By Linda Bush, Ph.D.

It’s back to school time and the word is MINDSET.

For several years, Beloit College in Wisconsin, has developed and distributed to its faculty and staff the “Beloit College Mindset List.” According to co-editor Tom McBride, the list helps to slow the rapid onset of “hardening of the references” in the classroom. Here are some facts about young students today who are just entering college:

• “Ctrl + Alt + Del” is as basic as ABC”
• Paul Newman has always made salad dressing.
• An automatic is a weapon, not a transmission.
• Gas has never been unleaded.
• Computers have always fit in their backpacks.
• Datsuns have never been made.
• The Osmonds are just talk show hosts.
• They have never been able to find the “return” key.
• The Jaycees have always welcomed women as members.
• There have never been dress codes in restaurants.
• They have never seen the First Lady in a fur coat.
• There has always been Lean Cuisine.
• Stores have always had scanners at the checkout.
• They have always had a PIN number.
• Directory assistance has never been free.
• They have always been able to make phone calls from planes.
• Yuppies are almost as old as hippies.

Of course it’s not just college kids who may have a perspective different from ours. We deal with older people, people from other cultures, and people with values different from ours.

How do we as learning professionals maintain our relevance and credibility with audiences that may have a different MINDSET?

How do we stay relevant and credible without shifting our own values and beliefs to match every new person or group we meet?

If you are willing to share your thoughts, I’ll pass them on next time.

A final thought:

Each generation brings a clean slate into the world. But the world itself is not a clean slate, and what happened before needs to be learned and remembered.

--The New Yorker

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Blended Learning in Action
Friday, September 24th

Join us for the upcoming September meeting to see Mike Lipke present “Blended Learning in Action.” The presentation will run from 8:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., with the usual cranberry juice cocktail networking session from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.

Eli Lilly is one of the most prominent businesses in Indianapolis, and they have just opened up a Manufacturing and Quality Learning Center (MQLC). September’s program will feature a mix of blended learning and using a simulated learning environment in training and instructional design.

Mike Lipke has been with Eli Lilly for 16 years in a variety of assignments, predominately within the manufacturing arena, including Operations Leader for Insulin Production, Capsule Production, and various support staff assignments in Engineering and Human Resources. In his current role, Mike is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the MQLC and serves as the Training & Development business integrator for the Global Parenteral Manufacturing sites for Lilly.

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 here.

The meeting will be held at The Marott, located at 2625 N. Meridian Street, near the intersection of Fall Creek Blvd. and Meridian. Please note that we are having the meeting at the regular location, and not at the MQLC.

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Fall Forum Update

 

INNOVATION R US
It was noted a few months ago that we in Training and Development can’t seem to come to consensus on what name to call our professional selves or who to include under our ever widening umbrella (see, T&D magazine, December 2003, “The Future of the Profession Formerly Known as Training”). Undeterred, members of the Fall Conference committee thought it was high time to shake up the format of our annual big top, formerly known as the Fall Forum.

We asked ourselves, what if we could create an experience that would garner some attention beyond the usual suspects in attendance at our annual pilgrimage in order to bring attention to our evolution and in a fun way push our professional envelope. Now don’t fret, the conference format offers something for all levels of learning and professional development. The much admired highly successful Basketball coach John Wooden (Hoosier Born) reminds us all of the importance of mastering the fundamentals. However, we believe that it is of mutual benefit to provide an experience to further enable our professional ability to say to our employers, potential clients, and the business world (Indiana at least) at large, “Hey, you need us as business partners and here’s why.”

That’s why we choose this year to introduce the “Innovation Co-opetition.” In this, the Reality show era, we intentionally created a format that requires collaboration in order to solve problems. We also reached out to an industry for our first attempt at this new format that is also a growing and relevant partner for growth in Indiana, Biotech. Please know that you don’t have to sign up for this experience to attend the conference, but you might wish that you had. For details, please click on this link.

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August Meeting Recap

 

Facts Tell, Stories Sell: Make Your Training Stick with Powerful Stories

Lori Silverman

At the August CIASTD meeting, author Lori Silverman presented “Facts Tell, Stories Sell: Make Your Training Stick with Powerful Stories!”

Lori offered several reasons that trainers should consider incorporating stories into their training programs. Stories:

• Touch us physically
• Touch us emotionally
• Touch us cognitively
• Really great stories touch the human spirit – a way to move people toward change.

• Entertain or energize
• Educate
• Encourage
• Evaluate
• Explore
• Evoke
• Engage

• Personal experiences. (The challenge here is that you may not be ready to tell personal stories – they may be too close or too emotional. They may seem to be too self-promoting, especially with women.) There are three types of stories about self: public self, private self, and intimate self. Generally intimate self stories should be off limits in a public setting.
• Your organization. (You need to be sensitive. There may be times when a story involves people still active in the organization, or you may want to consider what would happen if the story were to become public.)
• Also you can look outside to friends, family, magazines, television, etc. Lori warned to be careful about stories from email or the Internet. Make sure they can be validated if they are supposed to be true, otherwise you may lose credibility. (There are times when you might not want to use other people’s stories. You may not be the right person to tell certain stories. Some stories might have been overused – everyone may have heard them.)

1. Paint the context.
2. Outline the obstacle, challenge, issue or conflict and build to a climax.
3. Resolve the situation and move people to meaning.

Karen Valencic, Trainer
By Fred Oaks, Facilitator Staff Member
[A regular feature of The Facilitator, Member Profile introduces a member of CIASTD randomly selected at a sponsored event. The idea is to help everyone get to know each other better.]

Karen Valencic

Trainers worth their salt know the importance of engaging both sides of the brain. Karen Valencic (www.karenvalencic.com) is one of those rare individuals who consistently integrate logic and intuition for continuous growth. Her passion for her work and the people she helps remains as strong as ever, informed by twenty years’ experience as an independent trainer.

Recently Karen created a CD, now available on her website, in response to requests from persons who’d attended her training. These people were enthused about what they had learned and wanted something to take with them that would help them remember and apply it. Karen’s new CD is entitled, “Spiral Impact: The Power to Get It Done with Grace.” Spiral Impact is a methodology for completing anything from making a decision, implementing an idea, completing a project, or communicating difficult news. The methodology may be used individually or with teams. On the first disc of the 2-CD set Karen is interviewed about the origin and applications of Spiral Impact. She devotes the second disc to the topic, “Strengthen Your Balance and Focus: Guided Practice for While You’re Driving,” which listeners can use anywhere, even in the car.

Cars were the focus of the first decade of Karen’s professional life. A gifted mechanical engineer, she was one of the first women engineers at Delco Remy (Anderson, IN) and the first woman appointed Product Engineer. “I worked in automotive product design for ten years,” Karen recalls. “I learned statistical process control and helped develop better starters.”

She was starting a family at the same time. In 1985 the first of Karen’s two daughters was born. A second daughter arrived three years later. Karen left Delco Remy to parent full-time. Her relationships with her daughters, now ages 19 and 16, are a treasure.

While her children were still young Karen began leading human development processes. She met trainer Tom Crum, whose workshop on “The Magic of Conflict” impressed Karen tremendously. She sought training in the method, which draws from the wisdom of Aikido, the Japanese art of reconciliation. “I do not teach Aikido,” Karen explains. “Aikido is just a tool. I teach people how to use the principles of Aikido when responding to conflict.” Karen’s training on “Using Conflict Creatively” has been received appreciatively by clients like Roche Diagnostics. Clients appreciate how Karen follows up after training to ascertain its measure of helpfulness. In addition, Karen teaches a conflict class as an adjunct faculty member of Butler University.

Like all good teachers, Karen cares deeply about people. “I love people, and I love helping them. Whether it’s entertaining guests for dinner in my home or leading a workshop for one of my clients, I like bringing a group together and creating an experience.” Karen began this work because she was passionate about it. She persisted in pursuing it despite the reservations and objections of some well-intentioned friends. “Sometimes young professionals ask me for advice,” she says. “They tell me about a business idea they have and ask me what I think. I ask them, ‘Are you passionate about it? If you are, then go for it! If you’re not, do something else.’”

Karen’s advice has been sought by fellow members of CIASTD, particularly when she served on the board and as President of the association. She continues to attend CIASTD events for the training and networking opportunities they offer. Another source of ongoing learning for Karen is her Aikido practice – she is training for a black belt.

Asked about her reading, Karen recommends Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson. She is inspired by Franklin’s example as a man of varied interests who lived life fully. She also refers to Franklin in her workshops, as an illustration of a skilled negotiator.

To learn more about the programs Karen offers, including individual guided development, visit her website or speak with her at a CIASTD event. Don’t let her black belt throw you – she is very approachable.

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Primal Leadership
Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence

By Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee

Reviewed by Jay McNaught, Facilitator staff.

The book, Primal Leadership, is based on the foundation of emotional intelligence (EI), which Goleman spelled out in his earlier book, Emotional Intelligence. In his earlier book, Goleman explained that being smart involves more that simply measuring a person’s intelligence quotient (IQ). How people handle themselves and their relationships – their EI – can play a large part in their success in life.

Primal Leadership explores how EI is a fundamental tool for effective leaders and can play a large role in a person’s career success. The authors emphasize the importance of emotional intelligence in leadership, “Understanding the powerful role of emotions in the workplace sets the best leaders apart from the rest – not just in the tangibles such as better business results and the retention of talent, but also in the all-important intangibles, such as higher morale, motivation, and commitment.” They go on to explain their premise for the title, “This emotional task of the leader is primal— that is, first – in two senses: It is both the original and the most important act of leadership” (Boyatzis & Goleman & McKee, pp. 4-5).

Chapters include:

• Primal Leadership
• Resonant Leadership
• Neuroanatomy of Leadership
• The Leadership Repertoire
• The Dissonant Styles
• Becoming a Resonant Leader
• The Motivation to Change
• Metamorphosis
• The Emotional Reality of Teams
• Reality and the Ideal Vision
• Creating Sustainable Change

The book does a good job of linking EI to brain anatomy and chemistry. It does an even better job linking EI to the heart. It explains why the most effective leaders are open and share their feeling and emotions with their followers. “Without a healthy dose of heart, a supposed ‘leader’ may manage – but he does not lead” (Boyatzis & Goleman & McKee, p. 21). The book use a very descriptive term to describe leadership where a leader is emotionally in tune with his/her followers – resonance. “The human analog of synchronous vibration occurs when people are on the same wavelength emotionally – when they feel ‘in synch.’ And true to the original meaning of resonance, that synchrony ‘resounds,’ prolonging the positive emotional pitch.

“One sign of resonant leadership is a group of followers who vibrate with the leader’s upbeat and enthusiastic energy. A primal leadership dictum is that resonance amplifies and prolongs the emotional impact of leadership. The more resonant people are with each other, the less static are their interactions; resonance minimizes the noise in the system (Boyatzis & Goleman & McKee, p. 20).

Even in times of bad news, the effective primal leader will continue to resonate with followers. “For example, if something has happened that everyone feels angry about (such as a closing of a division) or sad about (such as a serious illness in a much-loved co-worker), the EI leader not only empathizes with those emotions, but also expresses them for the group. That kind of resonance reinforces synchrony just as mush as enthusiasm does, because it leaves people feeling understood and cared for” (Boyatzis & Goleman & McKee, p. 20).

So what is the connection to training and development? In my opinion the implications are huge. How many companies have leadership development programs that fail to incorporate the principles of emotional intelligence? The authors point out that if a program is to impact, it must have emotional buy-in from those participating in the program. This buy-in requires commitment from those at the top. “To succeed, leadership development needs to be the strategic priority of the enterprise, an issue that is galvanized and managed at the highest levels – by the executive committee or governing board” (Boyatzis & Goleman & McKee, p. 227). How the program is structured and where it fits within the organization is crucial, “For leadership development to succeed, top management needs to demonstrate that commitment cones from the top. Unfortunately, what we’ve observed in most companies… is the opposite: Leadership development typically becomes the mandate of human resource departments” (Boyatzis & Goleman & McKee, p. 227).

The book also has something to say about coaching. It discusses the challenges that a leader has in trying to learn new things while managing their image as a leader. “One good way to do this is to work with an executive coach, a relationship in which it is safe to explore and where leaders can have an opportunity to talk more freely than they may have done with anyone, ever, about their own dreams and their business challenges” (Boyatzis & Goleman & McKee, p. 228). The authors then describe the components of good coach as will as the benefits of having access to an object viewpoint from an outsider.

If you are involved with leadership development or coaching, this is a good book for your reference library. It will expand your ideas and perhaps validate other ideas.

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