Our Services
Leadership & Organizational Development
Restorative Leadership
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Restorative Practices (RP) is a social science that studies how to strengthen relationships between individuals as well as social connections within communities (IIRP). In higher education, RP is being used as a leadership and community development framework to help build and maintain healthy and engaged communities. RP is not solely focused on discipline but is about doing the proactive work needed to intentionally build relationships to prevent and/or respond to harm and wrongdoing.
During this two-day, highly interactive training, participants will learn how to shift their professional approach and organizational culture by using RP as a key component of their leadership and community development. Participants will also learn how to align their organizational values to match the theoretical frameworks of RP. This includes learning how to facilitate proactive circles, restorative roleplays and by engaging in meaningful conversations that will bring theory into practice.
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Learning how to use Restorative Practices is one thing, but comprehensive implementation into the fabric of your organizational structure is another. This workshop is focused on helping Res Life and Housing professionals think through the necessary steps of implementing RP as their community development framework. Steps include stakeholder conversations, on-going training development to include training of RAs, refresher training for professional staff, and training of trainers for long-term organizational sustainability.
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Restorative Conferencing is the most formal of restorative practices (also known as restorative justice) and requires intentional time to master. This session is dedicated to helping staff run formal circles and formal conferences after severe harm and wrongdoing has been caused through mock case studies and scenarios. Staff will spend the day understanding the needs of those who have been harmed and how to hold spaces that address the needs of all parties in the restoration of community.
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They’ve been trained, but have they truly adopted working restoratively? This training will allow participants to refresh their understanding of the theoretical frameworks of RP and engage in additional proactive and responsive practices case scenarios. Participants will also participate in a self-evaluation on their use of Restorative Practices using the RP Chain of Command Assessment (CCA). The RP-CCA will help them identify expert practitioners, from advanced promoters, intermediate learners, and novice beginners, as well as how to better support each other in the sustainable practice of RP.
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This fun, and highly interactive one-day training will teach RAs how to hold restorative circles for the positive and proactive development of their residential communities as well as how to respond to low level harm and wrongdoing when it occurs.
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Student leaders hold a special responsibility within the fabric of the college and university community. They are beholden to supporting the entire student body’s social and cultural needs, but often struggle to effectively lead and manage their organizational leadership teams and constituents. This training will introduce student leaders to the ideas of restorative practices to build their organizational teams, run meetings more effectively, and create higher levels of inclusivity.
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They know how to build community and have been successful too, but do they understand why RP is effective? This training is designed to support second- and third-year RAs understand why RP works, by introducing them to its theoretical underpinnings in support of strengthening their leadership and day-to-day practice with their residentials students and others.
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Now that your staff has spent significant time using RP, it’s time for your organization to become self-sufficient. This session will provide a select team of professional staff members with the ability to learn, practice, and master the core concepts of RP so that they can teach and support other colleagues who may be unfamiliar or new to RP.
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Like the TOT for new res life and housing professionals, this session is designed to help experienced professional staff members teach RA how build community using RP. RAs who have mastered RP are also encouraged to attend this training.
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Research has shown that when those in authority work with those they supervise, their employees are happier, more productive, and more willing to do things that promote the greater good of the organization verse their own self-interest. This session will focus on two of the four core concepts of RP, the social discipline window and fair process as a way of improving leadership and supporting organizational development.
Search Process Management
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Whether it is in higher education, for-profit businesses, non-profits or government agencies, research continues to validate that creating diverse and inclusive organizations help to maximize on creativity, innovation, and problem solving. In fact, a research study done by McKinsey in 2018 confirmed that compositionally diverse organizations (the differences in identity of its members), outperform less diverse organizations by 35%. This three-day training will provide participants with a myriad of skills to help successfully recruit, hire, and retain a more diverse workforce specific to their organizational needs and culture.
Day 1 – Data Driven Diversification – What does your organization need and Why!
Day 2 - Understanding the brain and human behavior during the hiring process and how to build a Hiring Plan
Day 3 (optional) - Search Process Planning and Retention Initiatives
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In order to have an effective hiring process that yields positive results, it is important for the hiring official/manager and their designated search chair be on the same page before the process begins. Transparent conversations about running an unbiased process are fundamental for search process success. Are considerations being made about diversifying the team, what is the educational background and/or proficiencies required for the position and are there specific transferable skills being considered? This intimate three-hour training session will help the hiring manager and their search chair think through and prepare for the hiring process by helping to create a realistic timeline, review of the position description, prepare the screening tool, and talk through search committee membership.
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Before a search committee begins its work, it is important that they participate in a charge meeting that prepares them for the complexity and nuance of searches. This session will help prepare any search committee for their task by explaining their actual roles and responsibilities, the importance of networking, how unconscious bias interferes with the process, how to develop effective screening tools and interview questions and how to manage difficult deliberations through the process.
Specialized Workshops
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This multi-day retreat will focus on leadership and organizational development using two synthesized frameworks, i.e. Patrick Lencioni's organizational development model, the Five Dysfunctions of a Team and Restorative Practices. The first half of day one will focus on an overview of each model and how they synergistically work together to help those in authority lead more effectively. Over the remainder of the retreat, participates will be led through a variety of activities that will help illustrate each component of the model with the intent of strengthening relationships and team dynamics. This training is unique in that it is both theoretical and experiential providing participants with tangible skill development related to strengthening trust, managing conflict, committing to team decisions, holding each other accountable and producing collective organizational results.
Culturally Responsive Compliance
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We live in a diverse world, and we all have different lived experiences based on our intersecting identities and culture; and these factors often impact how we interact with compliance officers, and our trust in the systems that are designed to support us. This session will help those charged with administering compliance the knowledge and skills needed to help support students, faculty, and staff with their work
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Over the past decade, few professions have been under more scrutiny than law enforcement and public safety agencies. Those who are sworn to protect and serve have the challenge of balancing the safety of their communities and themselves, all while navigating societal issues associated with race, cultural, and other identities. This can be even more complicated on college campuses where the diversity of students, faculty and staff is paramount, safety is often taken for granted, and respect for all persons is a part of the social contract. This highly interactive session will help law enforcement officers (police and public safety) understand the complexity of policing in the 21st century by introducing them to terms like intergenerational trauma, unconscious bias, social pain and safety, and shame. Officers will also be provided the opportunity to build stronger communication skills that draw on empathy and culturally responsive practices.