March is just around the corner, and it’s a great time to start considering how you’d like to develop your career this year. Take advantage of the many upcoming learning opportunities offered through UCOP Learning and Development. All live virtual workshops are offered at no charge to UCOP staff at all locations.

Select each course name to register; listings reflect Pacific Time

Performance management

GROWing Your Check-In Conversations: Managers
March 2, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
In this two-hour virtual live workshop, managers will have an opportunity to practice using the GROW framework in STEP check-ins and will share tips and strategies for providing feedback. This is part of the three-year training plan designed by the Performance Appraisal workgroup made up of colleagues from across UCOP.

GROWing your Check-In Conversations: Employees
March 16, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
GROWing your Check-in Conversations is two-hour virtual live workshop that provides employees with an opportunity to practice using the GROW framework in STEP performance appraisal check-ins and share tips and strategies for providing feedback. This is part of the three-year training plan designed by the Performance Appraisal workgroup made up of colleagues from across UCOP.

Communication skills

Emotional Intelligence: Attain Results Through People
March 2, 1 – 3 p.m.
Having an emotional understanding of your colleagues — and demonstrating respect for their skills, preferences, backgrounds, experiences and other elements of diversity — is key to building and working as a high-functioning team. In this comprehensive two-hour workshop, you’ll start with the fundamentals of emotional intelligence before launching into a series of experiential exercises to help you experience various aspects of emotional intelligence firsthand so you can learn strategies and behaviors to cultivate and use in your day-to-day life.

Write Right
March 7 & 10, 9 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Highly rated trainer Barbara Nelson facilitates this workshop directed towards all professionals who want to be confident that their communications are clear and correct. We’ll tackle the basics of business writing, from constructing clear sentences to making sure work is grammatically correct and punctuated appropriately. Topics include constructing clear sentences, eliminating grammatical errors, using correct punctuation and applying correct capitalization. Previous participants have rated this course 4.95/5.

• “Barbara does a really good job of explaining how to write effective emails.”
• “The workbook provided was easy to use and to follow.”
• “The class was engaging and fun. Best of all, I can apply the knowledge to my job immediately.”

Language and Leadership — New!
March 30, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Language is an incredibly powerful resource and motivator, and a medium through which we make our intentions, values and beliefs known to others. As leaders, the language we use can make the difference between a high-functioning and positive environment, to disgruntlement and high turnover. When leaders have a greater awareness of language that is aligned to core values, they can impact the changes they desire individually and as a team. This course will explore the science of gratitude, define discourse and uncover how it affects teams, identify the language of leadership and explore steps for shifting language for a positive team culture. This course is presented by Nicole Williams Browning, E.D. Nicole has more than 25 years’ experience in public education. Her background includes educational nonprofits, charter management organizations, traditional K-12 school districts, community colleges and private and public universities.

Delivery Skills for Connecting with Your Audience
March 22 & March 29, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
No matter who you’re presenting to, how you share your information matters. UCOP Learning and Development Specialist Oscar Lara will lead this interactive workshop focused on helping you gain the skills needed to make your next presentation a success. We’ll identify common presentation and public-speaking anxieties, then learn to prepare for and overcome them; explore presentation styles and techniques to keep your audience engaged; and discover new tips and tricks to make your presentations stand out! Come with a recent presentation, outline or presentation idea to practice and workshop.

Technology

New Hire IT Orientation
March 5, 9:30 – 10:30 a.m.
Designed for new employees, this IT orientation will help you get started with your UCOP work station. Topics covered include using Outlook email and calendaring, Zoom, Box, Jabber phone, document storage, wireless networks, printing and getting help from the Service Desk.

UCOP Creating Accessible PDFs
March 15, 1 – 2:30 p.m. 
Digital accessibility is about ensuring users with disabilities can easily access and engage with any digital content UCOP creates. Many of these resources, such as annual reports, policy documents, or presentations are PDFs. This course will focus on creating accessible Word documents, converting Word to PDF, and identifying basic accessibility issues using Adobe’s accessibility checker. We will also address converting Excel, PowerPoint, and other formats into accessible PDFs.

More great learning opportunities

People Leaders Forum: Compensation Equity Review with JJ Lerma
March 10, 1 – 2 p.m.
The People Leaders Forum is a monthly opportunity for people managers to connect with one another to develop leadership skills, build community, share best practices, swap strategies for navigating current challenges and learn to better support themselves and their teams. Our March session will feature Compensation Manager JJ Lerma, who will explain the UCOP Compensation Equity Review process — an annual review completed by his team.

New Employee Orientation
March 14, 9:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Starting a new job or at new UC location can be daunting. This orientation session is designed to facilitate your smooth transition to UCOP. Topics include UC and its history, UCOP overview, employee tools and resources, safety and compliance.

UCOP Safety – Active Attacker Training — New!
March 23, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Melissa Collins, program manager for risk, security and resilience, will facilitate this live virtual class in which participants will learn skills and strategies to respond in active-attacker situations. The course will review real-life incidents, then discuss best practices for responding in the event of similar encounters. Melissa joined UCOP after serving 20 years with the UC San Diego Police Department, retiring as a lieutenant, and is a safety expert.

UCOP Project Management 1
March 23, March 28 and April 4, 8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Have you wanted to learn project management skills to boost your career and help your team collaborate more effectively? Don’t miss the three-session workshop facilitated by highly rated trainer Raj Kapur. This beginner-level class covers the basics of how to initiate, create and manage projects. You must complete all three sessions for course credit:

• Session 1: Initiating a Project – March 23
• Session 2: Planning and Estimating a Project – March 28
• Session 3: Scheduling and Tracking a Project – April 4

Mindfulness at UCOP
March 24, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Less stress, enhanced awareness and focus and improved health are some of the benefits shown in research studies on mindfulness. In this one-hour workshop, you will learn how to both reduce your stress and increase your effectiveness at work through simple mindfulness techniques.

Visit the Classes and Workshops page for all current course listings. Questions? Contact ucopld@ucop.edu.

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