Introduction to University Ombuds 

This 15-minute presentation is an introduction to the staff, services, and guiding principles of the University Ombuds office.  Learn about our mission and the four core standards that drive our practice: confidentiality, neutrality, independence, and informality.  Discover common concerns and learn why we are your “Office of First Resort”.  We will also answer that burning question, “What does Ombuds mean?”.  The presentation concludes with our contact information and a brief Q and A.      

Active Listening 

Active listening goes beyond mere hearing.  We dive into the art of truly understanding speakers’ perspectives. In this session, we’ll cover basic principles of active listening and practice them through engaging exercises. Let’s enhance our communication skills together! 

Aligning Expectations with Your Graduate Advisor 

The graduate advising relationship will be one of the most important of your career. Even though power differentials exist, you can take steps to foster clarity, mutuality and trust with your advisor.  This workshop provides techniques and approaches for creating strong communication and aligned expectations between graduate students and their advisors. While designed primarily with newer graduate students in mind, any students seeking to strengthen advising relationships will find this workshop helpful. 

Developing Resilience in the Workplace 

In this session, we will explore research on resilience and how its principles can be applied to overcoming adversity in both professional and personal settings. Attendees will gain practical tools to manage challenges and leave with actionable steps to strengthen their resilience, equipping them to better handle tough situations in the future. 

Difficult Conversations, 1: Starting a Difficult Conversation 

Conflict doesn’t always have to be something to fear. We will explore how conflict can positively impact working relationships and outcomes. We’ll discuss scenarios and encourage audience participation. Let’s learn how to navigate conflicts and get relationships and projects back on track. 

Difficult Conversations, 2: Moving from Conflict to Dialogue 

Interpersonal conflict often feels like a power struggle, rife with feelings of defensiveness and competition.  How can we shift the conversation toward greater mutuality and shared solutions?   This workshop explores approaches to fostering dialogue in difficult conversations to build mutually satisfying solutions and understanding.

Five Hot Tips to Cool Things Down: Effectively Working Through Workplace Conflicts  

Workplace conflicts are not uncommon, but they nearly always make us feel uncomfortable and unsure about how to engage or move forward.  In this workshop, we explore and practice five key things people can do to help productively manage conflict toward meaningful resolution and even, potentially, new understanding for the people involved.  Participants will leave with evidence-based strategies -- and a bit of low-stakes experience through practice – to guide their interactions with conflict now or in the future.    

How to Be a Helpful Human Being 

A collaboration of the University Ombuds and Counseling and Psychological Services, this workshop addresses a common communication challenge at work and in educational settings: how to speak to someone you suspect is struggling with mental health. This workshop aims to build confidence in speaking up when you see signs of need and to provide evidence-based practices for communicating with students and colleagues about mental health.

A Manager’s Toolkit for Helping with Team Conflicts 

Managers (and supervisors, principal investigators and other group leaders) are often called upon to intervene in conflicts between members of their teams.  This workshop teaches practical tools and strategies that managers can choose from to fit different circumstances in team conflicts.   

Receiving and Giving Feedback: Why It’s Important, Why It’s Hard, How to Make It Better 

Giving and receiving feedback, even when done constructively, can be inherently challenging, often raising tough emotions or making us feel insecure in work relationships.  Yet, feedback from colleagues and supervisors is essential to learning and growth, both personally and professionally. In this workshop, you’ll learn specific skills and approaches that will empower you to offer and receive to feedback to everyone’s greatest learning advantage.

Change Engagement Studio

Grounded in the idea that people embrace what they help to create, this studio provides a customized framework for engaging teams in the work of visioning, clarifying and communicating in times of change.  The goal is to provide team leaders and members an opportunity to co-create a runway for change that balances bringing in the new and adapting the best of the past/present to align with the future.   

Deliberative Processes Studio

Groups frequently come together to deliberate and make decisions about strategic directions and critical projects.  How they design these discussions and decision processes has a big influence on the quality of the outcomes.  This studio walks teams through key evidence-based concepts, practices and approaches with the goal of helping teams craft their own inclusive, high-impact method for deliberating and making decisions.  While generally aiming to be a precursor to strategic planning processes, the studio can be adapted to many different group discussion and decision scenarios.  

Group Norms Studio

Powerful groups dedicate time to creating shared agreements to guide their work together and to revisiting these periodically. This studio provides a framework within which groups can articulate clear expectations about what members expect of each other and what’s in-bounds and out-of-bounds in workplace habits, behaviors and communications. The goals: clarity, connection and fewer chances of misunderstandings in the future.

Team Communications Studio

This studio helps teams develop intentional communication practices that strengthen relationships, make efficient use of people’s time and generate high-impact conversations and meetings. These practices also help prevent future team misunderstandings and conflicts.  While designed with more recently formed teams in mind, the studio activities can be adapted to build communication effectiveness within longer-standing groups.