In-Person Half-Day Seminar for Heads, COO, and Business Leaders
Applying a Critical Approach to Risk Analysis: Understand and Evaluate Challenging Situations, Develop Efficient Solutions
January 19, 2024
Seminar: 13:00-16:30 | Networking with Drinks & Small Bites: 16:30-18:00
Shanghai Singapore International School
Schools that had leaders recently participate in our events:
“A lot of processes that take place were brought to the forefront. This helped me develop an improved understanding of why certain things happen and why people may react in the ways that they do to different situations. The group conversations and the facilitation were incredibly useful.”
Overarching Goal
Participants will learn to slow their response to situations and avoid the natural tendency to truncate the evaluation process in favor of a quick remedy. By the end of the workshop, participants will gain tools to aid in their evaluation process and influence their decision making.
Target Audience
This course has been designed for Heads of School, Chief Operating Officers, Directors of Business and Operations, and other school leaders who require an unbiased framework to evaluate strategic challenges and efficiently develop comprehensive and appropriate responses to operational (non-curricular, non-program) issues.
Do I have a thorough understanding of the important details pertaining to the challenges I (or my school) am facing?
If I don’t understand every facet of my dilemma, how can I be sure my solution is efficient and won’t create more problems?
How do I know how to get where I am going if I don’t know where I am starting?
Do I have an unbiased formula my school can use to evaluate situations and prioritize administration responses?
Can Artificial Intelligence (AI) help make better or faster decisions?
Essential Questions
Workshop Outcomes
During this learning experience you will learn the following skills and how to put them into practice:
Learn effective problem solving methods for a school environment
Learn how to identify the root cause of issues, not just the symptoms
Learn how to use a matrix to remove bias from risk analysis and prioritize challenges from critical to trivial
Materials will be provided to assist school leaders in understanding the basic questions of “how likely is this?” and “how serious is this?”
Learn to target solutions at areas most likely to provide effective resolutions to your problems
Become more effective evaluating solutions and determining residual risks
Participate in role playing exercises designed to challenge attendees’ risk analysis skills, test their ability to find root causes to problems, design responses, and evaluate solution effectiveness
Topics may include campus security and safety, physical plant longevity and maintenance, force majeure situations, child protection issues, faculty recruitment and retention, succession planning, and school fiscal management
Resources will be provided which attendees can use to further their learning; you will receive materials to take home and implement immediately to increase your effectiveness evaluating scenarios your school faces for possible risks
Workshop Preparation
It is expected that attendees work in senior administration positions in International Schools and are responsible for making important business and operations decisions.
Program Agenda
This is a half-day seminar, broken into an instructional module, a small group case-study workshop, and a group-discussion section. The first two hour module will be spent learning about risk, how to perform a quick risk analysis, and how to rank risks from different aspects of school programming and operations in order to properly prioritize challenges and allocate resources. The remainder of the time will be spent examining possible scenarios, analyzing the possible risks the scenarios present, developing risk mitigation strategies, and judging their effectiveness.
Module 1
Breaking Old Habits
Senior school leadership are subjected to a barrage of complaints, issues (some good, some bad, some neither good nor bad), and problems. Each stakeholder thinks their concern is the most important and demands immediate replies and solutions, so administrators are constantly pressured to make decisions based on partial information or limited knowledge. Learning to develop a more thorough understanding of the issues at hand will allow school leaders to make better decisions with less negative aftereffects, increasing efficiency and resulting in a better use of limited school resources.
Essential Questions
What do I know? What don’t I know? Who is affected? How serious is this problem? Outside of the stakeholders directly affected, who else has pertinent information? Who else does this problem involve? How are they impacted? What are effective solutions? How do I know which solution to choose?
Learning Objectives
Participants will learn how to:
Diagnose problems, separating symptoms from root causes, and identifying important stakeholders
Proactively analyze risk using the probability of an event occurring and the impact such an event would generate to the school
Use a 5X5 matrix to determine how much risk a given situation presents to their school
Look for indirect impacts resulting from incidents and school administration responses
Craft solutions to address underlying issues rather than quick fixes which only react to symptoms
Anticipate and evaluate residual risks and the results of their choices
Module 2
Case Study: What To Do?
In this case study, participants will break into groups and be presented with one of several specific challenges which a school may face. This part of the workshop will be separated into three parts. In the first part, participants will use the techniques they learned in the first module to evaluate the situation, define the challenges, and analyze the risks. In the second part, participants will use their knowledge to create an appropriate response. In the third part, the participants will decide what residual risks remain, and whether or not these risks are acceptable to the school.
Essential Questions
What are the symptoms of the challenge I am facing? What is the root cause of the problem? Who is affected by this issue? Am I seeing this from all angles? What are the real risks this situation presents? What are my possible responses? How will these plans affect the students, faculty, and programs at my school? What ripple effects might these plans create? Which response represents the best solution for my school? After this solution is implemented, what are my residual risks? Are new risks created?
Learning Objectives
Participants will be presented with scenarios containing situations a school may face and which administrators may be required to deal with
Participants will discuss and make decisions in small groups
Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions and receive situational feedback
Following the conclusion of the exercise, there will be an opportunity to ask questions of the instructor and other groups, to gain a clearer understanding of what options were possible and why decisions were made
Module 3
Real World Issues, Real World Assistance
In this section, participants will be asked to anonymously submit actual challenges they are facing at their schools. The participants will use the techniques they learned in the first module to evaluate the situation, define the challenges, analyze the risks, and suggest an appropriate response.
Essential Questions
What are the symptoms of the challenge? What is the root cause of the problem? Who is affected by this issue? What are the possible risks this situation presents? What are possible risk mitigation strategies? What resources are available? How might these plans affect the students, faculty, and school programs? What ripple effects might these plans create?
Learning Objectives
Participants will be presented with actual scenarios their peers are facing
Participants will discuss as a group
Participants will provide/receive actionable advice from their peers
Facilitator
Michael Dodge
Michael Dodge grew up on a farm in the northeast United States, where he learned to repair machinery and buildings from an early age. To pay his university tuition, Mike worked in his uncle’s commercial construction business, starting as a laborer and working his way to site foreman. Mike earned his Bachelor’s Degree in History, and continued to work in the family construction business following his University graduation. After eleven years in commercial construction, Mike switched to residential construction where he worked for another eight years. During his nineteen years working in the trades, Mike learned first hand about building with wood, metal, and masonry as well as plumbing, electrical, cabinetry, painting, window glazing, HVAC, and virtually every other aspect of construction. Mike also had responsibilities managing workplace safety, training new employees, evaluating and creating designs and drawings, and coordinating subcontractor work schedules.
After leaving the construction industry, Mike worked for two years in private security before entering the petroleum business where he spent eight years as a business analyst and supervisor. As the Pricing, Transportation, and Supply Supervisor, Mike led a team of twelve people who were responsible for the delivery, sale, and pricing of motor fuels at almost 2000 petrol stations along the United States’ East Coast. During his time in the petroleum industry, Mike and his team averaged approximately $3B USD of annual revenue, making that team one of the largest contributors to the company’s profits.
In 2018 Mike accepted a position as Director of Facilities at Taipei American School, where he oversaw an annual operating and capital budget of approximately $10M-$14M USD. In addition to the Facilities and Maintenance Departments, Mike had oversight of the school’s Transportation, Food Services, Security, and Construction operations, totaling approximately 200 employees.
As a member of the school’s Crisis Response team, Mike had a sizable role in the school’s emergency preparations. In 2019, Mike created the school’s risk assessment protocols, which were activated only several months later for the COVID-19 pandemic. Mike and his teams were the primary parties responsible for designing, implementing, and evaluating the school’s COVID-19 safety protocols. On an ongoing basis, Mike was also responsible for creating and publishing Standard Operating Procedures and safety protocols for the departments under his supervision. Mike also introduced cross-training programs among department employees to reduce the impact of staff absences.
In 2022, Mike left Taipei American School to offer his skills to schools around the world as an independent consultant.
