Communication

Cross-Cultural Competence

Disability Awareness in the Workplace
This course will increase your awareness of the lives and experiences of people with disabilities. We will also focus on developing skills to create a workplace environment that is respectful and inclusive of persons with disabilities.
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Intercultural Communication and Competence
Cultural Competence has been defined as a set of skills and attitudes that allow individuals to effectively and appropriately communicate with people who are different from themselves. A culturally competent organization effectively and appropriately serves a diverse clientele and meets the varied needs of its diverse staff. This program will explore how individuals and organizations can become more culturally competent. Self and organizational assessment models will be presented and the various components of each stage of competence will be discussed.
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Intercultural Recruitment and Selection
Managers are challenged to understand and develop skills to respond to the needs of a multicultural workforce. In the important task of hiring the best candidate for a job, managers must be aware of how culture affects the way people communicate throughout the selection process. This course will help managers assess their own cultural values and explore how they affect the recruitment, interviewing and selection processes.
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Working with Diverse Student Populations
Objectives of this course include building skills and competencies to effectively communicate in intercultural interactions. Participants will gain a greater awareness of working with diverse student groups, explore supporting practices, and discover new tools for creating a more welcoming and inclusive environment. NOTE: Class is subject to a minimum enrollment of 15 to proceed. If the course for your campus does not work for your schedule then you may enroll in the offering for the other campus.
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Customer Service (Certificate)

Customer Service Skills for Success
This course is designed to help you develop the skills necessary to increase customer satisfaction through personalized phrases and actions. You will learn how to use effective word choice and actions and how to follow a four-step process for customer interactions. Additionally, you will gain an understanding of how service behaviors differ from service strategies and service systems. By the end of this course, you will be equipped with the tools and knowledge needed to provide exceptional customer service and improve customer satisfaction in your workplace.

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Empowering Excellent Customer Relations
This course is designed to provide an overview of key communication styles and how varying communications styles apply to customer service interactions - specifically, emotionally charged situations. This course will also help you foster a collaborative relationship with customers, by empowering customers to share their knowledge of the situation, understand what customers’ needs are and work with instilling confidence and comfort with customers. You will gain the skills necessary to recognize your customers’ verbal and non-verbal cues, allowing you to diffuse an emotionally charged situation and provide excellent customer service. You will also learn to identify emotional intelligence through exploring different scenarios. These skills will equip you with the tools and knowledge needed to provide excellent customer service, specifically in emotionally charged customer interactions.
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Writing Effective E-mails and Instant Messages (eCourse)
Email has become an indispensable communication tool for organizations, and plays a vital role in how they conduct business and maintain their operations. As a result, one of the most important communication skills to have in the workplace today is email etiquette. It can help ensure you get messages across quickly, appropriately, and concisely. In this course, you'll learn some tried and tested guidelines for writing emails. You'll explore the fundamental elements of written communication that every email should contain, and the importance of keeping emails concise. The course also covers the etiquette associated with using instant messaging programs as an extension of email.
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Keeping Business Calls Professional (eCourse)
In business, one of the oldest communication tools is still among the most important - the telephone. However, although it so common and widespread, many people lack the verbal communication skills needed to create a positive impression when using the phone. In this course, you'll learn about some basic rules of etiquette that will help improve your phone skills and keep your business calls professional. You'll explore general best practices, and how to make and receive calls professionally. You'll also learn some best practices for using a cell or smart phone, and how to record and leave effective voicemail messages.
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Effective Training

Conducting Culturally Inclusive Trainings
Developing training programs that engage participants of varied cultural backgrounds, abilities, learning styles, reading levels, and other differences requires thoughtful attention to training design and delivery. This course will give trainers the skills to conduct training courses that address the diverse needs of trainees, and ensure that the training content is accessible for all participants. The instructors will model culturally respectful training and provide valuable tools that novice and expert trainers alike can use.
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Fundamentals for Trainers
Effectively training people is more than putting together a PowerPoint presentation. Today's trainers need to target their learner's needs, manage a diverse classroom, and use a variety of training methods. In this interactive session, you will explore the foundational elements necessary for learners to transfer training to the workplace. After your active participation in this workshop, you will be able to: 1. Design interactive, engaging training. 2. List six ways to help learners master new skills. 3. Identify multiple training methods to engage learners. 4. Select activities for learning transfer. 5. Identify appropriate visual aids for a training program. 6. Manage difficult situations and behaviors in the classroom setting.
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Trainer as Facilitator
***The "Fundamentals for Trainers" course is a prerequisite for this course ***

When you step into the learning environment you are tasked with conveying information in an engaging way that will lead to improved job performance. As a talent developer, this means you have many responsibilities. You not only train, you manage the classroom, guide discussion, lead activities, and facilitate a host of other happenings in the classroom. During a learning event, your role as facilitator is one of the most important. After your active participation in this workshop, you will be able to:
1. Demonstrate methods to effectively facilitate learning.
2. Identify 5 ways to engage learners quickly and easily.
3. Use a 4-part debrief format to encourage discussion.
4. Practice phrases to use while facilitating learning.
5. Apply methods to minimize challenging behaviors.
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Healthcare

Communication with Angry Patients through De-escalation -CE (eCourse)
Patients in the health care setting sometimes experience anxiety for a variety of reasons. A newly diagnosed illness, separation from loved ones, threat associated with diagnostic tests or surgical procedures, and expectations of life changes are just a few factors that cause anxiety. How successfully a patient copes with anxiety depends, in part, on previous experiences, the presence of other stressors, the significance of the event causing anxiety, and the availability of supportive resources. The nurse can be a support to the patient. The nurse helps to decrease anxiety through effective communication. Communication methods reviewed in this skill will assist the nurse in helping an anxious patient to clarify factors causing anxiety and to cope more effectively. There are four stages of anxiety with corresponding behavioral manifestations: mild, moderate, severe, and panic.
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Communication with Depressed Patients -CE (eCourse)
Depression is a feeling state that is more than just sadness. It is a common psychiatric condition that affects a person's ability to function in day-to-day activities. There are many symptoms of depression, the most common being apathy, feelings of sadness, fatigue, guilt, poor concentration, sleep disturbances, and suicidal thoughts. Depression results in both subjective and objective behaviors (Box 1). Subjective behaviors include report of feelings of sadness, tearfulness, report of no energy, and increase in physical complaints. Some patients report feeling anxious when depressed. Objective signs include decrease in performance of activities of daily living and decreased time spent in social activities (altered social interaction).
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Communication with Anxious Patients -CE (eCourse)
Patients in the health care setting sometimes experience anxiety for a variety of reasons. A newly diagnosed illness, separation from loved ones, threat associated with diagnostic tests or surgical procedures, and expectations of life changes are just a few factors that cause anxiety. How successfully a patient copes with anxiety depends, in part, on previous experiences, the presence of other stressors, the significance of the event causing anxiety, and the availability of supportive resources. The nurse can be a support to the patient. The nurse helps to decrease anxiety through effective communication. Communication methods reviewed in this skill will assist the nurse in helping an anxious patient to clarify factors causing anxiety and to cope more effectively. There are four stages of anxiety with corresponding behavioral manifestations: mild, moderate, severe, and panic.
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Hand-Off Communication: ISBAR and I-PASS (Perioperative) -CE (eCourse)
One of the National Patient Safety Goals of The Joint Commission is to improve communication among caregivers.8 (Level VII: Authority opinion or expert committee reports) In the perioperative setting, SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation) communication can guide hand-off information exchange of patient information.10 SBAR communication was initially developed by Kaiser Permanente, and it gives clinicians a structure to provide thorough information on a patient's current health condition.3 The SBAR technique provides a framework for communication among members of the health care team about a patient's condition. SBAR communication promotes an easy and focused method for specific information that is communicated among members of the team, which is essential for developing teamwork and fostering a culture of patient safety.
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Implicit Bias

Common Forms of Bias (eCourse)
This course will help you identify common forms of workplace bias, as well as various cognitive biases. Remember, biases are pre-programmed tendencies that help us make decisions in everyday situations.
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The Impact of Implicit Bias (eCourse)
In this course we're going to delve deeper into how, and how often, implicit biases influence the decisions we make and actions we take, and we will make the case for the value in seeking to mitigate that influence.

After completing this course, you should be able to:

Describe and cite ways in which implicit bias affects peoples' actions

Compare the cause/affect relationship of implicit bias and action

From a compelling argument for the importance of implicit bias awareness and training
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Managing Implicit Bias in the Hiring Process (eCourse)
In this course, we're going to take a look at methods for avoiding bias, especially implicit bias, that pertain specifically to the hiring process and can be employed by hiring managers, members of hiring committees, interviewers or anyone with a hiring-related role.

By the end of this course you should be able to:

Design processes to manage the influence of implicit bias in the hiring process
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Managing the Influence of Implicit Bias: Awareness (eCourse)
In this course we'll begin our exploration of some of the strategies you can deploy for managing that influence, starting with becoming aware of biases.
After completing this course, you should be able to:

Assess your implicit biases using IATs

Recognize situations wherein you are more prone to the influence of bias

Recognize external factors that make you more prone to the influence of bias

Evaluate whether you are being influenced by bias
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Managing the Influence of Implicit Bias: Mindfulness and Conscious De-biasing (eCourse)
In this course we'll continue our exploration of how you can manage the influence of implicit bias, specifically, through mindfulness and conscious de-biasing.

By the end of this course you should be able to:

Evaluate the influence of bias on the decision-making process

Employ counter examples and stereotype replacement

Demonstrate thoughtful and purposeful signaling

Construct a personal plan for managing the influence of implicit bias
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What is Implicit Bias? (eCourse)
In this course we'll define implicit bias and exploring how it derives from the natural way human brains function.

After completing this course, you should be able to:

Describe how the brain uses shortcuts and schemas to process stimuli

Explain how attitudes, stereotypes and biases form

Differentiate between explicit and implicit biases
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Interpersonal Communication

Avoiding Bias in the Hiring Process
We recommend taking the Making the Unconscious Conscious: Understanding and Mitigating Bias and the Intercultural Recruitment and Selection courses to supplement the learning objectives from this course. This session explores the power of impressions and its potential influence in the evaluation of job applicants. Using reflection exercises, participants will explore the relationship between impressions and bias and introduce learners to key research involving biases in hiring. Participants will leave the session having greater awareness and understanding of bias theory (coupled with case studies) and strategies in mitigating bias in the hiring process. NOTE: Class is subject to a minimum enrollment of 15 to proceed. If the course for your campus does not work for your schedule then you may enroll in the offering for the other campus.
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Conflict Competence: Constructive Feedback for Positive Change
Critical feedback is not often something we look forward to giving or receiving, and yet, it is essential to learning, growth and development. If feedback is delivered well, it can foster stronger collaborations and better outcomes. In this interactive workshop, you will learn best practices for effectively giving feedback and considerations for receiving it.
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Conflict Competence: Creative Problem Solving in the Workplace
Drawing from negotiation and conflict management best practices, this interactive webinar will provide a road map designed to help you discover solutions that meet your needs in complex and challenging situations.
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Conflict Competence for Managers and Supervisors
Conflict has the power to lower morale, reduce productivity, and cause a toxic team climate. However, if managed well, conflict can strengthen relationships, foster creativity, and contribute to a high functioning, successful team. This highly interactive course provides tools, techniques and skills to effectively prevent and resolve conflicts within your team. You will learn how to recognize conflict before it escalates, navigate interpersonal dynamics from a position of higher power, identify core employee needs, build trust on your team, and navigate emotionally charged conversations. At the end of this course, you will develop a personalized plan to address your specific conflict management needs. Please note that this course has significant overlap with “Conflict Competence for Staff” but includes an additional focus on managing conflict from a leadership position.
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Conflict Competence for Staff
Conflict has the power to lower morale, reduce productivity, and cause a toxic team climate. However, if managed well, conflict can strengthen relationships, foster creativity, and contribute to a high functioning, successful team. This highly interactive course provides tools, techniques and skills to effectively prevent and resolve conflicts within your team. You will learn how to recognize conflict before it escalates, navigate interpersonal dynamics from a position of higher power, identify core employee needs, build trust on your team, and navigate emotionally charged conversations. At the end of this course, you will develop a personalized plan to address your specific conflict management needs. Please note that this course has significant overlap with “Conflict Competence for Staff” but includes an additional focus on managing conflict from a leadership position.
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Conflict Competence: Getting to the Root of Group Conflict
Group conflict can be difficult to manage and have costly consequences. It can significantly impact productivity and work quality and even destroy teams. While conflict is often attributed to interpersonal dynamics or "people problems," conflicts are common symptoms of other solvable issues. In this course for leaders of groups or teams, you’ll learn a structured approach to identify and address the root causes of group conflict. Discover how to apply the Goals, Roles, Processes, and Interpersonal Relationships (GRPI) team development model to reveal hidden sources of conflict and valuable opportunities to prevent and manage conflict effectively.
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Conflict Competence: Listening to be Heard
Do you feel like your ideas and perspectives are not being heard? Have you ever felt stuck in a dynamic of defensive and attacking behaviors that break down communication and cause significant stress? One way to help people listen to us and restore communication channels is by first making them feel heard. When both people feel heard and understood, the chances of reaching a lasting resolution dramatically increase, relationships improve, and you can ultimately find greater success at work. This highly interactive course provides techniques to identify and overcome listening barriers, listen for what is not being said, make another person feel heard, and lower defensiveness around tense topics.
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Crucial Conversations for Mastering Dialogue
This is a two part, two day course. Must attend both classes to get credit. Crucial Conversations is a course that teaches skills for creating alignment and agreement by fostering opening dialogue around high-stakes, emotional, or risky topics – at all levels of the organization. By learning how to speak and be heard (and encouraging others to do the same), you’ll surface the best ideas, make the highest-quality decisions, and then act on your decisions with unity and commitment. Based on the book Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High, by Kerry Patterson and Joseph Grenny. Learning Objectives: To provide participants the practical tools to: • Speak persuasively, not abrasively • Foster teamwork and better decision-making • Build acceptance rather than resistance • Resolve individual and group disagreements respectfully
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Effective Communication: Skills & Techniques
This workshop helps participants understand how attitude and perception influence the communication process. Participants will receive information on the fundamentals of the communication process, major barriers to effective communication, clues to interpreting non-verbal communication, active listening techniques and methods for dealing with conflict or difficult situations. Communicating effectively in a multicultural workplace is also covered. Instruction is conducted in both didactic and interactive formats.
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Gen Z: New Strategies for a Post-Digital Generation
Generation Z, unlike Millennials, is the first generation of students to have grown up in an entirely “post-digital” era. They make up the vast majority of our student body. Gen Z has never known a world without Google and smartphones. Beyond technology, they are socially aware like never before and value authenticity over trends, and 75% of Gen Z even say that college isn’t the only way to get a good education. The same old tactics aren’t likely to persuade them to engage with or listen to you. This session takes a look into who Gen Z is and offers new ideas and best practices to reach and connect with this new generation. Please note, you don’t need marketing or communications in your job title to attend this session. It is for anyone who interacts, communicates or works with Gen Z.
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Implementing the Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Vision
Every organization is called upon to implement UC Davis' Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Vision. In support of our campus' "To Boldly Go" vision, this session provides an understanding of the goals in the diversity, equity and inclusion strategic vision and the opportunity to explore how organizations may integrate diversity and inclusion as informed by their work.
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Is it Bullying? Awareness and Strategies
The objectives of this course are to increase awareness and understanding about bullying and other forms of abrasive behaviors in the workplace, become familiar with the policies and resources related to bullying and other forms of abrasive behavior, learn skills for responding to abrasive behaviors in the workplace, examine one’s own behavior (self-reflection) that impacts interaction with colleagues and workplace climate, and explore strategies for empowering ourselves and others in cultivating inclusive work environments. NOTE: Class is subject to a minimum enrollment of 15 to proceed.
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Making the Unconscious Conscious: Understanding and Mitigating Bias
Bias, in its most simplistic definition, is having a preference for one thing over another. Also, biases come into play in our impressions and judgment of people, especially those whose identities and experiences are different from our own. This session will explore how we make snap judgments about people by understanding our socialization that informs our biases. Participants will be introduced to theory and language in understanding implicit and explicit bias. Using personal reflection, experiential exercises and case studies, participants will gain greater awareness when they engage in bias and gain essential knowledge and skills (tools) in how they recognize and mitigate biases in both personal and professional domains. This session includes an exploration of how the pandemic has impacted this area of DEI.
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Microaggressions: Towards Greater Awareness and Understanding
As cultural beings, we are products of our socialization. Our socialization includes conditioning in how we understand differences and our identities and how those identities are understood and experienced at the individual and structural levels. Using the work of Derald Wing Sue, this session explores the phenomenon of microaggressions in everyday life by increasing awareness of common occurrences; understanding its impact on those who experience them; and exploring strategies on how to mitigate and respond to them. NOTE: Class is subject to a minimum enrollment of 15 to proceed. If the course for your campus does not work for your schedule then you may enroll in the offering for the other campus.
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Understanding Advocacy at UC Davis
A relaxed one-hour conversation with UC Davis’ state and federal relations directors about advocacy in Higher Ed, its purpose, impact, and engagement best practices.
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Working with Emotional Intelligence
The concept of emotional intelligence refers to sets of personal competencies (self awareness, self regulation, motivation) and social competencies (empathy and social skills) that are critical to workplace success in the long term. It is clearly documented by now that once the technical skills are mastered in any career area, it is these sets of skills that predict success. While this approach is still developing, it does offer some specific ways to understand and develop these competencies. This class includes a discussion of emotional intelligence and its relevance at work, assessment exercises to practice applying the concept, and also an opportunity to plan ways to further explore and apply the emotional intelligence approach.
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Presentation Skills

Dynamic Public Speaking: Crafting and Delivering Engaging Virtual and In-Person Presentations
Want to learn how to be a dynamic public speaker in person and virtually? Look no further! Gain practical skills to conduct engaging, informative, and interactive presentations to audiences large and small, in person or online. This workshop will help attendees discover tips to improve oral and nonverbal communication styles, overcome fear of public speaking, review best practices in virtual tools and engagement, incorporate humor and storytelling, integrate experiential learning techniques and exercises, facilitate an effective Q&A session, handle distractions, inspire and motivate participants, and establish credibility. Participants will have the opportunity to work in a supportive setting with other attendees to develop and practice content, receive spotlight speaker coaching, and quality feedback. Whether conducting lectures, training, orientations, tours, staff meetings, interviews, pitches, or one-on-one discussions, this workshop will help attendees gain confidence and connect with others. Get ready to have fun while learning how to be a dynamic speaker!

NOTE: This workshop is interactive and designed to offer participants content and a chance to practice. However, please keep in mind that practice time may fluctuate or be limited based on size of overall class registration/attendance. Every effort will be made to accommodate attendees’ requests to practice within time and class size parameters.
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Principles of Community

Leading and Managing in a Multicultural Community
Building an environment that doesn't just tolerate, but values diversity requires the active participation of everyone in the organization. This course will provide a model for developing our knowledge and skills to work and lead in a multicultural community. Participants will gain practical information about developing personal and organizational cultural competence that can be applied at work, at home or in community organizations. This session includes an exploration of how the pandemic has impacted this area of DEI.
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Living the Principles of Community (eCourse)
This on-line course is designed to promote inclusiveness and respect in the work and learning environment at UC Davis, introducing the concepts to new members of the campus community while reinforcing them to existing members. Participants, especially UC Davis staff members and academic appointees, will become familiar with ways to integrate the UC Davis Principles of Community into their own workplaces and classrooms. This highly interactive course includes up-to-date information on discrimination, sexual harassment, affirmative action and diversity along with the University’s policies governing these issues. Through realistically subtle and complex scenarios, learners discover that there is more than one “right” way of preventing, managing and resolving conflicts related to these topics. This course will inform and equip participants with essential knowledge and skills, ultimately resulting in fewer such conflicts, improved morale, decreased institutional liability, and a more respectful and inclusive campus environment. Approximately 60 minutes in length.
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Understanding Diversity

LGBTQ+ 101
This 2 hour-long course serves as a basic overview to the world of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans/transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) patients and their families. Topics include terminology, common health disparities facing these communities, and strategies and policies to make clinical environments more LGBTQ inclusive. UC Davis Health-specific interventions will also be covered.
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LGBTQIA Inclusion in the Workplace
Our campus strives for inclusion excellence in our policies and practices that consider the experiences of our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA) community members. This course introduces laws and policies that inform our practices promoting inclusion of the LGBTQIA community. Among the course objectives include broadening our understanding of the experiences of LGBTQIA people on our campus by exploring the culture, language and terminology related to sexual orientation and gender identity. Using case studies, participants will gain awareness and knowledge of the issues that impact members of the LGBTQIA community in the workplace, and will engage in developing strategies the work towards creating a welcoming work environment.
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Understanding Diversity and Social Justice
Through personal sharing, group exercises, and dialogue, the ever persistent and ever changing dynamics of personal and societal structures which support inequality will be examined. Participants will also engage in learning skills to become allies for social equity. NOTE: Class is subject to a minimum enrollment of 15 to proceed. If the course for your campus does not work for your schedule then you may enroll in the offering for the other campus.
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Understanding Generational Differences
There is a growing awareness of the "generational diversity" that exists in the workplace. Older, middle-aged and younger staff members may share common work tasks, but their values, approaches to work, communication styles and perceptions of each other may differ greatly. NOTE: Class is subject to a minimum enrollment of 15 to proceed. If the course for your campus does not work for your schedule then you may enroll in the offering for the other campus.
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Understanding Religious Differences in the Workplace
Our campus community includes a rich diversity of religious and spiritual beliefs and practices. This provides us with both opportunities and challenges as we strive to create environments that respect our various values and observances. This course will share information about various religious and spiritual traditions and offer strategies for honoring religious and spiritual differences in the workplace.
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Unpacking Oppression
Participants will explore the cultural barriers that perpetuate oppression at the institutional level. In addition to oppression theory, the course provides an opportunity to increase awareness regarding power and privilege with the goal of fostering a more inclusive and equitable campus environment. NOTE: Class is subject to a minimum enrollment of 15 to proceed. If the course for your campus does not work for your schedule then you may enroll in the offering for the other campus.
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