2022 Conference for Office Professionals

The 2022 Conference for Office Professionals will take place in the Piscataqua Room in Holloway Commons (75 Main Street, Durham, NH) at the University of New Hampshire.

Free parking will be available for all conference attendees in the UNH Campus Crossings Visitor Lot.  Those registered will receive additional information on the location and parking by email one week prior to the conference.

Breakfast and lunch will be provided at the conference and is included in the cost of enrollment.

Lodging accommodations in Durham within walking distance of the UNH campus:

• Holiday Inn Express Durham - UNH
• Three Chimneys Inn

8:30am-9:00am
Registration & Breakfast

9:00am-9:10am
Welcome to the 2022 UNH Conference for Office Professionals

9:10am-10:00am
Achieving Your Personal Best
Peter Hughes | High Performing Leadership
We'll cover the essential elements of achieving your personal best at work by examining the individual behaviors and operating philosophies necessary to achieve your career aspirations and long-term success.  This interactive presentation will include table discussions and exercises that will reinforce the core elements including the rhythm of high performance; desires of today’s employees; work and personal challenges facing employees today; characteristics of highly successful people; presenting a powerful image; and personal motivation and accountability.

10:10am - 11:00am 
Navigating Change
Gerri King | Human Dynamics Associates
Organizations change, and often at a breathtaking rate. Ongoing change can be threatening and stressful to employees and teams. Rumors, miscommunication, conflict, poor concentration, and low energy can all be unintended byproducts. But organizations and employees can get ahead of potential negative impacts and remain effective and healthy during change by learning techniques for managing it. In this interactive presentation, you'll build a toolkit of skills needed to help others process change by learning about the dynamics of change and developing an understanding for the stages that people go through as they adapt.

11:10am - 12:00pm
Creating a Blame-Free, Gossip-Free Work Environment
Gerri King | Human Dynamics Associates
Imagine a workplace without the constant stressors of blame and gossip. The concept is  easy to understand, and hard to make a reality. Once accomplished, the workplace is safe and productivity and motivation increase. Employees feel comfortable to bring up concerns and become increasingly proactive addressing issues. It doesn't matter who is to blame. What does matter is that what's not working gets fixed.

When the environment is not punitive, employees are much more willing to own up to mistakes and take responsibility when something goes wrong. If they become aware of an issue or concern, they comfortably bring it up. Problems are solved early - before they have a chance to become more serious - and solutions are found so that the experience isn’t replicated. Client/Customer Service improves, as it always does, when employees feel safe and trusted. Gossip-free means that people talk to each other rather than about each other - including talking to supervisors about colleagues. At the outset, these concepts seem impossible to implement. "It's not natural," you might say.”  But, it is worth a try. Consider the benefits of a work environment where fear, worry, resentment, and suspicion are absent? A place where the work flows because the avenues previously cluttered with destructive chatter have been cleared. 

12:00pm - 1:00pm
Lunch

1:00pm - 2:20pm
Time and Priority Management: Strategies and Tools for Putting First Things First
Debra Schuler | ENSO Life by Design
Living a more productive and balanced life starts with recognizing and accepting that not doing everything that comes across your path is not only acceptable, it’s wise. Highly effective people know that sometimes choosing to say “no” or “not now” to certain personal and professional demands is necessary in order to focus on their highest priorities and goals. This session will provide practical strategies and tools to help increase focus on your most important priorities and reduce and / or eliminate the unimportant.

2:30pm - 3:30pm
Grow Your Mindset - Know Your Value - Own Your Power
Debra Schuler | ENSO Life by Design
Are you living your life by design or by default? Highly effective people proactively define a vision and purpose for their life and it starts with keen awareness of our current paradigms. How we see, understand and interpret ourselves and the world drives our daily behavior and creates the results we get. Learn and apply a simple and powerful psychological process for positively transforming your paradigms to rewrite the self-limiting stories that keep you from living the life you truly want for yourself and others.