Kick off your summer with June professional development
The year is almost half over! Don’t put off your professional development any longer. Get started with fun, informative and collaborative workshops — offered at no charge to UCOP employees — through Learning and Development.
Select each linked course name to register through the UC Learning Center. Listings reflect Pacific Time. Unless stated otherwise, classes are held virtually.
UCOP Safety: Basic Awareness
June 4, 1 – 2 p.m.
Melissa Collins, program manager for security, risk and resilience, will facilitate this live virtual class, providing basic safety tips to help you feel informed, alert and safe as you travel to and from the workplace. Extra time is allotted for questions and feedback.
Communication in the Workplace
June 5, 8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Learn tools and techniques to enhance your professional presence and emotional intelligence, including verbal and non-verbal communication strategies to facilitate effective engagement and make a positive professional impact.
Excel PivotTable Techniques
June 6, 9 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Learn tips and tricks for Excel PivotTables and how they can help you analyze data and present conclusions compellingly. If you’ve been using PivotTables and are wondering what more you can do with them, or you’re hitting obstacles, this workshop will help you get outstanding results. Key concepts and techniques include:
- Preparing data, including eliminating duplicates, efficient organization and defining relationships between data sets
- Using custom functions for advanced analysis and comparisons, such as counts, statistical functions, percents of rows and columns
- Filtering reports to display data subsets and reveal hidden insights
- Formatting reports, including sorting and grouping functionalities
- PivotTables and charts formulas that provide custom calculations and ratios
- Incorporating linked PivotTables reports and charts into Word documents
Mindfulness at UCOP
June 7, 9 – 10 a.m.
Less stress, enhanced awareness and focus, and improved health are some of the benefits shown in research studies on mindfulness. In this workshop, you’ll learn to reduce stress and increase your effectiveness at work through simple mindfulness techniques. Highlights include research on mindfulness benefits, understanding the difference between mindfulness and meditation, and workplace mindfulness practices.
New Employee Orientation
Oakland, in-person: June 11, 9 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Starting a new job or at a new UC location can be daunting. This session is designed to facilitate your smooth transition to the organization. We’ll cover UC and its history; an overview of UCOP as an organization; employee tools and resources; safety; and compliance. You are encouraged to attend a session as soon as possible; however, your orientation attendance date does not impact your benefits enrollment period (31 days from your benefits eligibility date).
UCOP Safety: Active Attacker Training
June 12, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m.
This live virtual class will teach you skills and strategies to respond if you’re exposed to an active-attacker situation. We’ll review real-life incidents and discuss options in the event of similar encounters.
Daily Microbreak Stretches at Your Desk
June 12, 1 – 1:45 p.m.
Prolonged sedentary states can be detrimental for your body and mind. Getting your blood flowing helps you stay fresh, gives you more energy and helps your body work more efficiently. Learn simple stretches that you can practice during the workday to be more productive and reduce physical stress.
Register for this class by following the step-by-step instructions in the Quick Reference Guide (Box-log in is required.)
GROW Plus: Accountability Conversations for Managers
June 18, 9:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.
In the second part of our live, virtual and highly interactive training series on manager and employee performance conversations, we will focus on what to do if your coaching is not improving performance. We’ll cover providing productive critical feedback, managing emotions, creating efficient documentation and holding effective accountability conversations. You will also practice having accountability conversations using the UCOP GROW Plus framework. Previous STEP trainings are all prerequisites to this course.
People Leader Forum: Leadership Development Overview
June 21, 1 – 2 p.m.
The People Leader Forums are 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. The June 21 session will provide an overview of leadership development opportunities available through UCOP. You can also use the link above to register for the following future sessions:
- August 16: Understanding the Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF) communication principle
- September 20: Reflecting on People Management Biases
- October 18: Equity Process Review
Career Development Tools
June 26, 11 a.m. – 12
UCOP has free career development tools available at your fingertips! In this overview workshop, we’ll teach you how to use LinkedIn, LinkedIn Learning and My UC Career to support your career planning.
Critical and Creative Thinking
June 27, 9 a.m. – 12 p.m.
In this workshop, you’ll explore individual and collective strategies and techniques for improving critical and creative thinking. We’ll cover common biases that stymie creative and critical thinking, articulating disagreement without being disagreeable, overcoming psychological fixedness and mastering productive brainstorming. You’ll learn how to:
- Ask assumption-busting questions
- Redefine your goals to promote creative thinking
- Think from opposite perspectives
- Look for disconfirming evidence
Navigating Change and Transitions
June 28, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
“The only thing that is constant is change” — Heraclitus who lived 100 years before Plato knew this, and it is still true in today’s world. This workshop will explore the human response to change and stages within the transition process. Participants will expand their capability to successfully navigate through personal and professional changes while utilizing the William Bridges’ Transition Model and Psychological Flexibility framework.
If you need help with finding, registering or attending a class, email the Learning & Development Team.
Tags: June classes, leadership development, professional development, training