Building a safe, respectful, and high-performing workplace culture in policing is challenging, but essential. Our evidence-informed, interactive workshops are designed to strengthen police supervision and culture in ways that directly improve performance, wellbeing, and morale.
✓ Developed through the University of Calgary
✓ Based on research
✓ Shaped by five years of real-world testing in a Canadian police service setting
✓ Positive results in real-world policing contexts
We’ll work with you to identify your needs and priorities, then draw from our existing library of proven content to build a workshop that fits your goals, timeframes, and budget. Whether you’re after a half-day, full-day, two-day session or more, you’ll be able to select from a range of topic options — and we’ll assemble a package tailored for your organization, without the cost of starting from scratch. Available topics include:
✓ Enhancing Frontline Culture
✓ Supporting Accountability Among Members
✓ Setting Expectations
✓ Giving & Receiving Feedback
✓ Preventing & Addressing Sexual Harassment
✓ Preventing & Addressing Incivility & Bullying
✓ Managing Conflict and Building Resilient Teams
These sessions can be adapted to any level of leadership, including constables, detectives, supervisors, and senior leaders.
Shift is a primary prevention research hub out of the University of Calgary. The team brings together research, design, and facilitation expertise — with a proven track record of engaging male-dominated workplaces to foster positive, respectful, and high-performing cultures while disrupting and preventing workplace harassment.
Elizabeth has worked with Shift for over 15 years, advancing practical, evidence-informed approaches to gender equity and violence prevention. Her work integrates behavioural science with real-world engagement to help individuals and organizations prevent violence and enhance gender equity. As project lead for The Signal System™, Elizabeth helps bring conversations about inclusion and psychological safety to the front lines, while supporting broader policy and systems change. She also designed Changing Contexts, a framework to help practitioners engage men and transform culture in male-dominated settings.
Melissa has worked with Shift for 5 years, advancing innovative approaches to strengthen workplace culture and prevent violence. Her work combines applied research with the facilitation of leadership development sessions for frontline police officers, focused on enhancing team performance, well-being, and accountability. Melissa is passionate about bridging research and practice to create learning experiences that are engaging, relevant, and pragmatic.
Lana Wells is an internationally recognized expert in gender-based violence prevention, social work, and public policy. As the Brenda Strafford Chair in the Prevention of Domestic Violence and Associate Professor at the University of Calgary, she founded Shift: The Project to End Domestic Violence, Canada’s first primary prevention research hub and the organization behind The Signal System™. Wells has produced over 100 reports shaping policy across Canada and leads national work on engaging men and boys, rural prevention, and early intervention. Her research, leadership, and advocacy have earned numerous national awards and recognition.
Off-the-shelf training rarely fits policing, so its impact is often limited. We design evidence-informed, police-specific workshops that reflect your operational demands, culture, and goals. We draw from established, field-tested content and customize it to align with your organization’s structure, challenges, and strategic objectives. Content areas include:
Stronger cultures drive stronger results. This workshop provides supervisors and leaders with practical strategies to build psychologically safe, high-performing teams where members feel valued, accountable, and engaged.
This two-part workshop supports leaders across the chain of command to build respectful, accountable workplace cultures where harassment is less likely to occur — and where concerns are addressed promptly and appropriately.
Strong teams depend on honest, professional feedback — and the ability to hear it as well as deliver it. This workshop develops practical strategies for both, with programming adapted specifically for frontline officers and for those in supervisory and leadership roles.
For frontline supervisors, this workshop provides practical strategies to communicate expectations, respond to issues consistently, and reinforce accountability in ways that are fair, credible, and team-building.
Most respectful workplace training faces some level of skepticism or resistance. This workshop is designed for workplace culture leads, equity advisors, and others responsible for delivering respectful workplace programming. It focuses on effective framing, credibility-building, and engagement strategies that resonate with sworn members and reduce common sources of pushback.
Frontline supervisors play a pivotal role in managing people, shaping culture, and optimizing performance. This customizable workshop series allows you to select from targeted leadership topics — including conflict management, accountability, handling mistakes, preventing discriminatory behaviours, and enhancing team resilience — to meet the specific needs of your service.
Our learning sessions were implemented and tested for five years within the Calgary Police Service – and the response was overwhelmingly positive.
“Incredible value. Not only did our folks value the training, they actually use the tools, which for cops is just about unheard of.” (Inspector)
“In my 24 years with CPS, I have never seen a program implemented where there was such acceptance from the patrol group, and I truly believe it had a lot to do with your delivery and approach in the sessions. I firmly believe this should be an ongoing program within [our organization].” (Staff Sergeant)
“[Gave us] more tools in the toolbox to help become better leaders.” (Sergeant)
“Very valuable information for sergeants. Good to do as a district group to possibly begin to have consistency across teams.” (Sergeant)
“Well done. Not preachy. Down to earth information that can be practically put into use.” (Constable)
Learn about The Signal System™ approach from our February 2026 webinar, hosted with the Calgary Police Service.
Learn about The Signal System™ approach from a presentation our founder, Lana Wells, delivered at the Canadian Police Knowledge Network’s Stanhope 2025 Conference.
For more information, please contact: shift.training@ucalgary.ca
We can also put you in touch with members of the Calgary Police Service who have first-hand knowledge of our approach.
Shift works across Alberta on Treaty 4, 6, 7, 8 and 10 territories. These are traditional travelling routes, gathering places, and meeting grounds for many Indigenous Peoples, including the Blackfoot Confederacy (comprised of the Siksika, Piikani, and Kainai First Nations); Tsuut’ina First Nation; Stoney Nakoda (including the Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Goodstoney First Nations); Cree; Saulteaux; Nakota Sioux; Dene; and the Métis Nation in Alberta (across Districts 1-22).
We respect the Treaties that were made, acknowledge the ongoing harms of colonial violence, and dedicate ourselves to moving forward in partnership with Indigenous communities in a spirit of reconciliation and collaboration.
Initiated by The Brenda Strafford Chair in the Prevention of Domestic Violence
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