This program is sponsored by the College of Literature, Science and the Arts at the University of Michigan for LSA faculty and staff. For more information, contact Isis Settles, LSA Senior Faculty Advisor for Inclusive Excellence.
If you are interested in hosting this kind of resource at your institution, please contact us or browse our online catalog.
Chairs and directors may apply for an initial consultation of 1-6 hours with a Kardia Group climate expert to identify departmental climate goals and challenges and discuss strategies for addressing, understanding, and improving the climate. Conversations with consultants will be kept confidential unless otherwise directed by the unit leader.
Based on this consultation, the chair/director and climate expert will work together to identify next steps for capacity building in the unit. Capacity-building strategies may include (but are not limited to) additional consulting hours, activities focused on making use of a department’s climate survey data, facilitated discussions or retreats, and skill-building workshops. Additional funding may be available by submitting a capacity-building proposal for review by Isis Settles, Senior Faculty Advisor to the Dean for Inclusive Excellence, and the relevant divisional dean. Capacity-building proposals must include commentary from Kardia Group about the proposed strategy.
Climate consultants and trainers do not investigate, nor are they responsible for reporting, Human Resource-related or legal concerns including but not limited to assault, bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, or discrimination based on race, sexual orientation or gender. Such serious issues should be reported directly to the appropriate legal or administrative entities. If a consulting project develops into a Human Resource, legal or other administrative matter (including but not limited to institution of a Performance Improvement Plan, a Title IX investigation, a punitive reduction in salary or title, etc.) consultants reserve the right to discontinue services related to that project or individual.
Kardia Group also offers workshops to LSA faculty and staff more broadly. See this webpage for more details.
A department-based group undertaking this work begins with a 30-minute live introductory session. Individuals then complete My Approach to Conflict on their own. This course utilizes the Thomas Kilmann conflict model and associated assessment, the Thomas Kilmann Inventory (TKI), to describe a range of possible responses to conflict and demonstrate the importance of aligning response to the conditions and goals of a given conflict.
When all individuals have completed this course, the group schedules a 90-minute live workshop to further integrate this material and discuss how this model can be used to promote healthy collaboration and resilient interactions within the group. Following this session, the group participates in a series of asynchronous and live discussions designed to develop a Communication Protocol. These discussions may involve the whole group or a working group empowered by the whole to develop these agreements. The process concludes with a final consultation with the group focused on how to make effective use of the group’s Communication Protocol.
The Conflict and Communication Course for Departments has been used by Executive Committees and other faculty governance committees; faculty sub-groups experiencing sub-disciplinary tensions; departments going through a merger or other restructuring; graduate student leadership; departmental administrative teams; faculty in departments facing enrollment crises and other threats; research teams establishing agreements at the start of new funding; and faculty who have experienced a history of difficult conflicts.
This program is sponsored by the College of Literature, Science and the Arts at the University of Michigan for LSA Chairs & Directors only. If you are interested in these kinds of resources at your institution, please contact us or browse our online catalog.
