For-fee workshops bring proven ideas and methods to help you succeed in your career at the University of Iowa. These workshops are facilitated by Organizational Effectiveness' experienced team of trainers who are certified to offer these top national workshops to UI employees. 

Registration

To enroll in the workshops, you can be selected for a Professional Development Award to attend the workshop of your choice at no cost or your department can sponsor your enrollment. To sponsor an enrollment and pay the workshop fee, please complete the registration form, and send with payment to UI Learning & Development, 121-51 USB or uilearndevelop@uiowa.edu.

Professional Development Awards

Organizational Effectiveness provides limited professional development awards for its for-fee workshops during the spring and fall semesters. Staff members who subscribe to the listserv will receive info on available awards twice a year. Awards are made by random selection among all those who submit an application. The award allows recipients to attend the workshop at no cost.

Professional Development Opportunities Listserv

Learn about the latest professional development opportunities.

Crucial Conversations for Mastering Dialogue®

The Crucial Conversations for Mastering Dialogue® workshop will help you: 

  • Resolve disagreements
  • Build acceptance and overcome resistance
  • Speak persuasively, not abrasively, about high-stakes, emotional, or controversial topics
  • Foster teamwork and better decision-making
  • Build teams that work together and act with unity and conviction 

Crucial Conversations Details

Advertising Description

Open dialogue is vital to successful collaborations. If you would like to enhance your day-to-day conversations, Crucial Conversations is for you. Discussing difficult workplace issues with varying opinions is a challenge that often leads to low morale, reduced efficiency, and project delays. This training offers participants an opportunity to learn skills and apply principles in conversations with varying opinions, when stakes are high, and emotions are strong.

Upcoming Workshop Details

OE is offering two in-person Crucial Conversations for Mastering Dialogue® workshops during Spring 2026.

The Crucial Conversations for Mastering Dialogue® in-person workshop includes two sessions:

  • February 3rd and 4th | 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
  • May 8th and 11th | 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
  • Lunch is provided for sessions.

 

Workshop Fees

Crucial Conversations for Mastering Dialogue® workshop cost: $350

Crucial Influence®

The Crucial Influence workshop will teach you how to:

  • Diagnose the web of causes behind any problem and create powerful strategies for driving change.
  • Identify a handful of high-leverage behaviors that, if changed, will lead to desired results.
  • Rely less on formal authority and more on ways to motivate and enable others to change their behavior.
  • Use the powerful Influencer Model to develop and apply a robust influence strategy to anything from small- to large-scale cultural transformations.

Advertising Description

Crucial Influence® equips leaders across campus—whether supervising a small team or guiding major institutional priorities—with practical skills to drive meaningful behavior change. Grounded in 50 years of social science research, the course introduces the Six Sources of Influence model to help leaders understand the personal, social, and structural factors that shape behavior. Participants learn how to apply these sources intentionally to strengthen team culture, improve collaboration, and achieve results. This course is ideal for faculty and staff seeking evidence-based tools to make their leadership more effective and adaptive.

Upcoming Workshop Details

Organizational Effectiveness is offering two in-person Crucial Influence® workshops during Spring 2026.

  • Thursday, April 23rd | 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
  • Thursday, April 30th | 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
  • Lunch is provided for sessions.

Workshop Fees

Workshop Fee:  $325

CliftonStrengths at Work

CliftonStrengths at Work workshop will help you:

  • Leverage the science of positive psychology to maximize the potential of individuals and teams
  • Harness your natural talents to drive outcomes, speed, and growth
  • Explore opportunities to have a profound impact on company culture, engagement, and well-being

CliftonStrengths Details

Advertising Description

Imagine a workplace where you can be the best you most every day. CliftonStrengths makes collaborating easier and helps build strong bonds within teams. The session provides a common language and vocabulary for people to describe themselves and understand their work colleagues better (and faster). The agenda of this 3-hour session splits times between exploring individual assessment results and building stronger partnerships and teams.

Upcoming Workshop Details

The CliftonStrengths at Work in-person workshop includes one session in Spring 2026:

  • March 24, 2026 | 1:00 - 4:00pm | 112 USB

Workshop Fees

There is a $30 fee associated with this workshop which includes: code for online assessment and course materials. Registration and payment must be received two weeks prior to the workshop. You will be sent the online assessment code after your registration and payment are confirmed. The assessment must be completed one week prior to the workshop. There will also be an assignment to complete prior to class start; the assignment may take up to an hour to complete.

Using DISC to Improve Communication

The Using DISC to Improve Communication workshop will help you:

  • Describe your communication style
  • Identify how you like to be communicated with
  • Practice having a conversation with a partner whose style is different from your own
  • Employ a tool to help create an environment where each communication style can be appreciated

Advertising Description

Have you ever struggled to communicate with that one person that, regardless of what you try, you can’t seem to connect with or understand? This could be your opportunity to have a breakthrough. This course takes you through how you can use the information from the DISC assessment and apply it in common and/or challenging conversations. Explore how you like to be communicated with, how others with different styles like to be communicated with, and how you can take these differences to adapt to the intended recipients of your communication to make the meaning more impactful. 

Upcoming Workshop Details

The Using DISC to Improve Communication in-person workshop includes one session in Spring 2026:

  • February 12, 2026 | 8:30 am – 4:30 pm 

Workshop Fees

There is a $150 fee associated with this workshop which includes a code to take the DISC assessment and lunch during the workshop. Registration and payment must be received two weeks prior to the workshop. You will be sent the online assessment code after your registration and payment are confirmed. The assessment must be completed one week prior to the workshop. The results are emailed to you. Please bring your assessment results with you to the workshop.

Leadership is Everyone's Business

The Leadership is Everyone's Business workshop will help you: 

  • Identify your own leadership strengths and areas for improvement based on your Leadership Practices Inventory Self-Assessment.
  • Employ at least one method for improving your capacity to engage in each of The Five Practices.
  • Create an action plan for the next steps in your development as a leader.

Leadership is Everyone's Business Details

Advertising Description

Leadership is Everyone's Business - it's not about your title or your organizational role; it's about caring enough to take the action to inspire and change the lives of others. Take the 14-day Leadership Challenge! The experience includes daily 15-minute microlearning opportunities, which include a short video and reflection exercise that can be completed on your own time, bookended by two required one-hour community learning sessions to start and end the challenge, and one optional session in the middle of the challenge to answer any questions you have about the challenge itself and the material being covered. The Leadership is Everyone's Business workshop is based on the five practices of exemplary leadership and are scientifically grounded in multiple decades of research. 

Upcoming Workshop Details

The Leadership is Everyone's Business virtual workshop includes two sessions via Zoom:

  • February 2, 2026 | 9am | 14-day challenge kickoff
  • February 23, 2026 | 9am | 14-day challenge conclusion

Zoom links will be sent to participants prior to the workshops. Supporting videos are available to participants.

Workshop Fees

Workshop fee: $175

Contact Us

Learning and Development

Phone
Address

University of Iowa
121 University Services Building, Suite 50
1 W. Prentiss Street
Iowa City, IA 52242
United States