Organizational Learning

Organizational Learning is the university’s central department for professional, career and leadership development. We promote campus culture change initiatives, lifelong learning resources and opportunities for U-M faculty and staff.

Core Service Areas

Organizational Learning has four main areas of focus:

Professional and Career Development

We offer dozens of in-person and online professional and career development courses and resources, along with additional learning opportunities and resources to meet a variety of individual and departmental needs. Beginning in Fall 2019, many courses are offered at no cost to individuals or departments.

Our offerings are focused on those that best support our professional and leadership development goals and institutional initiatives.

Organizational Learning offers professional and career development services previously offered by Learning & Professional Development and Michigan Medicine Organizational Effectiveness.

Leadership Development

We collaborate with partners on the Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint campuses and Michigan Medicine to provide level-specific leadership development programs across the university.

One of our new offerings, Foundations of Leadership (FOL), is a leadership development course for faculty and staff. It is designed for leaders new to the university or their role.

FOL replaces previously offered management courses from LPD and Organizational Effectiveness. This new course will provide consistent leadership development strategies to faculty and staff across all work locations. By consolidating courses, we’re focusing on the most critical learning objectives and also making it easier to participate by removing the cost barrier.

Campus Culture Change Initiatives

We develop long-term educational strategies and interventions for university-wide culture change initiatives including diversity, equity and inclusion and sexual and gender-based misconduct.

Since the DEI launch date of October 6, 2016, through the end of FY21, Organizational Learning and Michigan Medicine have served 36,891 participants in both university-wide and unit-requested sessions and engaged 100% of the units who submitted an annual DEI plan.

Medical School Faculty and Leadership Development (Michigan Medicine)

Faculty and Leadership Development at Michigan Medicine provides resources to help faculty develop teaching, research and leadership skills to help them have a successful career at U-M.

Learning Models That Support Your Development

Our programs and resources are guided by learning models that were informed by input and engagement from our university community. They are aligned with a core set of expectations for all faculty and staff to help advance the university’s primary missions of teaching, research and patient care.

Learning and Development Models

Sonya Jacobs, Chief Organizational Learning Officer

Sonya Jacobs is U-M’s Chief Organizational Learning Officer. She is a senior director in University Human Resources and senior director of Faculty and Leadership Development for the University of Michigan Medical School and Michigan Medicine. As the first Chief Organizational Learning Officer at U-M, she is responsible for the creation of curricula and strategies aimed at building the capabilities of staff, managers, and leadership across the university. This includes the development of education, training, interventions, and programs to further the university’s culture change initiatives around diversity, equity and inclusion, civility and wellness, and mitigating sexual and gender-based misconduct.

Sonya Jacobs Bio

Human Resources University of Michigan