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MyOntarioTech

Workplace Skills

Ontario Tech employees have many opportunities to develop the skills and knowledge they need to advance in their careers. Managers and supervisors are encouraged to support their staff in pursuit of professional development and personal growth in order to contribute to a positive and productive work environment.

January 2026

January 16 - AI Prompt Engineering

Date:January 16, 2026
Time: 8:30 a.m. to Noon
Location: Virtual
Audience: Employee

CLASS IS FULL

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot can be used in a business setting to generate text that is unique, thorough, and highly effective at communication. In response to your written prompts describing what you require, these tools can quickly summarize information, generate ideas, solve problems, participate in conversations, and engage in a wide range of other purposes, enabling you to save time designing and developing text-based content. In order to achieve these goals, you must learn how to tell AI tools what you want in the right ways through prompt engineering.

This course teaches how to create well-structured instructions for Generative AI tools that generate usable results. Along the way, participants will learn about key ethical and organizational factors that need to be considered when using AI-generated content.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Participants will gain practical skills to:

Select and use a generative AI tool to create text from prompts.
Use prompt-engineering techniques to optimize text generation for your specific needs.
Implement text generation in a business setting.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

This course is designed for people who want to develop the skills needed to put generative AI-based text-generation tools to work in their own tasks and workflows.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

Module 1: Using AI to Generate Text

Generating Text
Selecting an Appropriate AI Text-Generation Tool

Module 2: Getting the Text You Want

Using Foundational Prompt-Engineering Techniques
Using Advanced Prompt-Engineering Techniques

Module 3: Implementing Text Generation in a Business Setting

Solving Business Problems Using AI-Generated Text
Addressing Ethical Concerns

February 2026

February 13 - Intro to AI for Professionals

Date: February 13, 2026
Time: 8:30 a.m. to Noon
Location: Virtual
Audience: Employees

CLASS IS FULL

This session will enable you to describe the fundamentals of AI and generative AI, generate text, code, images, video, and audio using generative AI; identify the challenges of generative AI; and implement organizational strategies for generative AI.

This course equips employees with the knowledge to leverage generative AI technologies in their workplace. This course covers key concepts around how generative AI systems work, including the basics of machine learning models and natural language processing. It also highlights practical applications such as content creation and process automation.

Organizations adopt this knowledge to drive innovation, enhance efficiency, and maintain competitive advantage by automating complex tasks and generating insights from large data sets.

Tailored to non-technical leaders, this course is crucial for strategic decision-making and knowing how to best implement AI-driven solutions.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Participants will gain practical skills to:

Describe what generative AI is and how it relates to and can benefit organizational functions.
Identify potential risks and challenges of implementing generative AI in an organization.
Develop a milestone plan of key steps and becoming a generative AI–driven organization.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

Module 1: AI Fundamentals

AI terms and concepts
Generative AI terms and concepts

Module 2: Solving Business Problems with AI-Generated Content

Generating text using AI
Generating images and video using AI
Generating audio using AI

Module 3: Generative AI Challenges

Shortcomings
Ethical risks
Business concerns

Module 4: Business Strategies for Implementation

Best practices for implementation
Measuring and evaluating results

March 2026

April 2026

April 17 - Social Influence & Awareness

Social Influence & Awareness - April 17, 9am - Noon

Influence begins with understanding. Learn how to read group dynamics, interpret unspoken cues, and
build trust that drives collaboration.

Learning Outcomes:
• Recognize social signals that shape workplace interactions.
• Use positive influence to guide outcomes, not control them.
• Build authentic credibility across diverse teams.

REGISTER
April 27 - May 1 - Crucial Conversations - Employee
Crucial Conversations: Employees
- Date: Monday, April 27, 2026 to Friday, May 1, 2026 (2.5 hours x 5 days)
- Time: 9:30 a.m. to Noon
- Location: Virtual
- Target Audience: Employees
  Note: Participants must attend all dates to receive their certificate.
REGISTER

When it comes to the health of relationships, teams, and organizations, one thing affects everything: communication. Backed by 30 years of social science, Crucial Conversation skills represent the standard in effective communication. Improve your skills and get better outcomes by attending a training course.

The communication skills taught in this training focus on a specific kind of interaction: those when stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong. This is not a course on winning friends or winning people to your way of thinking; it’s about strengthening relationships and securing results in the moments that matter most.

This course teaches nine powerful skills for working through disagreement to achieve better resources: Get unstuck, Master my stories, Start with heart, State my path, Make it safe, Learn to look, Seek mutual purpose, Explore others’ paths, and Move to action.

May

May 8 - Discernment : Wisdom in Action

Discernment - May 8, 9am - Noon

In an age of information overload, discernment is wisdom in action. Learn how to separate signal from noise
and make sound judgments.

Learning Outcomes:
• Evaluate information sources and credibility.
• Practice decision-making under ambiguity.
• Develop intuition informed by evidence, not bias.

REGISTER

June 2026

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
July 14 - Conflict from Prevention to Resolution
Date: Tuesday, July 14
Time: 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 a.m.
Location: In Person - room tbd
Target Audience: faculty/staff

REGISTER

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

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

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.

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

Workplace Skills

January 2026

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

February 2026

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

March 2026

April 2026

May

June 2026

Using Copilot with Microsoft 365 Applications

July 2026

September 2026

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

October 2026

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

November 2026

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

December 2026

January 2027

February 2027

March 2027