Quarterly Learning and Development Programs
Hands On is a global boutique learning and organizational development firm. With over 20 consecutive years in business, we work with you and your organization to harness and maximize your talent.
Search our learning programs by category. Click on the category to be taken to the full list of programs offered this quarter.
Business Skills
Technical Skills
Communication Skills
Culture
Influencing Skills
Personal / Professional Development
Leading Others
Business Skills
Advanced Finance for Non-Finance Managers (3 hours)
This program is mostly geared to senior leaders who are not in Finance. This program will help you advance your financial knowledge and awareness, as sound fiscal knowledge and management are critical for all leaders.
Advanced Innovation (3 hours)
Expand your innovation skills by learning advanced ideation and innovation techniques and approaches.
Advanced Leading Change (3 hours)
In this simulation, participants work together through a sizeable change effort, including learning how to plan for large-scale change, appropriately implement change, and align others.
Advanced Strategic Planning( 2 x 2 hours one to two weeks apart)
Advance your strategic planning capabilities by exploring the latest insights from thought leaders in evaluating good and bad strategies and what we can learn from these. Interpolate your learning by using advanced strategic planning models to re-think strategy design and definition and strategic planning implementation and execution.
Agile & Design Thinking (3 hours)
This is an advanced program. Design Thinking is a key framework that helps us think through new strategies, products, services, and ways of working in a creative, customer-centric manner. Agile Methodology has been used for years by high tech organizations to streamline and expedite operations and execution. Today, many other industries have adopted Agile and Design Thinking to improve their strategies, operations and execution.
Budget & Resource Management (3 hours)
If you are responsible for planning or managing a budget and/or planning and managing longer-term resource allocation, this program is great to help you understand the different techniques in budgeting and resource planning.
Business Process & Continuous Improvement (3 hours)
This program is mainly geared toward mid- and senior leaders who lead a function or department and have the opportunity to continuously improve efficiencies and operational excellence. This program is also great for anyone responsible for cross-functional business processes or who is interested in learning more about process engineering and continuous improvement
Decision-Making ( 2.5 hours)
In this program, you’ll learn advanced techniques and practices to help you make better business decisions faster.
Effective Meetings (3 hours)
We spend a lot of time in meetings and so it’s to everyone’s benefit to understand how to optimize meeting effectiveness and efficiencies. In this program, we’ll share best practices, and different tips and techniques to not only make your meetings more efficient, but also elevate your meetings to increase the return on investment in time spent to ensure optimized outcomes from meetings.
Finance for Non-Finance Managers (3 hours)
If you are not in Finance and are keen to learn about foundational financial processes and tools that underpin business, this program will give you great context into how business finances work, and the role that we can all play in ensuring sound fiscal management of our organizations.
Ideation and Innovation (3 hours)
Learn about the difference yet connected nature of ideation and innovation. Learn how to structure and run ideation sessions to generate ideas and opportunities to innovate in your area of the organization.
Interviewing Skills (3 hours)
This program is great for anyone involved in interviewing, as it will help to ensure your interviews are structured to garner the information you need to recommend the best hiring decision for candidates and our organization.
Leading Change (3 hours)
Change in any organization is to be expected. If you are leading an initiative or project that requires change management, such as communicating and educating others on the change, this program will help you understand how to incorporate change management best practices into your work
Leading Projects (3 hours)
This program is great for anyone who is not certified in Project Management. This program will help you better plan for and lead projects for optimal project engagement and execution.
Leading Innovation (3 hours)
Advance ideation, innovation, and team engagement capabilities through key steps that have been proven to lead to better results and relationships at work.
Marketing 101 (3 hours)
Learn the fundamentals of marketing as a core function of any company, whether it’s evaluating and planning for key factors as an organization works toward commercialization, or a company already out in market. Forward planning and alignment with strategy are key tenets of what marketing functions do. You also don’t need to be in a marketing or market-facing function to benefit from this program, as all functions deliver a product or service and therefore market their deliverables – whether to internal or external customers.
Marketing 201 (3 hours)
This program is recommended if you have either attended our Marketing 101 program and want to learn more or are just generally interested in advancing your knowledge of this key function in organizations.
Marketing Communications (3 hours)
Up-level your marketing knowledge by building on Marketing 101 and 201 programs to understand a key area of marketing, which is marketing communications, a fundamental and core practice of communicating about the brand, the value proposition, competitive positioning, the product portfolio, the customers and communities served, and more.
Personal Time Mastery (2.5 hours)
Advance your time management capabilities and effectiveness by targeting specific areas that enable you to work toward time mastery, such as balancing work versus personal life, developing habits that increase productivity while maximizing time, and more.
Product Lifecycle Management (3 hours)
Whatever your product (which may be a service, such as HR or IT) and whatever your role, understanding the end-to-end process of how products are developed, matured, retired and/or reinvented is a useful skill to have in developing, protecting, and evolving whatever you deliver as part of your role at work.
Portfolio Management (3 hours)
Expand your project management skills by understanding what it takes to effectively manage a portfolio of projects.
Risk Management (3 hours)
Risk management is among the critical capabilities growing and mature organizations develop and hone over time to ensure the organization’s readiness to effectively and efficiently manage different scenarios that can arise (foreseen and unforeseen) in business operations. Whether you lead a large function, a small department or team, a key project, or just generally want to learn about best practice risk mitigation and management, you’ll be exposed to different practices and models to help you play your role in managing your organization’s risks.
Root Cause Analysis (3 hours)
Learn the importance of Root Cause Analysis and how it is used in organizations for more robust problem-solving. Learn how to map problems to arrive at root cause analysis.
Scaling the Organization (3 hours)
This program is mostly aimed at mid- to senior leaders who are responsible for a function or department. The program will help leaders understand how to grow and scale their function or department as their overall organization continues to grow and evolve.
Strategic Planning (3 hours)
This is an advanced program. This program will help you understand the difference between strategy and strategic planning, but more importantly the program will give you key models to consider when building strategy and then developing and executing a strategic plan that enables your strategy to be achieved.
Time Management and Organization (2.5 hours)
This is an entry-level program to help you better manage your time and organize your workload. This program is suitable for those who want to improve in these areas and/or are relatively new in their professional careers.
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Technical Skills
Clinical Operations (3 hours)
Learn the fundamentals of Clinical Operations and their role and responsibilities in managing clinical trials and clinical studies. This is useful if you are in Clinical Operations and want more guidance on the full cycle of this group and its work. This is also useful if you work with Clinical Operations and/or just want to learn more about this group’s role in steering clinical trials and clinical studies to successful conclusion.
Drug Development 101 (3 hours)
If you are not in a Science or Development role, this program will help you understand the broader context of Life Sciences’ drug discovery and development, which is important context for all colleagues who work in Life Sciences, as it will help you understand some of the primary functions of our business.
Drug Discovery & Development 201 (2 x 2 hours one week apart)
Learn advanced concepts and principles in drug discovery and development, including key stakeholders across the biopharma ecosystem, latest trends and evolutions in biopharma, and more.
Drug Safety (3 hours)
Everyone plays a role in drug safety from Phase I clinical trials onwards. Learn how Drug Safety works and also more about Pharmacovigilance.
GxP (3 hours)
The Life Sciences and adjacent industries are governed by good, consistent practices. Learn what these are – the full range, organizational requirements and also some of the regulatory reporting requirements. or sign up for Feb and March here.
Healthcare Compliance (2.5 hours)
Learn the fundamentals of healthcare compliance pertinent to the biopharma industry and what organizations must do to remain compliant.
Healthcare Economics (3 hours)
Learn the fundamentals of health economics and the role this field / function plays in the biopharma industry.
Market Access (2 x 2 hours)
This program will help you understand the critical role that market access plays in the biopharma industry and how efforts to build market access typically start years before commercialization and why that is the case. This program will significantly advance your knowledge of the business of biopharma.
Patient Centricity (3 hours)
Learn about this important mindset in life sciences - how to strategize, plan, implement, and enhance patient centricity in biopharma organizations, including best practices and industry lessons learned.
Preparing for Commercialization (3 hours)
Learn about key strategies and steps biopharma organizations take in preparing for commercialization / marketing and sales of biopharma products. Take this opportunity to increase your awareness of this later stage, and what’s involved, even if your organization is several years away from commercializing a product, as understanding what the future may hold and require can help you and your organization make proactive plans.
Preparing for IND (2 x 2 hour sessions / 2 parts one week apart)
Learn the fundamental requirements for a successful IND, including best practices and common challenges and pitfalls.
Preparing for Phase 2 (3 hours)
Learn how to transition from Phase 1 to Phase 2 clinical trial – what’s typically required to be successful and common challenges and pitfalls.
Ramping-up for Phase 3 (2 x 2 hours one week apart)
Phase 3 clinical trials bring a myriad of challenges and learning opportunities, for which if we can proactively prepare, we’ll be better positioned to successfully meet the challenges and ensure we’re ready for our ultimate goal, which is commercialization. Phase 3 also introduces a number of other considerations beyond clinical development, such as preparing the rest of the business and organization for potential product launch. This program is great to give you an advance review of a number of things to consider before or during Phase 3 clinical trials. Whether you’re in clinical development or another function, you will learn about one of the most critical milestones for biopharma and other life sciences organizations.
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Communication Skills
Advanced Presentation Skills (2 x 4.5 hours)
Learn and practice advanced presentation skills in a more immersive manner through various simulations, practice presentations, facilitator and peer participant feedback.
Conversational Intelligence (2 x 2 hours one week apart)
Note: this is an advanced program. Conversations are critical to our effectiveness as they are the source of most, if not all, communications and interactions with others both at work and elsewhere. Learn about the neuroscience behind the communications we have with others as a way to significantly up-level your approach to all forms of communication – written, verbal, presentations, and more – and the results you’re able to achieve by a more advanced approach
Giving & Receiving Feedback (2.5 hours)
This program is great for all colleagues who want to improve their abilities to give good feedback as well as receive feedback in a constructive and productive manner. Feedback is constant; it’s how we give it, receive it, and process it, that makes all the difference.
Navigating Difficult Conversations (2.5 hours)
This program will help you learn how to approach more challenging conversations with greater ease, comfort and confidence.
Presenting Technical Information (2 x 1.5 hours one week apart)
This program will help you learn how to better structure and present technical information – whatever your technical area of expertise.
Storytelling (2 x 1.5 sessions one week apart)
This program is an alternative to Presenting Technical Information if you are interested in focusing purely on storytelling as a powerful technique in communicating with others, including using storytelling in presentations. It is not recommended that you attend both Presenting Technical Information and Storytelling programs, as there are certain overlaps of information in both of these programs.
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Culture
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (2.5 hours)
This is a foundational program that will give you more insights into the nature and evolution of diversity, equity and inclusion in organizations. You’ll also learn more about unconscious bias, how to combat this, and how to be an ally to others.
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Influencing Skills
Emotional Intelligence (2.5 hours)
Emotional intelligence is consistently rated as highly important to one’s professional success, if not more important than IQ. In this program, learn the fundamentals of Emotional Intelligence and how you can increase this to enhance your work results and relationships.
Executive Presence (2.5 hours)
This program is great if you want to enhance your capabilities and confidence when interacting, communicating with or presenting to senior management.
Influencing & Stakeholder Management (3 hours)
We all have stakeholders, and we all influence all of the time. This program will help you enhance your influencing and stakeholder management skills.
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Personal / Professional Development
Career Development (2.5 hours)
Learn tips and techniques to identify your career interests, strengths and developmental areas, while creating more robust career and development plans for your own career advancement.
Growth Mindset (2.5 hours)
Growth Mindset is a way of thinking and being in the world. It’s a way that we approach both opportunities and challenges and how we continuously grow our capabilities, network and seize the opportunities that present themselves to us. This program is great if you’re looking for a way to “re-frame” how you approach issues, challenges, setbacks, failures and stress.
Increasing Resiliency (2.5 hours)
Resiliency continues to be rated among the most important skills we can have in both professional and personal realms. This program can help you strengthen your resiliency and enjoy the benefits of increased resiliency in both work and beyond. As science has shown, resiliency is not something we’re born with; it is a learnable and incredibly valuable skill.
Managing Stress (2.5 hours)
Learn different ways to better manage stress, including using learned optimism.
Mastering Your Mindset (2 x 1..5 hours one to two weeks apart)
Learn proven strategies that allow you to take control of your thoughts, make the most of successes, bounce back from setbacks, and deliver your best performance when it matters most.
Personal Branding (2.5 hours)
This program will help you understand how to build and strengthen your professional brand – how you want others to regard you. Personal branding, when done well, is key to influencing others and strengthening your career opportunities.
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Leading Others
Advanced Coaching (3 hours)
Learn tips, techniques, and best practices used by executive coaches to advance your coaching capabilities
Advancing Leadership (3 hours)
Develop advanced leadership capabilities by learning and leveraging the Learn, Lead, Lift model. Rise to meet the demands of tomorrow’s workplace.
Being a Leader (3 hours)
Advance your foundational understanding and capabilities for leading others, whether you’re a formal people leader or a project team leader. Through this program, you will learn several foundational practices of great leaders that will help you accelerate and advance your capabilities when leading others. (Note: if you’ve previously attending our Managing Others program, Being a Leader will advance your knowledge and capabilities, so this is a great follow-on from Managing Others, though prior attendance in Managing Others is not required.)
Creating a Strong Team Culture (3 hours)
Learn how to enhance the culture of your team, which in turn increases team member engagement, commitment, and satisfaction, while getting the whole team moving in a shared direction.
Creating Strategic Vision & Aligning Your Team (3 hours)
This is an advanced program. This program is great for any leader who can benefit from learning how to develop a well-structured, elevating and compelling vision, including learning how to communicate shared vision, meaning and purpose to align your teams and stakeholders.
Developing Others (3 hours)
Learn how to develop your team members by understanding their development needs and aligning development opportunities while coaching to enhance their engagement, performance, and overall satisfaction at work. We do not recommend this program, if you’re already taken Hands On’s Coaching program, unless you would like a refresher on this, as there is overlap.
Delegating & Empowering Others (3 hours)
This program is designed for people and/or project team leaders. This program will help you build on foundational leadership skills to improve how you delegate, motivate and empower others. This program is geared toward both new and experienced people leaders.
Leading Inclusion (3 hours)
Develop advanced leadership capabilities by working through 5 proven competencies that are critical to being an inclusive leader whatever your geography, culture, industry, or role.
Managing Others (2 x 2 hours)
If you’re new to managing other people, this is a great foundational leadership program where you’ll learn a number of practices for effective management of other colleagues. This program is also great for experienced people managers who were never trained in foundational leadership practices, or would simply like a refresh on these practices.
Mentoring (3 hours)
Learn about best practice tips and techniques and gain access to great tools to support a robust mentoring relationship – whether you’re the mentor or mentee.
Servant Leadership (2 x 2 hours one week apart)
Advance your leadership capabilities and effectiveness by learning and applying a long-standing, highly successful model of leadership that is Servant Leadership (a model developed and coined by Robert Greenleaf, a thought leader in leadership effectiveness). Learn about the principles and practices that make servant leaders and their team highly effective, engaged, and continuously advancing and growing their results and contribution to organizational success, while also continually building their personal capabilities, careers, and overall work satisfaction.
Setting Goals & Expectations (2.5 hours)
The importance of clear and specific goals and expectations cannot be overstated, as this is how we get our team members on the path toward working on the right things, at the right time, and in the right ways. As a people manager / leader, it’s always useful to learn new techniques or reinforce existing techniques to ensure you’re helping your team and organization focus on meaningful work, while setting your team members up for success.
The Neuroscience of Leadership (2 x 2 hours one week apart)
Advance your leadership capabilities and effectiveness by understanding and leveraging the neuroscience behind why we and others think and behave the way we do. What can you learn from this and how you can apply this to up-level your leadership effectiveness.
Team Optimization (3 hours)
Whether you lead or work in teams, learn the traits and practices of high-performing teams, and what role you can play to optimize your team’s effectiveness. (You do not need to be a people leader to attend this program, since some or most work is performed in teams).
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Transitioning into Management (3 hours)
If you’re soon to assume a people leader role or have recently done so, this program can help you understand the fundamental shifts into people leadership and also give you very practical tips and techniques to ensure your success as a new manager.