Head Start 101: History, Values and Regulations
Module 1: Orienting New Staff
1-C New Staff Orientations

• Understand role and benefits of new staff orientation
• Apply a three-step process to orientation of new staff
• Design an initial orientation session for a new staff person
• Assess effectiveness of new staff orientation efforts

1-D Leading a Guided Discussion

• Identify opportunities in which a guided discussion is an appropriate staff-development strategy
• Develop discussion questions based on learning objectives
• Select a discussion stimulus
• Use questions, call patterns, body language, and visual aids to manage a discussion
• Use a three-step process to respond to incorrect answers
• Develop action steps to incorporate what has been learned into ongoing work

1-E Giving Feedback

• Understand basic principles and guidelines of giving feedback
• Determine when feedback is needed
• Select appropriate type of feedback to fit needs of new staff
• Elicit helpful feedback from new staff regarding their orientation experience

1-F Developing Learning Plans

• Identify four types of skills and knowledge needed for a specific position
• Assist staff in assessing their own training needs through a questionnaire and an interview
• Have information on staff-development resources
• Conduct a staff-development interview
• Develop an individualized Learning Plan that contains goals, learning strategies, and action steps
• Identify ways to support a staff-development culture in one's organization

Module 2: Supporting Fiscal Management
2-C Understanding and Applying Basic Cost Principles

• Define the intent of basic cost principles
• Identify critical cost areas of federal reviews
• Determine appropriate application of cost principles to financial management practices

2-D Linking Budget Development to Planning

• Identify and implement critical planning tasks for program budget development
• Utilize standard program planning information to establish cost objectives
• Engage staff in budget development and monitoring

Module 3: Building Essential Skills in Facilitation, Decision-Making and Effective Communication
3-C Fundamentals of Leading Meetings

• Describe the elements of facilitation
• Understand the strategies and skills required to achieve successful meetings
• Apply facilitation skills to a specific situation

3-D Building Consensus

• Use a simple framework for conducting consensus-building discussions
• Identify common barriers to consensus building
• Apply strategies to overcome these barriers
• Provide guidelines to assessment team members on ways to prepare for efficient team meetings
• Effectively share team decisions with program staff

3-E Effective Spoken Communication

• Determine when the content of a message is clear
• Identify any clashes between verbal and nonverbal messages
• Demonstrate how communication can be kept open and moving forward
• Identify opportunities for demonstrating respect and building rapport
• Recognize when cultural differences and personal factors will impact communication

3-F Active Listening Skills

• Determine one' capacity as an active listener
• Demonstrate active listening skills
• Employ effective techniques for paraphrasing to clarify meaning
• Understand the barriers to active listening

3-G Effective Written Communication

• Identify areas for improvement in personal current style of writing
• Use appropriate wording and tone in written documents
• Ensure proper use of grammar, punctuation and spelling
• Explore appropriate format for note-taking and writing memos, letters and reports

Module 4: Building Collaboration in Head Start
4-C Managing Your Role

• Demonstrate leadership in the four stages of collaboration
• Articulate the organization's mission, goals, and resources
• Strengthen organization's position by building a community network
• Recognize and reach out to potential partners
• Determine own authority to collaborate
• Represent the organization in a collaboration
• Keep a collaboration healthy

4-D Negotiating and Formalizing Agreements

• Prepare for a formal negotiation
• Lead or participate on a negotiation team
• Develop written agreements
• Evaluate contracts or other formal agreements

4-E Applying Basic Skills

• Use social marketing strategies to create a climate of support for collaboration
• Foster awareness of collaboration activity among staff and colleagues in home organizations
• Recruit partners for a collaboration
• Promote an existing or proposed collaboration to the community at large
• Reach key decision makers in an effort to strengthen a collaboration
• Develop a plan to market the collaboration and influence others

Module 5: Promoting the Vision of Head Start
5-C Conflict Resolution: Understanding the Elements

• Recognize symptoms, sources and stages of conflict
• Recognize one's personal style for handling conflict
• Add new strategies to one's conflict-resolution repertoire
• Use a sequential process for assessing and resolving conflicts
• Apply conflict-resolution skills to a specific work-related situation

5-D Developing Effective Presentations

• Describe elements of effective presentations
• Use two models to plan and design a presentation
• Select appropriate visual aids and support materials
• Adapt four kinds of charts to use as needed for graphic presentation of quantitative and qualitative data
• Practice the three components of good "platform skills"
• Apply strategies to overcome speaker fears
• Use a checklist to critique a presentation

Module 7: Improving Program Quality through Program Monitoring and Self-Assessment

• Articulate a compelling vision for the program self-assessment or review it for team members and grantee staff
• Develop a plan for achieving the vision
• Identify characteristics of strong team members
• Create a climate of respect during the assessment
• Identify strategies that team leaders can use during different stages of team development
• Use a formula for responding to staff complaints during a review

7-D Collecting Data through Interviews and Focus Groups

• Describe the blocks of an interview outline
• Apply a template to develop an interview
• Plan a focus group
• Build rapport with the person being interviewed
• Keep accurate records of interviews
• Use a checklist to critique an interview

7-E Using Assessment Data

• Identify the three basic elements that make up all types of plans
• Use a common planning acronym, SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), to analyze assessment data
• Distinguish between strategic and operational planning
• Develop goals and SMART (objectives that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, realistic with present or potential Resources, and Time-bound)

To review the individual modules you can go to the Head Start web site www.headstartinfo.org/publications/mov_ahead/mov_intro.htm

      Invitation to participate in Head Start Regional "Moving Ahead" Leadership Development Sessions