International Ombuds Association
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Virtual Core Course: Understand & Communicate Ombuds Value to Your Organization
Monday, January 23, 2023, 7:00 AM to Wednesday, January 25, 2023, 11:00 AM PDT
Category: Core Courses

Understand & Communicate Ombuds Value to Your Organization

Registration & Fees | Course Description

 

3-Day Course

Monday, January 23
Tuesday, January 24
Wednesday, January 25

7:00 AM–11:00 AM PT | 10:00 AM–2:00 PM ET

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Registration - Max Occupancy of 30 People

Member Type

Early Bird Rates

 6 January 2023

Regular Rates

7 January 2023
IOA Members $800 USD $900 USD
Non-Members $1,100 USD $1,200 USD


Registration is now closed for this course. Check out next month's Core Course: Coaching with Emotional Intelligence

Course Description 

Participants will receive guidance, research, publications, and presentations about Ombuds office value. Participants will create and develop tools to measure and present the value of their program relevant to their stakeholder’s goals, and in alignment with their organization’s mission and values. Finally, participants will strategize how to communicate to specific stakeholder audiences whether they are in an academic, corporate, or public sector.

Goals:
The goal of this core course is for participants to learn how they can show and communicate value of their ombuds office to their organizations. 
General Learning Outcome:
At the end of this core course participants will become familiar with best practices on how to measure the effectiveness and communicate the value of their Ombuds office while ensuring compliance with IOA standards.

Learning Objectives

  1. Participants will develop a practical understanding of key elements regarding ombuds office value. 
  2. Participants will identify measures to capture their office effectiveness aligned with their organization's mission and values.
  3. Participants will explore best practices and strategize how to effectively communicate and present data regarding their office return on investment to organizational leaders and stakeholders. 

Representative Topics

Objective 1: Elements of Effectiveness
  • How to know if your office is effective across sectors (Corporate, Higher Ed, Int’l, Gov)  
    • Level of Organization Support
      • Financial support
      • Reporting lines
      • Trust of IOA standards
      • Trust of integrity of the office and the ombuds
      • Charter approval
      • Access to Sr leadership and stakeholders
      • Invitation to present/train
      • Access to professional development
      • Collaborations with other units
      • Recognition
        • Notes of gratitude
        • Public meeting shout outs
Objective 2: Identifying Measures
  • Visitor traffic
  • Number of cases
  • Year over year comparison
  • IOA Uniform Reporting Categories
  • Referral sources - shows trust in the OO (this is something you don’t have control over- leadership is voluntarily giving the OO accolades)
    • WOM
    • Supervisors
    • HR
    • Legal
    • Sample data collection tools
    • Identifying Themes—how do you know when it’s theme
    • Identifying Recommendations
Objective 3: Communicating and Reporting Effectiveness
  • Charter- operational commitment, parameters, clarifies the role and functions. Collaborative and inclusive creative process with Legal, HR etc. -it’s the 1st big sign of “knowing”
  • Annual reports that help visitor voices be heard, i.e. recommendations that are acted on; 2 versions (Inclusive of Objective 1 and 2)Inclusivity in the organization’s risk management structure. How/where OO is referenced
  • Notes of gratitude
  • Trends 
  • Outreach events, presentations & training
  • Visitor satisfaction surveys- method of collection
  • Reflecting your professional development (AR)
  • Sharing your data via website

Lean more about Core courses.


Instructors

Susan Casino 
  
Susan Casino is a coach and ombuds consultant. She currently serves the United Nation’s World Food Programme as an ombuds consultant. Prior to her work with the UN she was elected to create the first ombuds office for Apollo Education Group and served for a decade as the Director. She has more than 20 years of experience in the field of conflict resolution and leadership development. Ms. Casino holds a BA in Psychology, MBA, and is an alumna of Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation.

Her previous experience includes child abuse investigations, creating and delivering leadership training as well as teaching mediation coursework. She has presented at conferences and symposia on topics of leadership and conflict resolution, taught peer mediation workshops through ACR, and has trained on international platforms. She is currently Co-Chair of the Professional Development Committee for the International Ombudsman Association and has been an active member since 2006. LinkedIn_ SCasino

 

 Lisa Yamagata-Lynch

Lisa Yamagata-Lynch is the University Ombudsperson and Director for the Office of Ombuds Services. Lisa joined the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UT) as a faculty in 2011. In 2019 she was appointed as the ombudsperson and was promoted to director in 2021. Lisa is a Certified Organizational Ombudsman Practitioner® (CO-OP) and a certified trainer in Crucial Conversations and Crucial Accountability. Additionally, she is a Tennessee Rule 31 General Civil and Family Mediator. As a faculty Lisa holds the rank of Professor in the Educational Psychology and Counseling Department, where she served as a program coordinator, associate department head, and director of graduate studies. Prior to joining the faculty at UT, Lisa was a faculty at the University of Utah from 2001 to 2004 as an Assistant Professor and Northern Illinois University from 2004 to 2011 as an Assistant and Associate Professor. Lisa received her doctoral degree in Educational Psychology as well as Instructional Systems Technology from Indiana University, Bloomington. She received her bachelor’s degree in Psychology from 聖心女子大学—The University of Sacred Heart in Tokyo, Japan.

 

Chinyere Ukabiala

Chinyere Ukabiala is the Ombuds at Grinnell College, in Grinnell Iowa.

Prior to establishing the first Ombuds Program at Grinnell College, Ukabiala was engaged in civil law practice in Iowa, and taught Family Law and Negotiations at Drake University Law school for many years. Her previous work experience includes over three decades of law practice in the UK, Nigeria, and the United States, and co-chairing the Women & Minorities Committee of the Iowa State Bar Association.

Ukabiala received her BL at the University College of Law Buckingham, and her JD from Drake University Law School. She is a trained mediator, certified Crucial Conversation Trainer, and a Certified Organizational Ombudsman Practitioner® (CO-OP).

 


Additional Details

Course Limit

30 participants

Professional Development Hours (PDH)

This course has been submitted for PDH. Approval pending. 


Questions?

Email the IOA office at [email protected].

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