Office of Community Engagement Services & Support
Life within a community involves both thoughtful giving and mindful taking. Optimally, each individual, group, and team contributes to the shared positive experience of all members, and also draws from the community’s resources and opportunities to understand and resolve challenges, to make successful interventions, and to refresh the community’s vibrancy and health.
As part of this office’s contribution to the Dornsife community, we have developed a set of customizable services and supports for Dornsife faculty, staff, and students. Explore below to learn about them.
This program is open to all eligible individuals. The Office of Community Engagement operates all of its programs and activities consistent with the University’s Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor.
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Reach out to us whenever you’d like a sounding board, advice, guidance, or resources that you can use…
- to think through the most important elements of individual, departmental, office, or team campaigns and initiatives;
- to plot a course of action or specific strategies for individual, departmental, office, or team goals;
- to understand and respond effectively to sticky situations involving individual, departmental, office, team concerns;
- to receive formal or informal feedback on individual, departmental, office, or team processes in any stage of development, whether conceptual, implemental, closure, or retrospective.
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At this time, two members of our team are graduates of the USC Coaching Program and possess certification as Level 1 coaches. The program is led by Damian Goldvarg, of Goldvarg Consulting Group, renown Master Certified Coach, trainer of coaches, author, and past president of the International Coaching Federation.
The ICF defines coaching as a “thought-provoking, inquiry-based process” wherein the client “chooses the focus of the conversation and benefits” from the coach’s use of specific competencies within the bounds of a confidential relationship.
The purpose of coaching is to assist the client in making clear and meaningful progress towards, and ultimate achievement of, their “most important self-selected goals” (Foreword, Professional Coaching Competencies).
Coaching is a collaborative conversation that remains client-initiated and client-oriented. This means that clients enter a coaching session prepared to do the work of reflecting deeply, ideating, making decisions, building plans, and taking notes for later review while being supported by a coach. The coach assists by asking incisive questions and making observations that spark awareness in the client. The questions and observations work together to challenge the client’s limiting beliefs, freeing them to achieve the mindset and behaviors that are required to create the desired change.
Request this service if you are a Dornsife faculty or staff leader who desires an enhanced opportunity to do the work of…
- crafting a course of action to achieve your own leadership goals or to experience greater success with a leadership challenge
- clarifying your team or office’s goals or people-first strategies for success
- understanding and addressing obstacles that are slowing your team or office’s progress on previously identified improvement targets
- generating a plan to take your team or office’s success to the next level in a supportive, confidential environment
Request this service if you are a Dornsife faculty or staff member who desires an enhanced opportunity to do the work of…
- clarifying your personal or professional goals
- solidifying a course of action for achieving targets for individual growth
- discovering and addressing what is standing in the way of overcoming personal or work attitudes and behaviors that you perceive as obstacles
We also offer small group coaching! Coaching need not be an individual exercise only. Multiply impact by seeking coaching for pairs and small groups (max: 5 persons).
NOTE ON COACHING TO STUDENTS & STUDENT ORGS:
At the current time, our coaching services are available primarily to Dornsife faculty and staff members. For now, however, we are happy to make exceptions for leaders of Dornsife student organizations who desire coaching for their leadership teams and/or select members (5 persons max) or in support of their personal leadership development.
We hope to launch full-service coaching for Dornsife students in the near future.
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Functional success audits are valuable reviews of the key areas in every team/office/department in which problems very often hide in plain sight. Functional success audits help leaders and team members see their everyday operations, priorities, and relationships through fresh eyes and equip them to generate highly impactful solutions and implementation plans. These audits are customizable and can take many forms, but generally, they have these parts:
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- Training Select Members of Your Team. We deliver a Systems for Success training or refresher to key members of your team.
- Support & Discovery. In additional meetings, we collaborate with you and/or your select members to identify the specifics of the systemic analysis most likely to reveal the strengths that your team should maintain and maximize, as well as challenges that your team should properly diagnose and address. We also collaborate to determine when and how best to gather the data.
- Socialization, Solutions, and Next Steps. We assist in socializing the results of the audit to your entire team and presenting collaboratively established solutions and plans for implementation. We can lead this presentation, serve as co-presenters with your select members, or simply offer pointers for handling this part of the process on your own.
This service is available to faculty, staff, and student orgs.
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Dust-ups, Run-ins, and Kerfluffles.
Community is built and maintained in collaboration with others who play meaningful roles within our day-to-day experience. Let’s be honest. Wherever passionate, smart people regularly interact, misunderstandings, clashes, and conflicts will arise from time-to-time. While our subheading makes gentle fun of these moments, in real life, they’re not very fun at all. Every team will need to address difficulty–a blow-up with a lingering or worsening aftermath, a meeting that hit rocky terrain and never recovered, a difference in approach that has caused deterioration in relationships and/or work flow, etc.
DOCE developed the IFAR process to navigate a situation of our own. Because it worked well for us, we believe that it could guide other teams in making their way through moments of heightened tension that are centered on a specific incident or event. The IFAR involves solitary reflection and writing, as well as a facilitated conversation. The experience is designed to move through a comprehensive debrief of the conflict, preliminary plans for preventing replays of recent events, and laying the foundation for greater function in relationships.
Supervisors or facilitators may wish to supplement the IFAR by using it in combination with other conflict resolution interventions or by adding follow-up meetings of their own design to monitor progress.
You’re welcome to download the form and use the process as you see fit or reach out to us for support.
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Is there a particular area of working and winning together–people-first systems change, change management, communication, teaming, or co-writing office handbooks, vision and mission statements, or guiding values–that you would like our support with? No problem! Simply request a consultation and fill us in on the details. During the consultation, we will partner with you to develop the perfect professional learning experience for your team.
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Could you use some support with transforming a group of strong individuals into a cohesive and complementary team? Would you like to provide opportunities for teammates to get to know one another as whole and complete human beings beyond their roles? Would you like to change the ratio of trust to skepticism or of isolation to interdependence among your star contributors? Let us know! Request a consultation and inform us on how we can help. During the consultation, we will partner with you to develop the perfect community-building experience for your team.
Need Something Else?
If you have an idea or a need for our support, but none of the above seem to apply, please reach out to make an email inquiry or set up a consultation. We will make our best efforts to accommodate you, and if we cannot, we will at least attempt to point you in the right direction.