Workplace Skills

July 2026

• July 10 - Showing Initiative & Ownership

  Showing Initiative & Ownership - July 10, 9am - Noon

  Move from waiting to leading. Learn how to take intelligent initiative and own outcomes with confidence.
  

  Learning Outcomes:
  • Distinguish between proactive and reactive mindsets.
  • Build accountability through clear communication.
  • Turn initiative into consistent results.

  REGISTER

August 2026

• August 12 - Conflict – From Prevention to Resolution

  Date: Wednesday, August 12
  Time: 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 a.m.
  Location: CHA217
  Target Audience: faculty/staff

  Conflict – From Prevention to Resolution™ enables you to gain a better understanding of the sources of conflict and learn tools for preventing conflict from arising. It also provides methods for taking advantage of differences. Conflict – From Prevention to Resolution™ is a skills-based, constructive approach that can release the energy tied up in conflict, allowing creative resolution and more productive relationships.

  Learning Objectives
  By the end of the workshop participants will be able to:

  • Apply basic concepts about the nature of conflict to a real-world situation
  • Practice skills that help to prevent conflict from beginning
  • Identify your own conflict style and how it may contribute to conflicts you face
  • Demonstrate managing your own contributions to conflict
  • Analyze conflict situations and how to manage escalation
  • Practice using tools and techniques that help prevent, manage and resolve conflicts

  REGISTER

September 2026

• September 29 - Puzzles, Mysteries, and Muddles: Naming and Taming the Problems that Keep You Up at Night

  Date:September 29, 2026
  Time: 8:30 to 4:30
  Location: TBD
  Audience: Employees

  In any industry, success is a direct result of an organization’s ability to solve problems. In this workshop, we take a deep look at the components of effective problem-solving. You will learn exactly how to make your problem-solving efforts more precise, efficient, and effective.

  Most of us have learned an approach to solving problems that is analytical and produces a “correct” or “best” solution. However, not all problems can be dealt with as if they were “puzzles.” Different types of problems require different approaches to finding solutions. Armed with definitions of those differences, you will be able to understand more precisely the unique and subtle features of any problem situation and how to target your approach.

  Einstein is quoted as saying that if he had an hour to save the world, he would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem and five finding the solution. Puzzles, Mysteries, and Muddles ™ is based on 20 years of research by Jerry Talley, Ph.D., and will provide you with sophisticated understandings that will enhance your success as a problem solver.

  LEARNING OBJECTIVES

   Participants will gain practical skills to:

  • Define four distinct phases of problem-solving.
  • Apply key criteria to differentiate among six different types of problems.
  • Identify the problem type(s) that you are dealing with and the most appropriate path to resolution.
  • Find high-quality solutions at the lowest possible cost in time, effort and other resources.
  • Produce a plan that is ready to execute in your organization.

  REGISTER

• September 21 & 24 - Critical Thinking

  Date: September 21 and 24
  Time: 9 a.m. to noon
  Location:Zoom
  Target Audience: faculty/staff

  REGISTER

  Critical Thinking

  Critical thinking is often misunderstood as being negative, skeptical, overly analytical, or difficult. In practice, critical thinking is the ability to slow down the thinking process enough to ask better questions, test assumptions, evaluate evidence, and make stronger decisions. In busy workplaces, people are often expected to decide quickly, respond quickly, and communicate confidently. That speed can be useful, but it can also lead to weak reasoning, missed information, false confidence, unclear recommendations, and avoidable mistakes.

  This workshop introduces critical thinking as a practical workplace skill. The focus is not theory for theory’s sake. The focus is on usable tools participants can apply in meetings, planning conversations, emails, recommendations, problem-solving discussions, and decision-making moments.

  Participants will learn how to separate facts from assumptions, test the quality of reasoning, identify gaps, compare options, challenge ideas constructively, and communicate judgment with clarity.

  The goal is simple: think more clearly, ask better questions, and make stronger contributions when the answer is not obvious.

  4 Learning Outcomes:

  1. Distinguish facts, assumptions, interpretations, opinions, and conclusions so they can slow down unclear thinking and improve the quality of workplace conversations.
  2. Use practical critical thinking tools including the 5 Whys, Assumption Audit, Evidence Check, Ladder of Inference, Claim-Evidence-Reasoning, and Decision Matrix.
  3. Evaluate ideas, recommendations, and decisions by identifying weak reasoning, missing information, bias, risk, trade-offs, and unintended consequences.
  4. Communicate critical thinking clearly and constructively by asking better questions, raising concerns respectfully, and explaining recommendations with stronger logic.

October 2026

• October 2 - Accountability Skills

  Accountability Skills - Oct 2, 9am - Noon

  Accountability builds trust, credibility, and high-performing teams. Learn how to deliver on commitments and
  model reliability.

  Learning Outcomes:
  • Understand the mindset of personal responsibility.
  • Practice accountability conversations with peers.
  • Build systems that sustain follow-through.

  REGISTER

• October 8 - Intelligent Risk-Taking: From Vision to Action

  Date:October 8, 2026
  Time: 8:30 to 4:30
  Location: TBD
  Audience: Employees

  To keep pace with customers, organizations are challenged to make highly risky decisions in a fast-moving, continually changing environment. In order to capitalize on opportunities, we need to minimize time spent on analysis and decrease the probability and/or consequences of failure. Any organization, team, or individual involved in innovation or change will benefit from learning and applying a process for making intelligent risk decisions. Risk means taking action under conditions where key variables and potential outcomes are unknown and could prove to be negative — yet where not taking action could lead to paralysis and ultimate failure. Intelligent risk-taking, as difficult as it can be, is essential to innovation and change leadership.

  Intelligent Risk-Taking™ provides you with practical tools and processes to identify your own risk-taking style and compare it to others. You will apply a framework for making intelligent decisions about which risks to take and when, and how to adjust the level and impact of risk. You will develop ideas for improving your own and your team’s entrepreneurial risk-taking and for influencing others to support your risk-taking efforts.

  LEARNING OBJECTIVES

  Participants will gain practical skills to:

  • Be able to define, describe, and recognize intelligent risk-taking and distinguish it from gambling.
  • Assess individual and organizational risk-taking styles and their impact on risk decisions.
  • Identify factors that block risk-taking or support it in individuals, groups, organizations, and the environment.
  • Apply strategies for influencing others to share risks
  • Apply an eight-step risk decision model to a real-world situation.
  • Identify ways to support greater and more intelligent risk-taking in your organization.

  REGISTER

• October 27 - Applied Creativity: Solving Problems and Responding to Opportunities

  Date: October 27, 2026
  Time: 8:30 to 4:30
  Location: TBD
  Audience: E mployees

  In this session, you will practice using creative thinking tools to break through persistent problems and take advantage of opportunities. You will discover your “inner innovator” as you learn how to generate, develop, and gain support for creative ideas.

  The Applied Creativity™ workshop engages you in developing the mindsets, skill-sets, tools, and processes needed to build a culture of creative thought. You will learn to encourage people to look both inside and outside the organization to find ideas and opportunities for innovation. You will be able to apply the tools and methods to harness the creative energy of your teams and organization in solving persistent problems, responding to business opportunities, and opening up new ways to create value through innovation.

  LEARNING OBJECTIVES

  Participants will gain practical skills to:

  • Develop your ability to approach everyday challenges and persistent problems with a creative mindset.
  • Apply tools for generating creative, interesting, and promising ideas.
  • Conduct an “innovation search” based on market needs, technology push, or strategic intention.
  • Frame persistent problems in a practical and effective way and generate creative solutions.
  • Build stakeholder support for creative ideas and solutions.
  • Facilitate others’ creativity.
  • Identify key challenges in your own organizations that require applied creativity.

  REGISTER

November 2026

• November 6 - Curiosity: The Habit of Inquiry

  Curiosity - November 6, 9am - Noon

  Curiosity fuels learning, creativity, and innovation. This session turns questions into a professional
  superpower.

  Learning Outcomes:
  • Develop the habit of inquiry over assumption.
  • Frame better questions that lead to insight.
  • Cultivate curiosity as a daily leadership mindset.

  REGISTER

• November 10 - Managing Innovation: Driving Ideas from Strategic Initiative to Value Creation

  Date: November 10, 2026
  Time: 8:30 to 4:30
  Location: TBD
  Audience: Employees

  One of the most pressing business challenges is keeping up with the pace of global innovation. To be competitive, organizations must create value by developing, selecting, and exploiting the best new ideas for improvement or radical change in products, processes, positioning, platform, or paradigm. In this program, you will discover and practice the mindsets and skill-sets needed to increase both the quality and quantity of innovation. As a result, you will be able to lead and manage a successful “Innovation Journey” from a strategic initiative to the creation of value. 

  The program is based on research by David L. Francis, Ph.D. and his colleagues at CENTRIM (The Centre for Research in Innovation Management), identifying the best practices of successfully innovative organizations and leaders. You will incorporate innovation management skills and processes into your work by absorbing the results of research on exceptionally innovative organizations. You will then put that knowledge to work through structured activities, cases, and skill practice. Later, you will experience and practice many of the skills and tools used by the most successful innovation managers.

  LEARNING OBJECTIVES

  Participants will gain practical skills to:

  • Learn best practices in innovation management.
  • Analyze and develop mindsets and skill-sets for the innovation journey.
  • Reflect systematically on your own strengths and weaknesses as a manager of innovation.
  • Identify organizational innovation capabilities and barriers.
  • Participate in and facilitate a real “Innovation Journey.”
  • Create an “Innovation Agenda” that can be implemented following the program.

  WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

  Introduction Opening exercise & discussion Exploration of core definitions and concepts related to creativity, innovation, and innovation management   Personal Connections: Contributions, Lessons Learned, Needs, and Issues Examination of participant and organizational strengths, needs, and experiences regarding innovation management   The Innovation Journey Introduction to the core model for innovation management Applying the model to participants’ past experiences   The Avatars of Innovation: Mindsets and Skill-sets Exploration of the mindsets and skill-sets required during each phase of the innovation journey Review of the mindsets and skill-sets as applied to participants’ own management practices Identification of further learning needs

  Searching and Exploring Analysis of the Searching and Exploring phases of the innovation journey Skill practice, observation, and feedback   Tools for Idea Development Introduction to several tools for generating, developing, and selecting promising ideas   Innovation Journey Exercise Practice in managing a competitive, time-bound innovation journey through all the phases   Organizational Capability: Research and Application Application of six areas of innovation capability identified through research on successfully innovative organizations to participants’ own areas of influence and responsibility   Innovation Agenda Development of a draft plan for implementing innovation management skills.

  REGISTER

• November 17 & 19 - Empathy and Accountability

  Date: November 19 & 19, 2026
  Time: 9am - noon
  Location: Zoom
  Audience: Employees

  REGISTER

  Empathy and accountability are often treated as opposites. Empathy can be misunderstood as softness, agreement, emotional over-involvement, or avoiding discomfort. Accountability can be misunderstood as pressure, blame, or correction without care.

  This workshop begins by making an important distinction: sympathy is not the goal. Empathy is.

  Sympathy often creates distance. It can sound like pity, over-concern, or “I feel bad for you.” In workplace conversations, sympathy may unintentionally lower expectations, rescue people from responsibility, or make the conversation more about comfort than progress.

  Empathy seeks to understand another person’s perspective, context, emotion, and experience without taking over, agreeing with everything, or removing accountability. Empathy says, “I want to understand what is happening for you,” while still leaving room to say, “And we also need to talk about impact, ownership, and next steps.”

  Empathy helps people feel seen, heard, and respected. Accountability helps people clarify expectations, own choices, follow through, and repair trust when needed. Together, they create conversations that are both human and useful.

  This workshop helps participants practise the language, mindset, and behaviours needed to stay kind without becoming vague, and stay clear without becoming harsh. Participants will leave with practical tools for listening, naming issues, setting expectations, giving feedback, and having more constructive conversations in real workplace moments.

   4 Learning Outcomes:

  1. Distinguish sympathy from empathy and explain why sympathy can create distance, avoidance, or rescuing, while empathy creates understanding, respect, and stronger conversations.
  2. Use empathy without reducing accountability by acknowledging perspective, context, and emotion while still naming expectations, impact, ownership, and next steps.
  3. Use accountable language to clarify commitments, roles, responsibilities, and follow-through without creating unnecessary defensiveness or blame.
  4. Apply a practical empathy and accountability conversation structure to feedback, missed expectations, conflict, collaboration, repair, and follow-up.

December 2026

• December 4 - Cognitive Flexibility

  Cognitive Flexibility - December 4, 9am - Noon

  The skill of the future. Learn how to shift perspectives, reframe challenges, and think adaptively under
  pressure.

  Learning Outcomes:
  • Recognize thinking traps and mental rigidity.
  • Practice reframing and divergent thinking exercises.
  • Strengthen decision-making in dynamic contexts.

  REGISTER

January 2027

• January 15 - Self-Regulation: Grace Under Pressure

  Self-Regulation - January 15, 9am - Noon

  Master the skill of keeping calm and clear-minded when situations heat up. This workshop builds emotional
  control for smarter, steadier decision-making.
  

  Learning Outcomes:
  • Understand emotional triggers and physiological responses.
  • Practice reframing techniques to manage reactions.
  • Strengthen consistency and composure under pressure.

  REGISTER

• January 25 & 26 - Design Thinking: Generating Ideas

  Date: January 25 and 26
  Time: 9 a.m. to noon
  Location:ZOOM
  Target Audience: faculty/staff

  REGISTER

  Ideation: Design Thinking

  Ideation is often misunderstood as simply “coming up with ideas.” In many workplaces, that usually means a quick brainstorm, a few familiar suggestions, a lot of discussion, and then a return to the safest or most obvious solution.

  Design Thinking offers a more practical process.

  This workshop introduces participants to the best practices of Design Thinking as a structured, human-centred approach to solving real workplace problems. The focus is not on abstract creativity, sticky-note theatre, or innovation language for its own sake. The focus is on practical application: how to understand the situation, define the right problem, generate better options, test ideas quickly, and move useful solutions forward.

  Participants will learn how to use Design Thinking to improve communication, processes, services, client experience, internal collaboration, and everyday decision-making. The workshop downplays theory and emphasizes usable tools, clear thinking, structured ideation, and action.

  The goal is simple: better questions, better ideas, better testing, and better next steps.

  4  Learning Outcomes:

  1. Explain the core principles of Design Thinking and how discovery, problem definition, ideation, prototyping, and testing support practical workplace innovation.
  2. Use discovery and user insight tools to understand needs, friction points, constraints, assumptions, and opportunities before jumping to solutions.
  3. Apply structured ideation techniques to generate a wider range of creative, practical, and relevant options.
  4. Evaluate, refine, and test ideas using simple criteria so teams can move from discussion to practical action.

February 2027

• February 19 - Strategic Adaptability

  Strategic Adaptability - February 19, 9am - Noon

  Adaptation is not reaction — it’s informed evolution. This session develops the foresight to pivot
  strategically.

  Learning Outcomes:
  • Recognize when to shift direction versus stay the course.
  • Integrate change into long-term goals.
  • Practice scenario planning and agile decision-making.

  REGISTER

March 2027

• March 26 - Change Management - The people side of change

  Change Management - The people side of change - March 26, 9am - Noon

  Change is no longer a project — it’s a constant. Learn how to manage scope, scale, and human impact with
  empathy and clarity.

  Learning Outcomes:
  • Understand change psychology and stakeholder dynamics.
  • Map the scope of change and anticipate ripple effects.
  • Lead through transitions with communication and care.

  REGISTER