Crystal Clear Concepts

02/19/2025

As a consultant, I have always believed in a self-fulfilling prophecy of motivation. If You expect your employees to be productive, honest and competent, that's what they'll give you. If you believe the opposite, that too is what you'll get from them. That's why a bad supervisor can infect an otherwise good workforce. It's also why a good supervisor can turnaround an otherwise low producing workforce. Attitude is everything in your leadership, from top to bottom of any organization.

11/14/2024

When Crystal Clear Concepts was founded, in 1990, we specialized in training most of the soft skills like leadership, communications, management and HR issues like preventing sexual harassment and workplace violence. However, because we were results driven, we added programs that addressed client needs in solving their problems. It became evident that several areas were underserved. The first was in the area of Process Control, more popularly known as Lean Manufacturing or the Toyota production system. The concepts would soon be adopted for everything from organizing your kitchen or garage to eliminating waste in your process for producing a physical product or providing a competitive service. While these concepts have been, loosely adapted, by many organizations they have not always been embraced in a way that produces bottom line results. Part of the reason is there are a number of compatible skills needed to make Lean successful. First, in order for get an organization to embrace Lean concepts employees need to understand the tools of Lean and how they will make their job more efficient and productive. More importantly, you can’t do Lean to employees, you must do it with employees. It’s absolutely essential for buy-in to implement Lean through cross-functional teams. Because the use of data is so important in making decisions, team members must understand how to use a problem solving model in evaluating and implementing solutions to problems.

If you are looking to use Lean and or Six Sigma in your organization, we can develop a program taylored to your goals and objectives to ensure success.

01/01/2024

A thought for the New Year.....
"People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.”. ― Mother Teresa

11/22/2023

To all my past and present clients I want to thank you for all fond memories and experiences we have had together. For the mountains we've climbed and the valleys we suffered through. But most of all, what we have learned together that has made us stronger. Hopefully, it will provide me with the wisdom to serve those clients yet to come.

11/12/2023

In our Advanced Communication course we spend a lot of time discussing how to have difficult conversations. This article is a good peice of advice. It addresses the reasons most of us don't like to engage in the conversations that are the most important in our lives, leaving them unsaid.

You don’t. And you’re also steering the focus away from someone who probably just wants to be heard. Here’s how to be a more considerate conversation partner, says radio host and writer Celeste Hea…

07/25/2023

Training Online

Several months ago, we said that Crystal Clear Concepts was going to start offering virtual, online training for organizations and individuals. For organizations that would like to maximize their training dollars and minimize employee downtime due to training away from the job, this is the perfect solution. For individuals looking to advance their career or just learn new ideas and innovations in business and non-profit growth without excessive expenditure of time amd money, again this is a great solution.
Crystal Clear Concepts has over 30 years of experience in corporate training and consulting. We have worked in a diverse number of industries from Automotive Manufacturing to Finance, Retail Services, Broadcasting and Trade Association Management, just to name only a few.

While we still do in-house training for many of our corporate clients, we have always strived to provide innovative services that added value to their bottom line. Now, using virtual, online training that allows economical, flexible training that remains interactive and engaging. We are proud to add this training service to other nationally recognized, innovative programs like Absenteeism Management, Prevention of Workplace Violence and Cross-Functional Team Building.

Below are listed some of our thirty training programs that will be offered virtually. Please review these programs anonymously and drop us note with programs of interest. Let us know if the interest is in training for employees or as an individual. If you would like someone to contact you, leave your name and contact information. This information will help us determine which programs are of most interest, and the ones that we should offer first as open seminars.
Virtual, Online Courses

• Absenteeism Management: How to develop and manage an attendance policy that’s fair and effective in reducing unanticipated absences and increasing accountability and production.
• Effective Leadership: Evaluating the differences between a Manager and a Leader. Profiling the different leadership styles of each participant and evaluating their effectiveness in obtaining goals and objectives in various situations.
• Coaching With Confidence: One of the most effective leadership styles is the Coaching style. This course explains how anyone can use this style in almost every situation a leader, manager or supervisor will face. It specifically defines techniques a Coach can use to address everything from rewarding good performance and correcting poor performance.
• Effective Communication: This is a general survey course on communicating effectively. What the goals of communication should be and the barriers in the way. Participants will get practical experience in practicing these skills.
• Conflict Resolution: Conflict is not necessarily a bad thing. After all, every time you have a difference of opinion you have a conflict. However, it’s not the conflict that’s the problem. It’s how that conflict is resolved that can create a toxic atmosphere that effects productivity. This course will evaluate different ways in which conflict can be easily resolved promoting increased productivity.
• Difficult Conversations: One of the difficult situations in communication is engaging in conversations that have strong emotional investment on the part of the individuals having them. All too often, we have a tendency to avoid having them. Unfortunately, that can have a devastating effect on morale. This course will examine the elements of difficult conversations and how to make them less stressful and more effective.
• Conducting Effective Meeting: We all know that meetings can be a very hot topic in many organizations. Some people will tell you that there are too many meetings and others will say there aren’t enough. Some will say they are necessary for effective teamwork and others will say they’re a big waste of time. The answer is probably somewhere in the middle. In some organizations there are so many meetings that there’s little time to actually perform. In other organizations people wander aimlessly with little or no communication or direction. This course will examine the element of when to call a meeting, who should attend, how to organize time and most importantly how to make them accountable for accomplishing goals and objectives of the organization.
• Preventing Sexual Harassment: In the aftermath of “Me Too” we have come to understand the negative effect of sexual harassment on any organization. This program will help employees understand What behaviors constitute sexual harassment and how to apply your sexual harassment policy to effect individual behaviors and maintain a positive working environment. This program is adjusted for management personnel and non-management personnel.
• Preventing Workplace Violence: Crystal Clear Concepts has been involved with the issue of workplace violence sine the Royal Oak, MI Post office mass shooting in 1991. We were involved in creating two Workplace Violence videos. However, much has happened since 1991. Mass shootings have become commonplace in our society. Once, a shocking isolated event, it’s now a common, controversial subject that haunts us today. This course specifically, addresses how organizations can develop policies and training to education employees on why it happens, how to recognize a potential perpetrator and what actions to take to prevent an incident and escape an incident already in progress.
• Cross-Functional Team Problem Solving: This program is a hands on program that trains your employees to operate, cross-functionally, in a team environment to identify, define and solve real world problems that your organization is facing and implement solutions to solve them. During the course, participants will learn how to use a problem solving model to define problems, find root causes, evaluate and implement solutions that address the problem with causing additional problems for other departments in the organization. Besides learning to use a problem-solving model they will also learn how to work together in a cross-functional team with members from all departments.
• Time Management: How many times have you heard someone say, “There aren’t enough hours in the day to accomplish all the things I have to do”? Maybe you’ve said it yourself? One thing is for sure, you’re not going to add any hours to a day. However, by managing your time more effectively you can learn how to accomplish more in the hours you have. This course gives you software for your brain and hardware (forms and systems) that you can use to implement the techniques you learn. Everything is designed to tell you what you have to do and when to do it. It also tells you the things that are not your responsibility and can be delegated or delayed.
• Lean Process Control: There are two ways to increase profit in business. You can increase your income or reduce your expenses. Of course, the purpose of business is to make money. However, sometimes that’s not enough. Unfortunately, many organization’s attempt at cutting expenses actually has the opposite effect. It sacrifices productivity in an attempt to cut expenses. The LEAN philosophy is improving processes by eliminating waste that, by it’s nature, reduces expenses while increasing productivity, adding to the bottom line. This overview acquaints participants with the basic principles of LEAN process control and the philosophy of eliminating waste through an inclusive approach that includes employee participation.
Feel free to provide us with feedback that will help us to roll out individual online programs. Which of theses courses would be of interest to you personally or for your organization. If you would

04/10/2023

Another Tragedy today in Louisville as a gunman took 4 lives, including his own in what has been reported as a workplace violence shooting. Crystal Clear Concepts has been involved in addressing this issue since the shootings at the Royal Oak and Dearborn post offices in Metro Detroit. We helped produce two videos and a training course for companies on understanding and preventing incidents of Workplace Violence. This is an important issue that's can effect any workplace. There are things that companies and their employees can do to minimize these issues. We have been part of the solution for clients that have had a direct impact on potential WPV incidents. We will be posting more specific information in coming days. Until then, keep the victims and their families of this tragedy in your thoughts and prayers.