Staff Council is working with several student, faculty and staff organizations to promote a healthy, respectful and productive workplace. As part of these efforts and as a member of Staff Council, I attended the 鈥淩espectful Workplace鈥� workshop offered by Mr. Tom Sebok, Director of the Ombuds Office.
This training is geared towards setting departments up for success by engaging the attendees into active discussions about what being respectful means, how this respect can become a foundation and normal practice in the workplace, and how each employee should confront conflict when it arises.
I found this workshop to be truly excellent. The focus was on being proactive and working together to create the type of working environment in which you would want to be a part. This 鈥渃all to action鈥� wasn鈥檛 presented just to supervisors, but rather Mr. Sebok encourages every single employee of a team to participate. He spoke about how to create a working environment where respect is the norm. In doing this, Mr. Sebok speaks about the doctrine, 鈥淒eveloping Departmental Communication Protocols鈥�, by Larry Hoover, UC Davis, October 2003. The premise of this idea is that when all members of a working team come together to create these guidelines on how to communicate, a tangible foundation is laid that can be used, built upon, and referred to when difficult conversations need to happen. The other important component and result of this idea is that everyone within the department will have 鈥渂uy in鈥� to follow these guidelines, since their input was used to create, and reinforce these 鈥榙epartmental norms.鈥�
We all know that conflict is bound to arise in the workplace. It is ok, very normal, and in fact, at times, healthy. 听Challenging existing ideas and the status quo can actually promote creativity. It is the way in which conflict is addressed that can create its negative perception. It is actually inevitable that most likely we鈥檒l each need to have a difficult conversation with one of our colleagues, customers or even our supervisor. This workshop focused on how to have these conversations where respect for all parties remains intact.
For more information on trainings offered to address conflict in the workplace including department specific trainings, contact the Ombuds Office at: (303) 492-5077 or visit the website:
Also keep an eye out for trainings offered through the Office of Organization and Employee Development.听