Courses addressing the four primary pillars of effective shared governance:

Cultivate Great Discussions (45-60 min)
Mitigate Reactivity (45-60 min)
Engage Multiple Perspectives (45-60 min)
Approach Conflict Constructively (60-75 min)

Courses to help you customize and apply the four pillars:

My Approach to Conflict (60 min)
My Discussion Style (30 min)
11 Ways to Improve Discussions (30 min)

Each of these courses is also available on their own for individual purchase. See the "Related Courses" section below.

Faculty, staff, graduate students, department chairs, members of faculty senate... anyone who seeks to participate in and improve the processes of deliberative democracy that serve as the foundation for academia.

No prior coursework is needed, and you can complete each course on your own schedule.

Here are just a few things you'll learn from the 7 courses in this certificate program:

* How discussion styles shape interactions, and where your own preferences fall

* Specific discussion behaviors that lead to better participation and outcomes

* How structure and focus contribute to great discussions, and what type of conflict is the best

* What inhibits us from speaking up when a discussion goes awry, and ways around those inhibitions

* Where reactivity comes from, plus strategies for slowing down

* A framework for understanding conflict and using each approach constructively

* How to bring your own perspective fully to a discussion while drawing out others’ contributions

* Where your own habitual responses to conflict fall across the five Thomas-Kilmann modes, and which you may over- or underuse

Over 700 faculty participated in the version of this curriculum utilized by the National Science Foundation, giving it an average 4.7 out of 5 stars. What those participants said...

"[This] has given me courage to stand up for myself and my beliefs but also be considerate of others and their beliefs. And just as importantly, the experience has taught me ways of dealing with conflicts."

"I feel like I learned things that I didn’t know I didn’t know."

"The entire exercise has been transformative. I wish I had taken such a course 25 years back when I started my academic career."

"This program opened my eyes to a lot of interesting aspects of human interactions and thought processes. This knowledge has been already useful not only in professional settings but also in personal ones."

"Really phenomenal experience, in many ways reinvigorated my interest in academia."