6
aug
0

Employee Development on a Shoestring: Developing Talent Outside the Classroom

Posted by Coaching Skills, Corporate Team Building Games, Customer Service Training Games, Emotional Intelligence, Experiential Learning, HR Training, Human Resource Training, Leadership Games, Leadership Style Assessment, Supervisory Skills, Team Building Exercises, Teamwork GamesNo Comments

Halelly Azulay and HRDQ-U recently hosted a free webinar entitled, Employee Development on a Shoestring: Developing Talent Outside the Classroom.

Halelly Azulay is a consultant, facilitator, speaker and author with over 20 years of professional experience in the fields of workplace learning and communication. She is the author of Employee Development on a Shoestring, which offers hands-on tools and techniques for developing employees outside the classroom and on a budget. Halelly is the president of TalentGrow LLC, a consulting company focused on developing leaders and teams to improve the human side of work. TalentGrow specializes in leadership, communication skills, teambuilding, facilitation, coaching, and emotional intelligence. TalentGrow works with all organizational levels including C-level leaders, frontline managers and individual contributors. Clients describe Halelly’s approach as “engaging,” “knowledgeable,” “enthusiastic,” and “inspiring.”

Close to 500 people signed up to listen to this webinar live. Missed it? Click here to watch the recording.

“Overall it was a great webinar and Halelly had great information to provide.”

“This presenter was great, clearly a subject matter expert, engaging, interesting, and she did an awesome job.”

“… I am certain the topic and information both from today and in the book will provide an additional avenue of thinking for managers who seem to lack options for keeping new supervisors engaged back in the workplace.”

With training budgets slashed and organizations struggling to do more with less, many employees as well as those responsible for their development are challenged to find ways to address employee development needs. While classroom and online training are popular development methods, they can be costly and complex, and often not readily available to match budgetary and other constraints. Even when training is available, it may not be the only or the best way to address learning needs.

Azulay started with sharing the 70-20-10 Development Rule, which is: mentoring

1. 70% on-the-job experience
2. 20% relationship and feedback
3. 10% formal training

Azulay then went on to explain what are some of the most pressures for employee development? She thinks the most popular ones are:

• Economic constraints
• Travel time & budget
• Need just-in-time,
anytime learning
• Globalized workforce
• Dispersed workforce
• Knowledge management

She said that employee development already happens outside of the classroom- so how can we support it? The attendees were asked to share their thoughts. Some responses were:

• Project assignment
• Webinars
• Scholarly research
• Mentoring
• Cross-training

With so many great responses, Azulay then shared what she thinks are the best ways. They were as followed:

• Self-direct learning
• Volunteering
• Sabbaticals
• Mentoring
• Rotational and stretch assignments
• Special teams
• Teaching others
• Games and contests
• Digital storytelling
• Innovating/creativity zones
• Social learning

Not having enough time to dive into all of her great ideas. Azulay chose to focus on three to really zoom in on.

1. Volunteering– She started with a question, “what is volunteering?” She stressed that there are many types/reasons to volunteer. She urged that we can shift the lenses we look at volunteering to be one of development. She stated that volunteering could be such a great way for employees to gain skills.

Azulay ended with, “what is cool about it is, they’re building skills by doing things that help them practice on someone else’s turf!”

2. Digital Storytelling– So what is digital storytelling? “Digital storytelling is the creation of video and audio based social earning content.” Azulay told us. Then asked for the attendees to share their ideas about how this method can be used for employee development? Some responses were:
• Interviewing skills
• Sharing experiences
• Handling an angry customer

3. Innovation/Creating Zones– Azulay started by telling us, “people can learn a great deal by taking time away from their regular job to go work on something that interests them, that is related to the organization that isn’t part of their actual jobs.” Azulay said they can do it alone or in a group.

This interactive webinar ended with Azulay discussing implementation and action planning. She asked for the attendees to go out and try what was learned in this webinar that takes you outside the classroom.

Want to learn more about how employee development outside the classroom. If so, then click here to watch the recorded session.

Sign up today to make sure you don’t miss the next free webinar!

4
aug
0

Unleash Your Organization’s Innovation Potential

Posted by Communication Styles, Corporate Team Building Games, Experiential Learning, HR Training, Human Resource Training, Leadership Games, Leadership Style Assessment, Team Building Exercises, Teamwork GamesNo Comments

^7B2C3B8099A0227289C3D6AAC6B76A4FC983FD3A08E8658595^pimgpsh_fullsize_distrWhat would happen if you trusted your team members enough to give them the freedom to take risks and voice ideas openly?

Some of the ideas you receive will sound crazy. Some will flop. But others will be just what your organization needs to solve an important challenge.

One of the most remarkable examples of what can happen when group members are given autonomy and encouraged to voice their ideas occurred during WWII, as recounted by Stephen Ambrose in his book Citizen Soldiers.

A thorny issue

In June of 1944, after American soldiers landed on the beaches of Normandy on D‐Day and moved about 10 miles inland, they approached the Normandy countryside the French refer to as the Bocage. This part of France consisted of plots of land that farmers separated with hedgerows rather than fences. The hedgerows were made of two to three feet of packed soil at their base and topped off with several feet of brush and vines.

When the Sherman tanks attempted to go over the top of the hedgerows, the front of the tank popped up, exposing its thin underbelly to Nazi anti‐tank fire. As it turns out, Allied military planners had spent so much time planning for the D‐Day landings that they hadn’t fully considered the problems troops might encounter in hedgerow country. The Sherman tanks’ vulnerability caught everyone by surprise.

At first, the Americans tried blasting the hedgerows open so the Sherman tanks could then progress through the holes created by the explosions. Unfortunately, the explosions only served to give the Nazis advance warning of where the tanks were going. Nearly a month after D‐Day, the Allies were falling behind schedule primarily because of the problems created by the hedgerows and the Nazi defense.

An unexpected solution

One day, in a discussion between officers and enlisted men, the idea arose of mounting saw teeth on the front of the Sherman tank. Many of those present laughed at the suggestion. One soldier, however, took the idea seriously. Sgt. Curtis G. Culin, a cab driver from Chicago, immediately designed and built a hedgerow-cutting device made from pieces of steel rail that the Nazis had strewn across the beaches to slow down an amphibious attack. When tested, the new device easily sliced through the hedgerows.

It wasn’t long before the Sherman tanks mounted with Culin’s device were branded “Rhinos” by the soldiers because they made a Sherman tank look like a rhinoceros. Within days of testing the Rhinos, the idea was presented to Gen. Omar Bradley, head of the First Army. In short order, he attended a demonstration of the Rhino tank and immediately ordered 500 of Culin’s devices. Within two weeks, 60% percent of the First Army’s Sherman tanks were modified into Rhinos. With the Rhinos, the First Army were able to proceed through the hedgerow country in time to crush the Nazi army.

Now it’s up to you

Curtis Culin’s innovation might not have occurred had it not been for a chain of command consisting of Gens. Bradley, Dwight D. Eisenhower and George C. Marshall, each of whom gave soldiers under his command the freedom to share and test ideas.

As a leader, one of the most powerful things you can do is demonstrate that you are willing to listen. Encourage your team to take the initiative to identify problems and give them the freedom to find solutions.

By doing so, you just might unleash the type of innovative thinking that allowed a Chicago cab driver to play a crucial role in one of history’s greatest moments.

Portions of this post were adapted from “Connection Culture: The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy and Understanding at Work,” by Michael Lee Stallard, president of E Pluribus Partners. Stallard speaks, teaches and provides consulting serves on leadership and organizational health. Follow Stallard on his blog, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or on LinkedIn.

Michael Lee Stallard

8524460d37c06077f3d47af81523ce15_headshot-MLeeStallard_100-200-cMichael Lee Stallard is President of E Pluribus Partners, a leadership training and consulting firm. He speaks and teaches at a wide variety of business, government, healthcare and education organizations. Michael is the primary author of the book Fired Up or Burned Out: How to Reignite Your Team’s Passion, Creativity and Productivity, and his most recent Connection Culture: The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy and Understanding at Work. He writes the CEO Advisor column for FoxBusiness.com and is a regular contributor to SmartBriefs.  Articles about his work have appeared in leadership periodicals worldwide. He is a faculty member of the Institute for Management Studies.

Michael and HRDQ-U are hosting a free webinar on August 12th at 2pm. Sign up for it now!

 

3
aug
0

Training That Delivers Results

Posted by Communication Styles, HR Training, Leadership Style AssessmentNo Comments

Dick Handshaw and HRDQ-U recently hosted a free webinar entitled, Training That Delivers Results: Instructional Design That Aligns with Business Goals. Handshaw, Founder and Chairman at Handshaw, Inc., is a consultant, speaker, author and champion for innovation and quality in performance improvement and instructional design.  He is a pioneer in the field, with 35 years of experience as a learning and performance improvement professional.  He and his staff developed the Handshaw Instructional Model over nearly 30 years of practice.

Over 470 people registered to listen to the webinar live. Missed it? Click here now!

“Nicely done – easy to connect.  The case study examples were very helpful to put it into context.  Thanks!!”

 “These webinars are great for training professionals to personally develop when there is no time for long formal programs.  I take advantage every time I have an opening in my schedule and a session is available.  Thanks!”

 “Dick has a great approach to teaching/training.  Thanks to him for the easy-to-understand approach and for all his ideas!”

Most instructional design models don’t include performance consulting or enough emphasis on measurement to deliver results consistently. Training professionals resist the idea of being put into “order-taking” roles, but many have a hard time moving beyond this approach to find a more comprehensive, results-based approach. It can be challenging to include consulting and measurement on top of your already busy schedule of training development. What training professionals need is one streamlined process that helps weigh their priorities to determine what really must be done in order to achieve real business results.

The webinar attendees were more Instructional Designers than Performance Consultants. There were a fair amount of participants that were both, though.

Handshaw began talking with a discussion about the Cost Vs. Risk Rule. Simply stated, his personal Handshaw model becomes flexible when you weight the COST of doing a step vs the RISK of not doing a step. From there, it is important to know the difference between proactive and reactive consulting. Most of us are reactive – it is what we are used to doing. We act when we are called to act. But how many of us are proactive and go after what we want/need from our clients?

We are used to looking at performance of people and not the performance of an organization as a whole. That behavior is flawed.

Often times, developing a training to solve a problem is not what is needed. You need to really look at the whole picture to determine what is needed.

The webinar also covered:

  • Reframing a training request and analyzing performance gaps
  • Developing a useful task analysis that saves time and money
  • Using performance objectives to develop measurement that works
  • Building consensus with a strategic blueprint meeting
  • Validating instructional strategies with learner tryouts and feedback

Do you want to learn more about instructional design and business goals?  Are you interested in learning more about the “true” client, the Needs/Gap Analysis Phase, Task Analysis, and more on the Handshaw Instructional Design Model? If so, then click here to watch the recorded session.

Sign up today to make sure you don’t miss the next free webinar!

28
jul
0

Tricks to Help Control Emotions During Critical Conversations

Posted by Communication Styles, Corporate Team Building Games, Experiential Learning, HR Training, Human Resource Training, Team Building Exercises, Teamwork GamesNo Comments

Scene: Critical Conversations Workshop –  Atlanta, Georgia

Situation: For practice during this day-long interactive workshop, I asked my workshop participants, who are all young professionals in a consulting firm, to reflect on an upcoming tough conversation they need to prepare for.

Story: One of the participants, a young woman, described her upcoming critical conversation with a coworker. She and he are friends outside of work who go to the gym and even ran a 5k race together. They get along very well.

But at work, this coworker has been quite verbally abusive to her, shaming her in front of colleagues and managers and putting down her work product. He even wrote “WTF” on one of the documents that she prepared and he reviewed, which made its way into the manager’s hands and was potentially client-bound before thankfully being intercepted. She wants to ask him to stop being abusive and to make his feedback more constructive.

And… ACTION!

Whoa, Nelly! You can’t make this stuff up.

How can it be that someone can get away with acting this way in a corporate environment that is very conservative, professional, and has a reputation for hiring only the brightest of talents?

Everyone in the workshop is shocked upon hearing this story, including the facilitator (that’s me). I can feel a knot in my stomach just from imagining myself in her shoes and what that must have felt like.

I guess that’s good news, the shock-factor. At least this means this is highly unusual and that we’re not desensitized to this kind of bad behavior.

Maybe your particular critical conversation doesn’t involve a conversation counterpart quite this rude, but regardless, it’s got your attention and you’re probably feeling anxiety-ridden about it. It’s got you in its grip, am I right?

So, when you know that you have an upcoming challenging conversation that may lead to conflict, disappointment, and/or disagreement (initially), how do you manage your own emotions effectively to stay productive and not get caught up in the “what the FFF” emotional reaction swirl of fight, flight, or freeze?

Learn to regulate your emotions

The key to not reacting emotionally in critical conversations is to learn how to regulate our emotions.

Here are three tricks from research to help us regulate our emotions during critical conversations:

Label them.

Putting our feelings into words can help reduce their intensity. The act of searching and finding the right word to identify an emotional sensation actually engages the brain’s ‘braking system’ and dampens the limbic system (the emotional reaction center of the brain).

So, as we experience a negative emotional reaction while preparing for a critical conversation, we could say the name of the feeling we’re experiencing to actually cause it to cool down.

If we experience a strong emotional reaction during the conversation, we have two options with regard to labeling: Either we could label the emotion to ourselves, internally (i.e., silently). Or, if we think it is appropriate for the context and person, we could choose to name our emotion out loud by bringing it into our conversation.

For example, we might say, “I’m feeling frustrated about the way you wrote your comments on my work papers yesterday.” We should experience a reduction in the intensity of the emotion as a result of naming it.

Reappraise them.

Reappraising our emotions means reframing them: finding a different, more positive perspective to describe the situation. Reappraisal activates the brain’s ‘braking system’ and reduces the limbic system

Bonus: studies show that reappraising can actually cause us to have more positive emotions and less negative emotions overall, and to report having a generally higher level of well-being!

A great method for reappraising our emotions, introduced by Dr. Martin Seligman (the “Father of Positive Psychology”), is the ABCDE method, described nicely here.

Be present.

I’ve written and podcasted about the growing evidence of the importance of mindfulness– being fully present in the moment.

We can take advantage of this helpful practice to reduce our emotional reaction to our own emotions during critical conversations.

We all have an internal ‘narrator’- a part of our brain that tells us what’s happening and what it means. But we can work to ‘turn off’ this narrator and just try to be present in the moment when we experience a negative emotional reaction. We get more ‘real time’ data to help improve our ability to make good decisions. By being mindful and present, we increase both our awareness of external and internal data (about our own mental state)- so we can make smarter choices about what actions to take and have quicker access to more or other emotional regulation techniques.

This article was originally posted here. It is reprinted with permission from the author.

Halelly Azulay

Halelly A9c8078653111ac716157820985c67728_headshot-hazulay_100-200-czulay is a consultant, facilitator, speaker and author with over 20 years of professional experience in the fields of workplace learning and communication. She is the author of Employee Development on a Shoestring, which offers hands-on tools and techniques for developing employees outside the classroom and on a budget. Halelly is the president of TalentGrow LLC, a consulting company focused on developing leaders and teams to improve the human side of work.

Halelly and HRDQ-U are hosting a free webinar on August 5th at 2pm. Sign up for it now!

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