New Training and Development course drawing rave reviews

By Steve Hill, University Week

When it came time to give her program a test run, Jessie Garcia opted for the difficult road.

Garcia, who coordinates the new Strategic Leadership Program for UW Training and Development, recently conducted a pilot of her five-day class that promises to help UW managers run a tighter ship and, as a result, keep them and their employees happier. Garcia and Carolyn Gellermann, a training consultant who’s helping implement the class, handpicked pilot participants for their no-nonsense approach.

“We brought in some people who I knew would be critical and skeptical, but I feel like we converted them,” Garcia said. “I truly feel these folks who attended are now ambassadors for the program.”

And they aren’t the only supporters. The program was so highly regarded by President Richard L. McCormick that the administration offered to fund the training of every supervisor on campus - a first for Training and Development programs.

“I believe it’s important to invest in our employees,” McCormick said. “I’m convinced this training program will help both supervisors and their employees succeed and feel better about the jobs they are doing.”

Dan Halligan, from the Foster Business Library, stands in front of Diane Schulstad, from the Department of Pharmacology. The two are participating in an exercise to see how well leaders notice change. Schulstad is supposed to notice that Halligan removed his shoe. Photo by Mary Levin

The first group, which included 11 relatively new supervisors, completed training on Sept. 22. In the future, as many as 35 trainees will attend the sessions to learn about everything from managing conflict and team building to the organizational structure of the University. Given the enthusiasm with which the administration, pilot participants and others have greeted the program it’s no surprise that the first trainees were also impressed.

“The program gave me tools that I will use right away when I go to work on Monday,” Theresa Braungardt, acting nurse manager at Harborview Medical Center, said moments after completing the final class of the weeklong program. “I was just shocked as the days went on how all the information came together.”

Diane Schulstad, an administrative specialist in the Department of Pharmacology, said she had been looking forward to the class as a way to unravel some of the mysteries of supervising. She was pleased with the results.

“It was truly the most enlightening experience I’ve ever had in a working environment,” she said.

And even Garcia was impressed with the first week.

“I don’t think anyone expected it to go this well,” she said. “We wanted to create a team environment. We planned for it and we expected it, but to see it unfold so successfully was really cool.”

The 11 new managers who attended the five-day session are part of the first phase of implementation for the program. The next phase will involve veteran supervisors. A program for faculty supervisors will be in place sometime in 2001.

Garcia began the class with a short introduction, then the group got right to work evaluating their personal styles and exploring the role of a new supervisor at the UW. As the week progressed, they dealt with issues like giving and receiving feedback, running an efficient meeting and how to make the transition from colleague to supervisor within the same office. But perhaps the most important topic in the class was how to deal with conflict.

“Supervisors have to be comfortable, or at least more comfortable, dealing with conflict,” Garcia said. “You can almost never be totally comfortable dealing with it, but there are ways to manage conflict successfully.”

The training program also helps employees new to the University or to the role of supervisor learn to manage what can be a complicated setting.

“I’ve been here for 13 years, most of that time in Human Resources, and there are still things I’m learning,” Garcia said. Her secret for success is easy and it’s one she shares with the trainees. “I know people. If I need to find out about something, I know someone who can steer me in the right direction.”

She encourages similar networking for the trainees. In fact, the group actively explores what sorts of collaborations and partnerships should be considered to increase efficiency on campus. The first networking the participants did was with one another. Schulstad is looking forward to keeping in touch with the other supervisors who attended the program.

“We’ve actually planned to meet on a regular basis,” she said. “It’s just such a wonderful experience to talk with other supervisors and to hear the same challenges and problems and joys that you experience. You learn it’s part of the job, not just you.”