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Curriculum/Courses

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The certificate program includes four core courses and the choice of one additional elective course—all taught by instructors who are experts in their fields. Participants can also choose to take any individual courses of interest. Continuing Educational Credits (1.1 per course) are available.

The time commitment for each is course is approximately 1.5 consecutive days and held at the Pyle Center, Madison, Wisconsin.

 2017-18 Courses

  • Effective Conflict Resolution Skills and Strategies for the Workplace (Elective) 

August 22-23, 2017  REGISTRATION IS OPEN

Instructor:  Harry Webne-Behrman

In this highly engaging and interactive workshop participants will learn an eight-step process for dealing effectively with workplace conflicts. This will include opportunities to discuss and clarify key sources of conflict, needs to be addressed, communication and negotiation strategies for building interest-based, collaborative agreements.

During this session, participants will:

  • Gain a clear understanding of the sources of conflict and their natural consequences for the workplace.
  • Learn a process for addressing such conflicts through effective communication and collaborative negotiation strategies.
  • Achieve personal insights regarding their own style, strengths, and challenges for addressing conflicts with others, especially within a workplace context.

 

Instructor:  Sarah Young, Zing Collaborative

Simply put, leadership matters. Institutions that systematically build the leadership capacity of their teams outperform those who don’t. Creating time for leadership takes effort –  there are people to manage, reports to write, meetings to attend, deadlines to meet, and of course making time for a personal life. This thought-provoking workshop is designed for managers and leaders who want to increase their positive impact in a meaningful way.

You will explore:

  • Your leadership values
  • Your individual motivators
  • Your leadership purpose statement
  • The role of presence and mindfulness in influential and impactful leadership
  • Ways to build and develop meaningful relationships and connections
  • The role of gratitude and generosity in influential leadership

Key Activities: Complete The Motivators Assessment to identify your core drivers, draft core leadership values, draft leadership purpose statement, and build relationships with higher education leaders.  Assessment to be taken prior to course start date.

 

Instructor: Christine J. Quinn

Today’s universities and colleges are faced with challenges unlike before. Solutions to maximize efficiency or grow revenues are not working; leaders must develop new approaches.

One of the most untapped resources in higher education is the power and creativity of employees. Deep engagement is critical to transforming our institutions and developing models that last.

How do leaders build their skills and mindsets and seize this transformational opportunity?

This workshop will help leaders connect with their authentic purpose and create environments that support success through highly engaging collaborative work environments.

You will learn to:

  • Rediscover your authentic communication style, strengths, values, and passions
  • Develop inclusive processes to create shared vision that strategically positions the university/college/department and engages diverse stakeholders
  • Develop plans to create a rich environment that advances creativity and builds collaboration and productivity
  • Build strategies to increase employee engagement
  • Hone your skills to build diverse high-performing teams
  • Leave with a plan and the skills to create a more highly engaged workplace

Key Activities: Assess your preferred communication style,  practice your teamwork in multiple settings, and leave with a plan for creating engagement

 

Instructor: Kathleen A. Paris

The people in any postsecondary organization are interdependent, but it can be difficult to see this given our prevailing “silo” organizational structures. Learn techniques of systems thinking that will enhance your ability to make effective decisions and acknowledge the living systems in which we work.

The purpose of strategic planning is not to create plans, but to create results. We will apply the techniques of strategic decision-making to the process of planning. To help ensure that your plan is strategic, focused, and a road map for the future for everyone you lead we will focus on:

  • How to develop a systems thinking mind-set
  • Questions leaders need to ask themselves before any big decision is made
  • How to create and execute strategic plans with measurable outcomes
  • Advantages and limitations of an interest-based approach to problem-solving
  • The keys to effective decision-making in a higher education environment

Using a case study, we will examine the “interest-based” approach, a simple, yet effective process for problem-solving that was identified in the Harvard Negotiation Project and is described in Getting to Yes (Fisher, Ury and Patton, 2011). Using an interest-based approach gives an academic leader the opportunity to move a group of people from a mindset of competition and zero-sum thinking to new levels of collaboration and cooperation.

 

Instructor: Sarah Young, Zing Collaborative

Innovation is a word we hear often, but what does it really mean to be an Innovative Leader? Is it possible to be innovative in environments that have historically embraced stability and order over risk, change, and uncertainty? This course will encourage you to build a new mindset for approaching challenges in our organizations.  Learn to identify possibilities and create the conditions in your work teams that make innovation a way of being, versus a one-time initiative. During this interactive session, we will explore:

  • What it means to be an Innovative Leader – and ways to stretch your skills and capacity in this area
  • Innovation as a way of being, versus an initiative or a program
  • Innovative approaches to problem-solving
  • Intrapreneurship: bringing an entrepreneurial mindset and perspective to your team and organization
  • Tools, technologies, and processes that support innovative leadership
  • The challenges with “innovation” and how to navigate them

 

Instructor: Dan Krueger

Even though change is a constant in our lives, many of us feel ill-prepared to deal with it effectively. Workplace transitions are happening throughout our institutions, and while this can be challenging, it also offers new opportunities to succeed if met with the right approach. In this interactive workshop, we will focus on the ways in which organizations can prepare and evaluate change as well as methods to produce it. Participants will learn and explore:

  • Why so many change initiatives fail, and methods to assess whether a given change will be successful
  • A four-stage process by which we all deal with change, and how to succeed in every stage
  • How to develop messages about change so that recipients can hear them clearly