Beginning with the End in Mind is Critical in Course Development
By Sharon McGuire, Facilitator Staff

Does project management appear to be a luxury you can’t afford? Do all your best laid plans roll by the wayside once you start work on a project? Do you look back at a project and think, “I don’t know how that got done“?

The activities of course development can take on a life of their own if they are not properly managed. The Project Manager is a critical role whose responsibility is to plan, organize and control the course development effort. If you are looking for concrete steps to improve your project management skills, this session is for you.

Bring a current project to the session and you will apply the skills you are learning to your job immediately.

After attending this session, you will be able to:

• Design a course to meet a specific training need.
• Determine and document the learning required within a course.
• Formulate learning objectives that are competency-based.

Presenter Lou Russell is president and CEO of Russell Martin & Associates, a consulting and training company focused on improving business results. Lou and her staff deliver learning experiences that are fun, flexible, fast and measurable. She focuses on project management, leadership and organizational learning problems. You don’t want to miss this dynamic and entertaining presentation.

Date: July 28, 2006

Time: 8:00 – 8:30 a.m. Registration
8:30 – 11:00 a.m. Program

Location: Marrott Apartments
Meridian and Fall Creek

Register Now!

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June Meeting Recap
Coaching for Results

At the June meeting, we welcomed Dan Johnson, CEC, who presented “Coaching for Results,” an interactive session that focused on techniques and tips for coaching. Through several small group activities, Dan engaged participants in conversations and learning activities about various definitions of coaching, the difference between coaching and other performance interventions, the value coaching brings to an organization as a complement to training, and strategies that can be used in actual coaching situations.

Participants who had never experienced coaching had a chance to complete a coaching exercise with a partner. Several participants reported how much more difficult it was to coach than they had anticipated.

Learning Outcomes
As a result of attending this program, participants learned:

• How to apply the ASTD competencies to a coaching practice
• How to define coaching and the effect of coaching on organizations
• How to determine whether coaching is the appropriate intervention for performance improvement

June Meeting Announcements

Sam Thompson, VP of Finance, announced a rate increase to CIASTD membership dues – the first in 10 years. Please visit the CIASTD website for more information.

Karen Zwick, VP of Communications, announced that we are considering forming study groups for those members wishing to take the CPLP exam. If you would like to be part of a study group, please let Karen know. For more information about the CPLP certification, please see Karen’s article in this newsletter.

Karen Valencic, VP of Special Events, announced the date and content of the annual CIASTD Fall Education Conference. The Fall Education Conference will be held on Thursday, November 16 – mark your calendar now! This year, our program will be held at the beautiful and newly expanded Indianapolis Museum of Art. Our facilitator will be Linda Boardman-Fite from the Price Pritchett group. We are in the process of securing sponsors for the Fall Conference so if you have any contacts that you would like to pass along, please contact Karen. More details about the conference will be posted soon.

John Gerstner, ASTD representative, and Andrea Moore, VP of Communications at the June meeting.

John Gerstner, our ASTD representative, discussed the advantages of being a National Chapter member and ASTD’s efforts to promote the profession.

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• Be smart about the groups you join, the events you attend, and the relationships you build. The best results come from attending the networking events that are most appropriate for you—within your industry or profession, within an industry you are interested in knowing more about, groups that will help you connect to people or provide professional development (like the IndyHub!), or groups where your potential clients meet.
  
• Be able to articulate concisely what you do and the values that are important to you. As you are meeting a lot of people at networking events, you will have limited time to share information about yourself. If you talk too long, you will lose people—be dynamic in your approach. Keep it short and sweet, yet personal—you want people to be able to connect with what you have said.
  
• LISTEN TO PEOPLE AS THEY ARE TALKING and sharing information about themselves. There is nothing worse than peering around the room or over the shoulder of the person who is speaking to you—it is the perfect way to ruin a positive first impression. Be courteous and allow people to talk and really listen (don’t just nod your head) to what the speaker has to say—the opportunity of a lifetime might be behind their words!
  
• Don’t try to sell. If an opportunity comes out of a relationship that you build, that is fantastic, but don’t go into a networking event expecting or trying to sell your services.
  
• Follow-up with people you meet that you would like to know better. Follow-up within a few days of meeting the individual, so that you will be fresh in their minds. Make another meeting to have coffee or lunch. Take the initiative to build that relationship if it is important to you.

• Designing Learning
• Delivering Training
• Measuring and Evaluating

• July 17 – 31 (already sold out)
• October 16 – 31
• November 11 – Dec 8

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