Upcoming Workshops

Next Session: April/May 2024 - Free Registration for Community College Faculty/Staff and Alumni 

We are excited to offer this training to non-UCSF participants (outside of community colleges) starting in Fall 2024: Details & Pricing. 

Goal: Provide every science professional with the training, support and accountability that they need to successfully negotiate their roles as a mentor, trainer and supervisor to lead productive and healthy teams and labs. 

Workshop Modules:

• Module 1 - Assess Yourself: How inclusive are you at work/in the lab? 

Many scientists with mentoring/managing responsibilities have the best of intentions, but lack clarity about which specific decisions and actions result in their diverse team feeling a sense of belonging and invested in the overall success of the lab. In this session, you will learn a framework to benchmark which decisions, behaviors and actions define what it means to be inclusive as a mentor & manager. Secondly, we will outline the 5 overarching strategies that most inclusive efforts and best practices map to. Finally, you will practice applying these principles to your own work life, by intentionally designing inclusivity into a common work responsibility (a 1:1 or lab meeting).

• Module 2 - Assess Yourself: How ready are you to manage your mentee/employee’s productivity? 

In this workshop, participants identify the skills they have, and those they need to develop, to effectively manage the productivity of their mentee/employee. First, you will self-evaluate your strengths and growth areas in executing the 7 fundamental people management responsibilities: (setting expectations, teaching/training and delegating, the three types of feedback, rewarding achievement, addressing performance issues, managing the inevitable conflict inherent in even the most functional teams, and providing appropriate protection and support.). Second, we’ll dissect the specific strategies individuals with research mentoring and/or managing responsibilities can use to equitably balance decisions in fulfilling their roles as a scientific mentor and/or a manager. Finally, participants consider ways to receive support and further develop their skills and abilities in these areas.

• Module 3 - Effectively supervising people who aren't you: Managing different workstyles 

In this module, participants consider how individual differences in values, approaches and relationship to work can impact productivity, morale and retention of team members. We also discuss tangible steps that managers can take to intentionally cultivate inclusive environments. We consider several factors that may make up our individual ‘operating systems’ when we engage in work, including how we prefer to communicate, make decisions, feel organized, and manage change/conflict. Participants will also have the opportunity to assess some facets of their own work style preferences, as well as develop the vocabulary to discuss others’ preferences without pathologizing their approach to work. Finally, we discuss and brainstorm tactics that team leaders can use to inclusively manage multiple work style differences and reap the benefits of working in diverse teams.

• Module 4 - How to transparently set (performance and conduct) expectations

Gallup’s national State of the American Worker poll notes that half of all workers do not know what is expected of them. We discuss the challenges – the impossibility, actually – of setting all performance and behavioral expectations at the beginning of someone’s tenure, and the strategies that successful research mentors/managers use to set and manage those expectations over time. Participants will 1) identify which key expectations need to be set immediately to preserve their own productivity, 2) define and articulate expectations to team members, 3) overcome common challenges in setting expectations, including when mentoring/supervising individuals who are more experienced than themselves or have a strongly held ‘operating system’/way of doing things, and 4) consider criteria to determine if they’ve set an expectation effectively.

• Module 5 - Teach/train and delegate: Using best practices to train your diverse team

Using effective training practices is important in any organization, but it is particularly important in research organizations. In biotechnology companies, the constant evolution of knowledge requires a solid training process to stay up to speed on innovative technology and knowledge. In this module, we discuss common training issues that can result in loss of productivity for individuals and their teams, and can put team members from some underrepresented groups at a disadvantage. We propose evidence-based approaches to avoid, detect and correct these training issues.

• Module 6 - Communicating inclusively: developing your own feedback strategy and style

Do you feel most comfortable offering positive (or kudos) feedback? Do you tend to avoid or sugarcoat corrective feedback? Not sure what ‘evaluative’ feedback is? Then this is the session for you. In this module, we begin by dissecting the three types of feedback that everyone (including you) needs to be productive: kudos, corrective and evaluative feedback. Participants will practice giving feedback using a protocol that works for both kudos and corrective feedback Next, participants will modify the protocol as they consider their style (including their personal values, approach and language). We’ll discuss strategies to both gain buy-in/determine how the recipient can best hear and act on that feedback, and how to engage when the recipient has a strong reaction to feedback.

• Module 7 - When someone isn't meeting your expectations: Strategies and resources to manage performance equitably

When someone repeatedly fails to meet performance or conduct expectations, many research mentors/managers frequently under- or over-correct and mistakenly attempt to handle the situation alone (rather than reaching out for support). In this session, participants will learn tactics to determine how their particular organization expects them to manage performance or conduct issues, how to access organizational resources to help them navigate the situation (including HR, Learning and Development, etc.), and common mistakes and approaches (including building a circle of support/self care) to manage one of the most challenging responsibilities for any mentor/manager.

• Module 8 - How to inclusively hire: Which strategies will you use?

In this workshop, participants will learn evidence-based strategies to assess and select candidates using tactics from four inclusive strategy clusters: 1) adding intentional respect, 2) adding diverse voices, 3) adding accountability) and 4) leveling the playing field. Participants will learn how to transparently structure the overall hiring process, begin to develop their own questions/rubrics to assess for their priority qualifications, consider steps to prepare and manage a hiring committee, and discover tactics to mitigate others - and their own - unconscious biases.

Format: 

• Live virtual workshops with individual and group work

• Full course OR individual workshops: Earn a Letter of Completion for the whole course or just take the sessions that you want.