Workshops

At this moment in time when things are ever shifting, it is critically important that we strive to develop ourselves, not just as educators, but as human beings. What can we do to be bigger and better versions of ourselves as collaborative team members and as leaders? This workshop, based on Jennifer’s new book, Stretching Your Learning Edges: Growing (Up) at Work, will introduce us to adult developmental theory and to five focused ways we can develop ourselves at work.

We will build our skills to:

• know ourselves and our identities
• better suspend our certainty and think with greater complexity and openness
• take increased responsibility for our language and communications
• engage with reciprocity and live ‘out loud’ our belief of mutual respect for all
• build our resiliency and work on our emotional hygiene

Consider what it means, in practice, to grow (up) – to develop our skills and capacities as lead learners in our schools.

This is Jennifer’s spotlight workshop, click here to learn more!

Jennifer’s asynchronous book study on Having Hard Conversations is hosted by EduSpark. In it you go through the 9 videos of no more than 15 minutes each. Each video is Jennifer guiding you through your own book study or personal workshop and includes discussion questions. Learn more here.

No matter what role we play in a school (principal, department chair, team lead), we all strive to make our communications successful. And at this time of when uncertainty is the norm, we often move fast and don’t get the opportunity to think about the language we use in our communications. Ultimately, we end up not being as successful as we could have been in getting our messages across.

We need to build up a skill set of messaging capabilities, ‘resistance management’ strategies and for the sake of our health, our ‘stress tolerance.’ This is based on Jennifer’s book Swimming in the Deep End: Four Foundational Skills for Leading Successful School Initiatives. This workshop provide support, laugh, and practical strategies to help you communicate more effectively in these unprecedented times.

Participants will learn how to:

• Learn more about getting more successful in our communication around our key initiatives, the complexity of it all and where we ‘trip up’ in our messaging
• Review research on how others respond and resist change
• Develop a linguistic tool kit for managing the resistance of others
• Develop a set of strategies for managing yourself as you lead this work of change and growth

Given this time of so much change around the world, difficult topics must be addressed with parents or guardians of those we teach in our schools. What do we know about the best strategies for these specific moments? What questions should we be asking ourselves before we speak, and what language is best for when we do speak? Based on Jennifer’s books, Having Hard Conversations, and Hard Conversations Unpacked, and her work with conflict and interpersonal communication, this session will provide participants with planning and scripting tools for having those necessary humane and growth producing conversations with families at this time of unpredictability.

Participants will:

• Identify why they hesitate having hard conversations
• Choose questions to ask themselves before they choose to speak up in order to do so more humanely
• Articulate in professional language the challenges they are facing
• Determine the goals of the conversation and write an action plan of support
• Script the conversation avoiding trigger words that put parents on the defensive
• Discover some helpful tips for additional hows of having productive yet challenging conversations with families.

As administrators, coaches or colleagues, we often come up against situations where difficult topics must be addressed. What do we know about the best strategies for those moments? What questions should we be asking ourselves before we speak, and what environments are best for when we do speak? Based on Jennifer’s book, Having Hard Conversations, and her work with conflict and interpersonal communication, this session will provide participants with action plans and scripting tools for having those necessary hard conversations.

Participants will learn how to:

• Identify why they hesitate having hard conversations
• Choose questions to ask themselves before they choose to speak up
• Articulate in professional language the challenges they are facing
• Determine the goals of the conversation and write an action plan of support
• Script the conversation avoiding trigger words that put others on the defensive
• Choose the best ‘wheres’ and ‘whens’ for a productive discussion

Continuing the learning in the first Having Hard Conversations workshop, Hard Conversations Unpacked is an extension and deepening of the work of becoming more comfortable with the energy of conflict. The workshop revisits the key elements of the book, Having Hard Conversations, such as the outcome mapping and scripting protocol, and goes deeper to provide additional strategies for being more confident and compassionate when faced with situations involving conflict. (Prerequisite: Having Hard Conversations)

Participants will learn how to:

• Keep conflict at a cognitive level that is more psychologically safe
• Analyze possible covert organizational influences at play during a hard conversation
• Look at a hard conversation through the lenses of culture, generation and gender, cognitive style and belief system
• Understand the differences between a problem to be solved and a polarity to be managed
• Respond productively when conflict escalates both in one-on -one and in group situations

Have you noticed your newer employees feel and look and act differently than novice colleagues you remember? Are you hearing of communication challenges between colleagues of different ages? Are you becoming aware more employees want a life-work balance vs. a work-life balance? Generational factors might be coming into play. Who are these four generations in our workplaces? What are their strengths and needs? What structures and communication protocols should we design to work well with them all? And, what knowledge do we need to help every group thrive? Using Jennifer’s book, The Multigenerational Workplace: Communicate, Collaborate and Create Community, this workshop will provide tools, resources on this increasingly intriguing topic.

Participants will learn how to:

• Formulate a better understanding of each generation’s motivations and needs in the workplace
• Prepare tools and structures that will translate into better more effective collaboration for generationally diverse teams
• Become more skilled at creating a climate of inclusion for all generations
• Adapt one’s language skills to communicate effectively with different generations

Click here to read the chapter 1 summary of the Generations from The Multigenerational Workplace book.

Gone are the days when a leader’s positional power was sufficient to advance an agenda. Today’s successful leaders must gain commitment to ambitious goals not only from people who work for them, but also from peers and a diverse group of stakeholders who are beyond their command. See how the ability to influence and persuade others is now a critical differentiator of leaders who move people to support their goals from those who can’t.

Participants will:

• Learn to recognize influencing behaviors in themselves and others.
• Learn language skills that influential people use effectively on a daily basis.
• Learn more about resistance and the triggers that threaten people and how to help people move past those triggers.
• Have time to work on personal case studies and learn specific strategies to increase your influence in your own organization.

We know how to do our jobs well and then we are appointed ‘lead’ of a group of adults. We have a credential or license to do our educational and/or clinical work yet becoming a department chair, committee head or team lead requires different set of skills. In this session participants will discuss the role of “group leader” and the skill set that goes with this new role in building collaborative and professional culture within their workplaces.

Participants will learn how to:

• Increase one’s credibility in the role as chair or team lead
• Understand adult learning theory and how that plays out in meeting design
• Use non-verbal language to create an approachable or credible stance depending on the needs of the situation
• Listen and paraphrase effectively so others feel heard
• Ask questions others want to answer
• Provide effective feedback through praise, suggestions and requests

This foundational program is designed for all professionals in any role interested in learning and reviewing basic communication skills that build more trust in relationships. The workshop will provide skills to change personal behaviors within one’s sphere of control that can increase trust in everyday interpersonal and group interactions.

Participants will learn how to:

• Use effective non-verbal body language can increase or decrease how trustworthy others feel you are
• Paraphrase and listen more skillfully so others truly feel heard
• Ask questions that open other people’s thinking so they want to respond
• Offer suggestions that others want to hear and will take into consideration
• Praise so others will feel acknowledged
• Apologize so others feel better
• Respond more effectively to conflict and tension interpersonally and in group situations