Employee Development

Personal Development Plan.

Looking ahead, I can tell you one of my major professional goals is to become a High School Video Production teacher.  Now in order to obtain this goal there are a number of things or steps in front of me that I will need to accomplish.

First of All, I will need to receive more formal education in the form of an “off-site program that is specifically designed for my needs.”(Noe)  In order to become a High School Video Production teacher, I will need to obtain my Career Technical Education (CTE) certificate.  CTE courses are designed to prepare students to be members of the work force and teaches them many of the skill needed in order to find work when they graduate from school.  In order to teach these course, teachers need to obtain their CTE certificate. The  CTE certification process prepares educators to teach 21st century skills to both middle school and high school students.  By completing this program, I will be qualified to teach any video production course at any high school in the state of Washington.

Part of the purposes of the CTE programs are for students to learn these skills from trained professionals, from individuals who have worked or are working in these fields and for them to be trained on the last strategies and equipment. The second step for my personal development will be through job experiences, possibly asking for new job assignment.  “New job assignments help take advantage of employees’ existing skills, experiences, and contacts, while helping them develop new ones”(Noe). In order for me to continue to develop my skills I need to continue to work in the field of video production.  To do this, I will continue working at my second job, as a sports videographer at Xfinity Arena in Everett, Washington.  During the upcoming hockey season, I will shadow or follow the Technical Director, in hopes to possibly learn the job and understand its function.   This will allow me to continue to improve my skills, while learning and working with the same tools and skills that I hope to be teaching my students.

The third step in my development plan is to find a mentor, a CTE teacher who is willing to help me through this process.  “A mentor is an experienced, productive senior employee who helps develop a less experienced employee”(Noe).  There are a number of CTE teachers in our school district and more importantly, one who is teaching the program I hope to be teaching.  By developing a mentoring relationship with him, I might be able to learn from his leadership, and have a greater understanding of what needs to be done and how to accomplish it.

The final step of my development plan is an opportunity for Assessment.  “Assessments are used for several reasons.  Assessment is used to identify the strength and weaknesses of an individual.  Assessments help employees understand their tendencies, needs, the type of work environment they prefer, and the type of work they prefer to do.”(Noe) I am currently teaching a similar style of courses or program at the middle school level.  By allowing the administration or possibly the High School CTE teacher to come in and observe my course and teaching, I can develop a greater understanding of my own strengths and weakness, while also getting a better understanding of how my program meets the needs of a CTE program.

By following these four steps, I should be prepared to teach a High School level CTE Video production course, and thus ready to fulfill the dream that I have been trying to achieve for the past 10 years.

By following the link below, you can observe a presentation for my school district that I created in order to convince them to institute a district wide Employee Development Plan.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1bpdwsRA3hQ7PMuIsesNrwzBif3HyE2JgmzDxdcLwaKc/pub?start=true&loop=true&delayms=30000

Noe, R. A. (2013). Employee training and development (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

High Tech Training

Instructional Designers understand that technology has changed the world very quickly over the past century, and if education is going to continue to reach those people who have grown up with technology, it is going to need to find ways to educate while providing access to technology.   The addition of technology must be more than just putting content online, the Instructional Designers must repurpose it to me the needs of the students and the curriculum “Remember that just putting text online isn’t necessarily an effective way to learn.  Repurposing refers to directly translating an instructor-led, face-to-face training program to an online format.”(Noe)

One way technology has truly helped training and education is the way it allows trainees to collaborate with each other.  “Digital Collaboration is the use of technology to enhance and extend employees’ abilities to work together regardless of their geographic proximity.”(Noe) Tools like electronic messaging systems or even program’s like Google Docs allow students or trainees the opportunity to work together on the same project even if they are physically in different locations.  A shared Google Document will allow multiple people to work on the same document at the same time regardless of location and difference in technological devices.

The integration and use of social media has also greatly influenced training.  Besides the obvious bonus of advertising and inviting people to take part in different training opportunities, social media has also proven useful in a classroom setting.  “Social Media can provide links to resources such as webinars and videos, it can help determine the training needs and issues,  it can reinforce and sustain learning, while linking learners before, during, and after the formal training event.”  Tools like blogs and wiki’s give trainers a online local to share their ideas and tools while providing  the trainees the opportunity to access important information during post training activities.

While Simulations are nothing new to education, the use of technology and its involvement in simulations has most certainly affected the way trainers are able to train.  Most importantly, it has allowed companies to use the same training techniques regardless of location, while providing the trainee with real world experience without wasting the companies time or money.  Miller Brewing Company’s use of Tips on Taps is a great example of how trainees can use technology to train in non technological fields, by using technology to teach how to pour beer using proper angle and height. “The online game does a better job of replicating  how to pour correctly than traditional classroom instruction, its more convenient and accessible for trainee practice, and the real product is not used eliminating waste and reducing costs.

Most importantly, a trainer’s use of technology prepare students to live and work in the 21st century.  For example Adult English as a Second Language (ESL) educators use technology as a vessel in which to strengthen their knowledge of the english language while giving them opportunities to develop their job related skills “The computer, Internet, and cell phone, by nature, provide more opportunities for authentic input and interaction, and can contribute to ESL learners’ communicative ability, which is a primary target in English language learning.”(McClanahan)

McClanahan, Lorna. MPAEA Journal of ADULT EDUCATION. 2014, Vol. 43 Issue 1, p22-27. 6p.

Noe, R. A. (2013). Employee training and development (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Steelcase Needs Assessment

Welcome back everyone, this week’s blog post assignment asked us to look at or explore an organization and discuss how we might approach a needs assessment for this organization.  I decided to look at Steelcase.  I did this for a couple of reasons.  For one, of all of the organizations listed, it was the one that I truly had no experience with so I thought it would be nice to check it out.  And secondly, it has a cool name, kind of sounds like a band or something so it had to be cool.

Steelcase was founded more than 100 years ago, when they filed a patent for a metal garbage can, now 100 years later they are an innovative creator of steel workplace products, furnishing and services.  “Steelcase was founded in 1912 by a few people with a strong commitment to integrity and doing the right thing for their customers, employees, business partners, associates and neighbors.  At Steelcase they believe to act with integrity, always tell the truth, keep commitments, treat people with dignity and respect, promote positive relationships, protect the environment, and of course, excel”(Steelcase).  Steelcase has a global footprint and promotes cultural acceptance through; “Fair recruiting and hiring processes, raising awareness among employees of diversity issues, and creating partnerships with other companies that support diversity”(Steelcase)

“Needs assessments refer to the process used to determine whether training is necessary and typically involves organizational analysis, person analysis, and task analysis”(Noe).  For these to work and be successful in an organization, a company needs stakeholders who have bought into the plan.  Even though they are are global organization, their principles and values are still connected to where they originated from, the staff.  “Their principles became the foundation of our company, passed on from decade to decade. Our employees are our greatest asset and living these values is at the core of all that we do, just as it was in the past. (Steelcase)  Any change to the company not only needs support from leadership like their Director of WorkSpace Donna Flynn and Nurture General Manager Rob Heitmeier, but needs the support of all Steelcase employees, regardless of job or title.

In order to meet the needs of their employees, I would recommend that we implement a focus group and use collaboration tools.  Even though it may be more time consuming, by using a focus group we are able to answer “more complex or controversial issues that one person may be unable or unwilling to explore and questions can be modified to explore unanticipated issues”(Noe)

About Steelcase (Sept 2015) Steelcase, Retrieved from

      http://www.steelcase.com/en/company/who/about-steelcase/pages/aboutsteelcase.aspx

Noe, R. A. (2013). Employee training and development (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Why Should We Train

So you really don’t think training works. I know we’ve all heard the horror stories about training.  “Trainings are organized and created by a company.  Training involves a program that employees are required to attend and after the training, employees are responsible for using what they learned in training on the job. Any support they might receive is based on the whims of their manager.”(Noe) As you know, these trainings generally fail to improve performance and/or meet the needs of the company.  These type of trainings fail because they lack the purpose and the ability to change that is needed in a Learning Organization.

“A Learning organization is a company that has an enhanced capacity to learn adapt and change.  In a Learning organization, training processes are carefully scrutinized and aligned with company goals, where learning is seen as one part of a system designed to create human capital”(Noe).  By being highly organized and placing an emphasis on training, companies are able to design training that put their employees in the best possible situations where they can meet their personal goals as well as the goals set by the organization.  “Learning organizations emphasize that learning occurs not only at the individual employee level, but also at the group and organizational level.”(Noe).

I know, you really don’t like change.  You actually get anxious, just by people speaking of change, and you don’t think you can cope with it or even value current training practices.  In order for change or training to work; employees must understand and agree on the reasons for change, they must have the skills needed to implement change, they must see managers and other employees support the change and finally organizational structures must support the change”(Noe).  By meeting these conditions before implementing any change, you greatly strengthen the rate of success of any type of training that you are thinking of implementing.  

Noe, R. A. (2013). Employee training and development (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.


(The blogger website would not allow me to upload an MP3 or a Wav. file. So I placed my elevator speech file on the Walden website in the Blog links folder.)

New Class - Same Blog

Hello, well its a return to the blog world.  I will be updating my blog on a semi regular basis for the next 8 weeks, I hope you enjoy it.  The first entry will be coming later this week.

My Experience with Scope Creep

This weeks reading introduced us to a concept known as Scope Creep.  Scope Creep is “the natural tendency of the client, as well as project team members, to try to improve the project’s output as the project progresses.” (Portny) Scope Creep asks for change in the project without following the proper planning steps and thus is not guaranteed to receive the resources need to succeed.  Avoiding scope creep is nearly impossible, but project managers need to understand its there, plan for it, monitor it, and hopefully control it, thus reducing some of the damage it causes.

About four years ago, the middle school that I am a teacher at was named a Priority school, meaning that our state test scores and other factors like attendance fell to the bottom 10% of the state. We received a large grant of money from the state that was intended to turn our school around.  All along with this funding, the school also received support in the form of training and supervision of the state.  As part of accepting the grant, our school was asked to find new leadership, meaning the principal of 10 plus years was replace with a first time Principal and a first time vice principal.

Now our school saw great change and growth and was even recognized as one of the most improved middle schools in the state.  But even with all of the school’s success, things weren’t perfect, and teachers we’re feeling the stress.  

Our schools transformation witnessed a heavy amount of Scope Creep.  First of all, the track of leadership was very hard to see and thus made it difficult for the lower level project workers, the teachers, to truly understand their role and how the changes were to take effect.   You would think the school’s principal would be the project manager in a situation like this but his job was not clearly defined.  He had multiple people to answer to, each with their own lists of requests and/or changes that they wanted to see happen.  Since there wasn’t a clear line of communication between the state executives who were implementing the changes, the changes had a different feel and look depending at which priority school you visited.  And since our Principal was answering to different a number of different state executives, what was needed to be done and when was left up to interpretation.  The leadership was so poorly organized, that after the first year, many of those who were in supervisory roles of different regions of schools had to be replaced.

A second challenge of scope creep that we saw in our transformation, was the continuous trainings and seminars that asked teachers to leave the classroom.  Not only were teachers repeatedly asked to attend these training during the school year, thus taking them out of the classroom, but they also asked the teachers to implement the changes and learnings the obtained from the training immediately into their classroom practice routines, which caused those budgetary issues that come when extending project without including a change control system.

The lack of leadership not only caused the school to rework how their resources were to be used, it also frustrated the staff to the point that we saw almost half the school’s staff change within the next 3 years, including new building leadership, with both the principal and vice principal leaving for schools in other districts.

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Online Tools for Project Managers

As a project manager, we are asked to do so much.  We are asked to complete a schedule, allocate resources, estimate the costs, understand the abilities of our employees and schedule the durations of different activities based on that understanding.  And we do all of this with our client or supervisor keeping a watchful eye over us and making sure that we come under budget.

In order to be successful, the Project manager needs to be able coordinate everything and everyone who is taking part in the production.  One way to do this is through the use of Gantt Charts.  A Gantt chart is a “type of bar chart that displays project activities as bars measured against a horizontal time scale. It is the most popular way of exhibiting sets of related activities in the form of schedules.”(Portny)  One free online tool that can be very helpful is the website smartsheets.com.  SmartSheets allows the PM to  create a Gantt charts that meet the needs of everyone working with the project. “You can customize your chart with conditional formatting to highlight team members' tasks or indicate status levels with different colors. Your team or clients will instantly "get it" and understand the tasks and related dependencies.”(SmartSheet) Not only does this website give the Project Manager the ability to build Gantt charts to plan out a project, by inviting all team to join, the site allow multiple opportunities for team members to collaborate with others and makes it easy for them to share files.   Include the web forums and mobile apps they offer, and Smart Sheets provides project managers with a single place for team members to look and understand where their at any point during the project.

One of the real problems that project managers have to deal with is their ability to work with the schedules of every team member.  A free online tool that helps Project Managers with this is Doodle.com.  Doodle.com is an online app that allows the Project manager to schedule with several people working on a variety of different platforms.  Doodle.com cooperates with calenders such as gmail, yahoo, and even Macintoshish’s Ical, and thus allows the Project manager to schedule meetings and any other calender activity with the easy of a mouse click, regardless of the phone, tablet or computer that the team member is working with. “Doodle radically simplifies the process of scheduling events, whether they’re board or team meetings, dinners with friends, reunions, weekend trips, or anything else.” (Doodle)

About Doodle http://doodle.com/en/, retrieved 4/01/14 from http://doodle.com/en/about-doodle

Product Tours - Gnatt Charts, smartsheet.com, retrieved 4/01/14 from  http://www.smartsheet.com/product-tour/gantt-charts

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.