Human Resources

Toxic acts have no place at work, yet too often, people experience harm. Without the right mindset, leaders might overestimate the problems their people face. Preventing harm takes more than only stopping the most severe behaviors. Unaddressed, minor behaviors and violations at any level heighten isolation, derail creativity, and erode trust. Research estimates that only 3 of 10 workers feel like their voices matter. And almost 75% of violations faced at work go unreported. 

Your people’s unfiltered opinions and creative ideas are your greatest assets. How can you be sure they feel safe enough to speak up? How can you guarantee they feel empowered to advocate for themselves and others?
 
Attendees will adopt an empathy-driven framework to label rooted issues and identify organizational initiatives that restore trust. Managers will acquire skills to ensure that their people feel empowered to speak up, regardless of their role, tenure, or social capital.
 

Prior to the Course:

• You are encouraged – but not required – to complete this survey.

The survey will help customize content for the three upcoming virtual workshops brought to you by Create Safe on behalf of the City of Madison. During the workshops, the Create Safe team will never share data collected from an individual response, but overall trends will be discussed. Create Safe will only share the overall trends with the City, and will clean and make anonymous all provided information when weighing the total feedback.

We matter. Since we spend nearly 90,000 hours working, we deserve to feel this at our jobs. Neurologically, a lack of safety prevents us from experiencing this truth. No matter the reason, when safety gaps emerge, we have no reason to show up and meaningfully engage. 

Our voices matter. To believe this, we must trust that our leaders value our perspectives and care about remedying issues. How can we advocate for others if we lack the skills or practice advocating for ourselves? And how can we ensure that everyone feels comfortable speaking up? 

This program challenges ineffective and outdated status quos to address what truly matters when building healthy, people-centered workplaces. In an authentic discussion, we will explore the importance of and how to define our safety needs. By adopting skills that enhance work relationships, participants will learn to advocate for themselves and others confidently.
 

Prior to the Course:

• You are encouraged – but not required – to complete this survey.

The survey will help customize content for the three upcoming virtual workshops brought to you by Create Safe on behalf of the City of Madison. During the workshops, the Create Safe team will never share data collected from an individual response, but overall trends will be discussed. Create Safe will only share the overall trends with the City, and will clean and make anonymous all provided information when weighing the total feedback.

The March 15, 2023 session has been canceled due to upcoming staffing changes. Please keep an eye on our upcoming courses should future offerings become available. Thanks for your understanding! 

Burnout is a growing challenge for leaders and teams. Many employees are struggling with exhaustion, loss of confidence, and disengagement. But burnout is not just an individual problem, it’s a systems and leadership issue too. This session focuses on workplace culture and leadership factors that contribute to burnout. This course is not a lecture; most of your time will be in small and large group discussion to analyze strategies for improving our workplace.

Note: If you are having a personal struggle with burnout, you are not alone. Consider reaching out to the Employee Assistance Program or their external partner, FEI Workforce Resilience for free, confidential support.

Learning Objectives:

• Define burnout
• Describe six common causes of employee burnout
• Discuss leadership actions that contribute to workplace vitality

You may have grown comfortable with Zoom for meetings and trainings…maybe so comfortable that you don’t realize that the status quo may be unintentionally excluding participants. Did you know that there are strategies and tips that you can use that can make your trainings and meetings more inclusive and effective for people with disabilities? This session will broaden your perspective and you will leave with actionable tips to use in future trainings and meetings.

Learning Objectives:

1. Increase your understanding of disability-related barriers in virtual meetings
2. Obtain practical skills to remove access barriers
3. Be a better disability ally at work

Course Handouts:

• Course Agenda
• Slide Deck
• Slide Deck - Text

How can you be inclusive and respectful with people of all genders? With verbal and written examples, you will leave this training with specific strategies in using language that shows your coworkers and community members of all genders that you value them.
 

This course is part of the series of offerings related to the implementation of APM 2-52 as we work towards realizing our vision of being an inclusive organization.
 

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe how gender-neutral and transgender-inclusive language differ

2. Name at least 2 strategies for creating gender inclusion with language other than using they pronouns

3. Explain the importance of using correct name and pronouns

4. Demonstrate how to introduce a coworker’s pronouns

5. Identify two ways to correct a pronoun or name mistake

Course Materials 

• Gender-Inclusive Language Slide Deck
• Gender-Inclusive Language Leaner Material - Practice and Tip Sheet

Resources:

• Gender-Inclusive Language Style Guide
• Resource Guide for a Gender-Inclusive Workplace

“Feedback is the breakfast of champions” according to management expert Ken Blanchard. For leaders at all levels, it is how we learn and grow through our experiences. For managers, it’s a critical skill for improving team performance. Feedback also helps us maintain healthy boundaries and work environments. Yet it is one of the hardest “gifts” to give and receive.
This two-part series can help you move from fear to finesse.

• Part 1, Foundational Feedback will focus on the value of a positive feedback mindset, avoiding common pitfalls, and strategies to give effective feedback.
• Part 2, Intermediate Feedback will focus on ways to give feedback up, down, and sideways. We’ll also explore practices to receive feedback with gratitude and composure. Here's the link to register for part 2. 

You should complete the two courses in order, but you don’t need to sign up for both parts at once.

Learning Objectives:

Part 1:

• Understand a positive feedback mindset
• Avoid the three most common pitfalls that create defensiveness and resistance
• Learn to give effective feedback

Course Materials

Course Handout: Feedback Foundations

“Feedback is the breakfast of champions” according to management expert Ken Blanchard. For leaders at all levels, it is how we learn and grow through our experiences. For managers, it’s a critical skill for improving team performance. Feedback also helps us maintain healthy boundaries and work environments. Yet it is one of the hardest “gifts” to give and receive.
This two-part series can help you move from fear to finesse.

• Part 1, Foundational Feedback will focus on the value of a positive feedback mindset, avoiding common pitfalls, and strategies to give effective feedback. Here's the link to register for part 1. 
• Part 2, Intermediate Feedback will focus on ways to give feedback up, down, and sideways. We’ll also explore practices to receive feedback with gratitude and composure.

You should complete the two courses in order, but you don’t need to sign up for both parts at once. 

Learning Objectives:

Part 2:

• Understand how assertive communication strengthens feedback
• Learn to give feedback up, down and sideways
• Explore practices to receive feedback with gratitude and composure

Course Materials

Course Handout: Feedback Intermediate

Swamped with way too many meetings? We know that poorly organized and run meetings lead to frustration and disengagement. In this webinar, you’ll learn practical tools to plan and run effective meetings so that you can lead people towards clear and actionable outcomes with greater confidence.
Please note, the November 8, 2023 session will be recorded. 

Feeling safe is vital in creating spaces where people can engage as their best selves. On a neurological level, it is impossible to be present if we feel unsafe. This is true no matter the type or severity of harm faced. Unaddressed or recurring safety gaps erode organizational trust, limit productivity, stifle people's voices, and ultimately cause us to check out.

But when we do feel safe? The results are profound. People who feel safe build stronger relationships, are more engaged, make creative decisions, and experience a deeper sense of belonging.

Creating safe environments doesn't happen by chance. It requires intentional organizational efforts and investing in our people's voices to drive inclusive change.

Applying the Feel Safe framework to their culture, participants work through a process that empowers them to reimagine a people-centered workplace. Participants will diagnose safety gaps before distinguishing individual and organizational paths that foster feelings of safety.
 

Prior to the Course:

• You are encouraged – but not required – to complete this survey.

The survey will help customize content for the three upcoming virtual workshops brought to you by Create Safe on behalf of the City of Madison. During the workshops, the Create Safe team will never share data collected from an individual response, but overall trends will be discussed. Create Safe will only share the overall trends with the City, and will clean and make anonymous all provided information when weighing the total feedback.

Additional City of Madison offerings by Tim Mousseau:

• People-Centered: Because We Matter: Advocating for Each Other to Build Healthy & High-Performing Teams
• Manager-Centered: Alone In A Crowded Office: How Leaders Can Overcome Harmful Behaviors That Foster Isolation

An Individual Development Plan (IDP) helps you

• Assess your skills, interests, and values,
• Make a plan for achieving your personal and professional goals,
• Communicate with your supervisors/mentors about your evolving plan and needs.

How do I use it?

• The IDP is a workbook-style packet will help you move broad ideas to concrete, actionable steps.
• Download a copy and follow the 5 Steps.
• Share with your supervisor and/or mentor the parts of the IDP you’d like to discuss.
• In an upcoming one-on-one with that supervisor and/or mentor, follow the discussion guidelines

Individual Development Plan Getting Started Guide

Making decisions can be one of the most difficult and stressful things leaders do. Involving others can relieve some of that stress as you gain new perspectives. Inclusive leaders make decisions with, not for, those who are impacted. This improves the quality of our work and relationships with each other. This session will cover basics of stakeholder mapping and group decision-making. 

Course Materials

• Course Handout
• Fillable Empathy Map
• Course Slides

View a recording of this course on our Online Courses webpage. For a more in-depth learning experience, register for future sessions using the register button. 

“We must transform ourselves to transform the world.” -Grace Lee Boggs

As managers and leaders who recognize there are systems of oppression in the workplace that we must reckon with and dismantle, we must also tend to the internal work within ourselves to build equity, inclusion, and belonging. We cannot wait for the “system to transform” – we also have to “transform ourselves.”
This session is for managers, or anyone who leads teams, to explore how their own identities shape their worldview and thus their management style and approach. Participants will explore concepts such as intersectionality, positionality, identity salience, reflective practice, and deep listening. Through individual and group activities and a case study, participants will use their own self-awareness, behaviors, and interactions as sites of learning.

Learning Objectives:

1. Exposure to the concepts of intersectionality, positionality, identity salience, and reflective practice
2. Practice reflecting on one’s own identities
3. Practice deep listening skills with colleagues
4. Practice a liberating structure model for solution building

Before we lead others, we must first learn to effectively lead ourselves. For most of us, our personal values guide how we feel and act day-to-day. The four principles of Values-Based Leadership help us lean into our values while remaining curious and open to the values and experiences of others.

Through self-reflection, a balanced perspective, true self-confidence, and genuine humility, we can grow our leadership from any position. This is an excellent course for people at all levels in their leadership journey.

NOTE: A significant part of this course is spent in self-guided, small group discussion in a Zoom breakout room. You will also need access to the group activity handout during the course. Using a computer, tablet, or at minimum a smartphone is recommended. Phone-only participation is discouraged because it will be difficult to access course materials and interact with others in your small group.

If you are planning to broadcast the course in a conference room for a group, contact the instructor ahead of time for special instructions and activity modifications.

Course Resources

• Values-Based Leadership Group Activity
• Values-Based Leadership Summary Handout
• Values List (from Brené Brown's Dare to Lead)

View a recording of this course on our Online Courses webpage. For a more in-depth learning experience, register for future sessions using the register button.