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A service of the King County Department of Human Resources |
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Learning Compass Newsletter |
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King County’s Leader Learning Labs are back for 2025!
These facilitated workshops offer people leaders a dedicated space to sharpen their skills, connect with peers, and engage in meaningful discussions. These interactive sessions, held every other month, focus on practical leadership development while integrating Equity, Racial & Social Justice (ERSJ) principles and King County’s core values.
Each lab is designed to help leaders:
- Strengthen skills that create equitable workplaces and thriving teams
- Apply leadership practices that align with County Values
- Exchange insights and strategies with fellow County leaders
Through engaging activities and real-world scenarios, participants will reflect, discuss, and build the tools needed to navigate challenges and foster inclusive, high-performing teams.
To ensure all participants have a shared foundation, completing ERSJ Fundamentals: A Journey Through Socialization is a prerequisite for all Leader Learning Labs.
Our first session, Cultivating Values & Team Purpose will explore how shared values and a strong sense of purpose enhance team culture, collaboration, and decision-making. Leaders will reflect on their personal values, align them with team goals, and explore ways to inspire and guide their teams toward collective success.
Join us on March 20th from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. by enrolling today! Enroll Here
Stay tuned for upcoming topics and join us throughout 2025 to continue growing your leadership practice! If you would like to sign up for more than one Leader Learning Lab, please reach out to kctraining@kingcounty.gov.
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In King County, In King County, We are racially just and We respect all people. We’ve made a commitment to Equity, Racial and Social Justice (ERSJ), not just as a policy but as a guiding principle for how we show up in our work. Yet, real change doesn’t happen just because we believe in equity—it happens when we actively question, challenge, and reimagine the systems we’ve inherited. That’s where asking the right questions comes in.
When we create space to ask bold and reflective questions, we push beyond surface-level commitments and into meaningful transformation. It forces us to move beyond comfort and into accountability. They help us recognize the ways inequities persist in our policies, hiring practices, leadership structures, and daily interactions.
In King County, our communities are diverse, yet disparities in health, housing, education, and economic opportunity continue to impact Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color. Being racially just means confronting these disparities head-on. If we’re not consistently asking why these disparities continue to exist and how our work can disrupt them, then we risk upholding the very injustices we aim to dismantle.
This month, we invite you to engage with our ERSJ Discussion Questions and bring them into your team spaces For guidance on facilitating these conversations, see this resource from Caring Across Generations. Let’s challenge ourselves to think critically, listen deeply, and take meaningful action toward Equity, Racial and Social Justice in King County. Because the future we want starts with the questions we’re willing to ask today.
ERSJ Discussion Questions:
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What conversations about race and racism do we avoid in our work, and why?
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How do we respond when harm occurs in our workplace? Do we prioritize protecting people in power, or do we prioritize healing and repair?
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In what ways do we center the needs and voices of marginalized communities in King County—and where do we fall short?
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Who upholds hierarchal power in our workplace?
So, why should workgroups make space for these questions? Because silence allows inequity to thrive. Because discomfort is a small price to pay for justice. And because when we normalize conversations about race, power, and belonging in our workplace, we create real opportunities to transform systems—not just observe them on a surface level.
For more ways to grow your knowledge, skills and abilities to advance a pro-equity, racially just workplace and connect with other employees across the county by participating in the Equity, Racial and Social Justice series FREE live workshops!
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Understanding others to lead better
Good leaders work to understand people on their team. They try to get to know what is important to them, the unique challenges they face, what their hopes are, and how they like to interact. But sometimes it is easy to make assumptions.
Did you know that there may be a cognitive thinking bias called Dunning-Kruger Effect. It suggests that people with low skills in an area may overestimate their abilities. This could get in the way of understanding others. This could be because of:
- Lack of awareness: not recognizing gaps in understanding because they don’t know enough about someone else
- Relying on surface-level impressions can lead to a false sense of understanding.
- A desire to appear confident in understanding can lead to inflated self-assessments.
- Resistance to feedback, where people don’t want to explore perspectives different than their own or where they may fall short
Because of this bias, some people might overestimate their ability to accurately interpret the thoughts, behaviors, and motivations of others, leading them to believe they have a deeper understanding than they do. If we don’t take the time to reflect, try to see things from another’s point of view. and check in on a human level, our misunderstandings will stay that way.
In the article How Good People Can Fight Bias, you can read about how the need to be seen as “good” might mean we ignore feedback that would help us work toward being better allies. Self-awareness and understanding others isn't just a nice thing to do – it's an important skill for an equitable workplace so everyone reaches their full potential.
Understanding Skills is a NEOGOV eLearning course that provides tips on common mistakes that get in the way of understanding. Many people assume they understand what others say or where they are coming from. But often, they don’t check the accuracy of what they are thinking.
Learn to understand others better this year by growing your skills with peers at any of the Leading the Way FREE live webinars!
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The first application period for the 2025 Professional Development Scholarship Program ends at 11:59 p.m. on Friday, February 28, 2025. The Scholarship Program is a benefit offered as part of the 2025 Coalition Labor Agreement and is only open to employees represented by one of the unions in the Coalition.
Use the Pre-Application Worksheet to collect the information you need to make completing your online application form faster and easier. Be prepared to complete your online application in one sitting; the system will not allow you to save your work.
Go to the scholarship website for additional information and the link to apply.
The Scholarship Program is part of the County’s commitment to Investing in YOU, and is designed to assist eligible employees with their professional development by providing up to $3,000 annually towards obtaining training, certificates, degrees, licenses, and certifications.
Questions? Email ScholarshipFund@kingcounty.gov.
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Our Mentorship Lunch-n-Learn series is still in the process of transitioning to a new web-based format hosted on NEOGOV. This change will allow access to the Lunch-n-Learn sessions at your convenience. Stay tuned for more updates!
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Looking for a variety of beginner, intermediate, or advanced specialized GIS training in 2025?
Geospatial Training Services will be returning in 2025 to the KCGIS Center in March and June for two more weeks of face to face and hands-on GIS training. Classes are taught in the convenient and comfortable KCGIS Computer training facility in King Street Center.
Here is the line-up of classes that Kara Utter from GTS will be presenting next year:
March 24 – 25: Mastering ArcGIS Pro 3.x: Editing Analysis and Automation
March 26: Beginner's Guide to Customizing ArcGIS Pro with Arcade
March 27 – 28: Introduction to Programming ArcGIS Pro 3 with Python
June 9: Editing Data in ArcGIS Pro
June 10: Introduction to Experience Builder
June 11: Intermediate Experience Builder
June 12: Intermediate ArcGIS Online: Creating, Editing, and Managing Data
June 13: Beginners Guide to using Arcade in ArcGIS Online
You can find detailed descriptions of each of these classes plus links for special KC pricing at the GTS KCGIS Page here.
Register today!
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Understanding Skills
Understanding is an important aspect of communication. Many people assume that they understand what others say. Often, however, they do not check the accuracy of their interpretation of what they hear. After completing this course, you should be able identify common traps people fall into when trying to understand, and identify two skills to enhance understanding in the workplace. Enroll Here!
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Use your phone camera to scan this QR Code and see the newsletter now.
Additionally, back issues of the Learning Compass e-newsletter can be viewed here.
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