Workshops (Asynchronous Session)
Featured Advancing Your Cultural Intelligence : How to Be a More Effective Educator with Diverse Audiences View Digital Media
Workshop Presentation Stephen Brady
Demographics are changing rapidly in communities across the globe. In order to increase organizational and individual effectiveness research shows there must be an increased ability to interact respectfully with diverse individuals (Early and Ang, 2003). Unlike previous generations, today’s educators and professionals at every level need skills to be more effective in how they work with diverse audiences. Cultural intelligence (CQ) is the term denoting one's capability to function effectively in situations characterized by cultural diversity. Organizational and individual effectiveness is increasingly dependent on people who can be effective and respectful in a variety of cultural situations. The good news is, CQ is not fixed; with experience, education, and some simple, but intentional goals and strategies; one can improve her or his CQ. In addition, one can enhance the quality of her or his interpersonal interactions in a wide range of social contexts. This interactive session is designed to provide attendees with practical information to immediately put into practice in order to help them increase their CQ. This session focuses on relationships, by offering attendees useful strategies and tools for effectively interacting with stakeholders such as, co-workers, clientele, committee members, and external partners. As we enter our second century, extension professionals who can effectively interact with diverse individuals will ensure the organization remains relevant, regardless of changes that may lie ahead.
Collaborative Community Strategic Planning: Fostering diverse collaboration through convening leadership View Digital Media
Workshop Presentation Jennifer Elmore, Patricia A. Clary
We know strategic planning requires teamwork. As strategy professionals, we are frequently called upon to bring together a group of peers to engage in problem-solving, address an issue, or lend expertise to a project or program. However, how does the convening leader create an environment in the strategic process that leads the team to successful outcomes? This can be a challenge when it’s “business as usual” – but recently, nothing has been normal. Despite some of the positive shifts we have seen, further leadership is needed to facilitate successful teams and outcomes. During these evolving times, many of the local problems we face are complex and go beyond a single program or organization. In the last ten years, strategic management has grown beyond business planning to also focus on collective systems and issues, as organizations attempt to collaborate across sector boundaries to address ambiguous and consequential societal problems. As the field of strategy has developed, strategic leaders must also grow in the skills needed to convene diverse groups of stakeholders capable of solving complex problems. This workshop highlights the importance of convening diverse stakeholder groups. It also provides practical insights for identifying complementary collaborators across a spectrum of actors. Finally, this workshop introduces five principles in convening stakeholders to engage leaders in guiding diverse teams through challenges and uncertainty. Based on research and practical experience, plan for ah-ha moments as the presenters share convening leadership principles and best practices in leading strategic initiatives.
Unveiling the "Hidden Curriculum" : Empowering Multiply Marginalized Graduate Students View Digital Media
Workshop Presentation Noro Andriamanalina
Although the COVID-19 pandemic presented many challenges in helping graduate students navigate their experiences, it also offered many opportunities to research and develop different types of support to benefit students from diverse cultural and disciplinary backgrounds. This workshop will highlight the University of Minnesota Graduate School's student-centered approach to academic and professional development. Various initiatives designed to unveil the “hidden curriculum” and empower international and first-generation graduate students will be discussed. Initiatives include focus groups and surveys to identify student needs, as well as collaborations with multiple units to develop resources to make implicit expectations more explicit. This highly interactive workshop will engage the audience in discussions to reflect upon and share strategies used by their institutions to assist diverse graduate students make timely progress on their degrees. An outcome of the workshop is for participants to set short and long-term goals to support multiply marginalized graduate students. Participants can then build upon their goals to develop action steps to share and collaborate with their colleagues to ensure students can progress through their studies with purpose and confidence. Participants will have access to U of MN resources and tool templates to aid them in their own work related to graduate student academic and professional development.
