Join us for an inspiring and interactive presentation about how we can create school communities where every person feels valued and respected, where every person feels a sense of dignity.

In this Community Meeting, we are joined by Tami Pyfer, Chief External Affairs Officer for UNITE and the co-creator of The Dignity Index which offers practical tools for embedding dignity into schools and communities. Facilitated by Amy L. Eva, Ph.D., Associate Education Director at the Greater Good Science Center, this gathering focuses on dignity as a guiding principle in both our relationships and our teaching practice.

Together, we’ll explore:

• The core principles of dignity and why they matter for students, educators, and families

• Practical ways to weave respect, compassion, and understanding into everyday school life

• How dignity can enhance school climate, strengthen belonging, and bridge divides in challenging times

In today’s climate, where disagreements can easily fracture relationships, dignity reminds us to honor the inherent worth of every individual and to ensure all voices are heard. Come connect with fellow educators and leave feeling grounded in the shared work of creating more inclusive, respectful, and compassionate learning environments.

Made for educators, open to all—this session offers practical insights and skills that can be applied in classrooms, schools, and beyond. Come ready to reflect, learn, and practice new approaches in a supportive community!

Register here for this free online event. Please note, this event has been standardized to the Eastern Time Zone.

Are you busy... but not happy?

In today’s fast-paced world, many of us are constantly rushing - juggling endless to-do lists, battling burnout and struggling to find space for joy. At this special event, Professor Cassie Holmes will reveal how we can reclaim control of our time and rediscover what truly makes us feel alive.

Drawing on cutting-edge research and personal stories, Cassie will share practical strategies to help you stop feeling time-poor and start living more intentionally. You’ll learn why more activity doesn’t always mean more fulfilment - and how making small shifts in how you spend your hours can lead to a happier life.

Whether you’re overwhelmed by busyness or simply want to use your time more wisely, this event offers science-backed insights and inspiring ideas to help you feel more present, purposeful and content.

About the speaker

Cassie Holmes is a professor at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management and an award-winning teacher and researcher - and a bestselling author of Happier Hour: How to Beat Distraction, Expand Your Time, and Focus on What Matters Most. Cassie’s research examines such questions as how focusing on time (rather than money) increases happiness, how the meaning of happiness changes over the course of one’s lifetime, and how much happiness people enjoy from extraordinary versus ordinary experiences. Cassie’s work has been published in such top-tier academic journals as Psychological Science and the Journal of Consumer Research. Her work has also featured on NPR and in publications such as The Economist, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and Scientific American.

Prof. Holmes developed and teaches the course Applying the Science of Happiness to Life Design, which has become one of UCLA’s most popular courses. Pulling insights from research in psychology and behavioral decision making, this course provides students with ideas and tools to apply to improve their day-to-day living and the design of their career and life overall. She also has a Ph.D. from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, and a B.A. from Columbia.

Register here for this free online event. Please note, this event has been standardized to the Eastern Time Zone.

Leading in disruption requires more than new skills — it requires deeper leadership capacity. The ability to understand the human-centered aspects of leadership and connect deeply with others is critical in today’s hybrid workplaces and increasingly technology-saturated world.

Yet leadership capacity can be constrained by internalized assumptions and limiting beliefs. In this webinar, we’ll explore how belief barriers hold people back, preventing leaders from addressing shared issues or adapting to new people and situations they encounter. You’ll gain insight into how, as challenges become more complex and interconnected, leaders must be able to recognize polarities, navigate competing tensions, and “zoom out” to see broader systems.

Key to expanding leadership capacity is highly individualized development that includes personalized coaching. Leadership coaching provides a supportive environment where leaders can uncover and overcome internal barriers, explore new perspectives, and challenge assumptions, facilitating profound personal and professional growth. Through coaching, leaders can gain clarity, enhance their decision-making skills, foster stronger relationships with their teams, and increase resilience, especially in uncertain environments.

Ultimately, organizations that go beyond skill development, supporting individuals in embracing new perspectives, growing bigger mindsets, and overcoming belief barriers can dramatically increase leadership capacity. Join us to unlock new levels of effectiveness at your organization by expanding how your leaders at all levels think and lead through uncertainty.

What You’ll Learn

• Identify internalized assumptions that serve as belief barriers holding back leadership capacity

• Recognize polarities and shift to a both / and mindset to approach them

• Increase adaptability and build individual leadership capacity at your organization

Register here for this free online event. Please note, this event has been standardized to the Eastern Time Zone.

A Place for Connection, Discussion and Restoration with Kathryn Lovewell

Compassion Cafe is a fortnightly, informal meet-up for the whole, global GCC family to come together. In a warm and welcoming atmosphere, you’ll find connection with others, support in your compassion practice and ideas for developing it, wherever you are in your personal journey.

This is a free space to learn, share and simply connect. So if you’ve ever wondered ‘am I knowledgeable enough to take part?’ or ‘do I have enough experience?’, please know that the only requirement to attend these get-togethers is for you to show up! You don’t have to be a GCC member. And if you just want to listen, that’s totally fine too!

Each meet-up will include some of the following:

• Prompts to encourage some personal reflections

• Practical suggestions and advice for developing your compassion practice

• Free space for those that want to share their thoughts and experiences

• Optional small group spaces for sharing

• Inspiration for putting compassion into action in your personal life, your community and the wider world

Register here for this free online event. Please note, this event has been standardized to the Eastern Time Zone.

New evidence drawing on data from millions of U.S. workers reveals that workplace wellbeing is a critical driver of productivity, retention, talent attraction, and ultimately, profitability, even though it is often dismissed as a “nice-to-have” perk. In this session, Dr. George Ward will share research from his recent book, Why Workplace Wellbeing Matters: The Science Behind Employee Happiness and Organizational Performance (Harvard Business Review Press, 2025), and highlight how organizations shape both how people think about their jobs and how they feel while doing them. He believes it’s time to take happiness seriously.

Using insights from the world’s largest dataset on employee wellbeing—collected in partnership with Indeed and spanning millions of workers across industries and countries—this session will discuss why workplace wellbeing goes far beyond individualized wellness programs. Instead, wellbeing should be seen as a core organizational capability, fundamentally shaped by how work is designed and managed. Join us to learn how organizations can foster employee happiness, and how these choices may translate into performance gains for companies that prioritize their people’s wellbeing.

George Ward is an Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD. He earned his PhD from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and was subsequently the Mary Ewart Junior Research Fellow in Economics at Somerville College, University of Oxford. He has published widely in leading academic journals across economics, psychology, and management, and is the coauthor of Why Workplace Wellbeing Matters (Harvard Business Review Press) and The Origins of Happiness (Princeton University Press). His work focuses on the study of human wellbeing, using Big Data and cutting-edge statistical techniques to address pressing challenges in business and public policy.

Register here for this free online event. Please note, this event has been standardized to the Eastern Time Zone.

Mentors talk to you, sponsors talk about you. 

Drawing from her research on power, status, and social hierarchy and experience building executive leadership programming, Dr. Chow transforms our understanding of networking and career advancement by differentiating sponsorship from mentorship. She will discuss the core ideas from her book, The Doors You Can Open, sharing how looking for opportunities to be a sponsor – rather than a beneficiary of sponsorship – can change how we approach our relationships, build trust, and elevate others, ourselves, and our communities.

Rosalind Chow is an Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior and Theory at Carnegie Mellon University. Her research, teaching, and writing focus on how we all participate in social systems in ways that have implications for the maintenance or attenuation of inequity. Her current research focuses on how people can use their social connections to elevate others via sponsorship. 

Chow serves as the faculty director for CLIMB, offered through the Tepper School of Business in partnership with Deloitte. CLIMB focuses on preparing Black and Latino professionals for leadership positions in the accounting industry. Prior to CLIMB, Chow served as the founding faculty director for the Executive Leadership Academy, an executive leadership program addressing the challenges facing the advancement of Black leaders in the Pittsburgh region. 

Chow holds a BA in Psychology from Columbia University and a PhD in Organizational Behavior from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She currently lives in Pittsburgh, PA, with her husband, Jeff Galak, and their two children, Lia and Simon.

The Positive Links Speaker Series, presented by Michigan Ross’ Center for Positive Organizations, offers inspiring and practical science-based strategies to build and bolster thriving organizations. Attendees learn from leading positive organizational scholars and connect with our community of academics, students, staff, and leaders. 

Hosted by Monica Worline, Faculty Director, Center for Positive Organizations

Register here for this free online event. Please note, this event has been standardized to the Eastern Time Zone.

Good listening isn’t just passive attention; it is an active tool that shapes how people think, feel, and connect. Professor Guy Itzchakov’s research shows that high-quality listening, marked by focused attention, accurate understanding, and a non-judgmental intent, facilitates profound introspection, self-disclosure, and social connection. When employees feel truly heard, they report higher job satisfaction and performance, stronger commitment, and lower burnout and turnover intentions. Experiments also show that being genuinely listened to reduces social defensiveness, promotes self-reflection, and can depolarize attitudes and disagreements.  

In this Positive Links session, Prof. Itzchakov will share his cutting-edge research and unpack what makes listening “high quality” and why it matters for leaders, employees, and practitioners. Drawing on studies from his lab and work with organizations worldwide, he will explain the components of good listening and demonstrate concrete behaviors that make people feel understood. Join us to learn how high-quality listening builds trust, liking, and relationship satisfaction; how it can bridge ideological divides and spark innovation by reducing defensiveness; and how to cultivate a listening culture through training and practice. By the end of the session, you will have research-based tools to foster positive relationships and build organizations where people can thrive.

Guy Itzchakov is an Associate Professor and Department Chair in the Department of Human Services at the University of Haifa, where he directs the “Interpersonal Listening and Social Influence Lab”. Guy received his PhD in Business Administration from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2017) and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto (2018).  

His research focuses on the effects of high-quality listening on listeners’ and speakers’ emotions, attitudes, and behaviors, as well as listening training in organizations. Guy’s research includes laboratory experiments, field studies, and listening training studies. The latter examines how listening training programs in organizations impact managers, employees, and organizational outcomes. Other research lines include attitudes and persuasion, attitude ambivalence, and goal setting.  

In 2023, Guy received an early career award from the Attitudes and Social Influence Group at the Society of Personality and Social Psychology. His research appeared in leading journals in Social and Organizational Psychology, such as the Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, Harvard Business Review, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Emotion, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, and Applied Psychology: An International Review. His research received funding from the Israel Science Foundation, the Israel-U.S. Bi-national Science Foundation, and the Templeton World Charity Foundation. Guy also writes a blog for Psychology Today called “The Listening Lens”.

The Positive Links Speaker Series, presented by Michigan Ross’ Center for Positive Organizations, offers inspiring and practical science-based strategies to build and bolster thriving organizations. Attendees learn from leading positive organizational scholars and connect with our community of academics, students, staff, and leaders. 

Hosted by Monica Worline, Faculty Director, Center for Positive Organizations. 

Register here for this free online event. Please note, this event has been standardized to the Eastern Time Zone.

A troubling trend is emerging in today’s workplace: employee morale and overall satisfaction are in sharp decline, despite companies investing more in wellness initiatives than ever before. What’s missing? Contrary to popular beliefs and large investments from companies, “add-on” offerings like wellness classes, mindfulness training, and healthy lifestyle initiatives are not perceived as helpful for improving employee wellness. Many organizations misunderstand wellness―it’s not a program or a box to check. Instead, employees’ actual day-to-day experiences at work and interactions with their leaders are far more important than wellness programs or initiatives. 

Learn about a science-backed blueprint for fostering healthier, more productive work environments rooted in actionable steps for leaders to become “Generators”―the leaders organizations and employees value most who cultivate genuine connections, create a positive team culture, and help employees achieve their work and life goals. Gain a clear, data-driven path forward and a concrete plan to turn the session’s insights into action―to become the Generators you and others have the potential to be.

About Sawyer:

Dr. Katina Sawyer is an internationally recognized expert on the science of workplace wellness. She is the co-author of Leading for Wellness: How to Create a Team Culture Where Everyone Thrives and co-host of the Leading for Wellness podcast, which brings research-backed insights to people passionate about building thriving workplaces. As co-founder of Workr Beeing, Dr. Sawyer is on a mission to make evidence-based wellness strategies accessible to employees everywhere. 

A TEDx speaker and a thought leader featured in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Fast Company, and other major outlets, Dr. Sawyer has delivered hundreds of presentations to audiences around the world. Her expertise has also been showcased on both local and national news, where she brings clarity and inspiration to conversations about what it takes to foster wellbeing at work. 

Dr. Sawyer is also an award-winning researcher and an Associate Professor of Management and Organizations at the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management. She has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters — which focus on leadership, employee flourishing, and organizational culture — many of which have been published in top journals such as Journal of Applied Psychology and Administrative Science Quarterly. Katina has received over 15 national research and teaching awards, including the SIOP Early Career Award for Humanistic I-O Psychology, the University of Michigan’s Positive Organizational Scholarship Publication of the Year, and Philadelphia’s 40 Under 40 distinction. 

Through her Psychology Today blog, her “Leading for Wellness” podcast, and her company Workr Beeing, Dr. Sawyer is widely recognized as a bridge-builder between science and practice — empowering individuals and organizations to create cultures where everyone can thrive.

The Positive Links Speaker Series, presented by Michigan Ross’ Center for Positive Organizations, offers inspiring and practical science-based strategies to build and bolster thriving organizations. Attendees learn from leading positive organizational scholars and connect with our community of academics, students, staff, and leaders. 

Hosted by Monica Worline, Faculty Director, Center for Positive Organizations. 

Register here for this free online event. Please note, this event has been standardized to the Eastern Time Zone

This session explores a mindset shift that supports effective action in the face of uncertainty. This shift is well captured by the short phrase, “think like a scientist,” offered as a deliberate contrast to thinking like a (command-and-control) manager. Classically, managers supplied answers and plans and evaluated how well others executed on them.  In contrast, successful leaders of scientific labs offer direction and questions that empower action and help others make sense of data. This is not about being more lenient or laissez-faire, but rather about a new type of discipline. Their model provides an analog that leaders in any industry today can learn from. In short, today’s leaders must abandon the discipline of control to embrace the discipline of learning. Key concepts covered include psychological safety, intelligent failure, and interpersonal skills for high-quality conversations.

About Edmondson:

Amy C. Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School, a chair established to support the study of human interactions that lead to the creation of successful enterprises that contribute to the betterment of society. 

Edmondson has been recognized by the biannual Thinkers50 global ranking of management thinkers since 2011, and most recently was ranked #1 in 2021 and 2023; she also received that organization’s Breakthrough Idea Award in 2019 and Talent Award in 2017.  She studies teaming, psychological safety, and organizational learning, and her articles have been published in numerous academic and management outlets, including Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Harvard Business Review, and California Management Review.

Her 2019 book, The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation and Growth, has been translated into 15 languages. Edmondson’s latest book, Right Kind of Wrong, builds on her prior work on psychological safety and teaming to provide a framework for thinking about, discussing, and practicing the science of failing well. First published in the US and in the UK (Penguin) in September 2023, the book is due to be translated into 24 additional languages and was selected for the Financial Times and Schroders Best Business Book of the Year award. 

Through her Psychology Today blog, her “Leading for Wellness” podcast, and her company Workr Beeing, Dr. Sawyer is widely recognized as a bridge-builder between science and practice — empowering individuals and organizations to create cultures where everyone can thrive.

The Positive Links Speaker Series, presented by Michigan Ross’ Center for Positive Organizations, offers inspiring and practical science-based strategies to build and bolster thriving organizations. Attendees learn from leading positive organizational scholars and connect with our community of academics, students, staff, and leaders. 

Hosted by Monica Worline, Faculty Director, Center for Positive Organizations. 

Register here for this free online event. Please note, this event has been standardized to the Eastern Time Zone.

Social psychologist and leadership expert Adam Galinsky has spent three decades building a method for determining when we are inspiring versus infuriating, and where each of us—presidents, CEOs, coaches, teachers, parents—currently land on that spectrum. In this talk, Galinsky will unpack the science of inspiration and show how inspiring and infuriating leaders represent a universal continuum that is rooted in the very architecture of the human brain. In his research, Galinsky has identified the three universal features in inspiring others. Because these three universal factors can be learned and developed, Galinsky has proven that inspiring leaders aren’t just born—instead, we can inspire or infuriate in any given moment through our behavior, words, or presence. Galinsky will reveal how all of us, regardless of status or circumstance, can be more inspiring more often.

About Galinsky:

Adam Galinsky is the Paul Calello Professor of Leadership and Ethics at Columbia Business School. A world-renowned expert in leadership and negotiation, he authored the recently released INSPIRE: The Universal Path for Leading Yourself and Others and co-authored the bestselling book, Friend & Foe. His books are based in over 300 scientific articles and chapters he has co-authored. His TED Talk, How to Speak Up for Yourself, has over 7.7 million views, highlighting his impact on influence and inspiration. Professor Galinsky has served as a damages expert in a dozen trials involving reputational damage, including Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News and Bacon v. Nygard. His expert reports and testimony have generated more than $1 billion in verdicts and settlements. He is an Executive and Associate Producer on six award-winning documentaries, including two (Horns and Halos (2003) and Battle for Brooklyn (2011)) that were short-listed (final 15) for Best Documentary at the Academy Awards. He received his PhD from Princeton University and his BA from Harvard University.

The Positive Links Speaker Series, presented by Michigan Ross’ Center for Positive Organizations, offers inspiring and practical science-based strategies to build and bolster thriving organizations. Attendees learn from leading positive organizational scholars and connect with our community of academics, students, staff, and leaders. 

Hosted by Monica Worline, Faculty Director, Center for Positive Organizations. 

Register here for this free online event. Please note, this event has been standardized to the Eastern Time Zone.