Join us this summer for an exciting series of online workshops offered by the SEER Institute which is housed within the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at UW-Madison. The series is an outgrowth of the National Change Initiative of the NSF Eddie Bernice Johnson INCLUDES Aspire Alliance. Sessions are focused on individual and organizational tools and skills to advance higher education reform and institutional change. Each workshop has been designed to highlight critical skills and helpful tools, to help you and your teams be more successful in your change efforts. Sessions will range from 2-2.5 hours in duration.
The series is designed for anyone involved in change projects in higher education from all institution types and related organizations, associations, and networks. Participants will have the opportunity to connect with other researchers, change agents, administrators, and policymakers as they explore innovations to advance their current change work.
Sessions:
- Session 1: Building Interpersonal Resilience through a Foundational, Skill-Building Framework (June 18, 11-2 CT)
- Session 2: Examining your Sphere of Influence in Higher Education Reform (June 23, 1-3 CT)
- Session 3: Effective Communication in Professional Contexts (June 30, 1-3 CT)
- Session 4: Advancing Change through the Four Frames of Organizations (July 15, 1-330 CT)
- Session 5: Building Effective Collaboration in Higher Education Initiatives (July 21, 1-330 CT)
Register for this free series here. You will have the option to register for all or some of the sessions. Descriptions of the sessions are found below.
Please contact Lucas Hill (lhill6@wisc.edu) or Evangeline Su (Esu6@wisc.edu) if you have any questions or if you need accommodations of any kind to attend this virtual programming.
Session 1: Building Interpersonal Resilience through a Foundational, Skill-Building Framework
Date: June 18th, 11-2 CT
Duration: 3 hours (Zoom)
Join us for a deep, reflective learning experience designed to reframe how you understand yourself and others, engage communities, and lead in a wide variety of academic and community environments. Through the Integrative Professional Framework (IPF), this immersive workshop will help you to unravel the complex intersections of personal self and collective dynamics and develop a nuanced, transferable set of skills that transcends traditional professional development. Using research-based methodologies and interactive learning, you will explore: (1) how your style of personal interactions with others influences your relational capacity; (2) how individual and collective aspects of “self” influence professional effectiveness; (3) practical skills for building influential and collaborative relationships; and (4) strategies for meaningful community engagement and inclusive leadership. This workshop is for leaders, faculty staff, and students (across all levels) and provides the intellectual tools and relational skills to advance your professional goals.
Register (for one or more sessions)
Session 2: Examining your Sphere of Influence in Higher Education Reform
Date: June 23rd, 1-3 CT
Duration: 2 hours (Zoom)
Understanding your sphere of influence in higher education is critical because it allows you to see the opportunities and levers at your disposal in advancing reform and organizational change efforts. However, as change agents, we often fail to see the true potential of our spheres of influence as we connect with campus and other constituents in a variety of ways. Literature has well established the importance of individuals’ connective potential and the power that comes from our networks where we may serve as a connection between network nodes, resulting in increased social capital. The goal of this workshop is to provide participants with the means to (1) deeply examine their spheres of influence, (2) engage in rich discussion about their connective potential with colleagues, and (3) apply their increased insight to a new organizational change approach, namely, the SEER Process.
Register (for one or more sessions)
Session 3: Effective Communication in Professional Contexts
Date: June 30th, 1-3 CT
Duration: 2 hours (Zoom)
Central to all faculty, staff, and administrative roles is the ability to effectively communicate across differences, including student-focused roles of instructor, advisor, and research mentor, as well as institution-focused roles of colleague, collaborator, and leader. Building one-on-one connection, trust, and relationship through authentic communication supports strong interpersonal interactions and is an investment in the future for yourself, your colleagues, your students, and your initiatives. The goal of this workshop is to provide participants with a wide range of tools for effective communication, a chance to reflect on your principal communication modalities, and multiple opportunities to practice effective communication techniques, including developing skills and a vocabulary for communication in challenging situations.
Register (for one or more sessions)
Session 4: Advancing Change through the Four Frames of Organizations
Date: July 15, 1-330 CT
Duration: 2.5 hours (Zoom)
Unlock your ability to better understand how the organizational dynamics of your higher education institution(s) or organization(s) influence and affect your change initiative(s). In this workshop, participants will learn to apply Bolman and Deal’s (2017) four frames, embedded within the human-centric organizational change mindset of the Integrative Professional Framework (IPF) and SEER Process, to advance their change work.
- The symbolic frame consists of an organization’s culture, the ethos surrounding its development (i.e., its origin story), and often unspoken rules that guide its operations.
- The structural frame represents an organization’s mission and goals, policies and procedures, and the layout of leadership and organizational units.
- The human resource frame focuses on the people of an organization, their needs, their motivators, and how they interact together.
- Lastly, the political frame deals with power dynamics, resource constraints, and conflict that influence organizational operations.
The four frames, individually and collectively, are powerful tools in examining how an organization functions, which in turn, provides insight into the selection and execution of organizational change activities.
Register (for one or more sessions)
Session 5: Building Effective Collaboration in Higher Education Initiatives
Date: July 21, 1-330 CT
Duration: 2.5 hours (Zoom)
The success of change initiatives are dependent upon the relationships between collaborators and with partners and other constituents. Individuals involved in change projects bring their complex social and organizational experiences, which influences their perspectives on leadership, interactions, processes, and priorities. Yet, change practitioners and leaders are often not given sufficient training and resources on how to form and engage in collaborative relationships, which leads to project inefficiencies, misunderstandings, and conflict. The purpose of this interactive workshop is to share a collaborative change framework and self-assessment tool to help change agents and teams examine collaborative dimensions to more effectively advance institutional change and transformation.
Register (for one or more sessions)