Workshops related to improving social and organizational competences for the managerial staff of the common courts summary

In connection with the implementation by the Department of Courts, Organization and Judicial Analyses of the project entitled Modern methods of court management (implementation) an agreement was implemented for the Ministry of Justice covering complex organisation, conducting, and substantive and logistic servicing of workshops related to improving social and organizational competences for 1,800 employees of the common courts along with ensuring accommodation facilities, board and teaching and promotional materials.

The workshops were conducted in the period from 17 October to 9 December 2016.

Workshops related to the improvement of social and organizational competences included the following thematic blocks:

1. Communication skills
2. Cooperation
3. Motivating others
4. Information management
5. Delegation and enforcement of tasks’ execution.

The workshops were addressed to the managerial staff of the common courts (courts of appeal, district courts, local courts).

Altogether, 1,801 participants took part in the workshops.

The most essential the comment from almost all reports of the coaches is enormous need for improvement of social and organizational competences of the managerial staff of the common courts. Motivation, involvement, curiosity of the participants were highly evaluated by the coaches. The participants intentionally and purposively chose certain topics of the workshops that, in their opinion, will contribute to improvement of particular competences, which could later be used at work in court. Lack of random selection of topics, high awareness of the participants foster a positive learning environment. The participants gladly took part in exercises, participated in discussions, shared their professional experiences, discussed problems and situations from their work.  The participants had a very friendly attitude towards learning, asking questions, reaching conclusions and solutions, they shared a number of difficult situation and practice learned techniques on specific professional situations.

Opinions of the workshops participants were definitely positive.  It was influenced, first of all, by the substantive aspects – very good preparation of the coaches, communicated content and didactic materials. Participants were really impressed by the workshop form, some participants noted that they participate in this type of classes for the first time. A lot of practical exercises, small workshop groups, and the approach of the coaches created the atmosphere of openness, which created conditions favourable for sharing problems and experiences. The diversity of the groups (participants from different courts) enabled exchange of experiences and highlight the scale of some problems that often are the same for various institutions.

Workshops related to the improvement of social and organizational competences under the project Modern methods of court management (implementation) in the opinions of workshops participants and the coaches were the response to the actual needs of the managerial staff of the common courts. Recruitment for the project and feedback demonstrated tremendous interest in and the need of the managerial staff of courts for the participation in the workshops improving social and organizational competencies. Additionally, the format of the workshops turned out to be a very attractive way of communicating contents and improving competences, and small 15 – person workshop groups created an atmosphere of openness, trust, and allowed exercising practical skills. The participants drew attention to the need for establishing a greater number of in this type of classes in the future, not only for management, but also for a broader group of employees (employees of a lower level and for their superiors), which would result in streamlining of introduction of changes in functioning of courts. At the same time, as much as 93% of persons declared that they will be able to be use the competencies acquired during the workshop in their professional work.

Workshop Substantive Scope