REIMAGINE WORK
Live Virtual & In-Person Learning & Development
Lead with Dignity
At Workplace Peace Institute we know that for organizations to thrive, all people within the organization must also thrive.
This is why we place a particular focus on leadership development. Our customized live on-site and live virtual courses provide the knowledge and skills leaders need to be agents of positive culture change within their organizations.
The WPI Leadership Academy provides customized leadership training to empower leaders with the communication, conflict intervention, EEOC compliance, and DEIA skills necessary to sustain a highly engaged workplace where all people experience peace and dignity.
We support our leadership development training with optional Executive Coaching, Conflict Coaching, and DEIA Coaching to help leaders activate the learning and skills acquired in the Leadership Academy.
Below is a sampling of leadership development courses we can customize for your organization. Contact us to learn more.
Leadership Competencies
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Leading with Trust
Research shows that trust is one of the most powerful leadership traits in an organization. Stephen M. R. Covey, widely known as one of the world’s leading authorities on trust, asserts that it is “the most overlooked, misunderstood, underutilized asset to enable performance. Its impact, for good or bad, is dramatic and pervasive. It’s something you can’t escape.” In this training, participants will learn practical strategies, informed by Steven Covey’s research and research conducted by Workplace Peace Institute, that leaders can utilize to inspire trust and produce tangible results.
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The Mindful Leader
During times of stress, it can be difficult to stay centered and be the leader that you mean to be. The science of mindfulness informs us that mindful leaders cultivate psychologically safe environments and create high performing, cohesive teams. In this training, participants will learn to lead from within, by following simple strategies to become more self-aware, lead with an open-mind, and have a calming presence that will inspire others.
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Leading Through Turbulent Times
The past few years have brought many disruptions in the workplace that have challenged leaders to navigate a diverse set of needs and responsibilities. Leaders have been faced with the real human impact of a global pandemic, political division, civil unrest, and in some cases, disaster and violence. In this training, participants will enhance their crisis communication skills by learning a practical, three-step model that supports the basic human needs of their employees in times of crisis as well as promote resilience and growth.
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Building High-Performing Teams
High performing teams are led by high impact leaders — individuals who have the skills to create and sustain a workplace culture that fosters the highest potential in every team member. In this training, participants will learn the characteristics of high impact leaders and behaviors that inspire others to achieve the vision set forth for the team. Participants will gain actionable skills in leading high-performing teams.
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Conflict Engagement
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Conflict Competent Leader
Workplace conflict has been known to interfere significantly with productivity and morale, and it creates a toxic environment that hinders innovation and decreases positive productivity. This training will create awareness about the human and financial costs of workplace conflict and teach participants how to develop a conflict competent approach to leadership. Participants will learn how to deal with highly conflictive personalities, build collaboration, increase emotional intelligence, and communicate in a style that gets results.
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Navigating Difficult Conversations With Compassion and Purpose
Conflict often arises from a lack of understanding about differences in identities, needs and lived experiences. Conversations that lack compassion, purpose, and psychological safety, can cause considerable damage in both personal and professional relationships. In our highly polarized society, these conversations need to be had in a way that promotes understanding and connection, rather than division. Many people avoid these conversations because they can be triggering and often make matters worse. This experiential workshop will create opportunities for participants to learn how to manage their own triggers and gain the tools needed to engage in intentional and compassionate communication that will promote understanding and maximize differences.
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Conflict Dynamics
Conflict is everywhere, and it can leave people feeling overwhelmed and stuck in situations and relationships. Conflict has been likened to an iceberg, where only the behaviors are what come to the surface. This training uses a multidisciplinary lens to explore the complex variables that make up and drive conflict. Participants will have the opportunity to look at what is hiding below the surface and learn how to channel constructive approaches and see conflict as an opportunity for transformation and positive change.
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The Brain in Conflict & Collaboration
A brain hijacked by conflict has the potential to wreak havoc on relationships and workgroups. To be able to de-escalate conflict and manage emotions, we need the tools to be able to recognize and navigate “the conflict brain.” This training will provide insight into the critical role the brain plays in conflict, emotion, and collaboration. The relationship between the brain and decision making, empathy, problem solving, bias, and listening will be explored. Participants will learn how instinctual responses can be tempered by connecting these important elements with useful strategies that can be applied to any conflict.
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Communicating with Dignity & Curiosity
Dignity is our inherent worth and value as human beings. Experiencing dignity in the workplace is essential to our ability to thrive. This training provides an in-depth understanding of dignity intelligence, along with a framework for communicating that optimizes curiosity and opens pathways for compassion in our relationships with colleagues.
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Compassionate Communication
This training is designed to increase empathy and honesty in the workplace. How we communicate in the workplace informs how we relate and engage with colleagues and clients. Our communication approach can drive conflict and division or it can be a means for bringing people together in collaboration. In this training, participants will learn a time-tested communication methodology designed to increase honesty and empathy so they may actively transform workplace conflict into collaboration. This training will empower participants with the communication tools necessary to develop and maintain healthy, productive working relationships rooted in honest, empathetic communication.
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Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging
Making Implicit Biases Explicit
The Kirwan Institute for the Study for Race and Ethnicity states that implicit biases are pervasive, every human possesses them, and they do not always align to declared beliefs. Regardless of our values and stances, no one is immune from implicit bias. These types of biases can impact our decision making and treatment of others without us even knowing it. The good news is that our brains are malleable, and once made explicit, there is an opportunity to unlearn and redirect these associations. In this training, participants will learn about the distinct types of biases the brain creates and how we can learn techniques that will increase awareness and allow decisions to be made based on our conscious values rather than our unconscious biases.
The Science of Inclusion & Belonging
Organizational leaders recognize the benefits that diversity brings to any workplace. Without inclusion and belonging, however, a diverse workplace cannot thrive. Leading researchers from Harvard, Purdue, and Duke have identified that the brain experiences exclusion in the same way that it does physical pain. Ignoring this basic, fundamental human need has widespread and damaging implications on workplace environments. Participants will become aware of subtle individual and collective changes that can be made in order maximize feelings of inclusion and belonging, and promote a workplace culture where creativity, performance, innovation, and collaboration thrive.
Leading with Dignity in a Diverse Workplace
Workplace Peace Institute research found that there is a direct correlation between experiencing dignity and the actualization of basic human needs in the workplace. Gallup research shows that when people experience basic human needs in the workplace they are more involved in and enthusiastic about their work and workplace. And yet, how we experience dignity is not a one-size-fits all approach. In this training, participants will learn how to lean into differences and to embrace diverse thinking, diverse identity, and diverse perspectives so that all people experience their inherent worth and value in the workplace.
Creating a Workplace Culture of Belonging
One in five Gen Z adults identify as LGBTQ+, so understanding the history, culture, terminology, and challenges is critical for creating a culture of belonging in the workplace. This class will review LGBTQ+ history and culture, what Pride is and why it is essential, challenges with pronouns or other confusing terminology, what is an ally, and what practical communication strategies and tactics will create a better understanding between different generational groups’ workforces.
Psychological Safety in the Workplace
Psychological Safety in the Workplace — Creating a culture of psychological safety drives high-performing teams that are willing to speak up and take a calculated risk to achieve goals. The ideal team environment is one in which all employees speak up, admit mistakes, disagree with the status quo, and express concerns. This training includes a framework for examining culture, clear criteria for creating a psychologically safe culture, and strategy development for personal action plans. Participants will learn to be clear and transparent in communication, model fallibility, model curiosity, respond positively to co-worker communication, and balance accountability with communication safety.
Workplace Free of Harassment & Discrimination
Research shows that as much as 75 percent of employees do not report perceived or real harassment in the workplace based on fear of retaliation. In this training, managers will receive in-depth knowledge on workplace discrimination of protected class, workplace harassment, and sexual harassment (Quid pro quo or hostile work environment), and workplace violence. Participants will review policies and procedures with definitions, reporting complaint process, retaliation, and confidentiality. The training will be interactive to review multiple scenarios and recommended actions. Testing can be included to ensure knowledge retention and comprehension will be conducted at the end of the course. This course is provided as a one-hour webinar or two-hour live-participation if testing is provided.
Reasonable Accommodation
In this training, managers will learn the rules and regulations associated with ADA Reasonable Accommodation compliance to include identifying the need for accommodation, engaging in the interactive process, obtaining medical information (if necessary), understanding “significant risk,” and retaining documentation. Participants will also learn the softer skills of sensitive communication processes when discussing disabilities that impact an employee’s ability to perform essential work duties. This course is only available as a one-hour webinar.
Interviewing for Equity & Diversity Employment
In this training, managers will learn practices and policies to improve a diverse job pool and create an equitable interview process. The course will include an unconscious bias test for all participants. Tools for mitigating biases will be provided along with processes to reduce bias in interviewing, such as defining job descriptions and criteria, blind resumes, structured interview questions, skill testing, and determining “culture fit.”
Ensuring Equity in a Virtual Environment
In this training, managers will learn the new hybrid environment and how to create a successful virtual meeting while mitigating bias. This training will address additional pre-work needed for meetings, virtual backgrounds, the camera on or off, and reducing disruptions. This training will also focus on virtual relationship-building, virtual conflict management, and virtual team development tools. This course is only available as a one-hour webinar.
Equity & Career Development
In this training, managers will learn how to create equal opportunities in career development for those employees in underrepresented communities to move into leadership positions. This training will provide insights into creating mentorship programs, equitable job descriptions and criteria, project assignments, unconscious bias training, open communication in group meetings, and equal allocation of time by leadership.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging as a Business Imperative
Research consistently shows that diverse work environments lead to more creativity, innovation, and improved problem-solving — all necessary criteria for organizations seeking to solve some of society’s most pressing problems. To reap the benefits of a diverse workplace, organizations must prioritize cultivating a workplace culture of peace and dignity. This requires shifting from a mono-cultural approach to workplace culture and embracing a multicultural approach grounded in peace in dignity. In this workshop, participants will learn the key characteristics of White cultural norms and have opportunities to dialogue (using learnings from the Difficult Conversations training) about how these norms are present in the current work environment and what behaviors and practices can be adopted to bring forth the greatest attributes of a diverse workforce.
