recommended reading 2

44 Ways to Kick-Start Your New Year

(taken from SUCCESS Magazine)

What are you going to do now to make sure you have your best year ever? What one thing will mean the difference in actually achieving your goals rather than chalking them up to yet another year’s unfulfilled resolutions? What can you do to enhance an aspect of your life that you’ve neglected in your single-minded pursuit of that elusive brass ring? Think about it.

We asked a host of experts, readers who follow SUCCESS on Twitter and Facebook, and our SUCCESS staff what they will do to kick-start 2010.

1 – Expand your thinking with new experiences.

2 – Write letters to three people in your life to let them know what they mean to you.

3 – Start a business plan.

4 – Write a 101 Life-Goal List.

5 – Make a commitment to fitness.

6 – Find a volunteer opportunity at Volunteer.org.

7 – Invest in a bright financial future.

8 – Build value every day.

9 – Practice the ONE-A-DAY principle.

10 – Sign up for a birthday/anniversary reminder service.

11 – Increase your awareness of your thoughts.

12 – Write a personal mission statement or mantra.

13 – Schedule family time.

14 – Lose other people’s opinions.

15 – Stop using the “bad thing” label.

16 – Find a mentor.

17 – Take stock and charge forward.

18 – Reach my financial goals.

19 – Get a whole new hairstyle or haircut.

20 – Keep friends close.

21 – Get a leg up.

22 – Create an environment fostering your success.

23 – Write your top 10 goals for this year and post them where you can see them.

24 – Increase productivity.

25 – Take daily steps toward achieving my long-term vision.

26 – Refresh your network.

27 – Automate bill payments.

28 – Reconnect with family.

29 – Do something that scares you.

30 – Be a student of all you do.

31 – Have gratitude.

32 – Stop smoking.

33 – Review your expenses as a couple.

34 – Take a dance or fitness class.

35 – Slow down to speed up.

36 – Cut up credit cards.

37 – Plan a trip to a place you have always wanted to go.

38 – Write a not-to-do-list.

39 – Clean out your closet and donate unwanted clothes to charity.

40 – Schedule a regular date night on your calendar with your spouse.

41 – Schedule all doctor and dentist appointments for the year.

42 – Say “yes” when you want to say “no.”

43 – Communicate and connect.

44 – Lower your blood pressure.

Blogging: An excellent Value for Business -- presentation on Wednesday evening, 12/16

The Southwestern Ohio Society for Technical Communication invites WOCASTD members to join us for our December meeting. This meeting focuses on the factors and content--of supreme importance to technical communicators--that create a great blog, such as:

• Understanding Your Goals
• Defining Your Audience
• Generating Readers
• ROI of Blogging
• Blog Etiquette

Our speaker is Michelle Lentz

Michelle maintains four weblogs, including an award-winning blog on wine (http://www.wine-girl.net) and is, by her own admission, over-connected in social media. Michelle is also a contributing technology writer to Brian Solis's Bub.blicio.us social economy blog. You can find Michelle online at

Blog: http://www.wine-girl.net

Blog: http://bub.blicio.us

LinkedIn: http://www.l inkedin.com/in/writetech

SlideShare: http://www.s lideshare.net/writetech

Michelle launched her company, Write Technology, in 2003. She specializes in social media, instructional design, and social learning. Through Write Technology, Michelle offers customized, instructionally sound courses on everything in social media, including blogging, Twitter, Creative Commons, and personal branding.

For several years, Michelle was director of training at Trivantis (Lectora). She has presented at national training and development conferences since 2000, as well as at countless local events. She recently served as vice president of technology for the Greater Cincinnati ASTD and is on the National Planning Committee for the ASTD TechKnowledge 2010 conference in Las Vegas.

Date: Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Agenda:

• Networking: 5:30 - 6:00 p.m.
• Dinner: 6:00 p.m.
• Program: 6:45 p.m.

Menu: A variety of sandwiches, salads, and beverages

Cost::

• Members: $15
• Non-members: $25 (in advance via PayPal only)
• Students: $12
• Program only: $5 for members and students; $15 for non-members

Click here for instructions about Pay Pal payments.
No shows will be billed.

Registration Deadline: Monday, December 14, 2009, by noon. To register, send an email to program@stc-swo.org.

Please include your name, email address, membership status (member, non-member, or student), and how you will pay (cash, check, or Pay Pal).

Non-members must pay in advance via Pay Pal. All no shows will be billed.

Location:

Indiana Wesleyan Cincinnati Education and Conference Center

Directions:

• From I-75 Take the Union Centre Boulevard exit (#19).
• Turn west (right if south-bound on I-75; left and across the overpass, if north-bound)
• Go to Mulhauser Road (first stop light).
• Turn left (south) onto Mulhauser
• Go to Schulze Drive (first left).
• IWU is straight ahead, on the right, next to the new Hampton Inn.

How to be a star employee on social media

 

This is excellent advice for everyone whether employed or looking. 

Check it out @ CubeRules.com 

 

Happy Halloween Everyone

What To Wear On Halloween

 

...with a festive spirit / click on link above 

Tell a story from Center for Creative Leadership

Our member survey results confirm that leadership development is a high-priority topic. Here is recommended reading that advocates a simple and effective approach to presentations... 

 

http://www.ccl.org/leadership/enewsletter/2009/SEPfacing.aspx 

 

Article on "Edupunks" in Fast Company mag

Even though I was working in higher ed, this term "edupunk" slipped by me. Here's an excellent article of value for all of us in the learning profession... 

 

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/138/who-needs-harvard.html 

Reading recommendation from The MASIE Center

I have been a longtime fan of this learning lab & think tank under the leadership of Elliott Masie. This past week they published the Learning Leaders Fieldbook. It contains excellent, concise information for folks in our profession who feel a need to refresh. Below is the web link, enjoy! 

 

http://www.masie.com/fieldbook

Happy Father's Day

Enjoy this upcoming weekend, whether you are a father or you have a father. Check out this link. It starts with an opportunity to reflect on good ol' Dad... http://www.teamworkandleadership.com/

ODN - Greater Dayton Summer 2009 Event

Connecting with the Community: Dayton's Future
Friday, June 5, 7:30 - 9:30 a.m.
Hosted by Sinclair Learning Center at the Miami Valley Research Park
1900 Founders Drive in Kettering
RSVP & inquiries to Terri Eastman / terri.eastman@sbcglobal.net

recommend reading 1

I'm a fan of sharing new info, so here's the first of my occasional posts with recommended reading. Feel free to comment with more good resources.

1. Article in the May '09 edition of Chief Learning Officer magazine
www.clomedia.com
A Second Look at Second Life (pp 21-27)
Personal note: I was clearly wrong on this Web 2.0 tool.
It has virtual legs in the training profession.

2. Posted on the National ASTD LinkedIn group
Emotional Intelligence Resource List
Hi Everyone,
I have created a free resource list on emotional intelligence at http://www.squidoo.com/emotional-intelligence-1
Have a look, use it if its helpful and some of your recomendations if you like.
Cheers,
Shaun Killian
Director at Australian Leadership Development Centre

April chapter mtg notes

Thanks to everyone who participated in our April 16, 2009 session “Engaging Employees Under 30.” With a 50/50 split in the audience of GenY/Millennials and Xer/Boomers, the shared insight was a win-win for everyone. Special thank you to our panel:

Patricia Clark, retired guidance counselor and career education teacher
Erin Cullin, lead trainer for Red Robin Gourmet Burgers
Kelly Kennedy, Wright State University psychology student
Amanda Minehart, Service Quality Manager at Wright-Patt Credit Union

To summarize the meeting, we each wrote one burning question about connecting with and/or engaging younger employees (under age 30) currently in the workforce. Below are the questions presented to our panel:

> How do we get younger employees to understand their changing role?
> How do you help GenY/Millennials accept that you have information and knowledge to share?
> How important is maintaining the self-esteem of the under-30 learner compared to the over-30 learner?
> Is it true GenY/Millennials can concentrate better with an iPod on?
> Regarding your career, what significant worries keep you awake at night?
> What are you going to do to facilitate change with your teaching/management style when adapting to working with a younger culture?
> What are your biggest fears of my generation (20s-30s) coming into the workforce?
> What do you feel you do differently than your parents or grandparents that allows you to effectively multi-task?
> What is the difference between a leader and a manager you respect?
> What is the toughest aspect of training for you?
> What is the worst characteristic of a boss that you have the hardest time dealing with?
> What makes you bored and impatient with training or user/instruction guides?
> What skills would you recommend students emphasize when creating a resume?
> What would you say is the average attention span of the under-30 workforce?
> Why do Millennials/GenYs always text?
> Why do you feel that it is so important to stick with the “old ways of business” instead of opening up to new ideas?
> With the baby boomer generation reaching a retirement age, a lot of management positions will be opening to a younger generation. How do you think the industry, as a whole, will shift with this influx of younger supervisors? (Creativity vs. “this is how we’ve always…”)

February mtg follow-up

Our first chapter webinar experience was great, thanks to both Brian Butcher and Michael West for leading the LinkedIn and Facebook segments of the meeting. 

Our March 19 dinner program will be an official launch of our Special Interest Groups.  The three SIGs we will be kicking off are:   Coaching, facilitated by Matt Becker  /  Leadership Development, facilitated by Jackie Smith  /  eLearning, facilitated by Verne Morland.
Our April 16 luncheon will consist of a Generation Y panel discussing learning and performance initiatives.  We are discussing future programs this year geared toward how to develop a webinar and create a podcast.  
The WOC-ASTD website also serves as our newsletter and is updated on a regular basis.  Please use our blog to post your thoughts and suggestions as well as to continue conversations surrounding our monthly program topics. (posted by Brenda Kraner)

If you were not able to join our meeting on February 19, here's a summary on the LinkedIn network. (posted by Brian Butcher) 

Roughly 15 million members are in this social network. Now there are almost 8,700 members in the ASTD Group. ASTD is one example of a large number of interest groups in LinkedIn. This one is quite active. 
During just the last seven days, over 100 new members signed up in the ASTD Group. During the past three months, roughly 500 discussions have been posted by members of the ASTD Group. As an example of content, a search on the discussion keyword "webcast" found 20 hits. Currently the news article most read is entitled "Get Out of the Training Business" from the CLO magazine, February 2009 edition. 
Coincidentally Verne Morland posted a link to this article on our WOC blog a short time ago. Various search options are available on the home 

page of LinkedIn  -- Search for People, Jobs, Companies, Answers, Inbox and Groups. 

Like other social networks, LinkedIn can be a valuable job searching resource. A related presentation is available on Slideshare under this link... 

http://www.slideshare.net/mgrey/leveraging-linked-in-for-the-job-search?from=email&type=share_slideshow&subtype=slideshow

Get Out of the Training Business

The admonition above is the title of a provocative article by Jay Cross published this month in the online version of Chief Learning Officer magazine. (Click the link to read the article.) His basic argument is that the industrial age is over and as a result:

"Training is obsolete because it deals with a past that won't be repeated. Learning will be redefined as problem-solving, achieving fit with one's environment and having the connections to deal with novel situations."

That may not be news to most of us, but what I find interesting is how clearly he lays out the ramifications.

"Next week, we will close the training department. We are shifting our focus from training to performance. Any remaining training staff will become mentors, coaches and facilitators who work on improving core business processes, strengthening relationships with customers and cutting costs

"I'm changing my title from VP of training to VP of core capabilities. My assistants will become the director of sales readiness and the director of competitive advantage, respectively. The measure of our contributions will be results, not training measures. We're scrapping the LMS posthaste. Wherever possible, we're replacing proprietary software with open source."

The article is only two pages, but Cross packs a lot of provocative material into it. I encourage you to read it and to post your comments here on our blog.

Exciting New Technologies Explained in Plain English

I just came across a series of short video clips that explain a number of practical tools that will be of interest to members of our chapter. The site is called The CommonCraft Show (click link to visit) and the topics include: social media and networking, podcasting, twitter, blogs, wikis, and RSS feeds. Here is a link directly to the 4-minute explanation of how to set up an RSS feed so that you can be automatically notified when new postings are made to this blog.

How are you using Facebook or LinkedIn?

Sunny greetings - 

In preparation for our chapter webinar meeting on February 21, please let us know how you are using the Facebook and/or LinkedIn social networks. 

Just below this post is the "how to" leave your comment. 

Many thanks for your input. 

How to Use Our Chapter Blog

This is a friendly reminder about our chapter blog for member communications. We will publish new information to you on a more continual, topic-by-topic basis compared to a newsletter. More importantly, the blog allows you, our chapter members, to respond to the articles we post with comments, questions and suggestions. Helpful "how to" information is below.

Viewing the Blog: You can view our blog by coming to this web page. We suggest that you add this to your bookmarks or list of favorite sites. You can also find our blog by going to our website (wocastd.org) by selecting the "Blog" link under the "Member Area" menu. When you arrive on our blog page, you will see the most recent article at the top of the page and as you scroll down you will previously posted articles.

Submitting Your Comments: At the bottom of each article (including this one!) is a link to the "Comments" area. To post a comment, simply click on the "Comments" link and type in your thoughts. Please note that beneath the comment input area you will see three options for attributing your comment: 1) Sign-in using Blogger/Google, 2) Nickname, and 3) Anonymous. Unless you happen to have a Blogger/Google account, we recommend that you click the radio button next to "Nickname" and enter your full name. This will simply attach your name at the end of your comment. Naturally, if you prefer to remain anonymous you may click that option.

Keeping Track of New Blog Postings: There are two ways to keep up with new posts on our blog: 1) you can visit the blog periodically with your web browser to see what's new or 2) you can subscribe to the blog and get new postings "pushed" to your PC. We recommend the latter since it is easier and you only have to look at the blog when there is really something new to see. When you subscribe to the blog, your computer will periodically check online for updates to subscribed feeds, even when your browser (e.g., Internet Explorer) is not running.

To Subscribe to the Blog: At the bottom of this blog page you will see a link labeled "Subscribe to: Posts (Atom). Click on this link and follow the instructions. This will cause you to be added as a subscriber to our "feed." From that point on, whenever you open Internet Explorer (IE) and there is a new posting on our blog, the Feeds button on your IE toolbar will change color, letting you know that a new posting or comment is available. Click the Feeds button, and then click the feed you want to see, in this case "TD in Western Ohio." (You can unsubscribe from our blog at any time by clicking on Favorites >> Feeds and deleting the entry labeled "T&D In Western Ohio.")

Windows Vista Users: If you have a Vista PC, you can set up a "Feeds" gadget on your desktop that will automatically monitor feeds from our blog (and any others you may be interested in) and display new postings. 

60 Ideas in 60 Minutes

At our chapter meeting on Friday morning, January 23, Cindy Schisler facilitated an exercise designed to generate lots of useful training tips. Here are the ideas we shared.

1. Getting people back from break on time - Each team has a set of questions and your team cannot start working on the questions until all team members have returned from break. Prizes are awarded for teams who answer the questions first and correctly. This technique encourages everyone to return from break on time. After all, no one wants to be responsible for holding their group back from winning prizes.

2. Keeping the group on track – establish a “parking lot” in the beginning of the session for issues that arise but cannot be addressed at that time. The “parking lot” holds thoughts that are important but don’t fit the agenda for the day. If time allows, the group can revisit the issues in the “parking lot.” This prevents digressing and lets the person know their thought has not been lost.

3. Icebreaker - Each participant is handed a panel from a comic strip (cutting comic strips from the paper works well). Everyone is asked to move around the room to find all the people needed to complete their comic strip. This technique can be used for creating partners, triads, or small groups.

4. Spice up the webinar experience – Create a webinar team, complete with a facilitator, web technician, and speaker. The speaker and facilitator interact much like a radio talk show…bantering back and forth. Be sure to articulate the skills, knowledge, and attitude you would like participants to gain from the webinar. Clearly identify what’s in it for them to participate (the WIIFT factor).

5. When conducting mandatory workshops – have every person make it a personal goal to leave the session with another goal other than that the class was mandatory.

6. Memory tip – the first and last things are what people remember the most. Make your opening memorable. In closing a session, ask everyone to share their biggest, most positive take away of the day. This concludes the session on a positive note and refreshes the memories of those in the class.

7. SimpleTruths.com – visit simpletruths.com for short pieces of motivation, themes, etc. to add variety to a course.

8. Student attention – keep participants’ attention but using humor, video clips, cartoons, YouTube clips, etc.

9. Action back on the job – Provide participants with “commitment cards” that ask each person to identify what they will do differently back in the workplace as a result of the training program. Each person writes their commitment on two cards (one for themselves and one for the trainer). They share their commitment with the class and give one card to the trainer. The trainer then follows up with each participant to discuss how they are doing toward attaining their commitment.

10. Generating buy-in from participants - Get input from the groups participating in the session beforehand. Find out what they believe would be helpful for them to know about a specific topic. Open the session by showing how you have built what they wanted to learn into the session. Asking for feedback before the session gets a certain level of buy-in before they walk in the room. Sharing how you have incorporated the feedback builds greater buy-in after they’re in the room.

11. More buy-in – anytime a participant can associate something with who they are, you increase your odds for buy-in. If a participant sees some of his or her ideas incorporated in a program, they will be more inclined to buy into the concept.

12. Training pilots – when possible, pilot a session and ask for honest feedback from participants.

13. Authenticity is critical – identify why the training will benefit them. Clarifying your expectations of participants is critical.

14. Training teams – create training teams within various areas throughout the organization. Ask people in different departments to help put together the training program. You can create groups based on functional area, level of management, etc.

15. Customer training – take training beyond employees to client base, as a customer benefit. Educating the clients makes it easier for the workforce to do their job.

16. Dividing the audience – purposely mix participants up in a training class. Divide people into groups using playing cards. Create four different groups: hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades by shuffling cards and passing them out.

17. Use music – to energize participants. Select funny and appropriate songs such as, “Welcome to the Jungle” as participants arrive.

18. A just-in-time team building activity – have regularly scheduled small group huddles to share information and communicate during the workday. This process has been known as informal learning. Refer to the white paper “Learning at the moment of Need” by Bob Mosher.

19. Reduce loneliness in online learning – help people feel as though they are part of a group in a self-paced, self-study online learning environment, give participants the sense that others have taken and are taking the course. After participants have completed a course, ask them to respond to a questionnaire that gives them the opportunity to share their experiences during the process, i.e. what they learned, how it has benefited them, etc. Provide a way for new participants to view feedback from previous participants before they begin their online learning course.

20. Employee on-boarding – create a training manager and manager/supervisor partnership in rolling out a new employee on-boarding process.

21. Create opportunities with your organization – to address the projected 3 to 5 year job and career rotation, create internal job opportunities for promotion and movement within the same organization.

22. Learning styles – continue to look for creative ways to reach various learning styles, i.e. blended learning approaches and strategies.

23. Use video – show participants in a training course a clip from a movie. Ask them to respond/react to the scenario incorporating the principles shared in the class. Ask participants to send their responses via email, using their phone or laptop. Open up your email and project it for the entire class to review and critique, on-the-spot.

24. Podcasts – create podcasts as an approach to blended learning.

25. Stock photos – a resource for legally showing photos and using other media in a learning platform is: http://www.istockphoto.com/

26. Reduce stress – use your organization’s healthcare provider in offering various opportunities for reducing stress in the workplace.

27. Involving top managers – if it is not possible to have top level line managers present parts of training programs, consider having them create a podcast or create a dvd of them commenting on the value associated with key elements contained in the learning program.

28. Marketing – a marketing idea is to visit organizations and offer them free attendance at a workshop. This gives potential clients an opportunity to see the quality of services a vendor can provide.

29. Survey your audience - gain a greater understanding of your participants and their needs prior to their participation in a program by utilizing survey software such as http://www.zoomerang.com/ and http://www.surveymonkey.com/.

30. Visit Clancy Cross’s blog – http://www.clancycross.wordpress.com/, for short writing pieces based around inspirational themes. They can offer a springboard for discussion in a learning environment.

31. Take people off-site to do workshops – use a Pixar short to set the mood for the workshop.

32. Engage your participants beforehand - moving them from spectators into participants by asking them to complete pre-work before class (readings, exercises, etc.). Since people have minimal training time available, asking them to complete pre-work can cut down on training time.

33. Executive sponsorship – add credibility to your programs by having someone from the top show how your learning efforts tie to the organization’s strategic plan, speaks volumes.

34. Lunch and learns with plant tours – stagger sessions throughout the day, rather than offering them at one specific time.

35. The “Bad Apple” Effect – the reality of a bad apple ruining the dynamics of a classroom was discussed. The NPR radio show “This American Life” has a “bad apple” podcast that contains statistics concerning the impact of negative attitude on a group. The episode was aired on December 19th and it's titled, "Ruining It for the Rest of Us." – see http://thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1275. To hear the episode or any part of it, click the link above and then on the web page click the link on the left labeled "Full episode". [The bad apple research is in the prologue at the beginning of the program, but listen to the entire show - especially the hilarious comedy routine by Mike Birbiglia in Act 2.]
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