Programs for Individuals
Join us for a one-day seminar, a four-day certificate program, or create your own training experience.
Whatever path you choose, HDO Professional Training gives you the knowledge, the skills, and the network to create your competitive advantage.
Upcoming Seminars
All of our fall 2021 seminars have reached their registration capacity. Click here to be notified when our spring 2022 course schedule is posted.
Upcoming Certificate Programs
All of our fall 2021 certificate programs have reached their registration capacity. Click here to be notified when our spring 2022 program schedule is posted.
One-Day Professional Seminars
HDO seminars combine cutting-edge research with real-world application to provide practical and immediately relevant tools for solving key organizational problems.
Businesses and nonprofits often bring outside specialists on board to improve their organization’s overall efficiency, creativity, and productivity. Participants in our seminars learn to function as “internal consultants,” equipped with new skills and insights to enhance their existing expertise and institutional knowledge.
By exploring specific human, cultural, and communicatory aspects of organizations alongside professionals from a diverse range of industries, participants leave HDO seminars more effective, well-rounded employees.
Four-Day Certificate Programs
Built on strong academic fundamentals and real-world relevance, HDO Certificate Programs are designed to enhance the portfolios of mid-and upper-level professionals.
Over the course of four days, you will gain immediately applicable tools and skills to accelerate your career, whether your goal is advancing in your current organization, deepening your capacities to excel in your existing role, or developing additional skills for a transition to a new position.
During your four-day experience, you will learn alongside and network with experienced professionals from a diverse range of industries. If you cannot commit to four consecutive days, you can also create your own program over the course of a semester.
Dr. Richmond-Garza was highly engaging and able to transmit an incredible amount of material to us in only a day’s time. The organization of the material and use of theater techniques was very interesting and useful. This seminar will enable me to pursue a more cognizant and consistent approach to understanding motivation.
I’ve been in Executive Management for over 20 years. The courses I took in the HDO program helped me to gain a fresh perspective on management; specifically, on how people work. I highly recommend taking a seminar or obtaining a certification in this program.
Caryn Carlson, a Professor of Psychology at UT Austin, has been teaching in our Professional Training programs since HDO was created in 2011. In this video, Dr. Carlson highlights how training participants will benefit from incorporating an understanding of human psychology into their professional toolkit.
Fall 2021 Seminars & Certificate Programs
NOTE: We are returning to in-person instruction for our fall 2021 courses. We are taking the following steps to provide a safe teaching and learning environment:
- Requiring social distancing
- Reducing participant maximums from 25 persons to 16 persons per course
- Enhancing safety precautions (providing sanitation stations and individually packaged lunches, for example)
- Encouraging all participants to wear masks as much as possible
If you feel ill prior to or on the day of your course(s), please do not come to campus! We will transfer your registration to a future program or semester free of charge.
One-Day Course Catalog
All of our fall 2021 courses have reached their registration capacity. Click here to be notified when our spring 2022 course schedule is posted.
September
The Art and Science of Negotiation (9/14)
Ethics, Culture, and Leadership (9/15)
Communicating for Impact (9/16)
Understanding and Managing Motivations: Uncovering Potentials (9/17)
October
Addressing Change-o-Phobia: Leading Change Up and Down the Org Chart (10/5)
Risky Business: Human Error & Organizational Resiliency (10/6)
Organizational Leadership & Strategy in Uncertain Times (10/7)
Telling Your Story: Crafting an Honest, Effective Organizational Narrative (10/8)
Emotional Intelligence for Leaders (10/19)
Achieving Balance: Time Management for Modern Professionals (10/20)
Understanding and Managing Motivations: Uncovering Potentials (10/21)
Flourishing in the Workplace (10/22)
Certificate Programs
Strategic Leadership
Date: October 19-22, 2021
Registration Fee: $2,300-$3,000
The Strategic Leadership Certificate Program from Human Dimensions of Organizations at UT Austin prepares participants to enhance individual and organizational productivity and efficiency.
Participants in this program gain tools to increase their use of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) in workplace leadership; strategies to develop productive time management, prioritization, and project management techniques; ways to optimize personal and team performance through tools rooted in psychology, neuroscience, and cognitive science; and principles of ethical leadership in situations of competing motivations.
This program has limited space remaining.
Courses Included in This Program:
Emotional Intelligence for Leaders
October 19, 2021
In this information-packed and interactive seminar, Consultant Jim Pacey and Psychologist Jacqueline Evans guide participants in developing the skills and knowledge they need to increase their use of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) in workplace leadership.
Achieving Balance: Time Management for Modern Professionals
October 20, 2021
Due to changes in work and technology, people’s personal and professional lives are more connected than ever before—and more fragmented, busier, more crammed with tasks and obligations. How can we regain work-life balance? How can we achieve confidence, clarity, and the ability to plan? In this one-day seminar, Dr. Clay Spinuzzi will use a mix of research, theory, and experience to discuss the challenges we face in planning our time and projects.
Understanding and Managing Motivations: Uncovering Potentials
October 21, 2021
Literature, especially drama, provides concrete and practical cases that help us to understand how ethical decisions are made and to see how ethics and leadership intersect. This course will use dramatic texts to question the nature of ethical challenges and to explore ideas behind human motivation.
Flourishing in the Workplace
October 22, 2021
This course presents practical strategies for optimizing personal and employee performance via identifying and utilizing character strengths, increasing positive emotion and flow, and creatively conceptualizing issues and solving problems.
Participants identify personally relevant areas for improvement or growth and work individually and in small groups to apply practical strategies presented in the course to enhance satisfaction and success both professionally and personally.
Change Management
Date: November 2-5, 2021
Registration Fee: $2,300-$3,000
The Change Management Certificate Program from Human Dimensions of Organizations at UT Austin prepares participants to lead organizations and individuals through often disruptive change processes.
Participants are given the tools to strategically manage change (and reduce change apprehension), examine the various behaviors and strategies that enable leaders to build resilient teams and organizations, develop practical strategies to enhance organizational diversity and inclusion, and foster behavioral change and exert greater influence.
This program has reached maximum capacity.
Courses Included in This Program:
The Heart of Leadership: Moving Forward Through Change
November 2, 2021
This seminar draws on the disciplines of psychology and ethics to examine the various behaviors and strategies that enable leaders to build resilient teams and organizations. Participants will emerge with confidence that they know how to lead others through change successfully.
Behavior Change & Influence
November 3, 2021
Behavior Change and Influence is led by Psychology Professor and HDO’s Founding Director, Dr. Art Markman. Drawing on research that was the basis for his book, Smart Change (each participant receives a copy), Dr. Markman provides insights from cognitive science to help you achieve your goals in fostering behavioral change and exerting greater influence.
Addressing Change-o-Phobia: Leading Change Up and Down the Org Chart
November 4, 2021
Changing an organization’s policies, culture, or operating procedures requires the utmost in persuasive strategies. Drawing on rhetorical theory and organizational psychology, this workshop will help you understand why people resist change, plan out steps for introducing changes, and design communications promoting change directing at different kinds of audiences.
Designing a More Diverse and Inclusive Organization
November 5, 2021
In this seminar, we explore some specific ways your organization can move beyond rhetoric and good intentions to action and impactful outcomes. In addition to learning about some of the most relevant research in this area, participants will have the chance to collaborate in small groups to generate practical solutions that address real-world problems.
Communication & Leadership
Date: September 14-17, 2021
Registration Fee: $2,300-$3,000
The Communication & Leadership Certificate Program from Human Dimensions of Organizations at UT Austin prepares participants to be strong communicators as leaders or aspiring leaders.
Participants in this program gain skills that enable them to employ communications to empower others, recognize and balance colleagues’ competing motivations, understand how cultural awareness can contribute to ethical and effective decision-making, and deploy the concepts, strategies, and scripts of successful negotiation.
Registration Closed
Courses Included in This Program:
The Art and Science of Negotiation
September 14, 2021
This seminar explores the central concepts, strategies, and scripts of successful negotiation. Negotiation, understood broadly, is an element of nearly every relationship and enterprise. Our premise is that successful negotiators employ interpersonal skills characterized by an artful deployment of both empathy and cunning — that is, heart and mind.
Ethics, Culture, and Leadership
September 15, 2021
This course focuses on how awareness of culture can contribute to ethical leadership and good decision-making in organizations. Participants will use case studies to think about ethical issues in organizations related to topics such as compliance, technology use, health and illness, and sustainability.
These topics are considered from a global perspective emphasizing how cultural values inform ethical decision-making and how different ethical and cultural systems address and define moral issues that arise in organizations.
Communicating for Impact
September 16, 2021
Whether an individual communication is complex or not, it needs to be crafted thoughtfully by engaging your audience in relevant and meaningful ways. If you don’t take the time to do so, your communication will still have an impact, but not necessarily the one you intend.
Understanding and Managing Motivations: Uncovering Potentials
September 17, 2021
Literature, especially drama, provides concrete and practical cases that help us to understand how ethical decisions are made and to see how ethics and leadership intersect. This course will use dramatic texts to question the nature of ethical challenges and to explore ideas behind human motivation.
Organizational Improvement
Date: October 5-8, 2021
Registration Fee: $2,300-$3,000
The Organizational Improvement Certificate Program from Human Dimensions of Organizations at UT Austin prepares participants to build and lead better-functioning organizations.
Participants are given the tools to build better organizational approaches to reduce instances of and mitigate the impacts of human error, utilize historical thinking to act strategically in an atmosphere of uncertainty, craft authentic organizational narratives, and learn strategies for managing and embracing change.
Registration Closed
Courses Included in This Program:
Addressing Change-o-Phobia: Leading Change Up and Down the Org Chart
October 5, 2021
Changing an organization’s policies, culture, or operating procedures requires the utmost in persuasive strategies. Drawing on rhetorical theory and organizational psychology, this workshop will help you understand why people resist change, plan out steps for introducing changes, and design communications promoting change directing at different kinds of audiences.
Risky Business: Human Error & Organizational Resiliency
October 6, 2021
This course provides participants with core scientific principles from psychology and engineering to help better understand what human error is, and ways of building barriers to keep errors from turning into major events. This seminar is helpful for people at all organizational levels and positions. The tools provided will empower participants to reduce error, both in their organizations and their personal lives.
Organizational Leadership & Strategy in Uncertain Times
October 7, 2021
As a participant in this seminar, you will learn how to: (1) leverage historical thinking for effective leadership; (2) become a better strategic thinker; (3) define and guide change, even in a resistant environment; (4) anticipate future changes in your field; and (5) define your self-image as a leader.
Telling Your Story: Crafting an Honest, Effective Organizational Narrative
October 8, 2021
Meaning is critical to personal and organizational success. A strong and honest personal and organizational narrative is the way that we communicate meaning. It is crucial that an organization’s narrative can be naturally interwoven with the personal stories and values of employees and customers, and that it evolves along with the personal journeys of those stakeholders as well as the wider cultural and business environment. Participants in this course will be presented with methods for identifying and developing these narratives.
Additional One-Day Courses
The Cognitive Science of Career Management
Many of the hurdles you face throughout your career are, first and foremost, psychological challenges. In this course, Dr. Markman will show you how to use your different mental systems—motivational, social, and cognitive—to manage these challenges more effectively.
Decisions by Design
Quality decisions can be measured by their level of clarity, efficiency, and commitment. In this seminar, we explore a decision-making approach that focuses on each of these at the right point in the process with the right people involved.
Just Stop: Zen, Stress, Anxiety, and Uncertainty
This course draws on the field of cultural anthropology as well as insights from Japanese Zen to think about how to deal with and embrace the problem of uncertainty in our lives and work.
Maximizing Mental Agility
The course focuses on six areas of thinking that provide easy-to-learn strategies rooted in Cognitive Science that will help people to be more productive, efficient, creative, motivated, and satisfied in their working lives, and beyond.
Millennials, Innovation, and the Future of Work
Millennials are a generation on the rise and yet our understanding of the most diverse cohort in U.S. history often leads to misunderstanding and missed opportunities. Drawing from the field research that informs his new book, Don’t Knock the Hustle: Young Creatives, Tech Ingenuity, and the Making of the New Innovation Economy, UT Austin Professor S. Craig Watkins explores why organizations must reset their views about millennials.
Persuading Like an Entrepreneur
In this one-day seminar, Dr. Clay Spinuzzi uses examples from his research on startups and his expertise in rhetoric and communication to illustrate how persuasion works and to discuss principles that can make us more persuasive — in our ventures, our organizations, and our lives.
Not sure what program is right for you or your team?
Contact us via the chat box in the bottom right of your screen or fill out this brief contact form and we’ll get in touch with you!
