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4/27/2009

Great Advice for Learning Professionals who have been Laid Off

This is some great advice shared by Elliott Masie in his most recent Learning TRENDS newsletter, so I wanted to share it with the chapter.

* Broaden Your Skills View: While your resume may be all about Learning and Development, you have a serious level of underlying and transferable skills outside of the learning area. For example, your management of developers can translate to management of supply chain providers. Many learning professionals think way to narrowly about their zone of competence.

* Ditch the Learning Language from Resumes and Interviews: Redact the learning jargon from your resume. If you have managed a Learning Management System, don't use the phrase LMS without explaining it. Leave out phrases like modules, level 2 evaluation and more. You want to frame your accomplishments in terms and language that are understandable and valued by HR and others, outside of our field.

* Don't Count on Consulting Revenue: A number of my colleagues have said that they were planning to do consulting in the months ahead, until they got a new job. It MAY happen, but there has been a significant cutback in consulting contracts and outsourcing projects. Starting as an independent learning consultant at this moment may not be the wisest approach. Often, promises to use you for contract work if you are free do not turn into real work or cash.

* Consider New Sectors: Look at higher education (especially Community Colleges) and local organizations that may be receiving Stimulus grants and would value your corporate learning and business contacts and perspectives. Also, take a look at the sectors of Insurance, Health Care and Public Works Construction as 3 areas to investigate.

* Apprenticeships: If you have significant severance or savings, consider doing an Apprenticeship for an organization in a few role or sector. Sometimes, these apprentice programs can be arranged or even subsidized through local employment/training agencies. If you can work for a short stint for experience and diversity of resume, consider it.

* Don't Panic: While there are a lot of lay-offs in our area, there are also many new openings. Check out the Monster and ASTD job boards and make sure that you are letting people know that you are available AND flexible! Switching locations (even for a year) may be part of the solution.

* Time to ReSkill: I have 5 colleagues who are now starting new masters or doctorate programs as part of their personal ReSkilling process.

* Build a Portfolio: Create a portfolio of the type of projects and work that you have accomplished. Key on learning as a "performance change" factor - to make your case for a new role. For example, a learning project designer has recently started as a Store Manager at a major retail organization, based on how they have moved the "cheese" in performance - once they showed that they also had project management and financial work in their portfolio.

To subscribe to Masie's free newsletter, follow this link:

http://www.masieweb.com/trends/subscribe-to-trends

Posted at 2:09 PM by dmtees | Category: Member Posts | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

3/28/2009

Tigger or Eeyore?

Are you a Tigger or an Eeyore? That is, are you bouncing optimist or a mournful skeptic?

It seems like the world favors Tiggers. Be optimistic! Right? Isn’t that we are all told? For me, the problem is, I count myself among the Eeyores. And we are also told to be true to yourself. So, here’s a question: is it possible to be an optimistic Eeyore?

Probably not. But, I am convinced, it is possible for Eeyores to create value in the world of the wildly optimistic. Let Tiggers make the initial plans. Eeyores should be the questioners, the ones who find flaws in the plans of the Tiggers. Then, let the Tiggers come back in and review our skeptical questions, to find the optimistic answers that overcome – but do not ignore – our objections.

In other words, work together.

Which brings me to another set of questions.

What is the real value of training? How do adults learn best? And what is the best way to turning learning into improved performance?

I am mostly an outsider. I work as a independent contractor, so I can’t really see what goes on inside of companies. And, as stated, I am an Eeyore.

From my outsider, Eeyore perspective, it seems like a lot of training dollars are not spent wisely. It still seems that most training follows the old grade-school model. There’s a “teacher” and a “class.” There is a lecture that is focused on what the “student” needs to know, not what the “worker” needs to do. In other words, a model that wastes money because it does not lead to improved on-the-job performance.

This is based on the projects that I get, what I am told to develop, and some extrapolations from I can tell of what is happening in the field. Harold Stolovich and Erica Keeps have made a lot of money telling us that “Telling Ain’t Training.” And National ASTD is holding two – count ‘em, two – Telling Ain't Training Conferences this year. And we all know, don’t we, that training ain’t performance. Would these resources exist if companies were actually focused on performance? I doubt it.

So, am I right? Is too training still using a classroom model with little regard for the learner, let alone the worker.

Or am I out of touch?

What is reality? Let’s have a dialogue.

Eric Hansen,
President, GCASTD

Posted at 11:15 AM by ehansen917 | Category: Notes from the President | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

3/19/2009

Drum Circles

I got an email not long ago from Mimi Sinclair, a board-certified music therapist who is expanding her business into the world of workplace learning and performance by offering to bring drum circles to organizations.

You can see a flyer that explains her offerings here. Or visit her web site by clicking here.

I was intrigued by the idea, so I called Mimi to find out more. Here’s what I learned.

One way she uses the drum circle is for some easy team building and to energize a group, say, after lunch when everyone is feeling sluggish. The other – and to me more intriguing – is to use the drum circle as a metaphor for workplace performance.

“There are elements of making music together that are clearly transferrable to being on a team,” Mimi said. “You have to listen to one another, you have to find a place where you fit in, you have to figure out how you can build on what someone else is doing.”

And what about those who resist the idea that learning to drum together can transfer to the workplace? After all, weren't ropes courses all the rage not that long ago?

“Yes, there will be resistance, but with my training as a therapist, I know how to help the team find metaphors in music that they can use on the job -- and in their personal lives."

Just to be clear: I don’t have any experience with drum circles or with Mimi, other than our brief conversation. I was simply intrigued enough to follow up and then to pass on the information. I do not want this to appear to be a GCASTD endorsement. If you know of others who offer this same service, have them contact me at president@gcastd.org and I will add their information to the GCASTD blog as well.

Posted at 1:47 PM by ehansen917 | Category: Resources | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

3/8/2009

New National ASTD Member Benefit

National ASTD has just introduced a new member benefit. -- access to full-text articles from T+D, Learning Circuits and from thousands of leading periodicals, journals, newspapers, and regional business news through quick and easy searches of this dynamic database.

You can locate the Online Library here:

http://www.astd.org/content/research/doYourOwn/doYourOwn.htm

To use it, you have to be a national member -- and you have to sign in.I test drove the site today (Sunday, March 8, 2009). It was easy to use and the articles provided seemed they would be useful. (This was just a 15 minute test drive, so I didn't dive deeply.)

Make sure you use the ASTD Online Library link at the top of the page and not the Trainlit Literature Database link, if the latter is still available, further down. The Online Lirbary is easy to use and pulls up useful information. The Trainlit Literture Database did neither. According the the ASTD Knowledge Center web page, Trainlit is supposed to be unavailalbe after March 6, so it may not even be there when you go.

The Online Library, powered by EBSCOhost®, provides access to:

Nearly 3,000 titles
Over 170 full-text business monographs and business books.
Selected business content from more than 100 major regional newspapers, and business news from 50 regional sources.

In addition, you have access to Business Book Summaries that let you preview more than 700 of the leading business books covering business skills and soft skills development.

National ASTD members, take a look. Let us know what you think.

Eric Hansen

-- GCASTD President

Posted at 9:47 AM by ehansen917 | Category: Notes from the President | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

9/25/2008

FREE Web 2.0 Learning Event

by Michelle Lentz

Web 2.0 for Learning Professionals is a free online event offered by Tony Karrer's Work Literacy group (this includes Michele Martin and Harold Jarche) in combination with the eLearning Guild.

According to Tony's blog, this event is a

... 6-week, highly active, social learning event will introduce you to new methods and tools. It will be moderated by Michele Martin and Harold Jarche, with help from Tony Karrer. This is your opportunity to ramp up your understanding of Learning 2.0 technologies prior to DevLearn 2008 so that you can participate better either in-person or as an outside spectator, and to interact and learn with people who are passionate about learning.

Tony has a schedule of topics on his blog and you can pop in and out whenever you please. It's elearning at its finest, with activities completed at your own pace. The group is using Ning to facilitate the learning. I'm a big fan of Ning (as I wrote about here) and I use it for several sites, including a personal site, a charity site, and another non-profit site I currently have in progress.

You certainly don't have to be going to DevLearn to participate, so I highly recommend signing up and just popping in occasionally to see what's happening, or ideally, participating the whole time. While the event officially starts Sept 29, I'm sure you could easily pop by anytime in the 6 week period.

__
Find Michelle Lentz on Write Technology, Twitter, Pownce, and FriendFeed. She'll be speaking at the upcoming DevLearn Conference presented by the eLearning Guild.

Posted at 11:14 AM by wrtgirl | Category: eLearning | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

6/14/2008

Come Blog With Us!

Not only do we hope to have Board members post to the blog, we want our members to post as well!

Have thoughts that you want to share on learning, training, or development? Write up a blog post, include your contact information and URL, and email it to webmaster[at]gcastd[dot]org. We'll post it to our blog, giving you visibility, "Google juice", and the opportunity to show you're an expert in your field.

Cheers,

Michelle

Webmaster

Posted at 2:15 PM by wrtgirl | Category: Membership | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (1)

4/25/2008

Share Your Blog!

Are you a member with an industry-related blog? Let us know! We would love to include relevant blogs, run by our members, in our Member Web Site page on the Wiki.

If you're a member with a T&D related blog, just post it in our comments below.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Cheers,

Michelle

Webmaster

Posted at 10:50 PM by wrtgirl | Category: Membership | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

Welcome!

Welcome to the GCASTD Blog! We hope to post one post each month from each Board member. Posts may direct you to great sites and blogs on the Web, talk about areas of specialization, or even profile GCASTD members.

The blog and wiki on our new site are a place where we can carry on the conversation with our members. We look forward to hearing what you have to say!

Cheers,

Michelle

Webmaster

Posted at 9:44 PM by wrtgirl | Category: General GCASTD | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

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