Porter Knight

How does your brain work? How do you prepare it to function well? In this session we’ll explore ways to train your brain to focus and develop skills to cope when things go wrong. These strategies will help you improve and protect your mental focus so you can keep your brain in the game even when you’re overwhelmed and feeling stressed. You’ll leave with practical skills you can put to use immediately.

Learning Objectives:
- Apply strategies to prepare brain to function effectively and bolster focus throughout the day
- Recognize different brain responses to action
- Identify consequences of distraction and multitasking & Develop skills to offset those impacts

Happiness is not a feeling, it is state of mind. Specific actions within your control generate happiness (and unhappiness!). In this session we’ll examine how happiness impacts your performance as well as your physical health, and what steps you can take to bring greater joy and satisfaction to your everyday life. You’ll leave happier, and ready to help others cultivate their happiness as well.

Learning Objectives:
- Describe connection between happiness and productivity
- Explain the “Happiness Equation” and how to solve for happiness yourself
- Identify specific actions you can take to generate happiness on a daily basis
- Assess culture of happiness in your organization and Identify opportunities for improvement (structural and personal)

Perfectionist tendencies get in the way of productivity and negatively impact brain function. Overcoming perfectionism will improve your well-being, strengthen you work performance, and even promote social justice and a more equitable workplace. Join us to learn how to set aside perfectionism, get more done, and feel better.

Learning Objectives:
- Define perfectionism & Identify myths associated with it
- List ways perfectionist tendencies impact personal productivity, individual mental health, and the community
- Apply four solutions to resolve perfectionist tendencies

Burnout is costly to you and to your organization, yet it is increasingly common. We’ll explore causes and warning signs of burnout, discuss options for prevention, and dive into specific strategies that you can apply immediately to protect your own health and performance, as well as create a more supportive, sustainable work environment.

Learning Objectives:
- Identify warning signs of burnout
- Recognize strategies that reduce burnout (not just escapes)
- Apply techniques to manage boundaries

Two sides of the same coin, motivation and procrastination are neurologically related. Unlocking the keys to motivation can loosen procrastination’s hold, and breaking down procrastination leads both to incremental progress as well as upticks in motivation. Join us for this conversation to learn how these phenomenon function in your brain and how you can use that information to boost performance.
Learning Objectives
Examine the neurological, psychological, and behavioral relationships between motivation and procrastination
Identify the causes and impacts of motivation and procrastination
Apply strategies to increase motivation and decrease procrastination

Given the widely documented benefits and the fact that meditation is completely free and has no negative side effects, it is remarkable that it still seems elusive to so many. Join us for this session to debunk the myths of meditation and to learn simple practices that can improve your focus and performance each day. We will focus on meditation’s impact on concentration and performance, and explore ancillary benefits as well.

Learning Objectives:
- Distinguish between mindfulness and meditation, & Recognize/counteract myths of both
- List benefits of meditation, & Determine which are most relevant to you/your life
- Practice three different types of meditation, & Identify specific purpose and value of each

Sometimes the shared drive ends up functioning like an old farm house: you can’t get to the kitchen without going through the bathroom. When file names and placement no longer make sense or reflect the functioning of the organization, it’s time for an overhaul. In this session, we’ll review organizing basics, lay out a framework for re-organization, and establish a plan for implementation. You’ll walk out with a vision, timeline, and plan of execution.

Too much to do and not enough time? Drowning in Email? This session is designed to put you back in charge of your day so you can get more done with less stress. We’ll explore why certain list and calendar tricks work, and the keys to staying on top of email. You’ll leave this session better able to keep track of your commitments, get work done on time, and communicate your capacity to others.

Learning Objectives:
- Recognize benefits of lists from a neuroscience perspective, & Develop list-making skills to maximize brain performance
- Identify techniques to use calendar effectively
- Apply methodology to process email efficiently

Meetings are critical to dynamic, collaborative interactions, and yet for many people they are a dreaded part of the day. Too many meetings and inefficient meetings are cited as top reasons why employees aren’t accomplishing their goals. But it doesn’t have to be that way. In this presentation you’ll learn tips to minizine the number of meetings you go to, and how to maximize the productivity of meetings you attend.

Learning Objectives:
- Learn how to determine when a meeting is necessary and when an alternative communication method may be more efficient
- Develop strategies for being a trustworthy and effective participant to ensure productive meeting outcomes
- Apply best practices for improving participant engagement and meeting outcomes

In a dynamic and complex world, conflict is inevitable, but it doesn’t have to be destructive. This session will introduce key concepts from neuroscience, psychology, and political science to help you understand the nature of conflict and explore strategies for managing it constructively. You’ll leave with practical tools for navigating conflict in personal, workplace, and community settings.

Learning Objectives:
- Describe how conflict can be useful
- Identify how conflict affects emotional and cognitive responses and impacts relationships
- List strategies to manage your response in the face of conflict, and strategies to promote productive engagement

Getting results is what matters. But productive communications is more than getting people to do what you want – it’s a two-way street that requires thought and skill. We’ll define productive communications and look at how to develop your skills to be more effective. You’ll learn how to express your tasks and priorities so that others can hear them, how to manage expectations, and how to maintain mental focus in the face of conflict.

Learning Objectives:
- Define elements of productive communication
- Practice use of effective strategies for listening and sharing
- Learn strategies to manage expectations

In this workshop we’ll look at how to break out of the “crazy busy” culture. We’ll unpack the language and mindset of our too-busy world, and explore strategies to help grow capacity and resilience so you can handle the many demands you face without succumbing to stress and burnout. You’ll leave able to work (and lead) in a way that is healthy, steady and productive.

Learning Objectives:
- Contrast “busy” behavior and “productive” behavior, define your own goals and values related to each
- Examine your language and mindset and Adopt positive perspectives
- Apply strategies to manage expectations and communicate capacity

Most of us have a love/hate relationship with email. On the one hand it makes it incredibly easy to communicate with others. But it can be time consuming and feel never-ending. And while we have lots of assumptions about the cultural expectations of email usage, those expectations are unwritten and rarely discussed constructively. Join us for this deep dive into the true purpose of email, how to send email that others will be glad to receive, and how to process email effectively.

Learning Objectives:
- Recognize appropriate role of email in the workplace and our culture
- Apply best practices to writing emails that get results
- Use new methodology to process email effectively