Thanks to a unique partnership between the Batten School and the University’s talent development team within UVA Human Resources, a new series of three director-level leadership development courses spearheaded by Batten Professor Gabrielle Adams will soon be available to University HR managers.

“These courses came about due to Batten’s desire to build an Executive Education Program,” said Ashley Felder, a Consultant with UVA’s Talent and Development team. “This new relationship is exciting as it allows us, the Talent Development team to offer classes to high levels of leadership while giving the Batten School the opportunity to pilot and develop courses that would work for a competitive, external Exec Ed program.”

Starting this month through the end of October 2019, these new offerings, facilitated by Batten School faculty, will provide director-level leaders across Grounds with curriculum relevant to the development of becoming a strategic leader as well as a mentor to others. Each course will be taught twice.  

The first course in the series will focus on leveraging innovation for impact and will take place on March 28 and later on August 22. Led by Batten Professor Bala Mulloth, who teaches several courses on social entrepreneurship, the course will examine how both individuals and companies can leverage innovation in order to make a significant impact on their work and their corresponding work environments. Innovation, often associated with start-up culture, can be utilized to effectuate change in a variety of industries, including higher education.

The second course in the series will address managerial negotiations and will take place on April 24 and again, on September 17. Led by Batten Professor Eileen Chou, a social psychologist whose work focuses on the organizational, social, and psychological forces that regulate individual and group behavior.

“I hope that participants can gain a broad, intellectual understanding of the central concepts of negotiation and how they apply in varying contexts, so they build confidence in their negotiation skills,” said Chou. “I also believe that this course can help improve one’s ability to analyze and predict the behavior of others in negotiation process—that will lead to the further development of a toolkit of useful negotiation skills, strategies, and approaches.”

The third course on group dynamics will be led by Batten Professor, Benjamin Converse, who like Chou is also a social psychologist.

“I’m really excited to have this opportunity to work with UVA professionals. There’s so much good and important work going on across the University,” said Converse. “Being able to share some tools and insights that might help empower and enable people to do their best work is really rewarding.”

“My session will be focused on working in groups. We all ‘know’ that groups are supposed to help us do our best work—providing a diversity of perspectives and expertise, giving the opportunity to create buy-in, and potentially even helping to cancel out individual biases. [And yet] everyday life and everyday thought seem to set all these traps that can rob groups of their power. I want to help people figure out how to get past these traps so that groups get their power back. I hope by the end of the session, people will be designing their group processes in a wiser and more deliberate way. Wisely designed group processes can help us leverage all those ideal properties of groups.”

Below is more information on the course dates and how to enroll.

Innovation

This course introduces participants to the strategies and processes required in the contemporary economy to leverage innovation in order to maintain overall competitiveness and make a difference. Sophisticated integration and multifaceted leadership are usually essential for successful technology and innovation strategy. Participants will gain an understanding of the various innovation strategies and how companies marshal the varied competencies required to innovate effectively. The session will be interactive and the instructor will use a hybrid of theory, case studies, videos, and personal experiences to inform the participants on the research and practice in the field.

Health System: March 28, 2019 (4 PM - 6:30 PM); MR5 (Biomedical Engineering & Medical Science Building), Room 3005

Enrollment Information

Academic: August 22, 2019 (4 PM - 6:30 PM); 2400 Old Ivy, Room 189

Enrollment Information

Managerial Negotiations

We negotiate every day – with employers, coworkers, roommates, landlords, parents, bosses, merchants, service providers, and others. Determining what price we will pay, how much we will get paid, what movie we will watch, and who will clean the kitchen: all of these are negotiations. Although negotiations are ubiquitous, many of us know little about the strategy and psychology underlying them. Why do we sometimes get our way, and other times walk away feeling frustrated by our inability to achieve the desired agreement? 

Negotiation is the art and science of securing agreements between two or more parties, who are interdependent and seeking to maximize their outcomes. This course provides the opportunity to develop your negotiation skills in a series of simulations and feedback sessions. The course is designed to address the broad spectrum of negotiation problems that the manager and professional face. This course aims to enable you to recognize, understand, analyze, and implement the essential concepts of negotiation. 

Academic: April 24, 2019 (4PM-6: 30 PM); 2400 Old Ivy, Room 189

Enrollment Information

Health System: September 17, 2019 (4PM-6:30PM); 999 Grove Street, Classroom 2

Enrollment Information

Group Dynamics

Under the right conditions, deciding in groups, rather than deciding alone, can lead to better choices and greater commitment to follow through on the chosen course of action. Under the wrong conditions, however, groups can be a waste of time at best and a source of frustration at worst. Participants in this workshop engage in a group decision process and then debrief the strengths and weaknesses of their group’s process. Discussions will focus on common failures in information-sharing contexts and prescriptions to avoid or overcome those failures.

Health System: May 9, 2019 (4PM-6: 30 PM); MR5 (Biomedical Engineering & Medical Science Building), Room 3005

Enrollment Information

Academic: October 9, 2019 (4PM-6: 30 PM); 2400 Old Ivy, Room 189

Enrollment Information

For additional information or any questions, please contact Ashely Felder (awf9hd@virginia.edu), Learning and Development Talent Consultant.