NOW Encore Series

We continue to expand the NOW Conference to offer the NOW Encore Series. These workshops for staff are presented by internal and external subject matter experts and are smaller in size to invite deeper engagement. Recordings of the NOW Encore Series sessions are posted below.

Redefining Rest & Productivity

Thurs., 9/2/21, 12:30 - 2 pm

Course Code: BECAR NE201

Session Description: 

Are you constantly trying to be more productive? Do you find yourself feeling like you can never ever get enough done? While also nodding along to messages of rest promotion and self-care, but not really taking time to give that to yourself? This is because you have defined rest and productivity all wrong. Our unexamined definitions of productivity and rest have been largely influenced by socialization, including systems of oppression such as white supremacy, capitalism, and the patriarchy. And how we define and think about these concepts, drives how we integrate them into our lives. In this workshop, participants will begin to examine their unconscious beliefs around what productivity and rest means, examine how socialization has impacted their thinking, and begin to understand how these unconscious beliefs drive their experiences of productivity and rest. Participants will gain tools to help them to change their thinking around productivity and rest that will empower them to begin prioritizing rest to be more productive.

Presenter:  Marissa McKool, Executive Director, UC Berkeley School of Public Health - Wallace Center for MCAH and Founder McKool Coaching

View Recording Here

Finding Zen in Chaos

Thurs., 9/8/21, 11:30 am - 12:30 pm, & Wed., 1/26/22, 12 - 1 pm

Course Code: BECAR NE202

Session Description: 

There is no denying that the few years and a have been a source of loss, grief, and chaos with covid-19, racism, political unrest and our shifting work environments. How can professionals in academia who are service oriented take care of themselves during these challenging times? What tools and practices do you need to continue to manage your life and career? During this interactive workshop, you will: Examine the challenges you are currently facing. Learn mindfulness tools to help you manage your current challenges. Discover the one game changer that can make the biggest impact in your life and career. 

Presenter:  Samorn Selim, Founder and Creative Joy Director, Career Unicorns

View Recording Here 

Questions for Reflection

Additonal Resources

Pocket Full of Stories: Career Perspective Through Story - Finding, Telling, and Listening

Wed., 10/20/21, 3 - 4:30 pm

Course Code: BECAR NE203

Session Description: 

This highly interactive workshop moves through a story approach to career, from story finding, through story listening, and finally story telling. It will begin with a brief exercise that reveals work values, moving into a free-writing exercise that gets participants actively engaged in story finding. By putting their work values into conversation with the memories, projects, and collaborations which comprise the lived experience of work, participants are able to gain some perspective on themselves as professionals. With a better appreciation for the breadth and depth of their own experience, tellers are better equipped to communicate this information to others in their stories. Next, with a partner, participants will share some of the stories they found and listeners will give feedback. Receiving and providing feedback offers additional perspective in uncovering connections and broader patterns within and across experiences, including where, when, and how aspects of work values are embodied. Finally, the workshop will conclude with an exploration of linguistic tools that make stories perform even better: tools for effective narrative structure that take advantage of ordering, framing, perspective, and story focus to help stories DO more in interaction.

Presenters:  Anna Marie Trester, PhD, Story Researcher, Speaker, Trainer, Facilitator, and Katie Nelson, PhD, Language, Culture, Identity and Education Consultant

View Recording Here

Hello, Wise Self! Connect with your Inner Wisdom for Career Clarity and Action

Thurs., 10/28/21, 3 - 5 pm

Course Code: BECAR NE204

Session Description: 

Are you looking for greater fulfillment in your work or personal life? This experiential workshop will move through a seven-chakra somatic experience to help you connect with your inner wisdom. It will provide tools to clarify your personal and professional development vision and goals and cultivate a greater sense of agency in making decisions and taking action. Dinorah will guide participants through a series of activities to help them access their inner strengths, desires, creativity, personal power and self-compassion, recognize their sources of support, identify where they want to make an impact and what they want to communicate to others, tune into their intuition and sense of purpose, and allow for the possibility sometimes of letting go of control and going with the flow. It is suggested that you dress comfortably and find a quiet, private place to limit distractions during this workshop, which will include gentle physical, mindfulness and journaling practices. 

Presenter:  Dinorah Meyer, MS, NCC, RYT, Assistant Director/Career Counselor, UC Berkeley Career Center, and Yoga Teacher

View Recording Here

Dante and the Art of Work: Revitalizing Your Career Journey with "The Divine Comedy"

Thurs., 12/2/21, 11:30 am - 1 pm

Course Code: BECAR NE205

Session Description

Building on a session presented at the 2021 NOW Conference, this staff career development workshop will look to Dante Alighieri’s masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, for inspiration to revitalize our professional lives. The poem depicts the journey of a person who, with the help of some key friends, finds his way from uncertainty to freedom while traversing the realms of the afterlife: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. We will explore the work performed in each of these territories and the themes they suggest, such as reflection, resilience, and agency. This workshop will offer an introduction to a medieval poem that has fascinated readers for over seven hundred years. Together we will draw on its innate wisdom that can support us and help us design our own professional journeys. Artistic renderings of the poem will be used to accommodate multiple learnings styles, and attendees will break out into small groups for reflection exercises that require no previous knowledge of the poem. All are welcome! 

Presenter:  Nicole Pagano, MA, Chief of Staff to Saul Perlmutter, UC Berkeley Department of Physics

You are a Berkeley Changemaker! ™ - The Conversation

Tues., 1/25/22, 12 - 1 pm

Course Code: BECAR NE206

Session Description: 

This Berkeley Changemaker series will focus on excerpts from the book, The Conversation – How Seeking and Speaking the Truth About Racism Can Radically Transform Individuals and Organizations, by Dr. Robert Livingston. Dr. Livingston will join us as a special guest for this conversation!

Presenters: Rich Lyons, Chief Innovation & Entrepreneurship Officer & former Dean of Berkeley Haas, and Laura Hassner, Co-Instructor, The Berkeley Changemaker

Special Guest: Dr. Robert Livingston, Author & Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard University

Slide Deck

The Conversation – Overview

Additional Resources