|
Volume
25,
Number 6 IN THIS ISSUE |
CHAPTER
SERVICES ADDRESS
CIASTD Chapter Services
9840 Westpoint Drive, Suite 200
Indianapolis, IN 46256
(317) 841-1395
Fax (317) 841-8206
|
Editor VP
for Communications Design
MP Records Communications |
|
CIASTD
Board
|
| Jim
Patton |
| Lisa
Autry |
Linda
Bush Past President |
| Sam
Thompson |
| Sher
Shepps |
|
Leanne
Batchelder |
|
David
Llewellyn |
Karen
Zwick VP Communications |
|
Krista
Skidmore |
|
Mark
W. Records |
| Message From the President |
By
Jim Patton, President, CIASTD
In one of my early Facilitator items I talked about the new ASTD Competency Model for Workplace Learning Professionals and the foundation skill of Business Acumen. The gist of that piece was that my sense is that we in the learning business in Corporate America are frequently the first ones hit by layoff notices because we don’t do enough to create a case for our value with the folks sitting in the C-suites (CEO, COO, CFO).
If you haven’t read the latest issue of T+D, read it today. It contains two critical articles; “Build Your Business Acumen,” and “Aligning Training to Business Results.”
Each of those articles hits on the points I made in that earlier Facilitator in somewhat different ways. The first article provides a great overview of what business acumen is all about and offers some suggestions on how to build your business acumen. I particularly like the self-assessment that will give you an indicator of where you are with your business acumen. I look at the diagram on the Perception of WLP Professionals that goes from Adversary to Responder to Enabler and remember how many times I’ve heard line managers say that they couldn’t send people to training because it took their people away from doing what they need to do. Oops, maybe my people and I were really in the “Adversary” position and didn’t know it. Where was that article fifteen years ago when I really needed it?
The second article gives some valuable guidance on what I believe is a basic survival skill for WLP folks in that if we don’t align our efforts with business results we run the risk of becoming irrelevant (and thus, the first to go). Oh, by the way, our own VP of Communications, Karen Zwick, is held up as an example of someone who gets this done on p. 38.
One more time, this is bedrock material to ensuring that we can provide true value to all in the workplace and not just become legends in our own minds because we are so happy with what we produce.
| June CIASTD Meeting |
Team
Navigation! Using Orienteering as a Delivery Medium
Friday, June 24
Summarized by Erin Denney, Facilitator Staff Member
Join us for the upcoming June ASTD meeting as Jeff Coates presents “Team Navigation! Using Orienteering as a Delivery Medium.” The activity will start at 8:30 and end at 11:30, at which time participants are welcome to stay for a picnic!
Taking place at Eagle Creek Park on Indianapolis’ north side, Mr. Coates will be getting us all outdoors to participate in a teamwork exercise done within the framework of Orienteering. Participants are going to break up into small teams to join in a treasure hunt. The goal is to open up a treasure chest, but first clues and a key must be found! Teams will use maps, a compass, and other tools in order to locate the checkpoints at which clues can be found. The activity itself will last about forty-five minutes, followed by a group de-brief focusing on individual and group reflections on the activity.
Jeff Coates comes to us from TrueNorth and Associates, an organization that teaches teambuilding through Orienteering. Jeff has been a facilitator with Covey facilitator, Trustee Leadership Development non-profit board trainer, facilitator of public meetings, and a facilitator of hundreds of community committees, clubs, and volunteer groups.
Cost for the program is $25 for members, $35 for non-members, and $15 for students. There is, however, an additional $5 fee for walk-in registrations. You can register at the CIASTD website by clicking on the following link: Register Now
The meeting will be held at Eagle Creek Park, at 7840 W. 56th Street.
| Friday,
June 24, 2005 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. |
|
Topic: |
Team
Navigation! Using Orienteering as a Delivery Medium |
Speaker: |
Jeff
Coates |
Speaker
Bio: |
Jeff has been a Covey facilitator, Trustee Leadership Development non-profit board trainer, facilitator of public meetings, facilitator of hundreds of community committees, clubs, and volunteer groups. |
| Description:
|
With the Scandinavian sport of Orienteering and the reminiscent lure of a treasure hunt as a unique backdrop, this interactive, fun outdoor activity will challenge participants in small teams to cooperate together to achieve a common goal. After introducing the overall group goal as opening a treasure chest, participants will be creatively formed into teams. But to open the chest, the teams must solve a word puzzle to locate the treasure chest key. But the letters to solve the puzzle have been scattered throughout the park at different checkpoints! Teams will use maps & compass, and newly learned “tools in the tool belt” Team Navigation! skills to locate the checkpoints. Team roles and norms are decided within the teams, as well as their walking strategies to each checkpoint. A facilitated de-brief will model both individual and group reflection, and that learning, based on actual experiences, is the responsibility of each person. |
| Agenda: | 8:30
- 9:00 a.m. - Ice breaker/light energy food 9:00 - 9:30 a.m. - Instructions 9:30 - 10:15 a.m. - 45 minute hike 10:15-10:30 a.m. - Individual reflections 10:30-11:00 a.m. - Group presentations 11:00 - 11:15 a.m. - Sharing experiences 11:30 Stay for a picnic |
| Cost: |
CIASTD Member - $25 Non- Member - $35 Student - $15 |
|
Location: Suggested
Clothing for June 24 Team Navigation! Program
If anyone has any allergies that may be agitated by being outside,
please come prepared |
|
| Help Needed |
Do you enjoy writing? We need some help with the Facilitator. We would like to add one additional staff person that would be able to write or compile a monthly training tip. So if you would you be interested in helping with the Facilitator, contact Jay McNaught by sending an email to jmcnaught@cinergy.com.
| May Meeting Recap |
Action Learning
The May CIASTD meeting
featured a special full day event, Action Learning. It was presented
by John Nelson from HR Dimensions.
Action learning is one of the most powerful methods for developing leaders
and employees while simultaneously driving strategic initiatives and
projects, shifting culture in desired areas and demonstrating tangible
ROI. This day was spent developing an actionable agenda for implementing
action learning.
Topics for the day included a detailed explanation of action learning, best practices from several businesses, a panel discussion of Indiana companies implementing action learning, program design, and building the business case to gain sponsorship.
| Books in Review |
While
this book is now 12 years old, I consider it a classic, and thus worth
reviewing. As workplace learning professionals (WLPa), I believe it
is important that we understand corporate culture. For years, I’ve
used the term in communications and in various training interventions
– and it occurred to me that I really did not have a complete
understanding of what “culture” really is. So I turned to
John Kotter to increase my understanding.
This is a book that reports research that Kotter and Keskett conducted in response to early books on culture such as Ouchi’s Theory Z, Pascale and Athos’s The Art of Japenese Management, Deal and Kennedy’s Corporate Culture, and Peters and Waterman’s In Search of Excellence.
Kotter and Heskett
identify three ideas in the literature and attempt to test them. They
point out that there is an underlying assumption that strong cultures
lead to profitable companies. The three ideas are:
1. Companies with strong cultures have better goal alignment
2. Companies with strong cultures have an unusual level of motivation
in the employees, and
3. Companies with strong cultures can provide structure and control
without having to rely on bureaucracy. (p. 16).
Definition: Kotter and Heskett (1992) explain that the term culture was originally used in anthropology in studies of primitive societies. “The concept of culture was thus coined to represent, in a very broad and holistic sense, the qualities of any specific human group that are passed from one generation to the next” (pp. 3-4). As the term applies to organizations, the authors find it useful to think of two levels, “At the deeper and less visible level, culture refers to values that are shared by the people in a group and that tend to persist over time even when group membership changes” (p. 4). They explain that the other level is more visible, “…culture represents the behavior patterns or style of an organization that new employees are automatically encouraged to follow by their fellow employees” (p. 4).
Some interesting points that the authors highlight:
-
Culture is not the same as “strategy” or “structure.”
-
All firms have multiple cultures – usually associated with different functional groupings or geographic locations (p. 5).
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“When people talk about the ‘corporate culture’ they usually mean values and practices that are shared across all groups in a firm, at least within senior management” (p. 6).
-
In talking about how things become a part of the culture, “Solutions that repeatedly appear to solve the problems they encounter tend to become a part of their cultures” (p. 6).
If you are interested in expanding your understanding of corporate culture and understanding why it is important to corporate performance, you will benefit greatly from this book. While you won’t find it at your local bookstore, it is still readily available on Amazon, and makes an excellent addition to your business library.
| New Members |
In each issue of The Facilitator, we will list members that have joined or re-joined CIASTD since the previous issue. Since the last issue of The Facilitator, we have had these new members.
|
Sue Anne Ford Maria Kilpatrick Teresa L Forrest Melissa Thomas Cynthia Gambino |
Craig
S Trask Roger A Dunaway Ahmed Ismail Reece Carter Lee Ann Houser |
If you are a member of CIASTD, and would like access to the complete membership list, it is available on our web site at www.ciastd.com.