Chapter Updates 

Laurie Allan facilitated a great learning and development session on September 25th at the University of Rochester Facilities Learning Center (Michelle Lewis, thank you for hosting).  There were eleven participants whose experience ranged from fairly new to training to seasoned training professionals.  

The session incoroporated learning activies focused on engaging adult learners with an emphasis on practice and reflection.  Areas covered included:

• Ice breakers
• Adult Learning Principles
• Ground rules
• Training, Learning and Development
• Task & Process
• Metaflow (learning process)
• Learning activities
• Best practices in rapid engagement
• Five Levels of Human Energy

By:  Roberta Favitta and David Bullock

On March 26, the community was treated to an introduction to Conscious Capitalism at the GV ASTD Chapter Meeting. Tom Brady, Founder of the Rochester Chapter of Conscious Capitalism, gave the keynote address. His segment was followed by a panel discussion where Tom was joined by Patty Kaminski of Wegmans Food Markets, and Jim Nortz, and international expert on ethics and compliance. Here is a summary from the meeting.

Why Care? Why Now? Can we get there? Is there light at the end of this tunnel?

This is how the meeting started, which brought to light the essence of Conscious Capitalism is… it’s a business culture that believes that life and business should hold a deep meaning and profound purpose. It isn’t about the bottom line but about the way we get there which is through cultural empathy.

92% of millennials believe that business should be measured by more than just profit and should focus on a societal purpose.

The movement for Conscious Capitalism has been increasing by leaps and bounds which is refreshing in this age of greed and immediate gratification. It speaks to the value starting with the employee. When the employee feels valued in the organization, everything else rolls much smoother.

Engagement improves as well as the impact of trust on the business.

Management can manage bottom up (conscious) or top down (dictate). The goal is to satisfy growth needs of the company through the employee. This “reflection of leadership” value will filter up to the management team and impact the organization positively rather than negatively. The companies who have realized this have been listed in “Firms of Endearment” .

In 2007, Wegmans was one of 31 companies in the Firms of Endearment. Today there are over 70. This is a huge kudos to the realization that the success of an organization starts with its’ people. These companies believe that by spending 80-90% of their time developing their people. A high engagement level will reduce turnover which can lead to higher wages which ultimately will improve the bottom line faster than anything else they may do.

• Highly engaged employees identify with the company.
• They care passionately about the future of the company.
• They bring passion and purpose to their work.
• They are willing to invest their discretionary effort to make the company a success. (WANT to…not HAVE to)
• They want the company to do the right thing.
• They want to feel pride in the way the company behaves.

GV ASTD sends a special shout-out to several chapter members for their roles in helping ESL Federal Credit Union earn an ASTD BEST Award for the third time in four years. The national ASTD organization ranked ESL No. 21 in its 2013 awards competition for excellence in employee learning and development.

Six chapter members comprise ESL’s award-winning Learning & Development organization:

Kelli Loveless, President, GV ASTD, CPLP®
Julie Demo, President-Elect, GV ASTD, CPLP®
Yvette Charleton, CPLP®
Jim Darby, Marketing and Communications Team, GV ASTD, CPLP®
Alexis McLaughlin
Mary Polle, CPLP®

ESL was among 28 companies from the U.S., Canada, India, Taiwan, and Turkey honored at a ceremony October 1 in Washington, D.C. (View ASTD’s press release.) Equally impressive, ESL is among 13 companies on the list who have earned this prestigious international award three times or more. As part of the recognition, ESL is profiled in the October 2013 issue of T+D magazine along with the other award recipients.

“We’re honored to earn a place on this distinguished list once again,” says Kelli, who manages the learning function at ESL in addition to her leadership role for GV ASTD. “The BEST award acknowledges ESL’s commitment to investing in the training and development of our people,” Kelli says. “It also affirms the tremendous professionalism, dedication, and skill of our learning team.”

Widely regarded as the training industry’s most coveted recognition, the 11th annual ASTD BEST Awards honors organizations that demonstrate excellence in workplace learning and development across their enterprise.

This year, 70 organizations from nine countries submitted information about their learning and development practices and programs. Their applications were assessed by members of the BEST Awards advisory committee through a rigorous blind review process. ASTD scrutinizes the investment a company makes in its learning function and in the solutions it uses to create an engaging learning environment that drives performance excellence.

In addition to garnering this impressive award, ESL also will receive valuable benchmarking data from other award-winning companies. ESL’s Learning & Development team will use this data to compare our strategy and activities with the best practices of some of the world’s finest organizations.

By Christine Herrman, MS, PHR

“Measuring Strategic, Visible and Costly Programs” was the focus of GV ASTD’s September 12 meeting, which took place in Bad Fish Consulting’s conference space at the Village Gate. TJ Kupchick from Chicago based Knowledge Advisors delivered the presentation via webinar, while Bob Peters provided the technical interface and facilitated questions and discussion with the live audience in the conference room.

KnowledgeAdvisors is a leader in learning and talent analytics. Metrics that Matter is a learning analytics system offered by KnowledgeAdvisors which helps organizations measure and improve talent development.

At the beginning of the webinar, TJ gave us staggering figures showing that an exorbitant amount of money is wasted each year on “scrap learning” – learning that is not able to be applied on the job.

 KnowledgeAdvisors suggests asking two questions when evaluating learning to ensure it is not “scrap”:

1.  Does the training lead to increased performance? and
2.  Can we improve the training experience?
   

TJ discussed the five level learning evaluation framework familiar to most learning and development professionals:

• Level 0 – Activity, Cost
• Level 1 – Satisfaction with Learning
• Level 2 – Learning Effectiveness
• Level 3 – Job Impact
• Level 4 – Business Results
• Level 5 – Return On Investment (ROI)

Research shows that Levels 0, 1 and 2 are not considered important to senior management; the most important data to senior management regarding learning are Levels 3 through 5. Most organizations do not have the right systems in place to evaluate this data. Surveys can only go so far – we have to find ways to measure results on the job and in the overall business.

We can begin moving in the right direction by asking Levels 3 through 5 questions on our surveys to turn “smile sheets” into “smart sheets”. Some examples are:

• Level 3: What percentage of new knowledge and skills learned from this training do you estimate will directly apply to your job?
• Level 4: This training will have a significant impact on which of the following: increasing quality, increasing productivity, increasing employee satisfaction, decreasing costs, increasing sales, increasing customer satisfaction?
• Level 5: What about this class was most useful to you? Provide a tangible example of how you will apply it.

As a group we discussed the need for follow-up two, three, four months down the road. A question to follow up with would be “Were you able to apply your learning within the first six weeks – why or why not?” One of our colleagues suggested following her model in using a “learning log” in each module, which would ask learners to identify the most memorable and valuable items they had gleaned from that session.

We talked about the lack of support from management in application of learning and the follow-up, and how important the manager is in this process. One case study TJ shared with the group to help with this is to follow the model of Prep Up, Step Up, Follow Up. Managers should build understanding of expectations and create goals with learners before the learning event, as well as follow up on these with the learners in order to achieve tangible results. Creating accountability around learning impact is paramount. Some tools from this case study were a pre-training impact plan completed with manager/learner, followed with a discussion forum to encourage ongoing interaction with manager/learner and then an application opportunity identification worksheet completed with manager/learner as follow-up.

One of the key takeaways from this discussion to me was that measurement doesn’t begin after training – there has to be an evaluation plan, just as much as there has to be an implementation plan for the learning. If you don’t know how you’re going to measure what you’re trying to improve, then how will you know if improvement has been made? What’s the point?

Thank you to Christine Herrman for writing up this program summary. Christine is a Learning Specialist at ABVI and Goodwill of the Finger Lakes.

Thank you to Badfish Consulting for for allowing us to use its very cool meeting space at the Village Gate.

We are pleased to announce our 2013-2014 GV ASTD Board of Directors:

Kelli Loveless, President
Julie Demo, President-Elect
Suzanne Choma, Immediate Past President
Jen Beldue, Vice President, Membership
Bob Peter, Vice President, Professional Development
Chrystie Barker, Vice President, Marketing and Communications
Phil Minarik, Vice President, Finance
Tom Stone, Vice President, Technology and Social Media
Bob Whipple, Vice President, Special Events and National Liaison

GV ASTD board member terms are one year, running from July to June. Board elections are held in June to approve returning board members and elect new leaders to open positions. GV ASTD board members must be members in good standing. GV ASTD board positions are professional volunteer commitments. There are no paid staff members.

Thank you to the GV ASTD members who participated in this year's elections.  Based on the results of our survey, 29% of our membership voted with a 100% approval rating.

The Board would also like to welcome Fred Dewey as our Chair of Sponsorships and Special Projects.  Fred is a retired CEO and serial entrepreneur, who now focuses his full-time energy on teaching people how to be more effective and happy at work. He is a Partner at G-Force, which delivers the Emotional Intelligence AT WORK™ program to professionals who want to boost their personal and team productivity by learning how to stay focused on goals and objectives, while avoiding the emotional hijackings that are so common in the work place.  He has produced more than a hundred personal and professional growth seminars, and worked with thousands of people, giving them the ability to be much more in charge of themselves and their results. Fred will be working with the leadership team.

GV ASTD is seeking your talent to help shape the future of our chapter.

Chapter Leadership Opportunities Available
GV ASTD is seeking candidates to fill the President-Elect and Vice President of Membership positions for the 2013-2014 board year beginning in July 2013. We will also consider candidates for "at large" board positions. This is an excellent opportunity to get more involved with your chapter, work with a talented and committed board of directors, represent the chapter at the national level, and help move the workplace learning and performance profession forward. To learn more, check out the select leadership and committee opportunities. To be considered for the positions, please complete the application, save, and submit via e-mail along with your current resume to kelli.loveless@gvastd.org by Friday, April 26th. If you have any questions about the open positions or the selection and election process, please contact Kelli via e-mail or at 585-256-3586.

Chapter Committee Opportunities Available
Have you thought about getting involved with GV ASTD, but were unsure how to go about it?  We have opportunities for you to make a big contribution in as little as 2-4 hours per month.  This is a great way to be more engaged with your chapter with minimal commitment.  The Chapter is seeking members for our Membership, Special Projects and Sponsorship Committees. To learn more, check out the select leadership and committee opportunities. To be considered for the positions, please complete the application, save, and submit via e-mail along with your current resume to kelli.loveless@gvastd.org. If you have any questions about the open positions or the selection and election process, please contact Kelli via e-mail or at 585-256-3586.

We encourage you to submit your applications as soon as possible. If you have any questions about the open positions or the selection and election process, please contact Kelli via e-mail or at 585-256-3586.

Thank You!!

Thank you for being a member of GV ASTD. As a 501c3 non-profit organization, our chapter's ability to support its mission of "actively collaborating with individuals and businesses in the Rochester community on workforce development"  is made possible by your contribution of membership fees and personal time and talent. We welcome your ideas and active participation.

We look forward to seeing you at an upcoming GV ASTD event.

The GV ASTD Board of Directors

Date: April 25-26

Location: Chelmsford, MA

About the event: The 2013 ASTD New England Conference brings to you the theme of "The New World of Learning." Attendees will be provided with a glimpse of the future and will include:

• Unveiling and application of the new ASTD Competency Model
• Creating innovative instructional designs that turn the classroom upside down
• Delivering engaging, effective and efficient learning solutions
• Using technology to get the right learning to the right people
• Applying learning metrics and analytics to measure the impact of learning solutions
• Reinforcing the value of training

For more information visit the conference website at:

http://www.neastd.com/

The Friends of Ganondagan is the private, non-profit organization that supports Ganondagan, the 17th century town of over 4000 Seneca Indians, and a national landmark and NYS historic site now. The Friends provide a lot of educational and cultural events to over 3500 school children and over 40,000 visitors each year. The strength of the Seneca People rests in their ability to achieve a lasting and sustainable peace with their former enemies through the creation of the League of the Iroquois. We focus our programs on this message of peace.

 

Our services and programs are expanding quickly and we are building a new year-round Seneca Art & Culture Center at Ganondagan. We have launched our first social entrepreneurship  in our Iroquois White Corn Project, a low glycemic, complex carbohydrate that served, along with beans and squash, as the healthy basis of the traditional Seneca diet.

 

We need volunteers interested in promulgating the message of peace through creative program design and delivery. Our Program Director, Jeanette Miller, a Mohawk, has twenty plus years of experience in communicating Ganondagan's message and would love to have you join her and her Programming and Partnership Team. If you want to find out more, then please call Laurie Allan at 585-820-3769 or e-mail her at cherrg1@aol.com.