Course Category: Virtual Training Recording

Building Equity into Your Leadership Practice

Overview The last year has taught us many things, including the fact that we can all take an active part in creating change and putting equity into practice in small and meaningful ways. While many leaders and individuals in higher education are investing time and energy into learning more about diversity, equity, and inclusion concepts and ideals, many struggle with how a new future would look once those practices are put into place and how to become an agent of changes themselves. Join us online for a highly interactive discussion* that will allow you—through individual reflection and group discussion—to “Imagine When,” and discover how you can become a change agent and bring diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts into your daily leadership practice. During this discussion, you’ll examine the systems and structures that hold organizations back from achieving meaningful change and transformation, and you’ll brainstorm, as a group, ways to overcome those barriers. Becoming a change agent can be messy; it’s not a linear process, and everyone’s path will look different. This workshop will allow you to challenge your perspective, learn from other leaders and grow together as we build an equitable world. In this workshop you will: Imagine an Ideal […]

Fostering Mutual Goodwill Across Your Team: A Step Beyond Servant Leadership

As higher ed moves into a new post-COVID era and your team is tasked with solving new problems, it is more important than ever to focus on building – and perhaps even rebuilding – a team culture that elicits high levels of trust, collaboration, transparency and equity. Join us online and learn how Mutual Goodwill can foster an environment of positivity and respect and build a more cohesive and productive team. As an extension of servant leadership, the practice of Mutual Goodwill assumes that in all communications, whether it is a difficult conversation or asking questions, those involved are genuine, positive and helpful in spirit. The practice requires that you not assume an underlying agenda or take on the emotional tone of others, especially if past interactions have been negative or harmful. Each interaction is experienced as a new one with the assumption that the interaction will lead to positive outcomes. During this interactive training, we will: Define the concept of Mutual Goodwill and how it works Hear success stories and examples that illustrate how Mutual Goodwill can be implemented within a team Assess the readiness of you and your team in adopting this practice Discuss your leadership philosophy and […]

Beyond Heritage Month: Supporting and Empowering Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) Communities as Campuses Reopen

Institutions across the United States host a variety of programs and events throughout the month of May in recognition of Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) Heritage Month. This month-long recognition serves to honor and celebrate the rich histories, achievements, and contributions of APIDA communities while also providing an opportunity to shine light on the very real hardships they are facing today. According to a recent study from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State University San Bernardino, the number of reported anti-Asian hate crimes in the nation’s largest cities and counties has increased by 164% since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Many fear that these numbers will continue to rise as more campuses and businesses reopen in the coming months. This begs the question: How can we reach beyond heritage month to actively support and empower APIDA communities at our institutions year-round? Join us for a two and a half-hour collaborative session during which we will explore this question together. Through a combination of panel discussion, individual reflection, and collaborative activities, you will leave this session with: a deeper understanding of the diverse groups being represented under the APIDA umbrella. examples […]

Transitioning Advancement toward a Hybrid Workforce Model

Advancement shops were forced to rapidly transition to a fully remote workforce last year due to COVID-19. As institutions plan to reopen in the Fall, we are now preparing for yet another transition to what for many shops will be a hybrid workforce that balances in-person and remote. This moment in time represents an opportunity for advancement shops to think about the transition strategically and to make decisions around it that allow for greater flexibility without any loss of productivity.

Build a Team Culture that Embraces Conflict as Productive and Positive

For many, conflict has negative connotations and is something to be feared or avoided. This reaction may arise because conflict often results from differences in values, culture, and bias. Knowing how to respectfully navigate those differences can be difficult, especially when important relationships are at stake. As a leader, there are ways you can foster an environment and create a team culture that embraces differences and resolves conflict in a positive and productive manner. Join us online to learn how to shift your team’s attitudes and culture around conflict from negative to positive. The process begins with team-building activities that provide your team an opportunity to better assess, understand and respect each other’s styles, attitudes and behaviors around conflict resolution. But the true culture shift happens when you follow through and incorporate those insights into your team’s daily operations and leadership practice. This training is designed to be highly interactive and will allow you to brainstorm and share ways you can help your team be more productive in their own work and with each other.

Support Black Women Leaders by Influencing Organizational Culture

Higher ed leaders seeking to diversify their institutions at all levels are not always aware of the additional work Black women leaders must undertake to forge community, navigate implicit role expectations, and find their voice—all within an institutional culture that often renders them invisible. In most cases, a culture-shift must occur before we can truly support an individual. Please join us for this interactive virtual workshop, where our expert, Dr. Lisa Scott, Vice President of Institutional Equity and Inclusion and Student Success at Luther College and DEI and Leadership Consultant, will address both levels of support. In this training you will: build awareness of the experiences of Black women in administrative leadership by reflecting on the research data. reflect on intentional steps you can take to change your organizational culture. learn strategies to strengthen the leadership capacity of Black women and begin to diminish some of the invisible and inequitable loads they often carry.

Conflict Management

Instructor Jeanne A.K. Hey, Ph.D.Dean EmeritaUniversity of New England Course Highlights 1 hr, 27 mins of video instruction Downloadable resources Course Details Released 6/22/2021 In this workshop, you will learn strategies to help you manage and resolve a variety of conflicts within your department and institution. You will be introduced to practical tools that can be used to address conflict in its earliest stages before it becomes a formal dispute. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to resolving conflicts. That’s why our expert instructor will present numerous scenarios and discuss the use of framing, facilitation, and other dispute-resolution tools to help you: Improve and sustain a healthy working environment Build rapport among colleagues Increase faculty and staff morale We Want to Hear From You! Please take a few minutes to fill out a short survey letting us know about your experience with this course.

Reimagine and Build a More Equitable Workplace Culture

Academic leaders spent most of 2020 pivoting and responding to emergent needs. As the dust settles, with reopening on the horizon, it is now time to stop pivoting and start building for a more sustainable future. Instead of reacting to issues surrounding wellness and equity, we can now rebuild a workplace community that deliberately centers faculty and staff equity, health, and wellness. In this workshop you will learn how the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work conducted a wellness check with their faculty and staff to reimagine their operations, academic affairs, and external engagements to foster equity, health, and wellness. Using their case study, you will consider what is unique to your context, discipline, and divisional structure and then begin to draft steps for a ground-up evaluation to learn more about your team’s needs. We will explore the scaffolding needed to reach your aspirational state, and our expert Dr. Amanda McBride, Dean of the Graduate School of Social Work at University of Denver will share some of the possibilities and best practices from her experience.

Disrupting Academic Bullying

Academic bullying can manifest in a number of ways including intimidation, humiliation, belittlement, embarrassment, and undermining another’s authority. No matter how it manifests, academic bullying not only harms the individuals involved, but erodes trust, collaboration, and creativity between colleagues and throughout the community. Join us for an interactive virtual training to learn how to name and disrupt academic bullying. You will learn to identify specific harmful behaviors and gain strategies for effectively responding to instances of academic bullying in the moment. Our expert instructor Bryan Hanson, Ombudsperson at The Graduate School at Virginia Tech, will then lead a discussion about steps faculty and academic leaders can take to proactively prevent academic bullying in the first place. What is Academic Bullying? Academic bullying can include intimidation, humiliation, belittlement, embarrassment and undermining one’s authority. It may also look like behaviors or comments that indicate disregard of one’s concerns, ignore contributions, or minimize one’s efforts. The recurrence of these behaviors in an already high-stress environment may cause distress leading to long-term psychological harm.

DEI & Inclusive Leadership

Effective leadership is inclusive leadership. Academic Impressions creates psychologically safe environments for training and discussion around diversity, equity, and inclusion. We know these topics can induce anxiety for some and passion for others. That is why we engage subject-matter experts who are knowledgeable, honest, and approachable when considering topics that many of us were raised to never discuss. Academic Impressions continues to build trust in the DEI space because, in addition to having facilitators who are thoroughly vetted, we also place a priority on making sure our presenters believe what we believe: that learning about inclusivity should feel like an enhancement to your skillset, not a punishment for “bad” behavior. We aim to help higher education leaders, regardless of level or positional authority, expand their awareness and skillset around diversity, equity and inclusion.