Classes & certificates

Conflict can open us to new possibilities and deepen our relationships. This workshop will help you embrace both-and thinking, transforming conflict into win-win solutions. Discover how to increase your comfort in dealing with conflict and to build more trust and communication in relationships.

Gain foundational knowledge and explore best practices in project management to build the personal knowledge, skill and confidence you need to effectively lead projects. Whether you're leading your first project or looking for strategies to ensure project success, you will benefit from this class.

Identify behaviors, create strategies that help you manage multiple priorities and handle interruptions so you are more effective at work. Cover the myth of multitasking, how daily goals and objectives lead to success, strategies and best practices in putting out fires and doing more than one job.

This class will be a mix of self-directed learning through Canvas (UW Learning Management System), and a live online session with the instructor using the Zoom platform. The self-directed learning information will be open and downloadable through Canvas starting approximately two weeks before the live virtual session. You may know the moment: Your team is discussing what to do about a difficult issue. A solution has just been voiced with a tone of certainty and triumph but you somehow know it's unworkable; a "bad idea." But you can't say exactly what's so bad about it. Your brain is tied in knots. Although you're able to stifle the impulse to say "that's no good," you're not able to unpack the poor logic or impracticality of the solution. This class will give you both the analysis and the communication tools to know what to do next. You'll gain the applied skills of critical analysis, solution generation, risk assessment, behavior interpretation, communication, social influence, and decision-making when issues are complex and there is disagreement about how to proceed. Both solutions and relationships are often at stake. Therefore in addition to learning methods for problem analysis and decision making, you will also gain an understanding of how to navigate difficult discussions when emotions and power differentials are impacting the dynamics.

Explore leadership characteristics and ways to strengthen your organization and support others' work. Learn about different leadership styles, public perceptions of leadership by sector and servant-leadership basics. Develop a personal leadership philosophy that contributes to your mission.

Handle difficult conversations at work and to listen and be assertive without weakening relationships. Better understand the complex nature of interpersonal communication and explore why misunderstanding is so normal. Apply the skills learned to conflict resolution and giving performance feedback.

Gain an understanding of the mechanics of managing a meeting well. Learn to develop an agenda, manage meeting dynamics, deal with disruptive behavior, keep the meeting on track, track assignments and record the decisions and actions of the group. The session includes templates and models.

This specially designed class will focus on the how-to's of adopting a coaching style for giving work performance feedback. This is a class for leaders and managers who are ready to learn this approach and who want to understand and practice the key elements to utilize them right away.

Strategic planning provides both a process and a set of outcomes that help you find answers to core questions about organizational identity and direction. Discover how to construct your organization's strategic plan, involve other stakeholders in its development and ensure successful implementation.

This class will use the DiSC® assessment instrument to build self-awareness and explore the many facets that shape the way we see our world and function at work. By incorporating neuroscience and the DiSC® framework, we will learn to better understand our perspectives, identify and adapt to the perspectives of others and to capture insightful synergies. We will discuss how to use tools and strategies to make this process easier so we can discover more options and solutions in our teams and projects.

This certificate is three days, offered in a highly participatory live-online format. Transform your commitment to racial equity into anti-racist leadership. You will learn the key features of an anti-racist organization, assess the readiness of your organization to move toward anti-racism and plan next steps. Additionally, you will gain an understanding of how racial equity decision tools are used to hardwire equity strategies in budget allocations, programs and policy decisions. Apply an equity-focused analysis to a current project and leave with feedback on how to leverage the project for social justice and racial equity. Open to anyone with an intermediate understanding of racial equity who is ready to impact their organization's programs, practices, policies and decisions.

Emotional Intelligence is recognized as an important contributor to work performance and personal well-being. However, today, work is increasingly team-based, so group leaders need advanced skills to build an emotionally intelligent team. This class will focus on the proactive approaches and tools for creating an E.I. culture that enables respectful, effective and creative collaboration even when the going gets tough. Emotionally intelligent teams are better equipped to solve problems, adapt to change, work together more effectively and achieve greater productivity. For this class, it will be assumed that participants are familiar with E.I. and want to lead or influence a team to become an extraordinary one. Participants will have the advantage of completing the EQi 2.0 self-assessment in advance of the class — the cost is included in the class fee.

Only through true listening and understanding can we hope to create communities of integrity that sustain us and elicit our best actions. Whether you're facilitating a discussion among members of your family, workplace, or community, learn to listen with curiosity and welcome multiple perspectives.

This class will help build foundational knowledge of Scrum and equip you with skills to effectively manage, lead or be a member of a Scrum team. You will learn what kinds of projects call for an Agile Scrum approach.

There are many myths about what managers can and should do to support employee work performance, satisfaction and engagement. Learn what decades of real-world management experience reveal about best practices and tools, plus gain insights into today's diverse and fast-moving environments.

Inclusivity is the practice of radical hospitality, where people of diverse social and cultural groups experience uncompromising respect and dignity. Inclusive leaders value and encourage multiple perspectives. Gain insights into unconscious bias and inclusivity on individual/organizational levels.

We're seeing more organizations with employees who work from home, live in other states and often live in other countries. "Lead from a distance" by understanding the challenges and best practices. Build trust, navigate conflict, make decisions and conduct engaging meetings with virtual staff.

Project management protocols don't often account for the changes in attitude and behavior that people will need to make to ensure successful adoption of change. This workshop will focus on the integration of change management and project management processes and tools.

This class is designed for human resources managers, staff supervisors/managers and others who work with employees experiencing various losses. It shares information, strategies, tools and resources to best support employees to heal and grow in the midst of these losses.

Get a deep knowledge and effective tools that mid-level functional and technical managers need to lead within their immediate areas of responsibility and impact the success of their wider organizations. The certificate consists of seven required courses. Take up to three years to complete this certificate.