Over a period of several years we worked closely with UHN, a world-renowned healthcare organization to help deepen its commitment to high performance and subsequently co-presented highlights of this work in an online town-hall for the Mental Health Commission of Canada. In the healthcare context, where the risks of workplace incivility are ever-present, and where civility and respect among staff have a direct impact on service excellence, we were humbled and pleased to receive the following feedback:
“We had the good fortune of partnering with Bar-David Consulting to boost our culture of transforming lives and communities through excellence in care, discovery, and learning. As Canada’s largest healthcare organization, comprised of four Toronto hospitals, a school, and over 15,000 multidiscipline employees of diverse cultures, we were experiencing common challenges related to respect in the workplace. We were able to leverage Sharone Bar-David’s expertise to help us shift the conversation from negative terms such as bullying to a more constructive framework of ‘civility and respect,’ a phrase that has now become an integral part of our language.
Sharone delivered high-impact training to hundreds of leaders and staff, and worked closely with me to develop a set of powerful tools to support sustained civility and respect practices across the enterprise. These tools offer a wealth of practical strategies which we have embedded in our culture in multiple ways. For example, we’ve taken more than 10,000 employees thus far through mini workshops designed around these tools and have them displayed and distributed at events and throughout our hospitals.
I highly recommend Bar-David Consulting as a valuable resource for any organization committed to delivering superb service, focused on respect and civility for all.”
— Emma Pavlov, Executive Vice President, Human Resources and Organizational Development
University Health Network (UHN)
We played a role in fortifying civility across the full complement of leadership and staff at the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission through the delivery of a comprehensive bilingual training program that reached every leader and employee across Canada. The project’s sponsor reflected on the impact of this collaborative initiative on the organization, whose staff is largely composed of scientists of diverse cultural backgrounds:
“Our organization engaged Bar-David Consulting to assist us in a cross-organizational initiative focused on living our values through boosting workplace civility, and we are very pleased with the project’s success!
Our goal as the organization charged with the responsibility of overseeing Canada’s nuclear safety was to embed the message that we take civility seriously and expect our employees – top to bottom – to practice it. Over eight months, all leaders and employees participated in bilingual training sessions that were thought provoking, lively and practical, helping us develop a shared language for phenomena that every workplace experiences but are so challenging to name or diagnose.
The project’s success is evident in the ways in which it is creating ripple effects throughout our organization, opening meaningful dialogues at all levels and empowering people across the enterprise to step up to boost civility, both in themselves and others. Employees now have the tools they need to initiate sensitive conversations and address incivility. The expertise provided by Bar-David Consulting has also provided us with the foundation to integrate civility into our ongoing organizational practices and processes.
Working with Bar-David Consulting has been a wonderful experience. We began with a vision that was shaped collaboratively with our union colleagues and then Bar-David Consulting facilitators continuously fine-tuned and reshaped the program as we went along to ensure best results. Sharone Bar-David is a consummate professional whose passion about civility is evident in all of her interactions with our organization. We would highly recommend this program!”
— Josée Derickx, Director, Labour Relations, Classification and Compensation
Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission
Through our REAL™ Program for Abrasive Leaders we helped this heavy civil and marine construction company rehabilitate one of its leaders by coaching this person to get them back on the track of civil, respectful, and collaborative conduct. Here’s what the company’s CEO said three years later (and yes, the changes remained both strong and stable):
“I’ve had the pleasure of working with Sharone Bar-David as she helped our firm solve a challenge with abrasive behaviour. Sharone’s specialized coaching program helps people recognize their abrasive patterns, the damaging effects they can have on others, and how to change the problematic conduct. I have witnessed firsthand remarkable changes, and the positive impact Sharone’s work can make on a person’s behaviour at work and even on their life in general. I cannot thank her enough for it.”
— Martha Campbell, CEO
Zutphen
Since 2003 we helped develop leadership capacity for managers at Canadian Tire Financial Services and Canadian Tire Bank, an organization recorgnized as one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers. Working to amplify the company’s commitment to its core values, over several years we provided mandatory harassment and civility training to managers across the enterprise. At the conclusion of a comprehensive recent effort, the Assistant Vice President commented:
“As a workplace that prides itself on having a robust, employee-centric culture, we are most thankful for our work with Sharone Bar-David over the years. As the pace of business change continues to accelerate, we recently re-engaged Bar-David Consulting to help our leadership team retain a respectful focus on employ relations. With her unique position on human resource trends in the corporate world, Sharone helped our leadership team take stock of their role in creating and sustaining a positive, respectful culture.
Working closely with us to develop a custom program to fit our value-based, award-winning culture, Sharone then led us all through two quality workshops on Incivility in the Workplace. We amplified the learning by utilizing Sharone’s Trust Your Canary book and Respect on-the-Go toolkits to make real-world examples live and breathe throughout our discussions during and after our sessions. These rich resources play an important role in our ongoing commitment to operational leaders staying current on their people-leadership skills.
The participants’ feedback for this initiative was overwhelmingly positive. The leadership team now feels highly equipped to sustain and improve our workplace culture moving forward. Our time with Sharone has also driven our management team to develop sustainability tactics to build on the solid foundation we’ve built with her guidance and expertise. Thanks to you, Sharone, for your openness, expertise and counsel throughout the entire process and for our productive work together over the years. I highly recommend Bar-David Consulting to any organization who wants to build a strong business based on a solid culture.”
— Derek Moore, AVP, Collections, Recoveries, & Customer Security
Canadian Tire Bank
We have been working extensively over the past several years with the Ontario Public Service (OPS). We partnered with the OPS Diversity Office (the body charged with advancing diversity and inclusion amongst the organization’s 61,000 employees) to deliver workplace civility training to hundreds of managers across ministries. The OPS has been recognized as a top 100 employer and Best Place to Work for a number of years and we were privileged to be invited to work closely with many of its ministries. Here’s what the leader of a 2016 project shared:
“Working with Bar-David Consulting on training on Civility & Respect in the Workplace has been tremendously valuable to our respect and inclusion strategy. Recently, the Ontario Public Service (OPS) launched a new and more inclusive Respectful Workplace Policy. As the centre of expertise hub providing advice to 6,000 managers on human resources matters, we developed an implementation strategy that would ensure adequate tools and resources would be in place to meet tight timelines. A vital part of this strategy included specialized training for our HR Professionals and managers who for many years have been supporting clients at all leadership levels in understanding their responsibilities under the former Workplace Discrimination and Harassment Policy (WDHP). The introduction of this new policy with its emphasis on prevention and inclusiveness required the 200-strong team to quickly prepare the OPS leadership for the new era.
Ms. Bar-David came highly recommended by a number other OPS colleagues, and we were not disappointed!
Sharone provided a powerful and engaging customized program for our HR professionals across the province within a very short timeline. This hands-on, scenario-based training offered practical tools and approaches to successfully support client managers. She worked together with us to customize the training to meet our specific need and most importantly, the feedback from our advisors and managers across sessions was extremely positive, they expressed appreciation of the practicality of the training and consistently commented on the applicable benefits the training has provided, leaving us wanting more! I am also pleased that Sharone’s Trust Your Canary book and the Respect on the Go™ toolkits will help us sustain the gains made through the training.
The outcome of this Bar-David’s consulting’s work has truly contributed to the OPS’ ability to foster and sustain a respectful workplace that values diversity, inclusion, dignity, fairness and professional working relationships. Our staff are now better equipped to assist managers across the province by navigating them through sensitive and often contentious people issues. I highly recommend Sharone Bar-David’s services!”
— Franca Dignem, Director, HR Service Delivery Division, Ministry of Government and Consumer Services
Ontario Public Service
We worked with CMHA Thunder Bay over many years to support the leadership team and staff in creating a values-based, respectful work environment. Examples of our partnership included an intensive leadership development program; the creation of a civility-focused training video that is part of the organization’s on-boarding process; ongoing collaboration with the CEO to align the culture with the organization’s commitment to service excellence, and training to embed our Respect on-the-Go toolkits. Here’s a reflection from the organization’s CEO:
“Sharone Bar-David is making an amazing contribution across all sectors. CMHA Thunder Bay Branch began our journey working with Sharone in 2007 as part of a leadership development strategy. Years later we now share her passion for this work! What we most appreciate and admire is Sharone’s frank, matter of fact, on the ground, authentic approach to transferring knowledge. She creates a safe, yet not always comfortable learning environment, which, from our experience, has led to significant shifts in attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. We continue to build our intellectual understanding and internal “knowing” of the import role that each of us has in the creation and sustainability of a civil work environment.
We were thrilled with the launching of Bar-David Consulting’s “Respect on the Go” resources, and purchased a set of cards for all our employees across the board. The Respect on the Go resources are supporting staff, management and even clients with having meaningful conversations in a way that supports greater understanding of each other.
It has been an honour to learn from Sharone, work alongside her and now to call her a friend.”
— Sharon Pitawanakwat, CEO
CMHA Thunder Bay
We collaborated closely with this provider of home health care services on a number of civility-focused projects, including embedding our Trust Your Canary Team civility Booster™ program and Respect on-the-Go toolkits into the system.
“I am truly pleased with the results we’ve accomplished with Bar-David Consulting’s Trust Your Canary Team Civility Booster™.
It had been over a year since we purchased the program and began rolling it out throughout our large customer service centre. We wanted to strengthen our commitment to excellent service through increased internal civility and respect. The prep work we undertook for this ambitious project (logistics, leaders’ meetings, as well as leaders’ own personal reflections) paid off in spades. The ongoing consulting support we received from Sharone Bar-David helped us maximize the many benefits of the program and change not only the staff culture, but also ourselves as leaders.
We now have a much more positive work environment, which we are very thankful for. The Canary language is embedded in everything we do—fun posters hanging on our walls, employees using code words they learned through the program to help each other avoid “crossing the line,” and leaders who continuously reference the program’s ideas and language whenever they need to deal with potentially problematic behaviour. Staff started engaging with each other more in new ways — more friendliness combined with an ability to hold each other accountable on small behaviours that in the past may have triggered a chain of undesirable effects. We have committed to this change in the long term, and are now running groups for new employees on a regular basis to support sustained culture change.
Last year we conducted a staff engagement survey and discovered there was room for improvement. When we ran the survey again recently we got many comments about positive changes related directly to the Canary program—how much staff liked it and how beneficial it was to the department, and the many changes they were seeing as a result. We even got feedback from newer employees who noticed a marked difference in the way that they were welcomed at the beginning of a shift and a palpable improvement in the level of encouragement they felt to become more a part of the team.
All in all, the Trust Your Canary Team Civility Booster™ has been a very worthwhile investment and a meaningful collective learning opportunity!”
— Debbie Friday, Customer Service Centre Manager
VHA Home HealthCare
“I highly recommend Bar-David Consulting for any organization seeking to enhance not only the staff experience but the client experience as well. Over the past few years we have engaged Bar-David Consulting on a number of projects and have tremendous appreciation for their expertise and clarity in navigating complex issues. To support our commitment to excellence in client service, we are currently implementing the Trust Your Canary Team Civility Booster™ program in one of our key service areas and are delighted to see our staff and leaders’ engagement with this initiative. On the training side, the civility sessions with our leaders were highly engaging and made a meaningful difference in building confidence and skills. I am most grateful for Sharone Bar-David’s skill in coaching staff and leaders to respond sensitively, authentically and appropriately while keeping everyone’s dignity intact. Delivering the right message at the right time makes a world of difference to workplace culture, and partnering with Bar-David Consulting has been of tremendous value.”
— Kelley Myers, Vice President, Human Resources and Organizational Development
VHA Home HealthCare
“It’s exceedingly difficult to convey in words the power of experiencing Sharone Bar-David’s Incivility training delivered in person. In addition to her vast expertise on the subject of Workplace Incivility, she has a rare capacity to inspire. As part of my supporting a cross-departmental professional development initiative at our hospital, I have now sat through 5 of Sharone’s Workplace Incivility sessions (17.5 hours!). In testimony to her incredible facilitation skills, I felt as interested and engaged on hour 17 as I did on hour one. Based on my observations, I am confident that these sessions will significantly impact and positively change team cultures and the way we think about interactions in the workplace.”
— Liz Hill, Manager
Human Resources, St. Joseph’s Health Centre
For this Ontario Public Service ministry we facilitated separate Workplace Civility training for leaders and staff, utilizing our just-launched Respect-on-the-Go™ toolkits. Following the experience, we received the following feedback:
“I’ve attended numerous courses and I cannot recall ratings as high as the ones that we had received for the courses on workplace incivility that you provided to our leaders and staff. Highly engaging, very useful and practical, and together with the Respect-on-the-Go™ toolkits that we purchased we are now on solid footing to continue building a culture of civility and respect in our ministry.”
— Mark G. Speers, A/Assistant Deputy Minister
Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines
We offered various modes of custom training and developed video products for the leaders and staff of this long-term care facility, all geared to tame workplace incivility in an environment with unique challenges. Here are reflections offered by the organization’s leader one year into our work together:
“There were several transformative moments in our leaders’ session on workplace incivility with Sharone Bar-David that I will never forget, and for which I will never need to refer back to my (extensive) notes. The ‘Banner Test’ that helped our leaders identify when a behaviour has crossed the line, the ‘Mind the Broken Window’ concept that mobilized us into action, and most impactful – reflecting with total honesty on how we in management describe people when we are stressed or frustrated. In long term care, civility is woven into every aspect of our work and into every interaction with the residents who have entrusted their lives to us. Our work with Bar-David Consulting and their multi-faceted and innovative civility boosting projects is helping us to propel the very heart of our mission forward.”
— Suzi Holster, Administrator
Chelsey Park Long-Term Care Home
We worked with this training and business development consultant for several years on numerous projects, from inception, proposal submission, delivery of service and follow-up activities:
“During my 10 years in the training industry, I have worked with dozens of management trainers/consultants and I can confidently say that Sharone is the most effective professional trainer/consultant that I have encountered. In my capacity as a business development professional responsible for developing custom management training solutions for a range of organizations, I have provided numerous management teams with the opportunity to work with Sharone using her expertise as trainer, consultant, and executive coach. The results are always outstanding! Clients consistently comment on Sharone’s unique ability to challenge people in a non-threatening and safe way, which elicits lasting, sustainable change within their organizations. Sharone is genuinely the whole package – a phenomenal, sought-after trainer/consultant who is a true professional to work with on all sides of a project. She is an insightful and highly engaging facilitator who provides customized, thought-provoking solutions that meet the specific needs of our clients – senior managers regularly ask to have her come back to work with them further. Sharone’s ability and willingness to collaborate with our company’s back office staff in a creative and efficient manner, helps to greatly simplify and speed up all aspects of project deployment – from working together to assemble the information necessary to write a winning proposal, to consulting with the client to arrive at best program solutions, to delivering the service itself. I thoroughly enjoy working with Sharone, because of her high level of intelligence, her collaborative spirit, and because she makes my job as a business development professional that much easier – after a day of training with Sharone, it is a regular occurrence for a decision-maker at a client organization to call me and say “We want more, and please make sure it’s Sharone you send”. Clearly, I highly recommend Sharone as a consultant and trainer!”
— Stanley Bergman, Managing Director
LifeSpeak Inc.
Several days of leadership development were provided to a consortium of organizations, bringing leaders from several organizations together to learn, share and grow:
“The training with Sharone Bar-David several years ago was amazing. It was functional and very practical, which enabled me to take the learning to the management team and to then transfer the knowledge to the agency as a whole, so that we were able to change the culture and create a very different workplace. The information was valuable and applicable to so many areas. Even for experienced managers, the ideas were very meaningful. In the years since then we have implemented many of her training ideas that contributed to creating an overall safer work environment and inclusive culture. In addition, I have been truly inspired by Sharone Bar David’s blogs/ newsletter and utilize this information by sharing with our leadership team. These ideas provide real life stories that we can relate to; learn from; and engage staff in new learnings and training. I’d encourage any leader to attend Bar-David Consulting training!“
— Patty McDonald, Director of Operations
Canadian Mental Health Association – Sudbury/ Manitoulin
Following several years of mandatory management leadership training and respectful workplace training across the leadership group of Canadian Tire Financial Services (now Canadian Tire Bank) — a 3,000+ employee organization selected several times as Best Call Centre in North America — as well as training and consulting work with other Candian Tire divisions, we received the following feedback:
“Sharone Bar-David’s expert work and writing have been a great source of inspiration and knowledge for me as a leader since I first participated in a session with her a number of years ago. During that live training I gained vital insights that have equipped me to better support my employees and the management team that I lead. Following her blog over the years, I feel deeply grateful for all that Sharone does for managers out there who want to do well by our people and by our organization. I just love to read her perspective on topics that are always so relevant to our environment.
Recently I purchased copies of Trust Your Canary: Every Leader’s Guide to Taming Workplace Incivility — for the entire Leadership team of our division. I found the book to be the vade-mecum of workplace incivility! Each section revealed thought provoking examples of acts of incivility that could occur in any workplace environment. The true gift of this book lies in its ability to help leaders finally recognize the symptoms that, if left undetected, could seriously jeopardize the success of an organization. To top that, Trust Your Canary offers invaluable practical strategies. Incivility doesn’t have its place in the workplace, but Trust Your Canary certainly does!”
Mireille St.Amour, Manager, Credit Services Group, Canadian Tire Bank
“Sharone Bar-David not only brings conviction and energy to her workshops but leaves the participants well-equipped to take what they’ve learned and apply it to their everyday lives. In one of our biggest divisions, we had every front-line leader participate in the “Managing Supportive Employee Relations” program as part of their required training. After participating in this workshop, our leaders were better able to identify and address inappropriate behaviour in a proactive and constructive manner. The result was a significant improvement in our ability to enhance our “performance with heart” culture”.
Sharon Patterson, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Canadian Tire
“Sharone, as usual, you delivered above expectations! You are certainly making a difference in our organization in terms of the learning and integration of knowledge that takes place when our supervisors and managers return to their work spaces from your training. You have an exceptional ability to challenge others’ thinking and beliefs in a manner that promotes significant skill development in our leadership team. Your dynamic delivery style and training materials are consistently well received. The positive impact is certainly being
felt here…”
Debbie Kszan, Manager, Employee Relations, Canadian Tire Financial Services
“Sharone is a superb consultant and speaker. Her unique background and experiences enable her to quickly assess the broader needs of the organization and balance these effectively with the requirements of the engagement. She is creative and has a very high level of integrity. She is able to challenge thinking in ways that get people to really examine their beliefs and consider alternate ways of thinking and doing. Sharone is also a whole lot of fun to work with!”
Cindy Kaczmarek, Associate Vice President, Human Resources, Canadian Tire Corporation
“Sharone provides great ROI, not to mention that it is always a pleasure to work with her! She is a person who enhances learning experiences for others and possesses a unique (and admirable) talent to facilitate dialogue that shifts thinking patterns and sets the foundation for implementing change in an organization. Sharone is a fantastic coach and provides a vibrant and highly effective presence in any learning situation. She is highly skilled, effective and an asset to any learning or development program.”
Jodi Fitzgerald, Senior HR Consultant, Canadian Tire Financial Services
Sharone Bar-David spoke at the 17th Annual Ontario Customer Service Association’s conference on the relationship between workplace incivility and customer service. One participant sent us an email:
“The session you ran yesterday was fascinating! everyone in the session was buzzing about it afterwards!”
— James Nightingale, Manager, Customer Service Department
County of Simcoe, Corporate Communications Department
Following a three-year organizational development project involving multi-pronged interventions…
“When I became the first independent Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth I was entrusted by the Legislature of Ontario to build an organization from the embers of another while fulfilling a mandate that is crucial to many children in Ontario. I sought support and found Sharone. I found a treasure. She has guided, supported, encouraged, informed, trained, cajoled, coached myself and my staff as we have built our proverbial aircraft, created our vision of where we wished to travel, taxied to the runway and just now taken off. The Office of the Provincial Advocate is indebted to Sharone for her expertise in organizational development and her talent as a teacher and facilitator.”
— Irwin Elman, Provincial Advocate
Ontario Advocate for Children and Youth
We spoke to a group of executives on the topic of ‘respectful workplace’ and received the following endorsement from the group’s leader:
“We book 150 speakers a year for our executive networking group, and your sessions ranked squarely in the top Five. Your ability to engage, entertain, inform and even stir some lively controversy brought huge value to our group. We look forward to booking you again soon!”
— Jim Geraghty, President & CEO
Canada’s largest executive networking organization
We delivered a keynote to Law Office Leaders, offering new ways to become effective communicators who can get the job done and inspire people to follow their leadership. Here’s what the meeting organizer had to say post-meeting:
“The session on Strategic Communication was amazing! It enabled us to look very differently at how we as leaders within law offices communicate with our many stakeholders. Sharone inspired us to think differently and I look forward to applying these ideas and become a more influential communicator. The audience response was great, and I received many comments that indicated how well received it was, and how the strategies would be applied immediately.”
— Elizabeth Armstrong, Office Administrator
Davis LLP
A year after a lively half-day session with a Passport Canada group, we were thrilled to receive this feedback from the unit’s manager:
“Hands down, your session on Incivility was the best workshop we have ever had in our office! It is almost a year later and my employees are still using the incivility manual and referring to it as their ‘bible’! We talk about you and the work you did with us on that single afternoon often, even a year later! it was a highly productive and effective session, and the tools you gave us are still very much alive here today. We are ready to plan our next session! ”
— Sandra Lourenco, Manager
Passport Canada, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Following thirteen days of leadership development, delivered over a two-year period, feedback was received from the organization’s outgoing leader and its current one:
“Sharone has been our teacher, coach and guide on our learning journey towards building our leadership capacity. Sharone is a brilliant facilitator, a caring and compassionate champion for organizational health and leader led innovation and a provocative, humorous and skilful idea generator.
Working with Sharone through a number of training modules, we have all learned and grown from our exchange with each other as well as from Sharone’s guidance. We have honed and developed our leadership skills. We have built a shared understanding of our challenges. There is a synergy and an energy in our team that is a direct result of Sharone’s work with our leaders.
Sharone is someone that we will continue to look to as we solve and resolve what comes next.”
— Phyllis Lovell, Executive Director
Grey County Children’s Aid Society
“You continuously challenged our leadership team to look at our organization and culture in new ways. Your ability to go where the group needed to go, to engage and to use humour and relevant case examples were hugely effective in increasing participation. We gained important insights into our leadership and into the organization that will help us change in key ways. My plan is to follow up, debrief and address the things that now we know need to be addressed. Thank you!”
— Sydney Misener, former Executive Director
Grey County Children’s Aid Society
On this project, we provided employee-focused sessions and management-related support to one of General Electric’s divisions:
“The training that Sharone delivered on Incivility in the Workplace far exceeded our expectations. She worked with one of our Canadian locations, where we had seen issues of incivility for some time and were really struggling to figure out how to address it. Sharone’s training was a perfect fit for this group. The training was informative and provided real, practical tools and tips for dealing with incivility in the workplace. In two half-day sessions Sharone was able to highlight the issues, generate rich discussion and participation from the audience and really drive home the message. I would highly recommend this session to any organization. Highly relevant, highly informative, highly impactful training.”
— Shannon Millar, Human Resources Manager
GE Capital
We consulted to this large union on various team-based and individual-focused projects over a number of years, and following are reflections from the leader of one of the organization’s divisions:
“It takes a special kind of intuition and spark to communicate effectively with team leaders and staff members under pressure. When we get it right we produce huge gains, just as the wrong approach can herald disaster. This means working with the right consultant, and that is why I’ve consistently worked in partnership with Sharone Bar-David. Her efforts have been a valued part of many teams and projects. My professional work with Sharone has been guided by her ability to design and implement targeted solutions with a minimum of secondary work and time.
Sharone brings superb communication skills, intuition built on experience and varied program responses to a broad range of organizational situations. Her assistance with individuals and teams has allowed some to conquer long standing obstacles or broaden horizons and strike out boldly towards heightened performance. Our collaboration has produced team members and leaders with heightened individual performance, greater individual scope of activity and higher overall team performance. Personal and organizational achievement has been the result.”
— Heino Nielsen, Administrator, Communications Division
OPSEU (Ontario Public Employees Union)
Following an interactive keynote with a (very lively and highly opinionated!) group of senior executives representing many sectors….
“Thank you for taking the time to speak to our group of today! Clearly, you were able to pass along your passion and in turn stimulated a great deal of thought, conversation and introspection amongst this group of senior executives on the challenges and benefits of creating a respectful workplace environment! Your interactive style really played well with the group and allowed us to fully grasp and become sensitive to the concepts and differences between “freedom to” & “freedom from” as well as “intent and impact.” Equally, I think you converted some new disciples in the process along with the recognition that a corporate culture and overall tone begins with its leadership”
— David Ashton, Managing Director
Cinram International – Canada
Salesforce.com, the world leader in CRM solutions, invited us to train its fast-growing Canadian operations’ full management complement. Following the experience, the HR leader wrote:
“Sharone provided highly engaging and thought-provoking sessions for our management group. She was able to customize content and involve participants in the material in a way that caused numerous “light bulbs to go off”. I would highly recommend Sharone as a speaker, trainer, and facilitator.”
— Sarah Hannigan, Human Resources Business Partner
Salesforce.com
We delivered several sessions, for both employees and managers in this Ottawa-based non-profit organization. The feedback was short and sweet:
“On a scale of 1-10, Sharone scored a 15!”
— Andrew Fainer, Director of Human Resources and Corporate Services
Canadian Mental Health Association, Ottawa
In the course of a multi-year training project with this construction company’s staff, involving various forms of learning, the following feedback was received:
“Sharone is a dynamic and engaging facilitator and a professional and insightful coach. We have had the pleasure of working with Sharone on the design and delivery of a multi dimensional development program. Through this process we have had the opportunity to utilize her skills as a facilitator, coach and consultant. Sharone brings a high level of energy to her work and a strong commitment to understanding and meeting the needs of her clients.. Our program has truly benefited from having Sharone involved and we look forward to working with her on other Learning and Development Initiatives.”
— Deborah Fillippe, Vice President, Human Resources
Kenaidan Contracting Ltd.
During a period of major changes at DuPont Canada, we facilitated many change-related activities throughout the organization via coaching, consulting and training, all of which were supported by the Medical Director:
“Sharone is equally at ease working at any level of the organization, whether it’s large groups of employees or one-on-one sessions with the CEO. Her work with us during a period of major organizational changes enhanced leaders’ skills in handling the issues and resulted in greater employee ‘buy-in’. She has an intuitive knack for designing energizing sessions to meet customer needs”
— Dr. Sol Sax, former Global Medical Director
DuPont
We devised a facilitated process to help a work unit within one of Canada’s largest ten law firms break into new ways of thinking about current challenges, by using ‘The Work’, a groundbreaking model of inquiry:
“As a Director at a large downtown law firm, I was looking for something “different” and “new” to enhance the work environment for very busy, high performing legal professionals who find their work responsibilities overwhelming, with no end in sight.
I feel fortunate to have found in Bar-David Consulting the perfect partner to meet the challenge. Their consultants’ knowledge and intuition allowed for a deep understanding of the issues.
These abilities were reflected in my one-on-one consultations with them, as well as in a facilitated group setting. The consultants were focused and engaging and the work was well thought out and executed. The participants took away a powerful tool (‘The Work’), which helped them immediately and will help them going forward in their daily work/home lives, a tool which they did not have prior to ‘The Work’ experience. The positive change will have measurable impact on the work environment as we integrate the results into our organizational planning process. I highly recommend Bar-David Consulting as facilitators, as well as using ‘The Work’ model to deal with organizational challenges!”
— Catherine D’Aversa, Director, Corporate Services
Miller Thomson, LLP
We worked in an ongoing consulting capacity to assist in creating a welcoming and respectful working environment in the context of a large, diverse and complex community college environment:
“I have had the pleasure of engaging Bar-David Consulting’s expertise for assistance in planning efforts for creating safe, welcoming and inclusive working and learning environments. I very much value Sharone Bar-David’s breadth of experience and knowledge on this and other complex workplace-related dynamics. I found her extremely insightful, and appreciate her ability to provide feedback that is at once direct and supportive. Our work together has had a definite impact on my leadership skills. I highly recommend Bar-David Consulting to anyone who is dealing with making significant organizational climate changes.”
— Kristi Harrison, Associate Vice President – Academic Excellence
Centennial College
At OPSEU (Ontario Public Service Employees Union), multi-day leadership training was provided to all supervisors and managers. Here’s a perspective on this experience, provided by the person responsible for the training:
“Thanks again for your excellent work on our Supervisor Training! I’m hugely pleased with how it went. Participants were absolutely engaged throughout and left feeling that they still want more. The practical links and strategic exercises that could be implemented by them the very next day were particularly helpful, as were the ongoing debriefs on the learning. The fluidity of the experience was also great – when there was a learning moment that could take place spontaneously, you utilized that and went with it. The time that you spent up front in understanding the organization and our unique challenges showed up in a big way in the training, in the case studies and the customization. You connected the learning to our larger organizational philosophy in a critical way. On a personal note, as always, it was a pleasure to work with you. It was also fun to be a participant for a change, and I enjoyed not only the intended learning but also to watch a great facilitator at work – I picked up some useful tips!”
— Geraldine Ryan, Training Supervisor
OPSEU – Ontario Public Service Employees Union
As a result of a four-day leadership development experience conducted for leaders from several not-for profit organizations in Northern Ontario, one participant wrote:
“Having attended many training experiences, I can unequivocally say that training with Sharone Bar-David is the best training I’ve attended. Sharone was inspirational – providing a fresh perspective to leadership, that motivated us to make change within our own programs and agencies. Most importantly for me, I was able to immediately apply the learning to a long-standing challenging situation with one of the teams I lead and the results were absolutely transformative for my own self as a leader, for the team and ultimately, for the users of our service. The training helped me rethink my perspective and as a result I found within myself the strength to do what needed to be done in a decisive yet kind fashion. I highly recommend any leader or “up and coming” leader to take part in a learning experience with Sharone.”
— Stephanie Lawton, Clinical Manager
Sudbury Regional Hospital
We delivered a keynote on Work-Life balance to a group of overly-worked highly competent executive assistants:
“When Sharone Bar-David spoke to our group, there were times when you could hear a pin drop. Sharone touched us all right to the core, in our own individual ways. We can use the words that she provided and the advice she offered and take them with us for the rest of our lives. I hope that we can find our own personal ways to use Sharone’s advice, to stop “shortening our Telomeres” and live a happier, more fulfilled life. Sharone is a fantastic, wonderful, genuine and honest human being and presenter and her “Has Anyone Seen My Compass Lately?” workshop is simply priceless. Our deep thanks for that!”.
— Marilyn Barton, President, Toronto Chapter
International Association of Administrative Professionals, Toronto Chapter
We’ve had the pleasure of working with Cindy Stradling’s training agency for several years, over many projects, and here’s her feedback on our work together:
“As a training agent I have provided clients with the opportunity to work with Sharone in the capacity of a speaker and/or trainer. The results are always outstanding. Customers are very pleased with her work and confirm that she is ‘bang on’ when it comes to speaking to their individual needs. I am always confident when I introduce Sharone to a client.”
— Cindy Stradling
Owner, Athena Training & Consulting
We provided training, coaching and consulting services to this non-profit organization over several years. Here’s how the organization’s CEO and its Manager of Human Resources summarized the experiences:
“For over three years we’ve used Sharone Bar-David for management training. It’s been exceptionally helpful in terms of both the presentation of the material and its validity. Three years later we’re still using some of the specific tools to deal with particularly difficult client and organizational issues. Sharone’s unique style is highly engaging, facilitative and suits our organizational culture”.
— Sandy Milakovic, CEO
Canadian Mental Health Association/Peel Branch
“Our management team obtained tremendous value from Sharone e Bar-David’s insights and knowledge. The results of her work with us are manifested in many ways in our organization’s life. Having worked with CMHA Peel’s management team over the last 5 years in varied capacities as facilitator, consultant and coach, Sharone has been an exceptionally engaging and professional facilitator who brings considerable knowledge and experience to her work with leaders, in areas such as harassment, change management, employee relations, performance management etc. She possesses a remarkable ability to connect with people of all styles in a real way and is highly effective in challenging and motivating them to go beyond their current comfort zone. We’ve turned to Sharone to assist us with consulting services to HR and senior management when various needs arose and always found that she brings an insightful perspective to the challenging issues at hand. Sharone is highly experienced and well-informed. Equally if not more importantly, she always brings a compassionate and respectful outlook to the situation. Our organization and I personally, very much look forward to continue working with Sharone in the future”
— Namrata Balsara, HR Manager
Canadian Mental Health Association
Following a leadership development initiative that included several days of Respectful Workplace training for the full leadership complement….
“The Respect workshops you held for our leadership team were hugely worthwhile. The ‘Socratic’ teaching method engaged people with the subject and with each other, enabling significant insights and changing how people think about the related issues. Some individuals experienced moments of epiphany as the new learning helped shed a completely new light on existing situations they are dealing with in their teams.
This process will lead to new action on our part, as we address current and future issues differently and more effectively. The collaborative, thorough pre-event preparation and assistance that you provided contributed tremendously to the success we experienced. The information highlighted areas for improvement for our organization as a whole and the effects of this training will continue to have an impact throughout the Corporation for a very long time. Thank you!”
— David McCarron, Executive Director
Corporate Services, Ottawa Community Housing Corporation
We were thrilled to receive this feedback ten years after we provided a half-day training session for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency:
“I attended a session Sharone delivered on work-life balance more than ten years ago and to this day, I still employ many of Sharone’s tips and lessons to maintain a healthy balance. Her engaging, humorous style and practical insights really resonated with me and it was easy to incorporate the tools right away. Actually scheduling free time or family time right in my calendar and committing to it as much as I would a meeting at work, reminds me that my personal time is important. Stopping to evaluate incoming work or issues for urgency and importance, and recognizing the difference, improved the way I manage my priorities and work relationships. Sharone’s lessons have been resilient throughout the evolution of how we work and live today.”
— Gina Pennesi, Regional Manager
Strategic Management, Public Works and Government Services Canada
We delivered a keynote on psychological harassment for the association of Employee Assistance Providers. Here’s the feedback from the association’s president:
“I was struck by the high level of interaction in the ‘Psychological Harassment’ workshop, which demonstrates how hungry organizations are for this type of knowledge. The group was comprised of leaders who deal with these matters regularly, yet you succeeded in providing them with a more complex view and pushed them to the next level of understanding, which will inevitably translate into their performance. In fact, one participant later relayed that she had wished she had gone through this workshop before a critical meeting the previous day! One of the things I really liked was how you described the continuum of options for dealing with things, from education through to discipline. Thank you very much!”
— Linda Hochstetler, President
EAPAT Board of Directors
“Sharone is a witty, engaging and well-prepared speaker who motivates and engages the audience. From the podium her intuition, insight and energy challenge and inspire the room. I highly recommend Sharone!”
— Erin Roberts, Partner
Zzeem
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