The year is soon coming to a close! If you’ve hoped to build your career skills this year but haven’t yet had a chance, November is a great month to make time for your development. Explore these classes and workshops, designed to address a wide range of skills and interests.

Select each course name to register. Listings reflect Pacific Time; unless stated otherwise, classes take place virtually, by Zoom.

For all employees

Communication, meetings and presentations

Difficult Conversations
Nov. 5, 1 – 3 p.m.
Have you ever disagreed with someone where the conversation didn’t go quite how you wanted? Conflict is inevitable. This highly interactive course will explore strategies for navigating difficult conversations in your personal and professional life. You’ll learn core principles for successfully navigating disagreements, then apply them through practice role-playing. By the end of the workshop, you’ll feel more confident in approaching difficult conversations with anyone. This course is part of the UCOP Communication series certificate.

Mastering the Logistics of Hybrid Meetings
Nov. 6, 1–2 p.m.
Hybrid class (Oakland + Zoom)
Effectively facilitating hybrid meetings can be technically challenging. Come learn how to set up hybrid meetings to fully engage both remote and in-person attendees. In this training, we will walk through how to prepare effectively and set up all technical components, including audio, camera and the use of  Zoom features. This course is offered in person in Oakland and on Zoom.

Impactful Storytelling: Making Your Presentation Captivate
Nov. 18, 1 – 3:30 p.m.
Part of the UCOP Communication series certificate, this workshop is designed to help you master storytelling as a strategic communication tool. Through interactive exercises, you’ll discover how to effectively use storytelling to clarify your vision, motivate teams and drive organizational objectives. The workshop highlights the critical role of understanding your audience, crafting engaging narratives and applying storytelling principles. Key takeaways include:

• Narrative-crafting techniques for a broad organizational audience
• Using psychological principles to deepen audience engagement and message retention
• Customizing storytelling to align with audience needs and organizational goals
• Hands-on experience in refining and presenting stories for maximum impact
• Integrating storytelling into regular business communications and strategic presentations

Brainstorming and Decision-Making in Hybrid Meetings
Nov. 20, 9 – 11 a.m.
Hybrid class (Oakland + Zoom)
It’s essential for all team members to have a voice in collaborative processes, like brainstorming and decision-making. Facilitating collaborative meetings can be especially challenging in a hybrid environment. In this workshop, we will learn step-by-step protocols to implement in the hybrid environment that are inclusive, engaging and ignite participation. Leave with new tools and practices to ensure all members of your team have a voice and your hybrid meetings are productive!

Leadership development

Influencing Without Authority: Leadership as an Individual Contributor
Nov. 6, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
According to author and CEO coach Kim Scott, there are two types of star employees, “superstars” and “rockstars.” While superstars are gunning for promotions, rockstars are grounding themselves as experts in their roles. According to recent research, most individual contributors (62%) plan to remain in IC roles rather than transitioning into management. If you’re an IC, learn how to take ownership of your career growth, leverage your expertise and make an impact — without climbing the ladder.

Personal growth and well-being

Self-Care in the Workplace
Nov. 14, 9 – 11 a.m.
One thing most successful employees have in common is a self-care practice, along with an understanding of how self-care supports healthy teams. By adopting self-care tools, we can improve our emotional, cognitive and spiritual capacities; create space for connection and thoughtful partnerships; and nurture long-term positive team dynamics. Attend this workshop to learn self-care practices and their purpose, and to create a plan to better care for yourself, in and outside of the workplace. This session will also include targeted self-care strategies for people leaders.

FSAP webinar: Gratitude in Action: How a Daily Practice Can Change Your Brain
Nov. 20, 12 – 1 p.m.
Over the last 20 years, the wealth of research supporting mindfulness and gratitude practices has been steadily rising, but finding the right practice (and the time to do it) can feel daunting. This presentation reviews the most recent research supporting the benefits of a daily gratitude practice and offers brief intervention tools that can have a profound impact on how your brain interprets the world. Focusing on the specific needs and experiences of our UCSF and UCOP communities, the recommendations discussed can be applied with support from technology, friends and family and our organization. Whether you are looking to return to a previous practice or are curious about how to get started, this webinar is designed to support you in creating a personalized gratitude practice that works for you.

Mindfulness
Nov. 21, 12:10 to 12:55 p.m.
The UCOP Well-Being Lunch and Chat series is a monthly virtual gathering to support individual and collective wellness through meaningful conversation, reflection and connection. In November, you will learn how to both reduce your stress and increase your effectiveness at work through simple mindfulness techniques.

Project management

UCOP Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt Certification
Oakland, Franklin Lobby 1: Feb. 13, 8 a.m. – 4 p.m.
This dynamic, interactive training program is designed specifically for UCOP staff. Through a hands-on group simulation, you’ll explore essential process improvement concepts and methodologies that can be directly applied to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in your daily work. Join us for an immersive learning experience using the Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control model; lessons on the practical application of value stream mapping, Lean 5S and data analysis tools; and the real-time implementation of Lean Six Sigma concepts.

Technology skills

Box Fundamentals
Nov. 5, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Get an overview of Box, the cloud-based service that provides secure file storage and sharing at UCOP. We’ll cover how to use Box, collaborating with UCOP and non-UCOP colleagues, commenting directly on files, folder permissions, shared links and many other tips that will help you when using Box. IT administrators will be available to answer your questions. Learn more about Box.

Excel Power BI
November 12, 13 & 19, 9 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Learn about and practice using Power BI in this three-session workshop. Attendees will learn how to connect to data sources; perform data cleaning, profiling and shaping; visualize data and create interactive visualizations; enhance reports and dashboards; and publish and share reports and dashboards.

For people managers

Manager Essentials at UCOP: Compensation
Nov. 4, 9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Join us for a live, virtual, instructor-led session on UCOP Compensation policies and procedures. This course is required for all new UCOP managers and supervisors. Experienced managers are also welcome to attend. For more information about ME@UCOP, read the series overview.

ME@UCOP Managing in the Modern Workplace
Nov. 5, 9 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
In person class: Oakland Broadway 4001
Learn UCOP processes and strategies that support building inclusive and engaged teams. Topics include: managing remote and hybrid teams, people development and fostering community and belonging as a manager. This course is required for all new UCOP managers and supervisors. Experienced managers are also welcome to attend. For more information about ME@UCOP, read the series overview.

People Leader Forum – Fostering Resilient Teams During Uncertain Times
Nov. 7, 1 – 2 p.m.
The People Leader Forum is a monthly opportunity for managers to connect 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 Dec. 5 session will focus on team wellness.

GROW Plus: Accountability Conversations for Managers
Dec. 3, 9:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.
This is the second part of the required live training series on manager and employee performance conversations. This training answers the question: “What do I do when my coaching is not improving performance?” In this virtual, live, and highly interactive workshop, we will cover: providing productive critical feedback, managing emotions, creating efficient documentation and holding effective accountability conversations. Managers will also practice role-playing accountability conversations using the UCOP GROW Plus framework.

Check out all upcoming classes on the Link Classes & Workshops page. For questions, contact ucopld@ucop.edu.

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