MSU Foundations for Employee Excellence

This educational opportunity expands the online  MSU Foundations: Our Spartan Community  curriculum to focus on elevating the employee experience. Recognizing that our greatest assets are the talented faculty and staff within our Spartan community, this program provides a highly interactive, creative, and intentional space for meaningful reflection and authentic dialogue to foster a culture of care, respect and dignity.

Our goal is to ensure every individual feels visible, valued, and essential to MSU—creating an environment where people can thrive. Ultimately, this initiative marks a vital shift toward an asset-based, whole-person professional development framework.

Program Objectives: 

  • Support Well-Being: Recognize that what motivates and fulfills us at work is tied to who we are as humans.
  • Build Safe Spaces: Learn about ways to create a respectful, caring environment free from judgment, where everyone feels safe to step forward and be themselves.
  • Unlock Hidden Strengths: How we can all better value the unique skills, cultures, and life experiences that employees bring to the team.
  • Keep Great People: Make MSU a workplace where people feel seen, valued, and excited to stay and grow in their careers.

Date

Three-day series:

Tuesday, September 29, October 6 and October 13, 2026 (In-person)

  • Session 1 (September 28): The Art of a Whole Person
    • This session encourages a shift from seeing colleagues by their job titles to discovering them as whole individuals with various lived experiences. It focuses on recognizing each person’s unique identities and strengths, honoring their full humanity and dignity, and fostering a psychologically safe, respectful, and collaborative workplace. By acknowledging the complete identities people bring, we create a stronger, more inclusive, and more effective community. Participants will engage in creative activities.
  • Session 2 (October 6): Inclusive Storytelling

    • Stories are what connect us and make us human. In this session, participants engage in a facilitated dialogue using storytelling as a tool to bridge differences, build empathy, and uncover the shared humanity within our various experiences.

  • Session 3 (October 13): Workplace Dignity and Inclusion

    • Participants will dive into strategies to recognize and address subtle forms of incivility in workplace interactions and how they affect us and our shared community. Participants will use Hick’s dignity model to navigate conflict, reduce misunderstandings, and collaboratively identify actionable behaviors that foster respect and inclusion. Dignity is the recognition of each person’s inherent worth and lived experience.

Time

1:30 to 3:00 p.m.

Presenter(s)

Mina Shin, Ph.D., Office for Inclusive Excellence and Impact

Investment

Free

Locations

In-person sessions: MSU HR building, 1407 S. Harrison Road in East Lansing, Suite 10*

Virtual sessions: Zoom*

*MSU HR Organization and Professional Development follows all applicable state and public health guidance and university-wide directives. If deemed necessary or advisable, course locations and formats are subject to change. In the event of a change, notice will be communicated via email.