Organizational Development

About Plan Commission Workshops

Appointment to a local government’s plan commission is an important commitment carrying significant responsibilities. The decisions reached can affect community and regional functioning, as well as character, for decades or more.

A plan commission workshop can help bridge the knowledge-experience gap and increase commissioner confidence. Extension Waukesha County holds a plan commission workshop approximately every 18 months. Each workshop addresses one or more specific issues.

Previous Plan Commission Workshop Topics

• Plan Commission Fundamentals
• Waukesha County’s Housing Landscape Trends & Opportunities
• Community Values, Local Discretion & New State Rule on Conditional Use
• Tax Increment Financing
• Roles, Rights, & Responsibilities
• Procedural Responsibilities
• Regional Planning Efforts
• Conservation Subdivision Design: Environmental Merits & Barriers to Implementation
• Making Land Use Decisions Through a Sustainability Framework

Maximize your Community Impact: Partner with your Extension Office for Needs Assessments, Program Development and Evaluation

Is your organization aiming to launch a new community initiative, refine an existing service, or prove the real-world impact of your programs? You don’t have to navigate these complex processes alone.

By partnering with your local Extension office, you gain access to university-backed research, data collection expertise, and structural frameworks designed to maximize your organization’s effectiveness.

Why Work with Extension?

Extension exists to translate academic research into practical, community-driven solutions. When your organization partners with Extension, you acquire a trusted educator who helps ensure your funding, time, and energy are directed exactly where they will do the most good.

Framework

Before building a program, you must deeply understand the gaps in your community. Extension utilizes proven methodologies such as survey designs, focus groups and secondary data analysis to help you identify the underlying challenges. This allows you to avoid spending limited resources on programs that the community doesn’t need or want.

Once a need is identified, Extension will help you build a solid theory of change for your initiative. By using this Logic Model, you will clearly think through your inputs (resources) and activities to measurable short/mid/long term outcomes. Your program will then be built on a solid foundation of existing research to increase probability of success.

How do you know if your program actually worked? Evaluation frameworks look beyond numbers to capture the true behavioral change and impact. This results in securing robust data-backed evidence of your impact, which is essential to sponsors and future funding sources.

Ready to Elevate Your Impact?

Let’s build something measurable together. Contact Steve Chmielewski today at 262-548-7781 or steven.chmielewski@wisc.edu to schedule a time to discuss how we can align university resources with your organization’s vision.

Unlock the mystery of human behavior and experience the power of Real Colors® in your organization as you start fitting those pieces together! Contact Steve Chmielewski today at 262-548-7781 or steven.chmielewski@wisc.edu for cost details and to arrange for a workshop at your organization.

The Power of Real Colors®

Imagine having the knowledge to truly understand yourself and others, without requiring years of study. Real Colors® is the key. Real Colors® provides an effective tool to understanding human behavior, for uncovering motivators specific to each temperament and for improving communication skills.

The Real Colors® Personality Instrument used in the workshop is presented in a fast, fun, interactive format where participants can learn how to quickly identify their own temperament or “color” and that of others. Using this powerful knowledge, they can develop more effective communication skills and build better relationships.

Real Colors® is easy to incorporate into all areas of daily life. It is the key to achieving higher levels of success, both personally and professionally.

The Power to Impact Communication

When an individual understands their color, they will be able to gain a more authentic view of themselves, as well as develop a better understanding of others. Communication and social abilities will be enhanced and opportunities for greater success will expand.

In the Real Colors® workshop, participants will:

• Discover their personal strengths.
• Learn to recognize the strengths of others.
• Learn how to build rapport with people.
• Learn the most effective methods of speaking to different people.
• Learn to hear what people are really saying.
• Discover the different ways individuals process information.
• Learn to appreciate and value the viewpoints of others.
• Learn how to apply Real Colors principles in all areas of their lives.

Real Colors® workshop overview:

• 2.5 to 3 hours
• 25-35 participants is ideal (larger groups are possible) 
• Active participation is required through small and large group activities

“The research-based tool helped us all understand what roles we play on the job (i.e., peacemaker, organizer, pragmatist, energizer), what we seek on the job, take pride in and are stressed by on the job. The training offered fun interactive activities to meet the training objectives, and facilitation by Extension staff was excellent.”

Waukesha County Health, Officer/Public Health Manager

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About National Curriculum & Training Institute, creator of Real Colors®

Since 1981, National Curriculum & Training Institute® (NCTI) has focused on understanding human behavior and the motivations behind it. Using that knowledge, they’ve created innovative workshops based on their exclusive Real Colors Personality Instrument. Throughout the years, over a million people have experienced the benefits of Real Colors. Today, NCTI has a reputation as a leading provider of staff development workshops that improve people’s communication skills while promoting personal and professional development. Their workshops are used by businesses, government agencies, non-profit organizations, educational institutions, and criminal justice agencies across the country. www.RealColors.org  

All organizations are in some state of flux. Whether that is staff turnover, changing budgets or stakeholder needs/expectations, etc., strategic planning is a proactive and powerful process to help an organization define their vision for the future and to align their mission, values, goals, objectives and priorities around this vision.

A well-managed organization will both define where it wants to be and then manage the changes needed through an action agenda to achieve the desired outcomes. Through our strategic planning process, participants engage in an opportunity to generate new thinking, action and learning. The process is visionary and proactive, yet flexible and practical. We take a big picture view of the environment and your organizations’ ability to deliver impactful outcomes and develop specific goals, objectives, targeted actions and metrics. As a result, we develop a guide for your organization’s decision-making and resource allocation.  

Additional benefits of strategic planning process can include: clarifying mission/vision, increasing stakeholder engagement, responding to environmental changes, building resource efficiency, enhancing organizational resilience and securing funding support with a clear strategic direction.

Contact Steve Chmielewski today at 262-548-7781 or steven.chmielewski@wisc.edu to discuss how we can assist you with your strategic planning or other organizational development needs.