2014-2015 Programs Archive

Wellbeing & Engagement Showcase

Drs. Mary Jo Kreitzer (of the Center for Spirituality and Healing – CSH) and Brandon Sullivan (Director of Leadership and Talent Development) will give a frame of reference to the events and to draw a connection among efforts as co-sponsors of this event. 

The event will consist of a series of facilitated small group discussions that will allow participants to become familiar with some efforts and to collectively notice common themes and opportunities for cooperative partnerships and personal action around the closely aligned topics of wellbeing and engagement.  Each small group discussion will consist of 10 minutes for the presenter to talk about their initiative, followed by 10 minutes of small group discussion to help participants make connections and discuss opportunities for implementation and innovation around the topic.  

Table Presenters, Notes and Additional Information:

Process Improvement Tool Overview

Have you been tasked with doing more with less? Sounds like you may have just have been assigned a process improvement project. Now what? Please join your PCMC colleagues to get a sampling of process improvement tools and engage in  discussions about how others at the University have used and work through a process improvement project.

Table Presenters:

• Readiness Assessment - Chris Bucksa - Readiness Worksheet
• Stakeholder Analysis - Christa Nicols
• Creating a Process Map - Robert Jankovich
• Process Mapping Step 2 Analysis - Sarah Wuest
• Problem Resolution and A3 Tool - LaToya Bell
• Implementation and Change Management -Lea Bittner-Eddy

Leading Change: Navigating the Human & Cultural Dynamics

Presenter: Kirk Froggatt from the Technology Learning Institute

Program Description:
When leading or implementing change initiatives, we tend to rely on project management tools and methods to help us optimize the process and systems aspects of the initiative.  While good project management is absolutely necessary, it is not sufficient to ensure successful implementation AND adoption of the change. We also need to become effective change leaders who attend to and manage the people and culture aspects of the project.  In this workshop we’ll explore the normal, natural human dynamics of change and discuss the leadership mindset, tool set and skill set needed to overcome resistance, generate commitment versus compliance, and optimize project momentum.

Program Materials and Follow Up:

There have been numerous requests for the slides from this presentation. Kirk has graciously provided the slides for our community.

In addition to Kirk's resources another University resource Scalable Change Model which was developed for the President's Excellence in Leadership program. The model aligns well with Kirk's messaging around people, the emotional aspect of change and the need to regularly listen to feedback to realign change efforts. The model contains a phased process and linked resources for those wanting a tangible resource to help manage change.

Bridging the Age Gap: Creating a High-Performing, Multigenerational Team

Now, more than ever, generational differences are very distinct. How we get along with one another and work together can be hindered or helped by how well we understand and respond to those differences in perspective, values, and motivation. The current workforce includes Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials. The distinctions between the generations their cultures, their expectations, and their styles have never been so sharp or diverse. So how do you create a high-performing, multigenerational team? Attend this workshop to find out!

Presenter Bio:

Carrie Mitchell has more than a decade of experience leading transformational, high-risk and challenged projects in the public, private and non-profit sectors. She has been called the “Nanny McPhee of Project Management” due to her ability to turn struggling, frustrated groups of people into high-performing teams. As a result, she has spent most of the last eight years reforming good projects with bad reputations.

Carrie has managed a wide variety of IT and business efforts, including a multi-year human resources enhancement program, two business intelligence implementations, platform replacements and several emergency management and business continuity projects, including the launch of Minnesota’s first virtual emergency operations center.

Leveraging Employee Engagement to Improve Project Success

Presenters: Brandon Sullivan, Director of Leadership and Talent Development and Lea Bittner-Eddy, LTD Consultant

We were all recently invited to participate in the University’s annual employee engagement survey. What happens next and how can the data be useful to increasing engagement?  How can we use engagement strategies in our project work? Come learn about tools and and resources to help improve your project and work teams. Small group discussions will focus on how to plan and implement engagement principles into your day-to-day work to facilitate team effectiveness.    

Presenter Bios:

Dr. Brandon Sullivan is the Director of Leadership and Talent Development (formerly Organizational Effectiveness) and leads the University’s employee engagement strategy. Before joining the University, Dr. Sullivan led employee engagement at Target Corporation and worked extensively within the corporation on leadership development and talent management. 

Lea Bittner-Eddy, MSc, is an organizational development consultant specializing in employee engagement in Leadership and Talent Development (formerly Organizational Effectiveness). In this role she provides consulting on capacity building, change management, leadership development, and improving workplace cultures as part of employee engagement action.  Lea also works with HR partners throughout the University to facilitate engagement knowledge and action through sharing of resources and engagement-focused communities of practice. 

Integrating a Vendor Into Your Project

Format: Q&A Panel: UpNet, YFI Technologies, and Xylo Technologies

There just comes a time when you need to ask for external help on your project.  This session will allow you to seek an independent point of view from subject matter experts about technology solutions (software, security, and staffing).

Panel Participants:

Working with Minnesota Nice in your Projects

There’s no getting around it - Minnesota Nice plays a big part in the projects we manage.  This session will help you better understand the ways Minnesota Nice can both help and harm your projects and how you can best leverage Minnesota Nice as a project manager.

Workshop leaders are University of Minnesota co-authors of  the ebook, Minnesota Nice? A Transplant’s Guide to Surviving and Thriving in Minnesota and co-creators of the website, Surviving & Thriving in Minnesota Nice.

If you attended the program you noticed the presenters taking notes regarding strategies for working with Minnesota Nice. Those notes have been complied and are listed below: 

Conflict Avoidance

• Provide information in advance of meeting or discussion.
• Ask for very specific input.
• Make it about someone else - “What would X Person say about it?”
• Mitigate confrontation.
• Make it impersonal - “How were aspects of the project handled?” instead of “How do you think I handled aspects of the project?”
• Create a framework for the conversation that starts with niceties - “How are you doing today?”
• Identify the criteria you would use to evaluate if your project has been successful or not. 
• Define expectations up front.
• Establish a personal relationship.
• Be clear in your documents and plans what you intend to do.
• Ask for “suggestions” and “opinions” not “feedback.”

Passive-Aggressive Behavior

• Try to create a safe environment for the passive-aggressive person to share their feelings or thoughts.  
• Point out person’s behavior directly, when it is present.  Anger/frustration with thorny issues should be recognized in a factual, non-judgmental way.
• Ask open-ended/safe questions. Try to get person to open up.  Good thing to ask is, “Help me understand what is going on" and “What’s in the way of you doing X?”
• Try to build relationships with people so they feel safe being direct with you.
• Being in academia adds an additional layer.  Don’t escalate issues to the boss. Save that if the problem gets really bad.
• Ask what you can do to help the person.

Resistance to Change

• In a change situation often the person feels that their work is not being valued.  It’s a personal thing. Make sure it’s clear that you understand that their work has been very valuable.  
• Sometimes the person is concerned about job security.  Make sure you’ve addressed that.
• Shift the blame for the changes to someone else. (!)
• If your relationship with the person who needs to change isn’t a good one, have another person work with them.
• Understand what they see as good work.  Understand where they are coming from. Often the person just needs to feel heard.
• Be aware of your own style.  For example, talk about how you may be seen as confrontational or abrasive so it’s clear that you know this about yourself.
• Think about ways to pull rather than push the changes through.  
• Understand not from a sympathetic position, but from an empathetic one.
• Don’t let them off the hook.
• Say, “Try to help me understand [why they are resisting the change].”

Thanks again to Corey Bonnema and Jerilyn Veldof for taking the extra time to document this for the group.

Wellbeing: The Key to Team & Program Success

Successful work teams are marked by creativity, efficiency, productivity, and strong relationships Dr. Mary Jo Kreitzer will demonstrate how each of the components of Wellbeing - which incorporates not just physical health, but balance, interconnectedness, and purpose -- can be harnessed to foster these outcomes. 

During this session participants will workshop with these concepts to learn how the components of Wellbeing can make a difference personally and professionally and to discover how each can be used to cultivate and advance wellbeing. Participants will leave with actionable ways to apply these principles.