Today's talk is How to create meaningful connections while apart by Priya Parker.
Author Priya Parker shares tools for creating meaningful connections with friends, family and coworkers during the coronavirus pandemic -- and shows how we can take advantage of gatherings that are unique to this moment of social distancing. "We don't necessarily need to gather more," she says. "We need to gather better."
Hello UMBC community and Retriever Essentials Partners,
My name is Rebecca Ferguson and I am the third and final CCMA AmeriCorps UMBC VISTA for Retriever Essentials. I am so excited to introduce myself as the program’s newest team member! I will be working as the Program Coordinator and will be responsible for administrative, marketing, and management processes that will ultimately build the capacity of the program to grow sustainably beyond my year of service.
I first became a part of the UMBC community as an undergrad in 2017, and recently graduated with a B.A. in Geography and Environmental Systems in December 2019. While a student, I engaged with the community as an SGA Environmental Branch leader and as a board member of The Garden club. My passion for sustainable food security led me to begin training as a Peace Corps volunteer in Zambia after graduation, however, I was shortly evacuated due to Covid-19 concerns. This shift in my plans has now become an opportunity to serve my community a little closer to home. As a previous student who greatly benefited from the necessary work that Retriever Essentials does, I am honored and excited to be serving the UMBC community in the capacity of this Americorps position.
I also want to thank you, the entire UMBC community, for your unwavering support for the organization, especially during these challenging times. Due to the pandemic, eliminating food insecurity presents further challenges and requires us to re-assess the ways in which we can build a closer community while remaining distant. Even through all the changes we are experiencing, the health of our community has always been essential. My hope is that my service year will culminate in Retriever Essentials’ increased ability to provide a variety of health-related resources, especially local, healthy, fresh food and “on-going support networks, in order to enhance students’ academic success and retention”.
Retriever Essentials could not have transformed from one person handing out groceries from the trunk of her car to the pillar of the community, as it stands today, without extensive community support and collaborative efforts. As the last VISTA volunteer, I am seeking to “work myself out of a job” so they say. It is through collaborations and lasting partnerships that this absolutely essential program will continue to thrive. I look forward to building upon the previous VISTA volunteers’ work and connecting with each of you in the near future to discuss how we can support one another. Please feel free to reach out at retrieveressentials@umbc.edu or rebferg1@umbc.edu!
SkillSoft Spotlights focus on just-in-time online learning that supports you in navigating complex challenges in personal and professional life, helps you to increase your effectiveness, and to improve your relationships. Each course is 30 minutes or less and is curated to provide tools, strategies, and practices to accelerate your success.
This week's spotlight course is Redefining Yourself after Organizational Change (29 min).
Organizational change is inevitable, so you need to be resilient and adapt to the new opportunities it presents. It's important to not just survive organizational change. With resilience, flexibility, and perseverance, you can thrive in it and propel your career forward.
In this course, you will learn the importance of adapting to organizational change, as well as the essential skills needed to handle it. The course details the best practices of building self-motivation and introduces the idea of reframing as a coping method. You'll learn to turn resistance to change into acceptance. Finally, this course covers the importance of capitalizing on the career opportunities presented by organizational change.
Once logged in, simply type the name of the course in the search bar.
Need Login Assistance? Email hrtraining@umbc.edu to set up your account and to help with login difficulties. UMBC faculty and staff accounts are set up within 1 month of hire.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Visit our UMBC SkillSoft page for information on UMBC’s curated role and topic-based certificate tracks as well as professional industry certifications that align with SkillSoft courses.
SkillSoft Spotlights focus on just-in-time online learning to help you more masterfully manage yourself personally and professionally, improve your effectiveness in managing your work, and support you in skillfully leading your teams. Each course is 30 minutes or less and is curated to provide tools, strategies, and practices to accelerate your success.
This week's spotlight course is Managing Motivation during Organizational Change (22 min)
A key challenge for managers is motivating and engaging employees during times of organizational change. To survive and grow in volatile markets, organizations have to embrace change; they have to innovate and adapt. However, because change involves uncertainty, it's stressful, and it can impact employee motivation and productivity – just at a time when an organization needs everyone to pull together and give their best efforts.
In this course, you'll learn change management techniques to help you recognize and manage employee stress, as well as your own stress, during periods of change. You'll also learn about common reactions to change, and strategies for managing change to enable you to engage, motivate, and support employees.
Using Internet Explorer or Google Chrome, Login to SkillPortusing your FULL UMBC email address for both the username and password boxes.
Once logged in, simply type the name of the course in the search bar.
Need Login Assistance? Email hrtraining@umbc.edu to set up your account and to help with login difficulties. UMBC faculty and staff accounts are set up within 1 month of hire.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Visit our UMBC SkillSoft page for information on UMBC’s curated role and topic-based certificate tracks as well as professional industry certifications that align with SkillSoft courses.
Today's talk is The art of stillness by Pico Iyer. The place that travel writer Pico Iyer would most like to go? Nowhere. In a counterintuitive and lyrical meditation, Iyer takes a look at the incredible insight that comes with taking time for stillness. In our world of constant movement and distraction, he teases out strategies we all can use to take back a few minutes out of every day, or a few days out of every season. It's the talk for anyone who feels overwhelmed by the demands for our world.
SkillSoft Spotlights focus on just-in-time online learning that supports you in navigating complex challenges in personal and professional life, helps you to increase your effectiveness, and to improve your relationships. Each course is 30 minutes or less and is curated to provide tools, strategies, and practices to accelerate your success.
This week's spotlight course is Communicating with Confidence (20 min). Communicating with confidence is critical to your message being successfully received. Feeling confident in a high stakes situation is not always easy but with effort, confidence can be cultivated and improved.
In this course, you'll learn about being an effective speaker. You'll discover ways to prepare, techniques to avoid being nervous and how to use your voice and body language to communicate with self-confidence.
Once logged in, simply type the name of the course in the search bar.
Need Login Assistance? Email hrtraining@umbc.edu to set up your account and to help with login difficulties. UMBC faculty and staff accounts are set up within 1 month of hire.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Visit our UMBC SkillSoft page for information on UMBC’s curated role and topic-based certificate tracks as well as professional industry certifications that align with SkillSoft courses.
SkillSoft Spotlights focus on just-in-time online learning to help you more masterfully manage yourself personally and professionally, improve your effectiveness in managing your work, and support you in skillfully leading your teams. Each course is 30 minutes or less and is curated to provide tools, strategies, and practices to accelerate your success.
This week's spotlight course is Encouraging Team Communication and Collaboration (30 min)
Managing teams successfully involves ensuring that team members can communicate with you and with one another and that they will collaborate effectively as a team. To achieve this, clear channels of communication are required for both on-site and virtual teams.
In this course, you'll learn how to demonstrate team leadership by encouraging effective communication and overcoming communication problems. You'll explore strategies for encouraging team collaboration. Finally, you'll learn about tools and technologies that are commonly used for virtual teamwork and key considerations for establishing virtual communication guidelines.
Using Internet Explorer or Google Chrome, Login to SkillPortusing your FULL UMBC email address for both the username and password boxes.
Once logged in, simply type the name of the course in the search bar.
Need Login Assistance? Email hrtraining@umbc.edu to set up your account and to help with login difficulties. UMBC faculty and staff accounts are set up within 1 month of hire.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Visit our UMBC SkillSoft page for information on UMBC’s curated role and topic-based certificate tracks as well as professional industry certifications that align with SkillSoft courses.
Today's talk is How to overcome our biases? Walk boldly toward them by Verna Myers. Our biases can be dangerous, even deadly — as we've seen in the cases of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner, in Staten Island, New York. Diversity advocate Vernā Myers looks closely at some of the subconscious attitudes we hold toward out-groups. She makes a plea to all people: Acknowledge your biases. Then move toward, not away from, the groups that make you uncomfortable. In a funny, impassioned, important talk, she shows us how.
SkillSoft Spotlights focus on just-in-time online learning that supports you in navigating complex challenges in personal and professional life, helps you to increase your effectiveness, and to improve your relationships. Each course is 30 minutes or less and is curated to provide tools, strategies, and practices to accelerate your success.
This week's spotlight course is Being an Effective Team Member (30 min).
Making a real, positive difference on a team is not necessarily about showing team leadership. Even if your role doesn’t involve managing teams, you can still make an important contribution by being a strong team member.
This course covers strategies and techniques to help you become a more effective and valued team member. You'll explore ways to adopt a positive mindset toward teamwork, so that you can make a significant contribution. Because your success when working on a team depends on pulling together with other people, you'll also learn constructive ways to acknowledge differences and show respect for teams, and specific strategies for team collaboration.
Once logged in, simply type the name of the course in the search bar.
Need Login Assistance? Email hrtraining@umbc.edu to set up your account and to help with login difficulties. UMBC faculty and staff accounts are set up within 1 month of hire.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Visit our UMBC SkillSoft page for information on UMBC’s curated role and topic-based certificate tracks as well as professional industry certifications that align with SkillSoft courses.