Offerings

UPCOMING RELATIONAL LEADERSHIP INSTITUTES

The Relational Leadership Institute (RLI) is an in-depth, multi-session, interprofessional, intergenerational, learning and skill development program. The program format is flexible and typically involves 26-28 hours of learning and practical experience. Designed for either intact teams or cohorts of individuals from multiple teams, and using large group didactic sessions and facilitated small breakout groups, participants dig deeply into core Relational Leadership and Teaming concepts. Topics include Narrative Leadership, Teaming and Psychological Safety, The Dynamics of Self and Teams, Building a Culture of Feedback, and Conflict Diagnosis. Over the course of the learning experience, participants apply their new competencies to leadership priorities and challenges in which they’re already engaged, sharing their insights, experiences, and learnings with colleagues.

There are two formats currently available to participate in the Relational Leadership Institute: RLI Weekly Sessions or RLI Symposium.

Relational Leadership Institute Symposium:

Relational Leadership Institute has been historically offered as a four-day, immersive symposium. The program will include a combination of large and small group interaction designed to move you through the four domains of Relational Leadership™: manage self; foster teamwork; coach & develop; and accelerate change. Each session builds on the next, making attendance at all 4 dates a requirement to participate.

• Spring 2025 RLI: March 17-18 and April 9-10, 8:30 AM – 4:30 PM each day (in person)
  • Space is limited: REGISTER HERE!
• Summer 2025 RLI: June 2-3 and 12-13, 8:30 AM – 4:30 PM each day (on Zoom)
  • Space is limited: REGISTER HERE!

Relational Leadership Institute Weekly Sessions:

Relational Leadership @ Carolina has offered our Relational Leadership Institute as a weekly workshop series from August 21 through October 30, 2024. The series consists of 11 in-person sessions of 2 hours each. Each session includes brief didactics, large group discussion, and small breakout group work. Participants will complete asynchronous assignments between sessions, including skills practice and individual reflections on curricular content.

• Session #1 (August 21, 2024, 3-5pm): Welcome, RL Framework & Psych Safety
• Session #2 (August 28, 2024, 3-5pm): Narrative Leadership: Story of Self
• Session #3 (September 4, 2024, 3-5pm): One-to-Ones
• Session #4 (September 11, 2024, 3-5pm): Power and Positionality
• Session #5 (September 18, 2024, 3-5pm): Culture of Feedback
• Session #6 (September 25, 2024, 3-5pm):: Teaming and 5Dynamics
• Session #7 (October 2, 2024, 3-5pm): Collaborative Decision Making
• Session #8 (October 9, 2024, 3-5pm): Transforming Conflict: Diagnosis
• Session #9 (October 16, 2024, 3-5pm): Transforming Conflict: Communicating through Conflict
• Session #10 (October 23, 2024, 3-5pm): Advocacy and Narrative Leadership: Story of Us & Now
• Session #11 (October 30, 2024, 3-5pm): Commitments and Closure

The total time commitment for participants is expected to be 26-28 hours, in parity with the Relational Leadership Institute Symposium. Each session builds on the next, making attendance at all 11 dates a requirement to participate. The program will be hosted on campus and will include a combination of large and small group interactions designed to move you through the four domains of Relational Leadership™: manage self; foster teamwork; coach & develop; and accelerate change. All sessions will take place on the UNC-CH campus.

WORKSHOPS

In addition to the Relational Leadership Institute, RL@C offers individual workshops on each of the topics below. Workshops can include a group check-in activity, an introduction to the Relational Leadership Framework, and an introduction to one or more of the following topics:

Psychological Safety and Group Commitments in Teamwork
Establishing psychological safety is the first step towards developing high functioning teams. In this session, we explore the meanings and elements of psychological safety, and we practice developing team norms as a strategy for understanding and communicating our own and others conditions for safety in teams.

Narrative Leadership: The Story of Self for Communicating Our Values
We can never tell our whole life story to others, but Narrative Leadership is a tool with which we can craft a brief story that helps others understand the values that motivate us. Through the reflection and interpretation of our own experiences, Narrative Leadership helps us inspire and teach others. In this session, we explore the importance of stories in connecting us with others, and participants will practice using the challenge-choice-outcome framework to share a story in small groups.

One-to-Ones: Intentional Conversations to Explore Others’ Values
Listening is one of the most important skills effective leaders demonstrate… how well we listen has a major impact on both our job effectiveness and the quality of our relationships. This session introduces the skill of One-to-Ones, a technique for engaging others authentically and building connection to understand others and invite them to share their stories.

Power and Positionality: How Our Lenses Affect Our Interactions
Effective, relational leaders are aware of their own positionality: the ways in which we both shape and are shaped by our culture, experiences, and identities. Lack of awareness helps to perpetuate systemic inequities and oppression and limits our ability to align our intentions with our impact. In this session, participants take inventory of the lenses that influence their perception, and then cultivate a relational mindset based on three core beliefs: people can grow, people are part of a system, and people matter.

Culture of Feedback: Providing and Receiving Feedback for Effective Teamwork
Research shows teams with a growth mindset and a culture of feedback have better morale and higher success rates; individuals are more likely to speak up, take on leadership roles, and make the improvements needed to ensure the highest quality teamwork possible. This session offers a mindset and framework to assess our current work, and process tools to improve feedback mechanisms that will increase innovation, iteration, and growth in your teams.

Teaming and 5 Dynamics
Teams are constantly evolving and learning how to work together. Leaders today in all fields need to be skilled in teaming: the processes that promote institutional learning and growth in dynamic, flexible work environments. This session explores stages of team development, and introduces the 5 Dynamics framework as a tool for individuals and teams to optimize both their overall performance and the joy and satisfaction they feel in professional settings.

Collaborative Decision Making
Effective teams elicit diverse perspectives in problem solving and making decisions, but power dynamics and structural challenges can amplify some voices while silencing others. In this session, we review common decision making tools, and participants practice several specific exercises you can use with your team to help assure that all perspectives are heard, and that everyone involved has a role in selecting the most best course of action for your projects.

Diagnosing and Transforming Conflict
Each year, organizations and teams lose resources, time, and momentum due to unresolved conflict. Teams that have positive strategies to handle conflict report much lower turnover, better productivity, and increased overall success and satisfaction, both individually and institutionally. This session provides resources to guide individuals through conflict internally through self-awareness and reflection, and then interpersonally through conducting a Difficult Dialogue.

Advocating for Change
Relational Leadership teaches key concepts and skills to create change within our teams, organizations, and culture. In this session, we explore the role of power in change strategies, and participants will practice skills that motivate others to engage in transformative action.