plan, students learn how to identify markets
and develop plans to penetrate them.

Session 3.2 - Recruiting Plans for Organizational Growth
         Students begin to think of themselves as the CEO of their agency and understand that recruiting the right people will
continue to make their organizations grow and be more dynamic. They are reminded that jobs in their agencies may look quite
different in the future and a new recruiting paradigm must replace the old ways of past recruiting. Through team exercises, students
discuss ways to build manpower in the agency to at least double its current size.
 

Session 3.3 - Selection Principles for Process Development
         An effective and consistently used selection system is the second part of the equation to grow the type of agency
discussed in the previous session. Students analyze their current selection system and determine ways to make it more effective
and efficient in light of the new jobs that will be required in the agency of the future.

Session 3.4 - Getting the Right Start
          Once new personnel are selected, the next steps are extremely important and will determine success or failure.
Students learn the importance of the orientation and setting expectations early in the career. Setting minimum standards is
discussed and students learn how to manage activities rather than results. A key factor to early success is mentoring and
students learn how to develop a mentoring program in their agencies.

Session 3.5 - The Centralia Challenge II
          Work on the Centralia project continues. On Day 2, students analyzed the company situation in Centralia. Today,
students begin to determine the goals to be reached.
Day Four
 

Session 4.1 - Performance Analysis and Management
         This session helps managers diagnose why people don't meet performance standards. A decision-tree checklist is
used to analyze the nature of performance problems. Since performance problems involve people, students are taught proper
interviewing techniques so that the exact reason for the performance discrepancy can be determined. Role-play enables students
to practice the interviewing techniques.

Session 4.2 - Business Management: Time, Money, and Resources
         Future agency managers must be good business managers. This session deals with three elements of good business
management - time control, agency financial responsibility, and managing the agency's resources. Students analyze their time
expenditure and determine ways to better spend this valuable resource. Students learn how to perform cost-benefit analyses to
make the best decisions regarding expenditures. Finally, students learn to develop their most valuable asset, their people. The
focus is on building a developmental plan for unit managers.
 

Session 4.3 - Change Management
        By this time in the PMW, students are well aware that changes must and will occur. The subject of change is
addressed in this session and how people react to change Students learn how their agents, administrative staff and unit or
functional managers are affected by change and learn management techniques to facilitate change within their agencies.

Session 4.4 - Centralia Challenge III
        In this session, students will determine exactly how they plan to put the ailing company in Centralia back on a
successful track. They will make plans concerning markets, manpower, products, distribution system, and home office systems to
carry out their objectives. Each team will prepare a presentation to the "Board of Directors" to be delivered on Day 5.
 

Day Five
 

Session 5.1 - Centralia Challeng IV
        Each team gives a 15-minute presentation to the Board of Directors outlining their plans to move the Centralia
company in a positive direction. Various delivery methods may be used including PowerPoint, flip chart, hard copy report, etc.
Other students, company personnel and the PMW instructor act as the members of the Board and ask questions of each team to
test theory, logic and practicality of their proposals. Placing the advanced manager students in home office positions forces them
to think about the broad company picture rather than their own individual agency.

Session 5.2 - Back to the Future
        Students are reminded that after this day, they will go back into their agencies. But they should not go back to
their past, they should go "back to their future". A company official conducts this session discussing the future of the company
and the role that these managers will play. A question and answer period is included.

Session 5.3 - Leading Into the Future   
        This is the closing session of the Profitable Management Workshop. Students are assigned post-workshop
projects to help them implement in their agencies what they have learned in the school. The school objectives and expectations
are reviewed. The CIAM designation is discussed and students will learn what remaining steps are necessary to attain this mark.
The school closes with hearing a motivating discussion, Encouraging The Heart.