Interpersonal Development

Adaptive Communication Strategies

Many studies have shown that a significant portion of conflict in the workplace can be traced to differences in communication styles. The adaptive communication strategies workshop examines different communication styles and is designed to help facilitate better communication by mitigating differences in communication style preferences. As a result of participating in this workshop, attendees will: 1) understand different communication styles and the strength of their preferred style; 2) learn how to determine the preferred communication style of others; and 3) develop strategies for adapting their communication style to match the preference of others.

Appreciative Inquiry

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is an asset-based, organizational development philosophy that emphasizes the best in people and envisions their organizations in their most effective and capable form. Participants in this workshop will a) learn the foundational principles of AI, b) how to apply it in their daily work, and c) how to utilize AI to grow their departments and CMC in a positive direction.

Social Norms & Organizational Change

Research grounded in Social Norms Theory (SNT) has demonstrated that people will alter their behavior to conform to their perceptions of community norms. At many higher education institutions, perceptions of community norms are often represented by terms with ambiguous and/or multiple meanings, which can lead to misperceptions of those norms. SNT research shows that the most important factor for facilitating change at the individual, community, and organizational levels is identifying the degree to which members of a community perceive their own attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to be consistent with community norms. This workshop is designed to understand community norms, any individual or collectively held misperceptions of those norms, and identify strategies for correcting misperceptions to facilitate organizational change.

The Empathy Effect

In her book The Empathy Effect, Dr. Helen Reiss M.D. shares important research on how human empathy works and practices which lead to building and enhancing empathic capacity. This session reviews the findings of studies from neuroscience, sociology, and developmental psychology that formed the foundation of Dr. Reiss’ seven-step system for increasing empathy and the quality of our relationships with others.

Clifton Strengths

Clifton Strengths is a personality assessment that helps participants identify and amplify their natural strengths. Many personality assessments result in people committing significant time and energy to making marginal improvements on their ‘weaknesses.’ Clifton Strengths is an asset-based framework for helping people perform at their best by intentionally aligning their responsibilities with identified strengths. It can also be utilized to organize teams and groups based on complementary strengths to maximize their collective performance. Participants of this workshop will examine their strengths and identify ways to utilize those strengths in their positions at CMC.