University Business Consulting hosts an annual Knowledge Share Series each summer, which typically consists of two to three sessions which are open to all George Mason faculty and staff. Registration is available in MasonLEAPS. All sessions are offered in-person and via Zoom.
Upcoming Sessions
The summer 2026 series, Winning this Season: Building Your Personal Playbook for Stewardship, Strategy, and Leadership in Uncertain Times, will position attendees as intentional and empowered stewards of resources, people, and change – balancing operational discipline (defense), strategic adaptation (offense), and human-centered leadership (coaching).
Defensive Fundamentals – Operating with Clarity in Constrained Times (2026)
Date: June 9, 2026 at noon
Primary Focus: How units can stabilize operations and reduce friction when resources are constrained.
This session may cover the following topics:
• Prioritization frameworks for “doing more with less”
• Role clarity as a risk reduction and morale tool
• Phasing work and sequencing initiatives when everything feels urgent
• Creating repeatable processes to reduce ambiguity and inefficiency
• Continuous improvement fundamentals as a practice, not a project
Offensive Moves – Adapting and Coordinating in a Complex Institution (2026)
Date: July 8, 2026 at noon
Primary Focus: Helping faculty and staff collaborate effectively across units while aligning to institutional priorities and external shocks.
This session may cover the following topics:
• Coordination and collaboration across units
• Setting up projects well: scope, governance, success measures
• Facilitating groups so they lead to outcomes, not just meetings
• Offensive vs. defensive choices: when to improve efficiency vs. when to experiment
Coaching Your Team – Accountability, Well-Being, and Communication (2026)
Date: August 11, 2026 at noon
Primary Focus: Equipping supervisors, project leads, and informal leaders to support people amid sustained change.
This session may cover the following topics:
• Managing change fatigue and uncertainty
• Building accountability without burnout
• Strategic communication for busy leaders – clarity, cadence, and transparency during change
• Sustaining change within a team
• Supporting morale while reinforcing priorities and limits
Archived Session Materials
Thinking Strategically as a Team (2025)
Learn how to empower your team – or your colleagues – to think and act strategically, especially during times of change. In this interactive session, you’ll explore practical tools, real-world examples, and scenario-based exercises designed to foster a strategic mindset and strengthen your ability to lead through transition. We will also highlight key change management principles and demonstrate how you can influence outcomes in dynamic environments.
As Peter Drucker famously said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” We will unpack what that means – and why shaping culture is just as vital as setting direction when driving meaningful, lasting impact.
Design Thinking and Experimentation (2025)
Learn how organizations – from higher education to the private sector – use design thinking and experimentation as problem-solving tools to make the unknown more known; or said with more jargon: create new solutions in an ever-changing environment. This iterative, human-centered approach is optimized for creating new programs, experiences, processes and even a better meeting! Design thinking is particularly strong in co-creation, or specific ways to build a new approach, strategy or program across a variety of stakeholders (students, faculty, staff, community, etc.) We’ll provide hands-on learning on the basics of the toolkit and then we’ll practice applying it to your work.
As Arizona State University’s President Michael Crow noted in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, “Design thinking offers important pathways for shaping new models in higher education, enabling institutions to innovate and adapt to rapidly changing demands.” Come see how you can use design thinking to shape new possibilities for your team and for students.
UBC’s Approach to Projects: Successes and Lessons Learned (2024)
Every new project has its own objectives, challenges, and opportunities for continual improvement. This session will cover how UBC has approached various projects at Mason, present tips and tricks for methodologies and tools we’ve found successful, and it will share lessons learned the team has gathered from working with different clients across the university.
Strategic Planning and Implementation (2024)
This session will provide an overview of what strategic planning is, including the key components, critical success factors, and a high-level overview of how to approach both strategic planning and implementation.
Measuring Progress (2024)
Collecting and analyzing performance metrics is vital to understanding the impact and success of any project. This session will explore the processes in identifying and measuring project progress and success, such as key performance indicator (KPI) and progress metric development, data collection tools, and a brief overview of visualization tools available to Mason faculty and staff.
Benchmarking and Best Practices Primer (2023)
This session covered the following:
- Benchmark and best practice analyses, including uses in higher education
- Steps, tips and tricks and lessons learned for web research, identifying key individuals to interview, interview techniques, and data analysis and presentation
- Examples / templates for data gathering and analysis to help maximize effective results
Pitching and Presentation Best Practices (2023)
This session highlighted how to best summarize and position your ideas and projects for your intended audience including: using a Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF) or elevator pitch, a business case “lite” when presenting to leadership or funders, outlining project benefits, and presentation tips and tricks.
Change Management Primer (2023)
This session reviewed tools and techniques on how to manage the people side of change. The audience learned how to prepare, equip, and support individuals going through changes so that they successfully navigate the changes. Attendees also learned how to apply change management frameworks to better meet project objectives and stay on schedule while supporting the university throughout the change journey.
Best Practices for Financial Modeling (2022)
This session covered the following:
- What is a financial model?
- Best practices for financial modeling
- Defining your assumptions
- Structuring your inputs
- Structuring your outputs
- Building your model
Consulting Project Best Practices (2022)
This session covered the following:
- Project Scoping
- Benchmarking
- Peer Reviews
- Stakeholder Working Groups
- Process Improvements
- Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
- Communication and Change Management
Successful Facilitation Tips & Tricks (2022)
This session covered the following:
- Facilitation Defined
- Facilitator Role
- Facilitation Planning (Hybrid vs. In-Person)
- Expectation Setting
- Ground Rules
- Team Building Examples
- Brainstorming Techniques
- Meeting Management
- Participation Encouragement and Balance
- Meeting Outcomes