Countdown to the Gala

ASTD Golden Gate 2010 Gala, photo by Jessica Levant

There is so much buzz this time of year.  The chapter Board of Directors is buzzing with activity leading up to the December 6  Gala.  We’re buying door prizes and other gifts, finalizing the menu, creating the slideshow, lining up entertainment.  Our annual Gala is all about celebrating our successes, networking, and enjoying an evening in a festive setting. Click here to see photos* of last year’s Gala. 

If your holiday season is not too buzzy, please join us. It’s not too late — you can just come and register at the door. It is sure to be a fabulous time.  We are all abuzz!

*Photo credits: Jessica Levant.

Volunteering for our Communities – an opportunity to work with our Community Outreach Program

Image by radzfoto via Flickr

In November, we surveyed our members to assess their interests in volunteering to help communities in the Bay Area. The message is clear: COP volunteers are willing and available.

Read more about the survey results and what it means to you.

COP Volunteers are Willing and Available

By Jason Lai, COP Volunteer Manager

As I look at those who come through the doors of the ASTD Golden Gate Chapter, I see all kinds of talented people who bring a vast amount of knowledge and expertise in the fields of Organization Design, Talent Development, Training, Facilitation, and the like. I see professionals who are respected leaders in their industry.

The Community Outreach Program (COP) of ASTD/Golden Gate is fortunate to draw from this pool of talent. COP aims to involve and team up Chapter members so that we may give back to the community. We want to utilize the skills and abilities of our members to make an impact in and for the Bay Area nonprofits. Volunteers play a crucial role in COP. Essentially, without volunteers, ASTD is without COP. Recently, COP has been surveying Chapter members to systematically involve as many people as we can.

Some areas we analyzed were:

• Strengths, skills, and areas of expertise of potential volunteers
• Areas that people would like to develop through COP experience
• Time commitment and involvement availability

Overall, we had a great response. We were aiming to recruit 12 volunteers and ended up receiving 19 solid responses.

That means that COP will be able to continue its work. We have volunteers who can conduct 3-4 Needs Analysis with potential non-profit clients. We have capacity to design, develop, and deliver 2-3 workshops per year. We have volunteers who can facilitate strategic planning meetings. That’s a win-win for the profession and for the community.

We appreciate all of your thoughtful responses. COP will look for ways to get our willing volunteers to work! We are dependent on volunteers like you to keep this program running.

Thank you for your support, dedication, and commitment. And, of course, as new members come to the Chapter, you are always welcome to volunteer for COP.

To volunteer for COP, contact me at volunteer_astdcop@astdgoldengate.org

Our Amazing Volunteers

Maybe I’ve said this too often, but newer members might not know.  Do you know all of our programs, our Board of Directors, our commitees, our SIGs, our upcoming technology transition to Wild Apricot, the survey request you just got — ALL OF OUR WORK is done by volunteers?  This is just amazing. Workplace learning professionals just like you join our chapter and then they volunteer to do stuff.  They commit, and they actually do stuff. There must be some reward in it.

I have volunteered on the chapter Board since 2002.  It has been one of my most rewarding professional experiences. I have made lasting friendships and have even gotten a couple of jobs through this affiliation.  And, I’ve learned so much.

The reward is intangible in many ways, but because our volunteer corps has been so committed and has made our chapter such a great place to be, we want to say Thank You! Our annual December Gala is one way to thank our amazing volunteers.  They get a special invitation to our Gala and attend at no charge.

Even if you haven’t volunteered (and don’t feel bad about that — not everyone can do it), we want to say Thank You to all of our members.  We need all of you — and our Member Appreciation and Volunteer Recognition December Gala (that’s the official long name) is for you, too (for a small fee).  Please come and celebrate our success, eat, drink, network, and have a fabulous evening in San Francisco, December 6th.  As always, see our website for details.

The Gala is put on by your Amazing Chapter all-Volunteer Board of Directors as a huge Thank You to you, our members and member-volunteers for another fantastic year. We look forward to seeing you there!

October Program Recap: Facilitating Organizational Change

Edited by Pi Wen Looi. 

On Wednesday, October 12^th, the authors of one of the top five selling books in ASTD press, Consulting on the Inside, A Practical Guide for Internal Consultants, 2nd edition, came to speak with us about “Facilitating Organizational Change.” Their book is used by professionals and is quoted in many books intended for preparation towards the CPLP examination. Bev Scott and Kim Barnes, together bring about 35 years professional experience in Organizational Development, Training and Management.

2011 October ASTD Golden Gate Chapter meeting presenters Kim Barnes and Bev Scott

The presentation began with a description of the internal consultant role. The internal consultant focuses on managing change, fear, and keeping client-requested plans for change on track. When working with clients or client systems there may be resistance. Part of the job of the internal consultant is to help the client move through the process. As an employee of their client company, the internal consultant uses high-level communication skills combined with unique insider’s knowledge to help the client look at root issues that may be part of a larger organizational issue.

Process

Internal consulting is less linear than external consulting. It is like a bowl of spaghetti. The consultant moves between these steps.

1.     Contact – Contact can be wherever you run into people. Internal consultants know the organization and at least some of the people, though not always. Everybody is a potential client. First, lay the foundation; get information about why they are interested in working with you. That should lead to some kind of agreement, the next step.

2.     Agreement – Clarify whether the agreement is for the next step, or is it for a whole project. Internal consultants establish an agreement, rather than a contract, with their clients.

3.     Assessment – The challenge here, is getting to the right people in the client system to gather the right data. The internal consultant must be careful to avoid their own preconceptions, and be adept at recognizing and managing client assumptions. When gathering sensitive data, they must clarify appropriate language with the client. This will help to avoid confusion or animosity. An internal consultant needs to recognize when it is wise to bring someone in, either from outside the immediate system or outside the organization.

4.     Feedback – This is a sensitive step, especially if the data collected from a client system, from a department, or a unit, is information the client doesn’t want to believe, accept, or agree with. For instance, how do you deliver the message that the client is part of the problem? This requires a lot of preparation and a lot of careful communication. Time is a good tool. Ask the client to think about the data overnight.

5.     Alignment – Alignment is not possible unless the client owns the data. If the internal consultant starts to wonder if the client is heading down a different path, it is best to back up to the Agreement step. It may be necessary to gather agreement from secondary clients if the problem impacts more of the organization than originally considered. Questions to ask:

a.     What is it we are really trying to change here?

b.     Who’s involved in this process?

c.     What is our strategy to get from here to this future place?

This is a really important step. This is where communication skills and expertise are very often needed. To gain this alignment, the internal consultant must now demonstrate knowing something about how change happens and how to move an organization forward.

6.     Implementation. After the client clearly owns the data and agrees on a plan, the internal consultant will implement the plan. The outcome could be an off-site retreat or a continual improvement process.

7.     Evaluation. A critical step that the internal consultant doesn’t do often enough is to evaluate success. At the end of the project or at major milestones, the internal consultant should review their agreement with the client, assess their accomplishments and lessons learned, for both the internal consultant and the client.

Success Factors

To ensure success of any organizational change, three factors must be present at the client company or client systems:

1.    People have to be dissatisfied enough with the way things are.

2.    There must be an articulated vision for how it could be different and better.

3.    There has to be trust of the support for getting from before to after the change effort.

If any of those is zero, the effort is much more likely to fail. A successful change effort requires that the leadership align to the vision and the strategy. The internal consultant must align to the organizational leader who supports the change. There also has to be a compelling business case. Leaders and employees impacted by the change have to see that there is dissatisfaction that creates the business case for major change.

An internal consultant needs to be flexible and continue to develop appropriate skills to manage any surprises that might arise from a change management initiative. As change is the only constant, an internal consultant can count on using various skills to help the client navigate through the change process.

Reported by Wendy Sterndale, edited by Pi Wen Looi

New Chapter Website Coming Soon!

 Golden Gate Chapter’s website will have a new look soon! Here’s a little preview of what’s to come.

Our website will be hosted on Wild Apricot, a membership and event management platform. Many other chapters have already made the shift to this exciting new system that will let you manage your online relationship with Golden Gate Chapter more easily than ever.

Now, Members Only content such as Job Search, Member Directory, and chapter business documents will be accessible through the same site and login as you use to look for the event calendar and register for programs. Plus, your membership status, renewal date, and all your financial transactions will be available for you to view at any time through your member login ID.

Look for announcements coming from Golden Gate Chapter starting mid-December.  We will be sending you access and setup information you will need to register so the new system recognizes you as a member.  Being registered as a member will be the only way to access the Members Only content and get member rates for events.  Don’t worry — we’ll send lots of announcements, and are even creating a tutorial video to guide you through the setup.  It’s easy, and you’ll have plenty of time, but we don’t want anyone to be left behind during this exciting transition.

The new and improved website will be a one-stop shop for ASTD Golden Gate Chapter.  And, it will be launched on January 1st.

If you are interested in checking out other Chapters that use the same hosting platform, click on any of the following links:

ASTD Atlanta

ASTD Eastern Pennsylvania

ASTD Miami

If you have questions or suggestions on how to make this transition easier for you, send us your feedback!

September Program Recap: Models and Tools for Performance Analysis

Why do some people go through training and apply what they’ve learned, but some don’t? How does their work environment impact how much these training participants apply what they’ve learned to their day-to-day jobs?

2011 September ASTD Golden Gate chapter meeting presenter, Roger Chevalier

On Wednesday, September 14^th, Roger Chevalier, Ph.D., CPT, an independent consultant specializing in imbedding training into comprehensive performance improvement solutions talked with our members about improving workplace performance.

Dr. Chevalier shared with us his experience and presented a workplace performance improvement (WPI) process that could help managers and trainers measure the impact of their training programs. Dr. Chevalier’s process is an application of situational leadership that will work in the coaching field, performance development, and sales. He observed that in an unreinforced work environment, the knowledge of training is lost in just one month after the training.

Dr. Chevalier asserts that if you have not assessed the business conditions and work environment for desired results before you begin implementing a training solution, you can only sense possible results; you don’t know for sure.

The WPI Process

Here is the seven-step process that can help trainers, workplace performance professionals, and consultants measure the impact of their training programs. This process is not necessarily linear, it flows with the situation and your conversation with your clients. However, you should attempt to cover all seven steps to ensure success.

Prepare

Research the organization to find out as much as you can about the problem. Identify some ways to measure success and prepare an agenda.

Assess

Build rapport with the client. Ask open-ended questions to confirm everyone’s overall impression of the conditions. Drill down on your client’s responses until you’ve understood their current business environment and desired outcomes for the intervention.

Before moving on from each step, be sure to reinforce what you’ve heard during the assessment conversation. Ensure everyone understands what was said. As a group decide to move forward.

Diagnose

Ask more direct questions to identify the client’s perception of current conditions, their implications and the value of resolving the problem. Look at the front end of the problem and direct questions to identify the causes of the performance gap. What is the difference between the present and the desired level of performance? Here you will select an appropriate style for intervention.

Encourage the client to be clear about their motivation, and then communicate it back to them. Anyone in the training business must demonstrate value to the business outcome or be vulnerable.

Prescribe

Now you’ve identified the situation, the problem, its implications, and the value of improving performance and are ready to make a recommendation. This could be the rewards system, the supervisor’s coaching, the resources given, or something else in the environment. The training controls about 10% of the problem.

Partner

Discuss with your client strategies to approach the problem. Ensure that the client still owns the problem, and therefore has a role in the solution. The environment must reinforce the knowledge acquired.

Reinforce

Reinforce what you’ve heard the client say and confirm that mutual understanding of everything so far. Then make decisions together to move forward. You will have also done this at the end of the Assessment step and at the end of the Diagnose step.

Follow-up

Design and develop the strategy to fulfill the promises made to the client.

You can get more information on tools and models for performance analysis on Dr. Chevalier’s website.

Reported by Wendy Sterndale, edited by Pi Wen Looi

Quick. Quick. Tell Me What You Think of Brainstorming. Want another way to get high-quality ideas?

Image via Wikipedia

We’ve all participated in a brainstorming session. A rapid-fire volley of ideas.  Ideas come so fast that it is difficult to record them all.

But what if someone in your group doesn’t like to compete for talk time?  Or what if you had an entire group that is reluctant to speak up, doesn’t like conflict, and defers speaking until others (elders and native-born) speak first?

That’s exactly what the Community Outreach Program (COP) had to consider when designing three community meetings for San Francisco’s Japantown.  How can we get them to be involved and active participants in rezoning their neighborhood?

Don’t just sit there. Write something!

Instead of brainstorming, COP used a different way to get ideas and input — Nominal Group Process.  NGP substitutes quiet solo thinking time for the noisy group pile-on.

Here’s how you can use NGP works to generate ideas in your meetings:

1. Start by providing information about the topic.
2. Ask an open-ended discussion question.
3. Ask each person to write down his/her input on a sticky note.
4. Write as many ideas as you want.  Just make sure there’s only one idea per sticky note.
5. Allow 5 minutes for quiet writing time.
6. Conduct the round-robin report-out session:  The facilitator calls on participants one by one to read an idea.  If a participant has the same idea as one expressed earlier, ask for another idea.
7. Display the ideas. To do this, the recorder collects and sorts the sticky notes, or writes the participants’ comments on flip charts.
8. Take turns calling on participants until each has contributed all of their notes.

At this point, you will have generated a lot of input and heard from everyone.

The purpose of the Japantown meetings was to have community input on the various changes to the rezoning plan.  These comments will then be incorporated into a final draft to be presented back to the community before sending it to the Planning Commission.  With this objective, COP recorders sorted the sticky notes and captured new ideas on flip charts.

Nominal Group Process at work -- Kris Schaeffer, recorder at the Japantown community meetings, sorts the various sticky notes.

In other situations, NPG doesn’t stop when the group has generated its ideas.  Depending on the meeting objective and available time, the NGP session could continue. You could continue to use NPG to discuss, refine, revise, vote, or prioritize the ideas. For a deeper dive into nominal group process, check out decide-guide, it is a nifty resource for various methods of group decision making.

You can use Nominal Group Process for other audiences.  For example, NPG gives you balanced participation when you have a very diverse group — a large difference in rank, a mix of extroverts and introverts, newer members joining an established team.  Use NPG when you’re concerned that you won’t get many ideas or that people will be silent.  NPG is appropriate when you have a controversial topic and participants fear taking sides or creating conflict.

Use this “ready-aim-fire” technique the next time you want to get many great ideas – no matter who your group is.

*****

Kris Schaeffer, CPLP, is the In-Service Manager for the Community Outreach Program, a part of the Golden Gate Chapter of ASTD.   The Community Outreach Program provides non-profits with customized workshops taught on-site to their people, and designs and facilitates large group meetings.  www.KrisSchaeffer.com