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 Leading Your Team Through Change (30min)

Change is always happening. Effective team leadership means managing teams through the ongoing transition processes that facilitate change. Removing obstacles that can hinder the productive teamwork required to make these transition processes smooth is essential. In this course, you'll learn about types of resistance and obstacles to change and how to overcome them in a collaboration. You'll also learn about how to overcome barriers to introducing change at your organization. Finally, you'll learn effective approaches for communicating change when working on a team.

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 Organizations Change So Get Ready (30 min)

Change can be disruptive, but adapting to change can also open new possibilities. A changing work situation can create a period of uncertainty while you adapt. A clear understanding of what organizational change is can help build your resilience and flexibility. In this course, you'll find out what can trigger organizational change. You'll explore common responses to change and the stages of reacting to change that people go through when dealing with organizational change. You’ll learn why it’s important to be resilient when adapting to change, and how to prepare yourself to get the most out of change. You'll learn about how the optimal amount of procrastination actually boosts creativity and efficiency. You'll also learn how to use creativity boosters to help you past those times when you procrastinate a little too much.

Dear Members of the Asian and Asian American Faculty and Staff Council:

The board of the Asian and Asian American Faculty and Staff Council want to express our solidarity and support for Black faculty, staff, and students at this troubling time. AAAFSC was founded, in part, to address inequity and racism and to foster belonging and inclusion at our campus. We mourn the senseless killing and deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Tony McDade, and Breonna Taylor. We affirm our commitment to support Black lives and communities on our campus and beyond and to fight against anti-Black racism, particularly within our Asian and Asian American communities.

We support the statement issued by the Association for Asian American Studies (posted below), and will continue to use our group as a platform in the shared struggle against structural racism and white supremacy.

In solidarity,

The board of the Asian American Faculty and Staff Association at UMBC

Tamara Bhalla, Aditya Desai, Soonhee Lee, Jiaqi Gong, Soonhee Lee

*****

Statement from the Association for Asian American Studies: June 2020

The Association for Asian American Studies unites in solidarity with our Black family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, and co-workers to call for an immediate end to anti-Black racism and the killing of Black people. We are an organization committed to social justice, intersectional analysis, and global human rights. Our fight against anti-Asian pandemic racism is rooted in a common struggle against White supremacy. The recent murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and George Floyd propel us to state, clearly and definitively, that Black lives matter and that we must abolish the militarized police state in which anti-Black racism is embedded. To end global anti-Black racism, we must fight racism in our local communities and educate ourselves and others about the rich history of Black Americans and support, validate, and value Black lives now and always.

The Association for Asian American Studies Board of Directors

*Karin Aguilar-SanJuan, Mid-West Representative
*Falu Bakrania, Northern California and Nevada Representative
*Keva Bui, Graduate Student Representative
*Jason Oliver Chang, New England/Central and Eastern Canada
Representative
*Jenny DeLuna, Assistant Director
*Chris A. Eng, Section Representative
*Anna Gonzalez, Managing Director
*Jennifer Ho, President
*Caroline Hong, Mid-Atlantic Representative
**Mimi Khuc, Contingent Faculty Representative
*Jinah Kim, Southern California Representative
*Tamara Ko, Associate Director
*Karen Kuo, Interior West/South Representative
*Rod Labrador, Pacific Northwest, Hawai’i and Pacific Islands & Western Canada Representative
*Paul Lai, Archivist

In support of the University System of Maryland chancellor and presidents' statement, the UMBC Counseling Center continues to stand against racism and denounces the murders of Black people with the most recent tragic killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Tony McDade. We stand with Black folx and communities as the COVID-19 pandemic and recent acts of state violence continue to highlight the health disparities and the traumatization of marginalized communities (see Counseling Center Statement).

Below is a non-exhaustive list of resources on systemic racism history, antiracism resources, resources for Black communities, and resources for parents raising antiracist children. If you want your voice to be heard and considering one’s circumstances, call your elected representative, vote, donate time or money. 

Systemic Racism Resources:

·         "We are living in a racism pandemic says APA president"

·         "A Timeline of Events that Led to the 2020 ‘Fed Up’-rising"

·         "3 Things Amy Cooper Did in Central Park to Damage Her Reputation and Career"

Antiracism Resources:

·         "75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice"

·         "26 Ways to be in The Struggle Beyond The Streets"

Videos on Antiracism: 

·         Anti-Racism Practices & the Pandemic Tim Wise

·         Anti-Racism Educator Jane Elliott

·         Deconstructing White Privilege with Dr. Robin DiAngelo

·         COVID-19 Trevor Noah

·         America is a Tale of Two Cities Chris Cuomo

Books on Antiracism:

·         How to be an antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi 

·         Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson

·         White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo

Resources for Black Communities:

·         Institute for the Study and Promotion of Race and Culture: Racial Trauma Toolkit

·         NAMI African American Mental Health

·         Black Lives Matter: Healing Action Toolkit

·         Coping with Racism

·         Radical Healing Collective

Resources for Queer People of Color

·         Standing Together Coming Out for Racial Justice: An Anti-Racist Organizational Developmental Toolkit for LGBT Equality Groups and Activist

·         Human Rights Campaign: Explore Communities of Color

·         UC Santa Cruz: Queer & Trans Black, Indigenous, People of Color Resources

Resources for Parents:

Articles:

·         "Countering COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Stigma and Racism: Tips for Parents and Caregivers"

·         "PBS’s Teaching Your Child About Black History Month"

Books:   

·         Coretta Scott King Book Award Winners: books for children and young adults

Podcasts:  

·         Parenting Forward podcast episode ‘Five Pandemic Parenting Lessons with Cindy Wang Brandt’

·          Fare of the Free Child podcast

Social Media:

·         The Conscious Kid: follow them on Instagram

*resources list adapted from University of Illinois Chicago Counseling Center

An Invitation to Return...

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