Ombuds Abound at Kennesaw State's 2022 Summer Institute

Kennesaw State University's annual Summer Institute for Professional Development returns as an in-person event this year. Hosted by the KSU Center for Conflict Management, the Summer Institute again includes an several workshops for Ombuds and a consortium meeting in late June 2022.

The sessions include:

• Essential Skills for Ombuds Managing Mental Health Concerns, Wednesday, June 22, 8:30am-1:00pm (repeated on Thursday, June 23) with Heather Walders, University of South Florida
  

  This 6-hour training, participants will learn proven negotiation strategies and tactics to navigate conflicts, boost your career, and build relationships with your community, businesses, and clients. At its core, negotiation is a conversation to reach an agreement. Negotiation skills are key to success in human relations, mediation, law, education settings, social work, and other settings where conflict happens. This interactive professional development workshop teaches negotiation skills that can help improve your community and career work.

• Leveraging a Coaching Mindset as an Ombuds, Wednesday, June 22, 12:15-3:30pm with Angela Dash, the Pace Institute
  

  Being an ombuds is an opportunity to support transformational change when working with individual visitors as well as the broader organizational community. Leveraging a coaching mindset is one way to provide such support, and increasingly, organizational ombuds are adding coaching skills to their toolbox. A coaching mindset supports the ombuds in their role to build mutually trusting relationships where organizational members have more awareness about themselves and the situations they face. It also supports others in gaining new insights and considerations on how to move forward. While exploring the Core Competencies of the International Coaching Federation (ICF), this session will explore what it means to have a coaching mindset and specific behaviors that will increase an ombuds’ attention to being more open, curious, flexible, and both person and organizationally centered practitioners while still adhering to the standards of practice of the International Ombuds Association (IOA).

• Simple Strategies for Complex Cases, Wednesday, June 22, 12:15-3:30pm ;with Jennifer S. Schneider, University of South Florida, and Sophia Trelles, Florida International University
  

  This discussion-based session will allow ombuds to share common strategies for engaging in various issues raised in the ombuds office. Participants will be presented with scenarios and discuss best practice based on the ethical principles of confidentiality, impartiality, informality and independence.

• Southeast Ombuds Consortium Meeting (with Virtual Option), Friday, June 24, 8:30am-12:30pm

The Ombuds Workshop (including the consortium meeting) is $450 sessions. The consortium meeting is available as a virtual option for $50. More information is now online and registration is open. (KSU Summer Institute-Ombuds.)

Prior Posts: Kennesaw State University to Host Summer Ombuds Workshops in June 2019; Kennesaw State University Names Ombuds; Kennesaw State to Host Ombuds Professional Development in June; Familiar Faces Return for 2021 Ombuds Series at Kennesaw State.