Sessions

Leadership Divergence: When Leadership Intention and Employee Experience Move in Different Directions

Presenter: Deborah Biddle
Track: Strategic Leadership  |  Participation Level: Collaborative Engagement

Most leaders believe they’re creating the kind of workplace where people can do their best work.

Then the employee survey comes back.

Trust is lower than expected. Communication isn’t as clear as leaders believed. Employees don’t feel heard. Teams describe an experience that doesn’t match what leaders thought they were creating. What happened?

I call this leadership divergence, the growing separation between what leaders intend and what employees actually experience.

Leadership divergence doesn’t happen because leaders don’t care. It happens in everyday moments: a meeting that leaves people confused instead of informed, feedback that discourages instead of develops, a decision that makes sense to leaders but not to employees, or a change that creates uncertainty instead of confidence.

In this session, participants will learn how to recognize leadership divergence before it begins to undermine trust, communication, and performance. Using real workplace examples, they’ll examine how small differences between intention and experience can grow over time and what leaders can do to bring them back into alignment.

They’ll leave with a practical framework for recognizing where leadership divergence is occurring and concrete ways to create a more consistent leadership experience for their teams.

Learning Outcomes

• Recognize where leadership intention and employee experience begin to diverge.
• Evaluate how everyday leadership behaviors are experienced by employees.
• Take practical steps to create a more consistent leadership experience that builds trust and improves performance.

Lead With What You Have: Leveraging Your Power Skills for Career Growth

Presenters: April McHugh and Kelsey Harrington
Track: Career Management  |  Participation Level: Collaborative Engagement

Leaders bring a powerful set of skills to their work—yet they may be under-leveraged or not fully owned. In this interactive workshop, participants will identify their unique power skills and explore how those skills can be intentionally applied to grow their careers.

Using a hands-on card sort, participants will identify the skills that energize them and distinguish their leadership. Through guided small- and large-group discussions, we will examine how these power skills influence impact, opportunity, and career direction. The session concludes with focused reflection and action planning so participants leave with clear, practical next steps to strengthen their career development with confidence and purpose.

Learning Outcomes

• Identify and articulate their core power skills to see the connection between their abilities and possible career growth, development, and opportunities.
• Increase confidence in naming and owning their value as leaders.
• Leave with next steps, greater clarity, and agency in shaping their career path using their strengths.

Building Coaching Skills: The Missing Link Between People Development and Performance

Presenters: Samantha Dye, Scott Flanagan, and Laura Reyes
Track: Team Development and Performance Management  |  Participation Level: Collaborative Engagement

Organizations invest significant resources in leadership development, employee engagement, and performance management, yet many leaders struggle to have the conversations that cultivate growth, strengthen accountability, and drive performance. What if the missing link between developing people and improving performance is coaching capacity?

This interactive workshop explores how coaching skills can transform everyday conversations into opportunities for development, engagement, and improved results. Facilitators from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Professional Coaching Education team will demonstrate how a coaching approach helps leaders move beyond directing and problem-solving to foster greater ownership, accountability, and collaboration within teams.

Through discussion, live demonstration, reflection, and hands-on practice, participants will experience foundational coaching skills that can be immediately applied in workplace conversations. Drawing on the Leaders Using Coaching Skills (LUCS) program, the session will highlight practical strategies for building coaching capacity across organizations and creating cultures where people development and performance outcomes go hand in hand.

Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of a coaching approach, practical coaching skills they can use immediately, and strategies for strengthening individual, team, and organizational capacity through coaching-centered leadership.

Learning Outcomes

• Understand the role of coaching in people development and performance.
• Practice foundational coaching skills that strengthen everyday workplace conversations.
• Identify opportunities to use a coaching approach with colleagues, teams, and throughout their organization.

See It Coming: Using Pre-Mortems to Derisk Your Project

Presenter: Claire Dalle Molle
Track: Operational Excellence and Productivity  |  Participation Level: Interactive Participation

Some project failures or under-performances aren’t a surprise in hindsight — they’re the risks we didn’t find beforehand. This session introduces the pre-mortem, a structured technique for imagining your project has already failed and working backward to identify why, so you can score, rank, and have a plan for addressing the most likely stumbling blocks before they derail your work.

We’ll also talk about a common problem- project success isn’t just about the quality of the solution you’re implementing or the good your project will do. It’s a function of that quality and the degree to which the people affected actually accept and adopt the change. A technically perfect plan that people resist will underperform a “good enough” plan that people embrace.

Attendees will leave with a practical framework for surfacing risk early and a lens for weighing solution quality and effectiveness, so come prepared: please bring a project or process improvement idea- you’ll be working through them during the session!

Learning Outcomes

• Conduct a pre-mortem analysis — identify potential project failure points before they occur.
• Score and rank project risks — apply a simple scoring method to prioritize which risks deserve the most attention and planning.
• Think through the lens of Effectiveness = Quality × Acceptance — assess where a project’s real vulnerability lies (in the solution design, the change management, or both).

Supervision and Management Mastermind Exchange

Presenters: Amy Arbogash
Track: Relationship Building and Communication  |  Participation Level: Collaborative Engagement

Do you wish you could share challenges with a committed group of colleagues and brainstorm solutions? Managing and supervising are such important jobs, and it can be lonely sometimes. The Supervision and Management Mastermind Exchange consists of a peer-supported collaborative environment that is highly interactive, including small group activities and discussions. Participants share challenges and work together to problem-solve, share perspectives, brainstorm, innovate, and network. Come to the session and learn about this new program specifically for people managers and supervisors at UW-Madison and experience an example class to see if this opportunity is right for you. View more information and open sessions on our website.

Learning Outcomes

• Learn about the Supervision and Management Mastermind Exchange, a new LTD program for managers and supervisors at UW-Madison.
• Experience an example class.
• Network with other managers and supervisors across campus and share an opportunity to work together to problem-solve, share perspectives, brainstorm, and innovate.

Navigating Institutional Complexity: An Ecosystem Strategy Lens for Higher Education

Presenters: Ben Williams
Track: Strategic Leadership  |  Participation Level: Interactive Participation

Traditional planning often produces static documents that fail to survive real-world shifts in priorities, partners, and progress. Participants will move beyond linear planning to map their ecosystems defined by institutional boundaries, uncover hidden leverage points, design dynamic value exchanges across silos, and establish agile execution models that respond continuously to institutional turbulence.

Learning Outcomes

• Diagnose pain points by pinpointing friction across tools and technology (Habitat), staff and partners (Inhabitants), and communication norms (Climate)
• Design high-impact interventions by targeting root system causes across four levels of complexity (Transactional, Functional, Strategic, Ecosystemic) rather than applying temporary quick fixes.
• Build a phased action roadmap configured across Now, Next, and Later horizons.

Beyond the Org Chart: Building Effective Collaborative Supervision Models

Presenters: Michele Curran and Jamie O’Donnell
Track: Team Development and Performance Management  |  Participation Level: Interactive Participation

Traditional supervision assumes one manager, one employee. Yet many organizations and teams rely on project leaders, content experts, mentors, team leads, and dotted-line relationships to support employee success. This session explores practical approaches for defining roles, responsibilities, and communication structures when supervision is shared. Participants will examine a collaborative employee lifecycle framework and leave with tools to clarify accountability while strengthening employee support.

Learning Outcomes

• A map of responsibilities, challenge points, and support opportunities across the employee life cycle.
• Identify a framework for clarifying accountability, communication, and employee support across complex organizational structures.
• Strategies to improve employee experiences in shared-supervision environments.

From Candidate to Colleague: The Art and Science of Exceptional Onboarding

Presenter: Anna Lewis
Track: Team Development and Performance Management  |  Participation Level: Interactive Participation

Onboarding starts during the hiring process, and good onboarding takes time and intention. It should not be confused with tours and/or orientations. Onboarding is how we start demonstrating the inclusion and belonging that we want our staff to experience. It’s the first step in showing new colleagues how they matter, and how what they do fits into the larger organizational mission. Employee engagement is highest in the first six months of a new role; I’ll share strategies for leveraging that enthusiasm by pairing it with exceptional onboarding. Onboarding is my love language, and I am excited to share insights into the ingredients that make onboarding most effective.

Learning Outcomes

• In this session, participants will hear:
  • Why a rich onboarding experience is a smart investment
  • How to be intentional in your onboarding
• Approaches to creating onboarding with specific materials, questions, and resources that can be repurposed for those at UW-Madison
• We’ll also learn from each other. We’ll do think-pair-share activities to highlight onboarding approaches that have worked well and which ones you might want to avoid.

Applying Performance Ratings with Confidence and Consistency

Presenters: Chris East and Marci Birkes
Track: Team Development and Performance Management  |  Participation Level: Collaborative Engagement

Managers play a critical role ensuring performance ratings are applied fairly and equitably across a diverse workforce. Effective performance management starts with applying ratings consistently within your own team and extends to calibrating shared standards among supervisors evaluating similar work.

This interactive workshop will explore Workday performance ratings and behavioral indicators and how to use them to support fair, consistent, and meaningful employee evaluations. While the session will use Workday terminology and UW-Madison’s performance management framework, the concepts and skills can be applied in other performance management systems.

Participants will learn how to translate broad behavioral indicators into role-specific rubrics with clear, observable performance expectations. The session will also introduce calibration strategies that help multiple managers align rating practices and improve consistency when evaluating employees performing similar work. Through guided activities and dedicated work time, participants will begin developing a rubric for their own employee group to support future performance evaluations.

Learning Outcomes

• Increased confidence evaluating employee performance and applying performance ratings fairly and equitably.
• A draft or initial version of a role-specific performance rubric with clear evidence-based indicators rather than general impressions
• Ability to participate effectively in ratings calibration discussions with peer managers to improve alignment and consistency in performance ratings for similar work.

Folding Chairs and the Tables We Design

Presenter: Dr. Raven C. Major
Track: Inclusive Excellence  |  Participation Level: Interactive Participation

Belonging takes folding chairs. Sometimes people enter organizational spaces carrying the relationships, cultural knowledge, advocacy, boundaries, and strategies they need to navigate systems that were not necessarily designed with their experiences in mind. Each of these things people carry is a folding chair. These folding chairs can represent agency and resourcefulness, but they also reveal something about the table. At what point should leaders stop asking people to adapt to the table and begin redesigning it?

Folding Chairs and the Tables We Design introduces a practical approach to culturally responsive leadership that centers decision-making as a mechanism through which leaders shape organizational culture. Drawing from The Folding Chair Belief, created by Dr. Major, and Zaretta Hammond’s work on culturally responsive practices, this interactive session invites leaders to examine how culture, power, identity, lived experience, organizational norms, and assumptions influence the decisions they make; and how those decisions affect people’s ability to participate, contribute, and belong.

Through reflection, facilitated discussion, and application to real workplace decisions, participants will use a practical culturally responsive decision-making approach to identify where organizational practices may be placing the burden of adaptation on the people they lead. The session moves beyond the question of how individuals can better navigate existing systems and asks leaders to consider whether the system itself needs to change.

Learning Outcomes

• Identify the “folding chairs” people may be required to bring into their organization—including additional adaptation, advocacy, cultural knowledge, relationship-building, or emotional labor; and recognize what those experiences may reveal about organizational practices.
• Apply a culturally responsive decision-making approach to an actual leadership decision, examining context, whose perspectives inform the decision, who may experience its consequences, and who is being asked to adapt.
• Develop one actionable change to a decision, process, or organizational practice that shifts the burden of adaptation from individuals toward organizational redesign and supports a more culturally responsive culture.

The Questions Leaders Need to Ask in the Age of AI

Presenters: Whitney Sweeney and Chad Shorter
Track: Strategic Leadership  |  Participation Level: Interactive Participation

Artificial intelligence (AI) is creating tremendous opportunities for efficiency, innovation, and growth. It is also challenging long-held assumptions about expertise, work, decision-making, and leadership itself. As organizations rush to adopt new technologies, leaders are being asked to help their teams navigate both the promise and the uncertainty. There is no singular way to approach how we use technology like AI. Instead, the new challenge lies in asking the right questions about what work should be automated, what responsibilities should remain human, and how to use AI in ways that strengthen rather than diminish human potential.

The AI-powered workplace presents new opportunities and challenges for leaders. This interactive session will explore the critical questions leaders must ask to position their teams for success. Rather than focusing on specific tools or technologies, we will explore how leaders can foster trust, accountability, sound decision-making, and strong team performance in an AI-enabled workplace. Attendees will learn how to identify assumptions, challenge bias, foster productive debate, and create environments where people and technology complement one another. Through real-world examples and guided discussion, participants will develop a practical set of questions they can use to guide the important decisions they will need to make.

The future will not belong to organizations that rush to implement the latest AI technologies. It will belong to those with leaders who cultivate agility, embrace continuous learning, and unlock the full potential of both their people and the technology available to them.

Learning Outcomes

• Examine the assumptions and beliefs that shape how we work, make decisions, and lead others.
• Identify and apply the critical questions leaders need to ask when integrating AI into work, teams, and decision-making processes.
• Create environments where people and technology complement each other.

Drivers of Workplace Wellbeing

Presenter: Amy Johnson, M.A.
Track: Wellbeing  |  Participation Level: Interactive Participation

Workplace wellbeing is often approached as an individual responsibility—manage your stress, build resilience, practice self-care. But what if the most effective way to prevent burnout is to change the way work itself is designed?

This interactive session explores what recent research tells us about the conditions that drive workplace wellbeing, with particular attention to leadership behavior, work and role design, and everyday work processes. Participants will examine why many traditional workplace wellness initiatives have limited impact, and explore practical strategies that embed wellbeing into the work itself rather than adding another program or task to employees’ plates.

Through reflection, conversation, appreciative inquiry, and practical tools such as workload mapping and 15% Solutions, participants will identify realistic ways to strengthen workload fairness, autonomy, connection, psychological safety, recovery, and a sense of meaning and mattering at work.

The session is designed for higher education professionals and emerging leaders. It will leave participants with both a stronger understanding of the evidence and practical approaches they can apply within the realities and constraints of their own work environments.

Learning Outcomes

• Understand evidence-based drivers of workplace wellbeing and burnout, including the role of workload, work design, team practices, and leadership.
• Explore practical strategies for building connection, autonomy, recovery, and support into everyday work.
• Apply tools such as workload mapping and 15% Solutions to identify realistic changes and develop one actionable strategy for more sustainable work.

From Compliance to Leadership: Using Policy to Guide Decisions

Presenter: Nicholas Oleksy
Track: Strategic Leadership  |  Participation Level: Active Listening

Policies are more than rules. They are practical tools that help leaders make consistent, fair, and informed decisions. In this session, participants will learn how university policies can support effective leadership, guide decision-making in complex situations, reduce organizational risk, and build trust within teams.

Through real-world examples and practical guidance, attendees will explore when to turn to policy, how policy promotes equitable and consistent decision-making, and common workplace scenarios where policy can help managers navigate challenges with confidence. Participants will also become familiar with resources available through the Policy Library to support their ongoing leadership success.

Learning Outcomes

• When and how to use policy as a leadership tool
• How policy supports equitable and consistent decision-making
• Common leadership situations where policy provides guidance and reduces risk
• Resources and services available through the Policy Library for managers and supervisors

The Leadership Lab

Presenter: Andrea Luke
Track: Strategic Leadership  |  Participation Level: Collaborative Engagement

The Leadership Lab is a half day experience designed to move beyond basic management techniques into strategies that give leaders the confidence to mobilize their teams to solve deep-rooted issues in their organization, such as staff engagement, cross-team collaboration, and navigating the multi-generational workforce. By integrating three distinct frameworks of Adaptive Leadership, Relational Capital, and The 5 Languages of Appreciation, participants will learn how to develop high-trust partnerships that encourage experimentation, autonomy, and employee engagement. Participants will diagnose their own organizational gaps and leave with clear action plans to drive progress back at their units.

Learning Outcomes

• Be able to define leadership as an action and accurately distinguish between technical problems and adaptive challenges – and what is required to address both.
• Understand how trust, gratitude and the norms of reciprocity affect our working relationships and identify ways to move through the stages of relationship building to foster collaboration and cooperation.
• Recognize how appreciation needs vary across individuals, roles, and generations.
• Identify a current challenge they are facing and design experiments engaging others to make real progress.

Student Supervision 101: Supervising Students with Purpose and Impact

Presenters: Kristina Rittel, Kasie Strahl, and Kari Temkin
Track: Team Development and Performance Management  |  Participation Level: Interactive Participation

Student employees are a dynamic and evolving employee population. Yet many supervisors receive little formal preparation for managing student staff. Effective student supervision requires more than assigning tasks; it involves creating meaningful learning experiences, setting clear expectations, providing developmental feedback, supporting well-being, and helping students build career-ready skills.

Drawing from UW–Madison’s Student Supervisor Certificate program, this interactive half-day workshop introduces practical tools and evidence-informed strategies for supervising student employees throughout the employment lifecycle. Participants will explore student employment as a high-impact practice, learn approaches for creating student-ready workplaces, and strengthen performance management rooted in growth and development. Participants will leave with actionable resources, reflection tools, and an individualized plan for implementing best practices within their own departments.

Learning Outcomes

• Explain student employment as a high-impact educational practice and identify the supervisor’s role in supporting student growth and success.
• Learn strategies for creating a student-ready workplace that promotes learning, belonging, well-being, and accountability.
• Develop an individualized action plan to implement supervision practices that support employee engagement and career readiness within their department.

Responsibility@UW – Stewardship Dialogue

Presenter: Jeffrey Thomas
Track: Operational Excellence and Productivity  |  Participation Level: Collaborative Engagement

UW–Madison employees are responsible for the appropriate use of our university’s resources. From approving expense reimbursements to managing data systems, we all play a vital role in honoring the trust placed in us by students, taxpayers, donors, and colleagues to further the Wisconsin Idea. Our decisions today influence the legacy we leave behind.

Join us for a hands-on workshop introducing Responsibility@UW, a campus initiative focused on elevating communication, trust, and individual accountability across operational areas.

In this double-session, you will:

• Analyze real-world, workplace-informed scenarios across finance, HR, IT, and administrative units.
• Identify friction points in communication and accountability within campus teams.
• Build an action plan tailored to your unit’s specific stewardship and operational goals.
• Walk away with practical tools and a clear plan to foster a culture of trust and shared accountability on your teams and in your units!

Session Preparation: Prior completion of Responsibility@UW: Stewardship, Discernment, and Public Trust is expected. Access is available only to UW-Madison employees.

Learning Outcomes

• Assess a stewardship concern. ​
• Apply situation-specific resources to resolve a stewardship concern. ​
• Design an action plan for increased stewardship in your workplace. ​

Putting People at the Center of Change: Introducing UW–Madison’s Change Management Framework

Presenter: Jennifer Erickson
Track: Operational Excellence and Productivity  |  Participation Level: Interactive Participation

Whether implementing a new process, technology, policy, or organizational structure, leaders play a critical role in helping people navigate change. While every change initiative is unique, the challenges of building understanding, engaging stakeholders, and sustaining new ways of working are common across campus.

To help address these challenges, UW–Madison’s Office of Strategic Consulting has developed a practical Change Management Framework and Toolkit designed specifically for the university environment. Rather than prescribing a rigid methodology, the framework provides a flexible, people-centered approach that helps leaders and project teams think through the conversations, decisions, and actions that support successful adoption.

In this interactive session, participants will be introduced to the framework, explore practical tools for leading the people side of change, and identify ways these resources can be applied within their own schools, colleges, and divisions.

Learning Outcomes

• Describe the role organizational change management plays in achieving successful project and organizational outcomes.
• Identify when and how the UW–Madison Change Management Framework can support change initiatives.
• Apply practical tools and questions to better prepare, engage, and support people through change.

The Adaptive Leader: Exploring Tendencies, Flexibility, and Impact

Presenter: Contesta Odum
Track: Strategic Leadership  |  Participation Level: Collaborative Engagement

Leadership in today’s dynamic environments requires more than a fixed set of skills—it demands adaptability, self-awareness, and the ability to respond effectively across diverse contexts. This interactive session offers a guided exploration of leadership awareness and adaptability, emphasizing the importance of understanding and flexing one’s natural leadership tendencies.

Through guided reflection, scenario-based exercises, and facilitated group discussions, attendees will identify their natural leadership tendencies and practice adjusting their approach to meet varied challenges. Designed for individuals at all levels from emerging professionals to seasoned managers, this session supports the development of versatile leadership strategies applicable across teams, departments, and organizational settings.

Learning Outcomes

• Describe key leadership styles commonly observed across organizational contexts.
• Assess personal leadership tendencies through guided reflection.
• Analyze the impact of intentional leadership style application by engaging with real-world scenarios.

Calm in the Chaos: leadership lessons from small teams under pressure

Presenter: Ryan Newberry, DO, MPH, FACEP, FAEMS
Track: Strategic Leadership  |  Participation Level: Active Listening

When teams operate under pressure during a crisis, a system failure, or any moment where the plan stops matching reality, performance doesn’t rise to meet the occasion. It falls to the level of preparation already in place. Drawing on a career spanning combat medicine, disaster response, HEMS, aviation, and trauma care, this session distills the operating system behind small teams that perform well under pressure: shared intent, role clarity, closed-loop communication, and decisive action.

Participants will learn why “consensus” and “collaboration” are not the same thing, how to distinguish urgent situations (time-sensitive but structured) from emergent ones (chaotic, evolving, systems degrading in real time), and why applying the wrong leadership model to each is a common, and preventable, cause of team failure. The session also addresses the mechanics of psychological safety, closed-loop communication, and calm leadership as trainable skills rather than fixed traits, with concrete, low-cost practices leaders can implement immediately.

While the stories come from high-acuity, life-or-death environments, the underlying framework applies directly to any setting where small teams must make fast, high-stakes decisions with incomplete information, financial, operational, or reputational risk included. The principles are identical. Only the stakes differ.

Learning Outcomes

•    Distinguish between urgent and emergent situations and select the appropriate leadership approach for each.
• Apply four specific, replicable practices of shared intent, role clarity, closed-loop communication, and decisive action under uncertainty  to improve team performance under pressure.
• Identify and reinforce the cultural conditions (psychological safety, public praise/private correction, blame-free after-action review) that sustain calm, high-performing teams over time.

Busy is Here to Stay: Thriving Can Be Too

Presenter: Joy Brownridge
Track: Wellbeing  |  Participation Level: Interactive Participation

Busy isn’t going anywhere. Most of us are contending with full calendars, competing priorities, constant change, and the challenge of managing work alongside the rest of life. But being busy doesn’t have to mean constantly feeling overwhelmed, burnt out, or just hoping for a slowdown in order to thrive.

In this interactive session, participants will explore realistic ways to support their wellbeing even when life and work remain demanding. Rather than offering a one-size-fits-all formula, we’ll look at practical strategies for managing energy and capacity, reducing stress, incorporating movement and mindfulness, and creating moments of recovery. Participants will have opportunities to try several strategies in real time, reflect on what works for them, and identify small changes they can realistically carry forward.

The goal isn’t to eliminate busy. It’s to build a life where thriving can be here, too.

Learning Outcomes

• Recognize habits and demands that drain their energy and capacity and contribute to stress.
• Practice practical strategies for reducing stress, restoring energy, and supporting wellbeing during busy days.
• Choose 2–3 strategies they can realistically incorporate into their work and life immediately.

From Committee to Career: Framing Shared Governance Roles for Professional Growth

Presenters: Alissa Ewer and Jenee Jerome
Track: Career Management  |  Participation Level: Interactive Participation

Leadership development often occurs within shared governance bodies in decentralized organizations – from ad hoc working groups to elected committee roles and beyond. However, many professionals either don’t know how to get involved or struggle to articulate how this work prepares them for formal management and leadership roles. Because shared governance relies on consensus, peer accountability, and influence without positional authority, the skills built in these roles mirror leadership skills.

This workshop provides a guide to navigating shared governance opportunities at the school, college, and university level. Participants will learn how to identify and pursue governance roles that align with their professional interest and strengths. Then, using Robert Greenleaf’s Servant Leadership and Kouzes & Posner’s Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership, attendees will explore how shared governance work maps to leadership models and practice translating these activities into a clear narrative that articulates their readiness for formal leadership roles.

Learning Outcomes

• Identify and learn how to pursue relevant shared governance roles.
• Map the skills, knowledge, and abilities developed through shared governance roles to leadership frameworks (Servant Leadership and Kouzes & Posner’s Five Practices).
• Build an actionable strategy to pursue shared governance roles and/or translate these experiences into narrative for performance reviews, resumes, interview responses, and more.

Building Your Awkward Muscle: How Discomfort Fuels Connection, Confidence, and Leadership

Presenter: Mary Russell
Track: Relationship Building and Communication  |  Participation Level: Collaborative Engagement

People often avoid socially uncomfortable situations in an effort to reduce anxiety and protect themselves from embarrassment. Yet avoiding discomfort can also limit relationship-building, networking, leadership growth, and a sense of belonging. This interactive session introduces the concept of “awkward tolerance” as a skill that can be intentionally developed. Participants will engage in experiential activities that transform social discomfort into opportunities for connection, resilience, and confidence. Through reflection, discussion, and practical exercises, attendees will leave with a facilitation framework they can immediately apply with students, staff teams, and leadership groups.

Learning Outcomes

• Explain the relationship between social discomfort, avoidance, confidence-building, and belonging.
• Facilitate activities that help students and staff normalize and navigate socially awkward situations.
• Apply the concept of “awkward tolerance” as a developmental framework for leadership and relationship-building.
• Design experiences that balance psychological safety with healthy challenge and growth.

AI Is Taking Apart the Manager’s Job: A Practical Role-Redesign Workshop

Presenter: Dr. Nathan Libbey
Track: Operational Excellence and Productivity  |  Participation Level: Collaborative Engagement

Artificial intelligence is entering work traditionally performed by managers: coordinating workflows, monitoring performance, preparing reports, allocating resources, answering routine questions, and supporting decisions. Managers in universities and other complex organizations must now determine which responsibilities can be automated, which can be augmented, and which require continued human ownership.

Drawing on a qualitative analysis of 110 attributable AI-related statements from 32 organizations, this interactive session introduces a practical method for auditing managerial work by task rather than title. Participants will identify administrative responsibilities that AI may absorb, examine the human responsibilities that remain, and redesign a workflow from their own unit or department.

The session also addresses “garbage in, garbage out,” the brittleness of large language models, and the possibility that two managers using the same approved AI platform may receive different recommendations because of differences in data, prompts, assumptions, or user context.

Through individual reflection, a decision-comparison exercise, and small-group workflow redesign, participants will create practical tools they can apply immediately. The objective is to remove unnecessary administrative work while strengthening judgment, coaching, accountability, trust, and ownership of outcomes.

Learning Outcomes

• Categorize managerial tasks as candidates for automation, AI augmentation, or continued human ownership.
• Evaluate an AI-assisted recommendation for data quality, assumptions, reproducibility, and accountability.
• Redesign one managerial workflow to reduce unnecessary reporting, meetings, or approvals while preserving human judgment and responsibility.

Creating Space to Thrive: Leading and Supporting Neurodivergent Talent

Presenter: Audrey Cramer
Track: Inclusive Excellence  |  Participation Level: Interactive Participation

Neurodivergent employees bring unique perspectives, creativity, problem-solving abilities, and innovation to the workplace. Yet many organizations unintentionally create barriers that make it difficult for these employees to fully contribute and succeed. Leaders play a critical role in shaping an environment where all employees feel valued, supported, and empowered to do their best work.

In this session, participants will explore what neurodiversity means in today’s workplace and learn practical strategies for creating a culture of inclusion that benefits everyone. Attendees will gain insight into common workplace challenges experienced by neurodivergent employees and discover leadership approaches that foster psychological safety, improve communication, and support diverse work styles. Leaders will leave with actionable tools they can implement immediately to build more inclusive, productive, and engaged teams.

Learning Outcomes

• Recognize the value neurodivergent employees bring to organizations and identify common workplace barriers that may impact inclusion and performance.
• Apply practical leadership strategies that promote psychological safety, inclusive communication, and flexibility in supporting diverse work styles.
• Develop an action plan to create a more neuroinclusive team culture that enhances employee engagement, retention, and overall organizational success.

Back to Center: Leading with Clarity Through Complexity and Change

Presenter: Sharri Margraves
Track: Strategic Leadership  |  Participation Level: Collaborative Engagement

Higher education leaders are increasingly asked to lead through overlapping change: new systems, constrained resources, workforce pressures, shifting priorities, organizational transitions, and rising expectations. Under sustained pressure, even experienced leaders can move into “Fire Mode”—reacting instead of assessing, taking over instead of coaching, postponing difficult conversations, or allowing everything to become urgent.

Back to Center is a practical, informed framework for interrupting that pattern. In this interactive session, participants will examine how pressure changes leadership behavior, apply a rapid Back to Center reset to a realistic higher-education scenario, practice coaching rather than rescuing, and use techniques to clarify priorities, barriers, ownership, and next actions.

The session focuses on a timely leadership question: When the environment cannot immediately become calmer, how can the leader become clearer? Participants leave with practical tools they can immediately replicate in their own units and departments.

Learning Outcomes

• Recognize “Fire Mode” by identifying behavioral indicators that sustained pressure is affecting leadership decisions, communication, delegation, or team functioning, and use a brief Fire Mode Leadership Scan to select a more intentional response.
• Apply a “Back to Center” rapid reset to a complex workplace situation by separating urgency from importance, reconnecting decisions to purpose, clarifying what others need, and identifying the next right leadership action.
• Strengthen team ownership and alignment by using immediately replicable tools that clarify priorities, barriers, ownership, and what can wait.

Document Early, Lead Better: Performance Documentation as a Management Tool

Presenters: Marci Birkes, Kristi Milbourn, and Kathleen Smith
Track: Team Development and Performance Management  |  Participation Level: Interactive Participation

Too often, supervisors begin documenting employee performance only after significant concerns emerge. This reactive approach can make performance management more difficult, less effective, and more vulnerable to challenges. Effective documentation is not about creating a paper trail for formal employment action; it is about creating a record of expectations, communication, coaching, progress, and performance over time to support both managers and employees.

This session will provide practical guidance on documenting employee performance throughout the employee lifecycle. Participants will leave with tools to create consistent documentation habits, communicate expectations more effectively, and confidently work with their HR partners to navigate performance.

Learning Outcomes

• Recognize the benefits of performance documentation and common risks associated with limited or inconsistent performance documentation.
• Apply best practices for documenting performance conversations including objective observations, clear expectations, acknowledging achievements, addressing concerns, offers of support and identifying follow-up actions.
• Develop practical strategies for maintaining consistent documentation practices that support performance management efforts across diverse employee populations and organization structures.
• Create an action plan for implementing sustainable documentation practices within their teams.