Productive Learning & Leisure’s
Basis and Thinking on Creating A Responsive Organization

At the heart of every organization are its people and the web of relationships that are formed by them all working together.


It is PLL’s belief and experience that what is at the core of things getting done in an organization is the quality of the “people relationships.”  Although companies are always working to streamline and improve processes and systems, it’s the people in any organization that make things happen or not.  Processes and systems are tools that are used by people.  It’s the quality of relating within an organization on a day-to-day, person-to-person basis that makes or breaks results-oriented productivity. It’s the people who have to work with the systems--through them, around them, under or over them. They have to do all of the above in response to the needs of others, the demands of the market, fulfilling a promise or completing a project.  Often it may mean they are challenged by having to get a matter taken care of immediately or having a team come through for them. 

Organizational responsiveness is the direct result of organizational relationships.

The nature of PLL’s work is unique.  Our objectives differ from traditional organizational training models.  We focus on the interpersonal, self-constructed realities, interactions and dynamics that lead to extraordinary results.  Our work provides a deep exploration into the nature of human beings as well as the nature of “human relating” in the workplace.   In the workplace environment, people interact with each other in a jointly constructed reality.  Each individual in conjunction with others creates the day-to-day reality of what is known as The Company.  Their collective and individual beliefs, attitudes and interactions give rise to the experience of organizational life, and in turn define the emerging results of the company.
Visions, mission statements, business plans, designed systems are all essential, but they do not do the work of the organization.  The daily reality of the organization requires the ability and agility to respond to the unexpected, to the daily situations that may not fall neatly into the organization’s systems and procedures.  When employees are faced with challenges, surprises and the non-routine, seamless responses only occur when there are successful interactions between employees.
Once again, it’s the people successfully relating with each other, one interaction after another, that ensures the company will be able to respond successfully to its changing environment and daily demands.

The ability of a company to interact collaboratively, to have the conversations that forward action, to invite the conversations that create novelty and creative solutions are what makes a company great.

In most cases non-productivity, project failures and lack of results can be traced back to a relationship breakdown or multiple breakdowns.  These can be misunderstandings in communication, inaccurate assumptions, withheld communications, broken or unclear agreements, alienation and/or retaliation. In general breakdowns can often be attributed to lacks in the following areas: alignment, inclusion, collaboration and communication.   

The expense of poor relationships in companies can be measured by the costs of failures, turnover, errors and slow responsiveness.  Loss of contracts, mediocre work, excessive new employee training time, late projects and lost opportunities are expensive and can break a company.  The jump from ordinary to extraordinary relationships is the jump from good to great.  Extraordinary relationships happen when there are high levels of trust, integrity, real communication and uncharacteristic levels of support within an organization. 

In an article published by the Wall Street Journal, the five top reasons why managers fail were all related to poor interpersonal and relational skills, not technical or cognitive abilities.

PLL works with a company’s people to break through their limiting beliefs and habits—the ones that inhibit productive interactions and relationships.  We introduce new ways of communicating and interacting. These methods permeate restrictive, conditioned ways of relating in business and produce extraordinary advancement of organizational goals.  We foster powerful relationships which are uncharacteristic in a typical corporate environment.  As we break through outdated conditioned patterns of relationships, we discover more dynamic, responsive ways of working together in organizations. These relationships develop a high level commitment to: integrity and truthfulness; personal growth; awareness; personal responsibility; the honoring of agreements; and an overall sense of purpose.  Relationships freed from limiting beliefs are highly responsive and capable of creating novel and creative solutions as well as a healthier, less stressful work environment.

Our Approach

Our approach is to directly explore and experientially discover rather than intellectually present education-based topics. The very dynamics and practices that inhibit profitability or a company’s forward success are revealed through participants engaging in the activities of our workshops. Our unique training style allows us to work directly “in the moment.”  We deal with what is really going on, rather than theorizing or talking about it.  As we do this, transformation occurs in real time and is immediately accessible and applicable in the workplace.

Our Facilitators

Our facilitators are trained professionals with years of organizational and facilitation experience.  We present workshops in a way that guides, supports, encourages and challenges our clients. Our intention is to be fully present--sensitive to both group and individual needs while modeling what we teach.  Our premise is that the most effective learning often comes from the collective and individual experience of the participants, not solely from the leader.  Our role is facilitative more than instructive. Our trainers invite our clients to tap their own individual intelligence and creativity.  Participants develop their own abilities and create their future by engaging in an experience of authentic learning.

If you are a company with any of the following challenges, PLL could be your solution --

•  Employees not in alignment with company vision, values or goals
• Divisions and silos within the company
• Poor or mediocre teamwork or results
• Undercurrents of dissatisfaction or “water cooler” conversations
• Breakdowns between departments
• Slow responsiveness to client or internal needs
• Inability to go from “good” to “extraordinary”
• A desire to expedite growth and evolve as a company

Money-Back Guarantee

At Productive Learning & Leisure, we have built our reputation as an honest and ethical business entity by practicing the following principle – you must be satisfied with the training we provide, or we will refund your money. With that confidence in our quality and service, we welcome your call to discuss your training needs. There is no risk . . . there is everything to gain.

PLL’s Corporate Model: The Responsive Organization

2-year Curriculum
Content: Five Capabilities and Two Concerns

• Self-awareness:  Being able to recognize and address the thinking, behaviors and choices that limit your personal success and happiness.  Discovering how to shift to more positive and productive options; ones that generate new possibilities. Identifying what motivates you, while getting free of your own de-motivating thinking and behavior.
• Team/Organizational Awareness: Being able to observe and define team and company-wide dynamics and patterns.  Learning to shift team dynamics that limit success to interactions that generate collaboration, motivation and innovation.  Relating to others in a productive way that forwards extraordinary results. Creating alignment, cooperation and success.
• Effective Dialogue: Being able to create a two-way flow of communication that fosters shared understanding and mutual respect. The ability to work effectively with differing opinions and perspectives toward creative resolution and organizational alignment.
• Deep Listening: Listening in a way that opens communication and allows you to understand and speak into the reality of another. Identifying and getting free of listening filters, defenses and blocks. Creating a “Listening Organization,” one that can listen in all directions and fully hear its leaders, employees, customers and stakeholders, all contributing to its own organizational intelligence.
• Emotional Intelligence:  Being aware of different emotions and attitudes as they arise and being able to generate positive states. Successfully managing one’s own feelings and moods and persist in the face of daily frustrations and setbacks. Generating a perspective of optimism and possibility, remaining positive in the face of change.  Emotional intelligence is a key factor in an individual’s ability to succeed.          

Two Concerns:

• Inclusion: Doing things with a concern for inclusion.  Who needs to be included, in what ways and at what point in this decision, project and/or action?  Whose contribution is important? Who will move things forward? Who will this effect? What unintentional consequences could result from not including certain individuals?
• Integrity: Doing things with a concern for personal and organizational integrity. Are we making decisions and acting in ways that are consistent with our values and who we say we are as a company?

Beyond Reasons:The connection between outcomes and thought processes.  In this workshop you will explore the fundamental thinking errors that generate reasons for undesirable results.  People are committed to the results they want or to their reasons for not having them.  This workshop creates a fundamental shift in results thinking.
2 days

Path of Dialogue: Successful dialogue skills training. Learn the specific skills and applications for moving varying opinions and strong emotions toward creative resolution.
2 days

Workshops on application and implementation
1 day per month for the six month period

Successful Relationships
2 days
Achilles Heel: This workshop is designed to reveal habitual, unexamined ways of being and relating that impede productivity and happiness.   Participants identify circumstances that trigger unproductive responses and develop a strategy for dealing with these situations.
2 days
Deep Listening: Identify the listening filters that impede clear hearing.  Learn a method of listening that invites open communication and builds relationship.
1 day
Workshops on application and implementation
1 day per month for the 6 month period

Emotional Intelligence: A year-long workshop designed to develop emotional awareness, self-management, personal motivation and resilience. Participants learn healthy ways of experiencing and expressing emotions that support personal well-being and relationships with others.
1 day per month for 8 months

Quarterly Team Building Retreats: Whole team retreats designed to create a collaborative effect across departments and through all levels of the organization.
2-day retreats scheduled over 4 months