Chapter Connections

As we approach the new year with fresh eyes and a resolve to make changes here or there, perhaps it's an opportune moment to shake up our network a little bit. Who did we add to our network in 2011 that we have not connected with as we had planned?  Who do we want to add to our network today? 

It's also probably a good idea to dust off that elevator speech that we've been using for a bit too long. While a new year does not necessarily mean a "new you," it does imply a new business environment -- your elevator speech should adapt to reflect that.

Now, you should have a basic elevator speech that's applicable to anyone you meet. But be prepared to modify it when you have specific information about the person you're talking to. The more relevant you make your speech to the listener, the more you will stick in that person's mind when you touch base with them later.

Here's a quick format for swiftly organizing your thoughts when people ask what you do.

• Give a succinct overview, in plain English. Even if you're talking to someone else within your industry, argot tends to vault what should be a pleasant conversation into a sales pitch.
• Give one example of how your efforts benefit your customers.
• Invite further discussion "What else would you like to know?"

This format keeps the content focused on the listener, and invites collaboration (as opposed to an easily-forgotten exchange of information).

ASTD-OC will have four opportunities for you to practice your elevator speech (and increase your network) this month. Check out our Events Calendar to see which one you'd like to participate in!

2011 has been a great year for our chapter. It has been characterized by high member involvement and volunteerism, dynamic meetings, and significant changes which have helped position us for future success.   

Please click here to read about our successes and the people who have made it possible. 

Sincerely,

Denise A. Lamonte
ASTD-Orange County 2011 President

The end of the year often provides time for reflection, and as outgoing Past President I find myself thinking about my tenure on the Board -- what I've accomplished, and what I've learned.

I began my Presidency with a vision -- that ASTD-Orange County should be the destination for training and development professionals of all experience levels to come together to develop skills which they had no opportunity to develop at their day job (or lack thereof). ASTD-Orange County would become a community of practice, and those who participated within that community would add skillsets to their professional abilities and experience to their resume. It was a bold vision, and one that I still believe we can achieve. We didn't get there under my Presidency -- too many things were in the way, too many resources were not at our disposal.

I agree that I'm one of my own harshest critics. That said, I believe that my Presidency had floundered trying to figure out how to accomplish my Vision. Thus, as Denise Lamonte transitioned into the 2011 Presidency, our discussions focused less on where the Chapter could go in the future and more on the gaps within the Chapter's organization.

This is an aspect of Denise's Presidency that I believe I learned the most from -- Organizational Leadership. While Denise and I had both identified several areas within the Chapter that needed to be developed before my Vision could be realized, the Chapter needed to strengthen its community overall.

Denise's skill as an Organizational Leader allowed her to address systemic challenges within the Chapter that I had been unable to.  Denise established clear expectations, action plans, consequences for not meeting those expectations, and follow-up for inaction. She created a structure in which the Chapter Leadership reported to and worked with the "Three Presidents" (myself, Denise, and Rhonda) in order to achieve strategic chapter imperatives.  Establishing expectations, creating accountable management structure, these concepts were not new things to me. But they were things that I had never worked on creating before my turn as President. So in my tenure, attempts at creating such a structure had either failed or backfired. Under Denise's Presidency, I experienced how best to accomplish these vital leader tasks.

In fact, many of the successes that I've seen the Chapter celebrate this year - and I'm going to try not to sound too hubristic here -- have some foundation in ideas that I'd put forward two to three years ago. Structures that had been proposed, yet not adopted until today. Technology that had been but tampered with, now embraced as we reach out to the younger generations of trainers.

To get a sense of what I mean, consider the changes to our website over the past few years. Our website had needed upgrading for some time, but how the site should be upgraded was a matter of discussion that was visited, then revisited, and revisited again. Our new site that had been created by the beginning of 2010 -- the Joomla-based site -- was a result of a Vision of what the Chapter could be - that vibrant Community of Practice, both online and real-world. The current website is reflective of where the Chapter is now, and will be for the near future -- a smaller community in need of a sustainable member resource, both in man-power and expense.

Perhaps one of the biggest ways in which Denise's Organizational Leadership efforts have come to initiate the Community of Practice I had envisioned can be seen with the number of volunteers who have willingly and openly shared their "lessons learned" after completing a project.  Damion Donaldson was was quite public about his "lessons learned." Pamela Coca has shared her lessons learned with Chapter Leadership, in doing so building a strong, emulatable Technology and Training SIG.

I look forward to seeing how Rhonda Askeland shall lead the Chapter in the coming year. Where I see myself as having been a "visionary leader," and Denise as having been an "organizational leader," I see Rhonda serving as an "inspirational leader." She is nothing less than a positive force of nature, one who will inspire the 2012 Chapter Leadership (both Board and Managers) to accept the organizational challenges that we face and the vision of what we seek to achieve, and address them together.

Looking back, I believe this was one of the great strengths of our Board: that the Three Presidents held such diverse skillsets: Visionary, Organizational, and Inspirational. Thus armed, we were able to address the Chapter concerns from a variety of perspectives. Just as the trainer cannot train only for the visual learner without alienating those auditory and kinesthetic learners, so does an organization's leadership suffer from having only Visionaries at the helm, or only Organizers.  Having a Board with strong Vision, Organization, and Inspirational leadership may be the key to its future successes.

I attended the ASTD Chapter Leaders’ Conference a few weeks ago and shared the ASTD-OC motto, “Come for the content. . . stay for the community” with fellow chapter leaders.  All were very impressed – it may even show up as a motto for other chapters.  The reason I mention this is that we have a very strong community where people are able to gain many benefits from being a member.

When you go to our Membership tab and look at the benefits, you see quite a number of events and offerings.  Yet, the power of those events and offerings that the community gains aren’t always clear.  A few highlights:

• This year we showed a commitment to our chapter membership with a new website that meets our member needs for registration and membership renewal. That was a significant change for our chapter, and now makes it easy to become/continue as a member, search information, see a quick glance of upcoming events, scan community posts to our blog, and find a trainer with ease, just to name a few of the changes.
• Opportunities for professional development in small, local venues prompt discussions between ASTD-Orange County members and industry experts. Our Monthly Learning Events expose you to new skills, or techniques that you just haven't tried yet.  Continuing Development provides structured learning opportunities like the Training Institute workshops and Mentoring.
• The Career Management SIG was re-established, expanding the audience of our Technology and Training SIG with the establishment of virtual meetings held in conjunction with the live meetings.  In conjunction with the OD SIG, our members are able to connect with content that meets their particular needs across a broad range of interest and skills.
• We partnered with Brandman University to support our Continuing Development initiatives, and our efforts with UCI resulted in an eLearning Certificate course that we've been promoting. Our partnerships have given the Orange County community a broader awareness of what ASTD-OC Continuing Development has to offer.
• 12 OC Learning Events were held with a variety of topics ranging from Organizational Accountability to Visual Communication for Trainers, each with its own structured networking opportunity.  The monthly learning event continues to add new members to our community and give our members content that they can apply immediately.
• The Chapter Job Board offers members an inside track to jobs that may not be listed elsewhere.  There are a wide range of jobs, ranging from Training Specialists, eLearning Developers to Senior Training Manager positions.
• This year Past-President Anthony Harmetz and Karen Wales started the Training Management Meet Up (TMMU) that is specifically for anyone in a training management role inside an organization.  The TMMU provides an opportunity to network, share insights, build on ideas that help training managers lead the learning function.  The response has been great and we can’t wait to see what happens in 2012.
• Our Find-a-Trainer feature helps members connect with other workplace learning and performance professionals of specific expertise/specialty. 

Henry Ford said, “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”  We have a community that continues to build success by working together.  We’re proud that ASTD-OC provides high value to its members and has helped many people connect through the power of community.

Rhonda Askeland

President-elect, 2011

A little over a month ago, Kathleen Sedwick (pictured, right) filled out ASTD-OC's online Volunteer Interest Form.  "I am a mid-life career changer (former teacher with an M.Ed.) and have been in graduate school earning an MBA with an HR concentration since last June, 2010." she shared.  "I had lunch with Janet DiVicenzo a few weeks ago ... and she suggested getting more involved with ASTD-OC and volunteering to work with the chapter." Kathie and I subsequently exchanged emails in an attempt to connect, with little success until we both attended a Career Management SIG Meetup.

We took the opportunity to meet right then and there. I learned that as a teacher, it was the areas of instructional design and educational technology that Kathie found most interesting and satisfying. During that time, she saw the need for more well-designed, engaging, effective, research-based instruction utilizing today's technology in both education and training and development. Recognizing that this is the direction she wanted to take her career, Kathie sought out opportunities to develop those skills. Along the way, she found ASTD-Orange County.

"ASTD-OC has provided invaluable benefits to me through its SIG groups, Learning Events, and networking opportunities," Kathie shared with me. "I decided I wanted to be more involved in the organization for the opportunities in my own personal and professional development, to further develop my skills in communications and social media, and to expand my network."

One member benefit that Kathie has taken great advantage of: our Special Interest Groups (SIGs).  At the time of our meeting, she had been to both OD SIG and Career Management SIG Meetups for the month. She was looking forward to the Technology and Training SIG Meetup the following week.

The role of SIG Liaison seemed tailor-made for her.

This role interacts with Special Interest Group leaders to identify what they'll be doing in upcoming months, and ensures that the information is:

• placed on the website
• published in our eNewsletter, SIGnificant Information
• spread through our social media sites

Kathie's position will ensure that she collaborates with the SIG, Communications, and CTO functions, and sometimes Marketing.

This position appealed to Kathie for a few reasons:

• It's relatively low-impact -- the busy work involves little time out of the month.
• It networks her with a broad group of individuals.
• It allows her to develop her skills in communications and social media.
• It plays to her strengths while allowing her to identify what further positions are available within the Chapter in which she could develop further.

Kathie sees herself assuming a leadership role within the organization and contributing to ASTD-OC's growth and presence in our local communities.
"I believe that, as an organization, ASTD-OC must continue to promote T&D as an integral and essential component of strategic planning for businesses and support the professional development of its members."

Welcome, Kathie Sedwick! We look forward to great things!

Training Program Sustainability
Interview conducted by L'Oreal Battistelli, OS Online Editor

Training veteran Anthony Harmetz said in a recent interview that training program sustainability “is the holy grail of many training departments.”   “What does he mean by sustainability?” one might ask.  “The term sustainability refers to a training program’s ability to survive over time,” the 18 year training veteran said.  “Many corporate training programs are provided only once, and then are never offered again.” ASTD past President Harmetz is a training professional who has been mentoring and coaching people since he was a child, long before he had heard of the training and instructional design fields.  “There are different ways to  think about your program’s potential sustainability,” Harmetz said, “One way to start would be by asking yourself three questions:”  1.      Will the training program survive past its initial offering? 2.      Will it outlast the people who created it? 3.      Will it outlast the initial sponsors who requested and championed it?

Anthony Harmetz is a Training Consultant based in Orange County, CA.   Currently specializing in train-the-trainer, presentation skills coaching, and improving workplace communication, Anthony has extensive experience designing, developing, delivering and implementing comprehensive curricula.  Prior to initiating his own consultancy in 2006, Anthony established and for 13 years led the training function for Bally Total Fitness, a major services sector corporation operating out of more than 400 retail and administrative facilities in 30 states, where he was responsible for the training of Bally’s 25,000 employees.

People are looking for skilled Training and Development professionals -- for us.  You need to make every effort to help them find you.

I speak of ASTD-OC's Find-A-Trainer feature, which has suffered quite a bit from our website transitions.  Not only has our functionality profile changed, your own profile content may have changed as well.

Here's how Find-A-Trainer can work today.    

• You can search by name.
  Let's say you want to contact me.  In the search field, type "Venderley," and my profile will appear. It's an active search, so my profile actually appears by the time you type "vend."
  
• You can search by Company.
  Let's say you want to reach out to any trainers at Corinthian Colleges. In the search field, type "Corinthian."  You'll find three people, one of whom I know has moved on to a different company. I'll make a mental note to urge everyone to update their profiles.
  
• You can search by skill.
  Let's say you want to find a designer who knows Captivate.  Type "Captivate" in the search field.  Anyone who has included that word in their profile, even in the sense of "I captivate learners with my winning facilitation skills." will appear in the search feature.

Once you find the member you're looking for, click on their photo. If there's no photo, click the View Details link.  The member's complete profile appears, along with a link to send a message to that member through our website.

This is a cool, fully functioning resource that will work for you if you work with it. My recommendations:

• Keep your profile updated.  The "Send Message" button will send a message to the email address on file.  If it's wrong, then whoever's trying to reach you, won't.
• Include your skillset in your profile.  Powerpoint guru? Type that in. Captivate? Camtasia? Flash? Make sure those words exist in your profile, even as keywords.  This is how people will find you.
• Include a photo with your profile.  The photos will catch the eyes of those wanting to find a trainer. The words "View Details," not so much.

To update your profile:

1. Log in to astdoc.org.
2. In the upper right hand corner of the screen, you'll see a link: View Profile.  Click that to see what's in your profile.
3. From there, you can click "Edit Profile" to make sure that you're visible in our community.