Get a taste of
Meanwell™, MindTrench™, Mirage™ & Call-In Card™
60 minute overview + 30 minute Q&A
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Even when people mean well, conflict happens.
Miscommunication, assumption, and unspoken tension can quietly erode trust in any workplace—but it doesn’t have to be that way. Meanwell™ is CircleUp’s signature training designed to help staff transform moments of conflict into opportunities for clarity, connection, and mutual understanding.This highly practical, hands-on training helps participants navigate the complexity of conflict by exploring how intent and impact often diverge—and what to do about it. Grounded in emotional intelligence and restorative communication, Meanwell™ introduces a powerful and easy-to-learn framework called Conflict Conversations—a structured approach to addressing conflict directly, early, and respectfully.
Participants will:
Identify the different “lenses” people use to perceive and interpret conflict
Recognize and interrupt the common cycle of workplace miscommunication and assumption
Learn best practices for initiating and participating in respectful, direct conflict conversations
Practice communication techniques that reduce defensiveness, build trust, and create space for repair
Shift from passive avoidance to active engagement—without escalating harm
By the end of the training, your team will walk away with a shared language, a clear protocol for hard conversations, and the confidence to tackle tension in real time. Meanwell™ isn’t about avoiding conflict—it’s about learning how to meet it with skill, courage, and care.
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MindTrench™ Unearthing the Roots of Bias and Discrimination in the Workplace
What are biases? Where do they come from? Why do even the most well-intentioned people sometimes act in ways that cause harm?
MindTrench™ invites participants on a powerful learning journey to explore these questions—digging deep into the foundations of implicit bias, explicit bias, and stereotypes, and how they show up in real-world workplace interactions.
This training is a refreshed and reimagined version of CircleUp Education’s most popular course, Diversity Uncovered, and remains one of our most sought-after and celebrated sessions. Rooted in clarity, simplicity, and empowerment, MindTrench™ breaks down complex concepts into accessible and engaging learning moments—without sacrificing depth.
Participants will learn:
What implicit and explicit bias are—and the difference between them
How our brains form automatic associations that can lead to unintentional harm
Why bias is not a moral failing, but a natural part of being human—and how recognizing it can lead to powerful change
How well-meaning actions can still reinforce a lack of fairness, exclusion, discrimination, or discrimination.
How bias affects relationships, decision-making, and trust in professional environments
With a focused exploration of explicit bias and workplace stereotypes, this session helps participants understand how conscious and unconscious bias can influence behavior, shape workplace dynamics, and create barriers to inclusion. Participants will also walk away with tools and language to help them identify bias in themselves, challenge bias when they encounter it, and begin removing explicit barriers to equity in their teams, culture, and systems.
Using real-world examples and case studies, MindTrench™ also examines how bias plays out across social identities—and the ways it can subtly and overtly impact opportunities, interactions, and perceptions in the workplace.
By the end of this session, participants will not only understand what a bias is, but will also have the confidence and tools to recognize it, talk about it, and begin the work of preventing it from causing harm to those they serve, support, or work alongside.
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Mirage™ Revealing the Illusion of Implicit Bias and Learning to Self-Interrupt Before Harm Occurs
Understanding implicit bias—how it lives in our minds and subtly shapes our actions—isn’t easy. In fact, one of the most difficult concepts to grasp is that we can hold biases that we aren’t even aware of. Yet those hidden assumptions can deeply impact how we see others, how we make decisions, and how we treat the people we serve.
Mirage™ is designed to make the invisible visible—to help participants uncover the elusive, often unconscious nature of implicit bias and understand how even well-intentioned people can unintentionally reinforce discrimination. This training doesn’t approach the topic with blame or shame—it uses clear metaphors, practical tools, and brain science to bring clarity and insight to an otherwise fuzzy and misunderstood subject.
Participants will explore:
What implicit bias really is—and how it differs from explicit bias
Why implicit bias is so difficult to detect, even in ourselves
How hidden assumptions shape workplace interactions and service delivery
The real-world impacts of unchecked bias, including microaggressions and unintentional harm
The difference between intent and impact—and why understanding this matters
A cornerstone of this training is the introduction of the Self-Interruption Tool™—a simple but powerful technique that helps participants pause, reflect, and disrupt unconscious bias in real time. This tool can be used daily to reduce the likelihood that hidden attitudes shape behavior and outcomes, especially in client-facing, caregiving, or team environments.
Mirage™ brings compassion and clarity to the conversation around bias. It equips participants not just with knowledge, but with the self-awareness and skills to interrupt internalized patterns before they cause harm. Rather than trying to “fix” people, this training empowers them to understand the psychological processes that lead to bias and to take mindful, proactive steps to create safer, more equitable interactions.
This session is a refreshed and elevated enhancement of CircleUp Education’s most popular training, Diversity Uncovered—informed by years of field-tested feedback and refined to leave a lasting impression.
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The Call-In Card™ - Disrupting Bias & Clarifying Questionable Behaviors Using Conscious Conversations
Over the last decade, one question has come up more than any other in our implicit bias trainings:
"What should I do if someone says or does something that feels discriminatory, but I'm not sure?"In the workplace—and in life—these moments are all too common. A coworker makes a comment that sounds like a compliment but lands uncomfortably. A client says something that feels off, but you can’t quite put your finger on it. Or you witness a behavior that could be biased or discriminatory, but calling it out feels risky, confrontational, or unclear.
The Call-In Card™ was created for these exact moments. This practical, skill-based training teaches participants how to engage in what we call a Conscious Conversation—a structured way to pause, seek clarity, assume best intentions, and explore what’s really going on when behaviors or statements feel questionable, confusing, or potentially harmful.
Rather than jumping straight to calling someone out, this training focuses on calling in—an approach that brings more awareness, curiosity, and compassion into moments of tension or misunderstanding. Participants learn how to:
Recognize when a comment, behavior, or action may stem from implicit or explicit bias
Pause and reflect on their own perceptions, emotions, and intentions
Engage in a conversation that promotes mutual understanding without escalating conflict
Use the Conscious Conversation Protocol to navigate sensitive situations across teams, departments, and client relationships
Interrupt bias in a way that’s constructive, respectful, and de-escalating
This training empowers participants to build brave, inclusive cultures without fostering shame or fear. The goal is not to accuse—but to understand. It’s a tool that honors the reality that even well-intentioned people sometimes make mistakes, and that honest conversations can prevent misunderstandings from turning into division or harm.
Whether you're working in education, social services, city government, tech, or healthcare, the Call-In Card™ can be applied across roles and sectors. With thousands of participants calling this one of CircleUp Education’s most transformative tools, it remains our #1 skill-based training for workplace inclusion, respectful communication, and everyday bias interruption.
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