Introduction | How Can I Help? | Program Information | References
Introduction
At first glance at my portfolio, you may wonder why I have placed Consulting at the end? Most would advertise their services first, but how could you know if I am the right person for the job? How could you know if what I do meets your needs without knowing first who I am; what I have done; what I have learned from doing; how I think; what I believe; and how I apply those values, beliefs, and learnings in my practice? If you came straight here and you don't know me, I suggest that you return to the beginning to learn who David Wolff is. If you have completed the journey through the mind of David Wolff, let's see how I can help you achieve your organizational goals.
How Can I Help?
Public Speaking | Instructor Development | Educational Consulting | Psychological Health and Safety (PHSMS)
All of the services outlined here are offered through my employer
Please contact me directly for all of your consulting needs and visit Premergency for your Learning and Legislative/Corporate compliance needs.
Public Speaking
As a seasoned instructor/facilitator, I excel at speaking to groups of people. I am available to speak at your organisation or conference on topics related to adult education and development and/or my specialty: understanding how a reflective practice that uses critical thinking (critical reflection/critical self-reflection), can contribute to resiliency to the effects of first responder critical stressors. I can also provide workshops on how to improve critical thinking skills through learning how to critically reflect/self-reflect.
In-house Instructor Development
An organization’s most important asset is a proficient and experienced worker. The worker is considered the subject expert in his/her role, but how does that knowledge get passed on to new workers? Do you have a plan for succession? I can equip your subject experts with tools and strategies to be able to teach new workers what has been learned from years of experience to ensure an ongoing skilled workforce.
Topics include:
- Adult education principles,
- Transfer of learning into the workplace
- Mentorship principles,
- Understanding organizational culture, and
- Critical reflection and transformative learning.
Educational Consulting
In addition to Instructor Development, I can assist you with designing and developing an in-house training program, how to design engaging online content based on adult educational principles, how to maximize the capabilities of your LMS, and how to used blended (flipped) learning to maximize your face-to-face learning time.
Psychological Health and Safety Management Systems (PHSMS)
Organizational cultures are based on common beliefs of the individuals in the organization. An individual's core beliefs and values are developed through personal interpretations of life experience. Events or situations that conflict with core beliefs can increase individual stress levels ultimately affecting organizational cohesiveness.
My specialty is to provide organizations with assistance in designing and implementing workplace adult education and development programs and systems conducive to transformational learning, resulting in individual resiliency and organizational cohesiveness. My method is to use critical teaching, a cognitive process of changing thinking; and critical reflection on habitual ways of knowing, with the intended result of individual transformation and cognitive structural reorganization, improving resiliency of workers thusly affecting organizational culture.
Secondly, I can analyse your organisational systems to identify workplace stressors that can contribute to chronic stress and burnout of your most valuable asset, your employees. Once the source of workplace stressors are identified, recommendations can be made to mitigate the stressors and associated WSIB costs for lost time due to mental health issues caused by work related stress.
(See Brookfield, 1987, Cranton, 2005, Lange, 2013 and Mezirow, 1991)
Program Information
Each program is custom designed to meet your organization’s needs.
I will:
- Meet with you to investigate and collaborate,
- Help you identify your immediate and long term needs and goals to maximize the success of your organization,
- Design a customized experience for you, your leaders and your workforce to meet your needs,
- Deliver systems incorporating critical reflection and programs using critical teaching - "calling into question the beliefs and assumptions underlying individual behaviour and social norms" (Brookfield, 1987, p. 81), and
- Evaluate your success by monitoring your organization's progress and identifying success indicators.
For more information, please contact me via the methods below.
References
Brookfield, S. (1987). Developing critical thinkers. Challenging adults to explore alternative ways of thinking and acting. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Cranton, P. (2005). Transformative Learning. In L. English (Ed.), International encyclopedia of adult education (pp. 630-637). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Lange, E. (2013). Interrogating transformative learning: Canadian contributions. In T. Nesbit, S. Brigham, N. Tabor & T. Gibb (Eds.) Building on critical traditions. Adult education and learning in Canada. Toronto ON: Thompson Educational Publishing.
Mezirow, J. (1991). Transformative dimensions of adult learning. San Francisco CA: Jossey-Bass