Training & Professional Development Opportunities
Office of the Ombuds offers development trainings designed to improve communication skills, conflict management, awareness building, and team unity. Below is a list of our offerings and topics can be tailored to the specific needs of the requesting group. If you are interested in training please contact our office at 209-228-4410. We look forward to collaborating with you.
Keep Calm and Remote On Sessions -- In response to COVID pandemic, this unique collaboration with Human Resources, provides opportunity to connect with colleagues and discussing topics that impact our lives during these uncertain times. Discussions have included remote work and balancing life, utilizing technology, resiliency, and positive well-being.
Team Building and Group Dynamics
Braving Trust:
Braving trust focuses on understanding team dynamics and exploring dysfunctions of a team. Participants will also learn tools to build trust and effective communicaiton.
The 25 Rules of Considerate Conduct-Choosing Civility & Choosing Civility Monthly Book Club:
Most people would agree that thoughtful behavior and common decency are in short supply, or simply forgotten in hurried lives of email, cellphones, and multi-tasking. In Choosing Civility, P.M. Forni identifies the twenty-five rules that are most essential in connecting effectively and happily with others. The workshop also connects UC Merced's Principles of Community and code of ethics/conduct.
Communication
Conflict Management and Resolution:
Conflict management focuses on understanding conflict, personal conflict style and skills that help handle early dispute. A self-assessment is conducted to help understand one's own response mode to conflict, in addition to understanding the responses of others.
Cross-Cultural Communication and Conflict
This workshop is 4 hours long but can be reduced in size or done over multiple days. Cross-cultural communication explores how diverse culture and social identities impact how we communicate across cultures and social groups. Participants will gain knowledge of various cross-cultural communication styles from verbal to non-verbal communication and how this can impact everyday interactions.
Giving and Receiving Feedback: The Art of Listening
This interactive workshop will provide participants opportunities to fine-tune your listening, giving, and mindfulness skills to effectively provide feedback to colleagues. How can giving feedback be a gift? When done the right way and with the right intentions, feedback can lead to increase creativity, outstanding performance, and clearer pathways to improve. Participants will also learn how to help their unit establish group norms and effective ways to improve the quality of your conversations. Most importantly, learning to become a better active listener is the greatest skill to have!
Crucial Conversations:
Crucial conversations teaches skills for creating alignment and agreement by fostering open dialogue around high-stakes, emotional, or risky topics- at all levels of your organization. By learning how to speak and be heard (and encouraging others to do the same), you'll surface the ideas, make the highest quality decisions, and then act on your decision with unity and commitment. There is a fee (approx. $250) for the toolkit and Crucial Conversations book per attendee.
Creating a Respectful Workplace- A No Bully Campus:
Abusive conduct can take many forms, some are more direct, while others are less obvious, but all are equally destructive to working relationships. Participants in this workshop will learn how to recognize abrasive behavior; how to distinguish bullying from incivility; what climates encourage this behavior; and the impact abusive conduct has. Additionally, participants will learn skills for responding to abrasive behaviors, options for Upstander response; and approaches to dealing with workplace bullies.
Diversity Awareness Workshop (2 day collaboration with OSL & EDI - January & June)
This workshop uses a variety of experiential exercises to help participants identify and appreciate individual and collective differences and strengths, as well as explore their own knowledge, attitudes and experiences around diversity, equity and inclusion. The course uses social justice concepts as its foundation as they relate to power, privilege and oppression on individual, institutional and societal levels. Sponsored by the Office of Campus Climate, University Ombuds, Social Justice Initiatives, and Human Resources
Bobcat Connects:
This is a core course to Diversity Awareness Certificate Program, but can be tailored to your needs. Participants will learn how you can connect and create a "culture of caring" at UC Merced. By using the Principles of Community we will explore empathy and theory and ways that we can actualize the Principles. This workshop is co-facilitated with Campus Climate.
Conflict Intelligence in Uncertain Times
Conflict inevitably increases in times of high stress, change and uncertainty, and people's ability to constructively manage it diminishes. Good communication practices are essential to your professional success and well-being as you navigate new or existing conflicts at home, school, or in the workplace. You will learn tips and tools and strategies for self-care, assessing and de-escalating conflict, and e-mail etiquette.
Addressing Unconscious Bias and Microaggressions
Explore the meaning behind “unconscious bias," its hurtful impact and dive deeper into the powerful mechanism of our unconscious and how it dictates our behavior and interactions. When left unnoticed, it may cause uninteded harm to others. Let's learn and transform together to build a culture that promotes respect and engages campus community members to be a part of the solution.
