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Learning and Development

The Rockefeller University is committed to providing the community with various learning and development opportunities to empower employees to expand their skill sets and excel in research and leadership roles. By prioritizing continuous learning, Rockefeller University hopes to cultivate a more innovative, adaptable, inclusive and motivated community.

MyCareer
MyDevelopment
L&D Insights
Manager Bootcamp
Leadership Workshops

Announcements

***UPDATED*** MyCareer Has Evolved! Now with a sharper focus on workplace success and career growth

***NEW*** Introducing MyDevelopment! Empowering personal growth to support success at work and beyond.

FEATURED SERIES Manager Bootcamp. Practical leadership development for today’s managers—new content coming soon!

RU/Cornell Leadership Workshops: The March workshop is underway! Join us in April to learn about Social Styles.

Monthly Human Element Series is now L&D Insights: This month we are focusing on Networking

COMING SOON: In-Person "Lunch n' Learn" Training Sessions are under development! Dates to be announced summer 2026!

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L&D Insights

“L&D Insights” are our weekly LinkedIn Learning recommendations featured in The Human Element newsletter. Each month, we focus on a different learning theme, with weekly selections that explore the topic from multiple perspectives.

Catch up on past series below!

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This Month:

Networking

Boost your networking skills! This path offers tips for beginners, experienced networkers, and anyone who finds networking challenging. Build a strong foundation, approach conferences and events with confidence, and develop practical strategies to form meaningful connections while cultivating lasting professional relationships.

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Start the year with purpose and momentum. This learning path helps turn resolutions into real progress by building meaningful goals, clarifying a compelling personal or team vision, and using SMART goal-setting techniques aligned to organizational priorities. Gain practical tools to stay motivated, focused, and flexible as you drive results all year long.

Make time work for you. This learning path builds essential time management skills to help you focus on what matters most, reduce distractions, and work with greater intention. Learn practical strategies and explore how Microsoft Outlook and AI tools can support planning, prioritization, and productivity in your day-to-day work.

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Mentorship Awareness Month
highlights the importance of mentoring in personal and professional growth, encouraging individuals to seek out mentors and also give back by guiding others. Mentorship is vital for personal and professional growth, providing guidance, support, and insight, as well as helping individuals navigate challenges, develop new skills, and expand their networks. Celebrating this month reminds us of the power of connection and shared knowledge in shaping future leaders.

Change and uncertainty are inevitable—not just in organizations, but in life as well. This learning path equips individuals with the tools to protect their well-being, transform pressure into strength, and lead with confidence through personal and professional transitions. From mastering change management fundamentals to fostering resilience and stability, these courses provide actionable strategies to help you adapt, grow, and thrive in an ever-evolving world.

AI is revolutionizing the workplace and research by automating tasks, enhancing decision-making, and boosting productivity. It streamlines operations and aids in data analysis. In research, AI can accelerate discoveries and innovation. However, it's crucial to be aware of risks like bias, privacy concerns, and dependency on technology, as well as its limitations in understanding context and human emotions. This pathway explores principles, ethics, and practical applications of responsible AI.

This Workplace Conflict Awareness Month, we emphasize recognizing and addressing workplace conflicts. By fostering open communication, understanding differing perspectives and conflict styles, and developing resolution skills, we can create a culture of respect and collaboration, boosting productivity, morale, and overall work dynamics.

Mental health in the workplace boosts morale, productivity, and job satisfaction. Building resilience and psychological flexibility helps employees handle stress, adapt to change, and stay balanced. Let’s use this month to foster open conversations and support lasting mental wellness.

Self-advocacy in the workplace is essential for professional growth and job satisfaction. It empowers employees to communicate their needs, set boundaries, and seek opportunities aligned with their goals. By speaking up respectfully and confidently, individuals can ensure fair treatment, gain access to resources, and contribute more effectively to their team and organization.

This month, we're focusing on self-care in the workplace and how to proactively avoid burnout. We'll be exploring strategies that support a healthier, more sustainable approach to work by encouraging small, mindful shifts that protect your well-being. Together, they offer a toolkit for staying grounded, energized, and resilient—especially in fast-paced or high-demand environments.

This August, we’re diving into emotional intelligence—what it is, why it matters, and how to grow it. Each week, we'll explore its foundations, the role it plays in personal and professional success, ways to build self-awareness and empathy, and how to lead with emotional intelligence to foster stronger teams and relationships.

This September, we’re refining our understanding of leadership by exploring how it shows up in all directions—not just top-down. We’ll focus on leading with a growth mindset, adapting our approach to different behavior styles, and leading with empathy. Together, these elements help us lead more effectively, connect more meaningfully, and grow stronger as individuals and teams.

This October learning path will help you master managing up, the art of building effective relationships with your manager and senior leaders. You’ll learn to align with different management styles, communicate effectively with leaders, and respectfully challenge decisions. You'll also discover strategies for collaborating with peers, managing difficult personalities, and fostering productive workplace relationships for greater success.

Team building is crucial for fostering collaboration, effective communication, and achieving long-term success. This November, we’ll focus on building stronger, more connected teams. Explore mindful team building, the importance of trust, engagement, and psychological safety, and discover strategies to overcome challenges and strengthen team resilience.

This month’s learning path helps you strengthen your financial well-being—from building core money skills and improving spending habits to overcoming financial fear and teaching kids about money. Gain confidence, shift your mindset, and use practical tools to build stability, grow wealth, and support your family’s long-term success.

management training

FEATURED SERIES: Manager Bootcamp

Whether you are a new manager, or an experienced manager looking to brush up on some skills, our Manager Bootcamp series is a great place to start!

NOTE: Some trainings may reference corporate or industry terminology that may not apply to our mission-driven, academic research environment. Please focus on the underlying best practices.

Feel free to reach out with any questions or feedback.

leadership training

Cornell-Rockefeller Leadership Certificate

This customized leadership certificate has been created for employees of Rockefeller University to advance performance and productivity through effective communication, conflict management, building trust and creating inclusive environments.

A total of six workshops within an 18 month period are required to earn the Cornell-Rockefeller Leadership Certificate.

Workshops are offered on a spring and fall semester schedule. Each workshop will be four-hours in total, held virtually at Rockefeller University.

Have a topic you'd like covered in one of our leadership workshops? Email us at learning@rockefeller.edu!

l d examples past workshops

In this interactive pair of sessions, we will discuss how to be an effective leader in a multi-generational workplace. We will explore practical strategies to bridge generational differences and leverage the unique strengths of each age group to drive collaboration and performance. We will examine techniques for navigating varying communication styles, work expectations, and values in the service of fostering an inclusive culture where every team member feels engaged and respected. Importantly, we will do so while recognizing that while there are broad generational differences, each member of your team and your organization is an individual that may not conform to our expectations of how an "older", "younger", or "middle-aged" might behave.

Make your message impossible to ignore. In this interactive two-part workshop, you will discover how to turn data and ideas into visual stories that capture attention and stick with your audience. Learn strategies you can use right away to make complex concepts clear, engaging, and memorable.

In this session, participants will engage in an individual decision-making process and then meet in small teams to reach a group decision. We will use the debrief of this exercise to introduce the rational decision-making model, learn about common decision biases, and discuss ways in which participants can improve their decisions. Participants will leave with checklists to ask themselves before a big decision and a checklist to ask others when they are making recommendations.

This interactive 4-hour workshop helps professionals navigate stress, uncertainty, and workplace anxiety with emotional intelligence. Participants will practice practical tools for self-management, authentic support, empathy, and tactful communication. You'll leave day 2 with strategies you can apply the very next day to improve resilience, trust, and effectiveness on your team.

So often in our professional and personal lives we’re called to craft an argument and articulate our point of view.  How do you this and still engender trust, credibility and respect?  Using a communications lens, this session will unpack the components of a well-structured argument where you build a case with evidence, analyze your audience by anticipating how they might receive it and then work towards messaging your point of view, clearly and concisely.  This interactive session will invite participants to consider frameworks and practice what it looks like to craft an argument and articulate their point of view in a manner that’s relevant to their lives.

This session will focus on building psychologically safe environments where there is a shared belief that this is a safe place for interpersonal risk taking.  This is critical in organizations where individuals need to speak up, voice alternative points of view, challenge the group and admit mistakes in order to course correct.  Participants will explore the four parts of psychological safety which are inclusion safety, learner safety, contributor safety and challenger safety and develop strategies for implementing in their own environments.

This session will build upon leadership competencies through reflective listening, self assessment and focusing on building personal resiliency. Additionally, participants will examine their working styles, which is based on behaviors and how you come across to others at work. Through breakout activity based on working style, participants will identify top three strengths, three weaknesses, and a statement on style, considering how it collaborates with other working styles.

In this interactive workshop, participants will explore the essential skills of giving and receiving feedback in the workplace. The first part of the session will focus on delivering constructive feedback, emphasizing its critical role in employee development and organizational growth. Attendees will learn and practice a proven model for giving feedback effectively. The second part of the workshop will focus on receiving feedback. Participants will discover how embracing feedback can enhance their self-awareness and professional growth. Also, participants will learn frameworks for receiving feedback and explore the feedforward technique, a forward-looking method that shifts the focus from past performance to future development. Attendees will have the opportunity to practice these strategies with partners.

Disagreeing respectfully refers to the ability to speak openly and honestly about who you are, how you are feeling and what your experience of a given situation is, while allowing space for others to do the same, even when emotions run high.  Learning from and listening to people who have different viewpoints is a crucial, yet rare, skill in today’s organizations.  The inability to disagree respectfully can lead to hurt relationships on teams, a limited understanding of stakeholders and their needs and more. Leaders who can bring people together, despite their differences, are desperately needed as part of a solution. Learning to listen with curiosity, to really understand another person’s point of view, without necessarily having to agree with that point of view, will strengthen your leadership skills and thereby improve your organization and also society.

In this session, you will learn techniques for fostering trust and empowering employees through transparent communication and consistent behavior. Explore how to create a supportive and psychologically safe environment where ownership and initiative are naturally encouraged. Delve into the four core components of authentic leadership theory: Self-Awareness, Relational Transparency, Balanced Processing, and Internalized Moral Perspective. Understand how these elements contribute to fostering a culture of ownership and trust. Identify your core values and understand their role in sustaining authenticity as a leader. Gain insights into how aligning your actions with your values can enhance your leadership effectiveness and build a strong, ownership-driven culture.

In this workshop, participants will learn the fundamentals of negotiation as it applies to advocating for themselves in the workplace. Through interactive role-playing exercises, they will practice identifying their interests, articulating their needs, and asking for resources and opportunities within their organization. Building upon these skills , participants will then delve deeper into advanced negotiation strategies for achieving mutually beneficial outcomes in various professional settings. By the end of the session, participants will have a comprehensive toolkit to confidently advocate for their own success within their organization.

This interactive two-part workshop will provide you with strategies you can use to advance your public speaking skills. You will learn how to tailor your message to the communication situation and to your audience, how to improve your confidence, how to prepare a memorable message using storytelling, how to be a more engaging presenter, how to communicate your ideas visually, and how to respond to questions from members of your listening audience.

Selecting the best candidates to fit your team starts with effective interviewing. These choices are not just about creating test questions or reading resumes but also about managing the interpersonal communication between the hiring manager and the candidate. This session will focus not just on the “how” of hiring and interviewing but on the “why” so that individual managers and decision-makers can be flexible and agile in changing environments and with changing needs.

The word conflict has a negative connotation for many people. However, conflict is not necessarily bad; it can be an opportunity for improvement. Most often, problems arise when conflict is ignored in the hopes that it will go away on its own. Jumping right into problem-solving mode before taking the time to fully understand a conflict also has its drawbacks. Effectively managing conflict begins with fully diagnosing it to identify the root cause or underlying issues. This workshop will give you the tools to navigate difficult situations effectively.

The ability to adapt and quickly rebound from setbacks is a critical skill in the workplace. Not only does a resilient and adaptable workforce support one another to get work done more efficiently and effectively, but this flexibility can also help to increase job satisfaction, self-esteem, employee engagement, communication, and innovation and provide individuals with a sense of purpose without sacrificing their authentic selves.

This workshop will take a deeper look at why fostering resilience in yourself and others has become a critical skill for successfully increasing performance and building a more adaptable workforce while rebounding from challenges and changes that can impact our sense of belonging at work.

In these two sessions, you'll learn to become an effective mentor with the ability to build relationships in an effort to provide guidance and feedback for employee career growth. Gain the respect of others, add value to the organization, and display your credibility as a career adviser/advocate by effectively influencing employees to enhance their performance and commitment to achieving career goals.

Master critical communication skills to become an effective leader with the ability to build relationships and manage workplace communications in order to be heard and understood by others. Gain the commitment of others and add value to the organization by being clear about your expectations and the desired results you want to achieve while assessing the competence and performance of those you lead.

Whether you have a question about our programing or an idea for new content, we welcome all forms of feedback!
Email us at learning@rockefeller.edu