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Mary Stewart loves to talk about change. A former Big Five change management consultant, Mary now considers herself a writer and communicator. She has found her groove helping Emerson Human Capital reach out to clients and the consulting industry. She helps craft messages to clients, maintains EHC's branding and image, and supports the communication line of business. Mary loves her work, but her true passions are raising her three children, finding and feeding two elusive cats, and spending time with her big, extended family in Oak Park, Illinois.

Mary Stewart

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SMEs Operate on Cruise Control

The Technology Change Book

Written for the experienced professional who lacks time and is juggling many responsibilities, but who yearns to be more effective with their professional development programs, The L&D Book provides simple ideas and concepts which illustrate best practic

The Learning and Development Book

The Change Book

 ATD developed the Talent Development Framework and the TD Puzzle to help practitioners understand the different components of talent development, and how organizations can build their own frameworks to address their unique needs. This blog series explores each component of the talent development framework, why it’s important to the field, and what resources ATD offers to practitioners who want to learn more.Change ManagementAccording to The ATD Competency Model, change management is the ability to apply a systematic process to shift individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a desired state. It entails guiding those affected by a change to engage with and commit to the change, and involves developing the ability to predict and prepare for change. The emphasis on process is critical; a Towers Watson survey found that most change initiatives fail because companies see change as a one-time event. Companies require change-ready employees and change-able managers. When planning for change, managers should first ask, “Why change?” Holistically understanding the need for and components of change helps communication throughout the process. Employees will not follow a change plan unless they know why the change is necessary and view it as beneficial. According to learning and development manager Joshua Berkstresser, when employees know that the change will affect them and others in a positive way, they will more likely be committed and engaged, and the change initiative is more likely to be successful.The ATD Competency Model identifies change management skills that talent development professionals need to exhibit:• Establish sponsorship and ownership of change.• Build involvement.• Create a contract for change.• Conduct diagnostic assessments.• Provide feedback.• Facilitate strategic planning for change.• Support the change solution.• Encourage integration of change into organizational culture.• Manage consequences.• Evaluate change results.We live in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world, and the need for effective change management is imperative. According to organization development expert Peggy Greenberg, the ability to adjust to change makes companies exponentially more likely to succeed and grow. In other words, the more successful a company’s change management strategy, the more agile and sustainable it is against changing demands and expectations of customers. With new challenges to face daily, change management is an essential part of a successful talent development strategy. Here are some additional change management resources to explore:• Assess and rate your change management skills.• Learn about the impact of change on employees and their day-to-day work.• Avoid unsuccessful change initiatives with these helpful insights. • Help pinpoint the “why” to get employees on board with new changes. • Adjust your mindset about change.• Read more on appreciating the effects of change and rewarding them appropriately.• ASTD Handbook, 2nd Edition.• 10 Steps to Successful Change Management by George Vukotich.• TD at Work, “Change Management” by Stella Cowan.• Change Management Training by Elaine Biech.• The Change Book: Change the Way You Think About Change by Trish Emerson and Mary Stewart.If improving change management is at the forefront of your educational goals, consider enrolling in ATD’s certificate program to become an effective facilitator of change.

The ATD Talent Development Framework: Change Management

John Zorbini has spent his career helping organizations understand the strategic link between effectively managed human capital and successful business results. John’s unique background and experiences as a senior executive, professional speaker, and certified leadership coach, combined with his collaborative and results-focused approach, makes him ideal to consult, coach and facilitate all levels of leadership. For Stewart Leadership, John specializes in working with clients in such areas as succession planning, full-cycle strategy planning (business & talent review, succession review, leadership development review), human resources consulting, and executive leadership coaching.For 30 years, John held various leadership roles for three of Wisconsin’s largest employers, spending 25 of those years in the chief human resources officer position. Having an intimate understanding of the complexities and daily challenges of boards, executives, and other leaders, has enhanced his ability to quickly relate to and assist those with whom he works.As a professional speaker, John has delivered hundreds of workshops and presentations and continues to be a much-in-demand facilitator and speaker. Additionally, John has over 20 years of university-level teaching experience (undergraduate and MBA) as an assistant and adjunct professor at Marquette, Concordia, Cardinal Stritch, and Mount Mary Universities.John received his bachelor’s degree from West Liberty University in West Virginia and his master’s degree from Marquette University in Milwaukee. He completed his fellowship for executives at the Advisory Board in Washington, D.C.He has served as a board president or board member for governmental agencies, civic groups, and not-for-profit organizations, including former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s Council for College & Workforce Readiness (where he represented all businesses in Wisconsin); current Governor Tony Evers’ Career Development Committee; the Wisconsin Hospital Association’s Workforce Development Council; the Mount Mary University Board of Trustees; and others. He currently serves as Chairman of the Washington County Ethics Board.John has always been an active member of his community. He has been the recipient of his community’s Citizen of the Year Award, and two school district’s Friend of Education Award. He and his wife, Pam, reside in Erin, Wisconsin.

John Zorbini

Can you measure whether the content in your e-learning system provides an enriching and engaging experience for your learners? If you can't answer this important question, you're not alone. Organizations struggle with the complex activity of analyzing data to identify opportunities that can improve learner engagement, and then translating those insights into content. It's worth it to find out. Courses and related resources that may not be as valuable as intended can result in decreased interest and attendance rates—leading to poor learning outcomes. There are many ways to measure and analyze course engagement data in your LMS. These insights enable managers to identify issues, prioritize change to learning programs, and step up their engagement game. Dive into the possibilities of analytics for your learning function in this webcast.

Using Analytics to Deliver Engaging Courses

This is the second post in a three-part series examining leadership.  (See post 1 and post 3.) In the present business climate, the leaders need to become champions of the “learning organization” as designers, teachers, and stewards (Senge 1990), rather than position themselves as the traditional charismatic hero (Steyrer 1998).  With that in mind, leading others requires constant learning and development (L&D) and designing of knowledge-creative workplaces that foster growth. Agile Skills Required Enter “design thinking.” Research reveals that design-driven companies, such as Apple, Coca-Cola, Ford, IBM, Intuit, Nike, P&G, Starbucks, Starwood, Target, Walt Disney, or Whirlpool, have outperformed America’s S&P 500 large companies by an extraordinary 228 percent over 10 years (DMI 2014). Likewise, being smart about agile working, agile workforce, and agile environments and cultures should be on every leader’s list of priorities. In fact, a 2014 CIPD survey of HR leaders and employees found that improving “leadership and management capability” (64 percent of respondents) and “learning and development” (54 percent of respondents) are top tactics to deliver organizational agility. Meanwhile, respondents in the CIPD research ranked “reward management” (15 percent of respondents) and “increasing workforce diversity” (17 percent of respondents) much lower. In the 2014 report, Change Agents: The Role of Organizational Learning in Change Management, ATD Research concurred that organizations and their leaders should be more adaptive to change. Indeed, the research study found that 61 percent of organizations experience three or more changes per year, but they are not prepared to manage that change. Only 17 percent of respondents rate their enterprises as highly effective at managing change, and a mere 30 percent of organizations have change management teams. The good news is that there is clear evidence that an adaptive, generative, and knowledge-productive learning and development (L&D) approach to leadership development can provide the infrastructure for numerous progressive methods designed to produce adaptive leaders. Coaching and self-managed learning are clear examples of this approach. Why Coaching Works Through my own research into leadership development, I have found that coaching is about building and sustaining high-quality links with others. Extremely good coaches energize, ask, listen, invite, and equip others to develop themselves and achieve their personal and professional best. How does this work? The coach energizes the relationship, while the coachee empowers it. As a result, the link re-energizes the coachee, so that he or she is better able to discern, ideate, transform, and deliver (Tkaczyk 2014). More importantly, numerous coaching skills can be applied routinely with clients, peers, or direct reports. They include setting the stage, bringing forth positive leadership presence, tracking information, identifying issues and key factors, playing back exchanges and checking-in, giving and receiving constructive feedback. In addition, one of the most important tools when working with others is the skill of positive inquiry (Tkaczyk 2014). Meanwhile, Stanford’s 2013 Executive Coaching Survey revealed that nearly 100 percent of CEOs enjoy the process of coaching and receiving leadership advice from professional coaches and outside advisors. Although CEOs are receptive to making changes based on these interventions, the Stanford study found that a majority (66 percent) do not receive leadership advice or coaching. To be sure, the benefits of coaching for developing leadership skills are tangible. ATD Research’s report, The Coaching Approach: A Key Tool for Successful Managers, concluded that, in reality, coaching improves communication (69 percent), raises engagement (65 percent), improves skills-to-performance transfer (63 percent), and stimulates productivity (61 percent). Becoming Self-Managed Learning Leaders As leaders grow, they need to become “L&D crafters” (Tkaczyk 2014). To maximize their leadership presence and learning agility, rooted in design thinking (Austin and Devin 2003, Martin 2009) and positive organizational scholarship (Cameron at el_._ 2003, Cameron and Spreitzer 2012), such L&D crafters may routinely use a “continuing developmental portfolio” comprised of two components: Continuing Executive Development Check-In: A disciplined L&D system, self-managed by an individual who constantly “checks in” with themselves by asking reflective questions regarding any critical and opportunistic incidents that happened in the workplace or outside, daily or in the past week.Design: A natural and drilled L&D mechanism that is self-guided by the leader, in which they constantly “design” their own L&D by asking developmental inquiries regarding what it is that they still want to learn and develop, and how exactly they will execute their development plan. International research conducted by the Learning Entrepreneurs project from September 2011 through September 2013 found that such self-managed learning produces personal gains: upgrades your skills and helps monitor your learning in an evidence-based way (91 percent) and boosts your credibility as a reflective and creative leader (90 percent). It also offers organizational benefits: unlocks HR potential (80 percent) and builds “knowledge-creative” workplaces (73 percent). Interestingly, participants in this global research project represented diverse geographies, including Africa, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, and North America. Still, more scientific research is needed, especially as Asia/Pacific leaders were not represented in the study (Tkaczyk 2014). For more on “self-coaching” as a self-managed leadership development method, see my August 2014 TD article, “Daily Check-Ins Stimulate Self-Improvement.” Finally, other approaches for developing leaders for future success can include:cognitive or relational job re-designjob enlargementsposition transfersjob rotationssabbaticalsexternships—professional development through a full-time temporary position at another organizationself-assessment inventories360-degree feedbackpsychological profiling and strengths-findingleaderless group discussions in which a team of multiple leaders is assigned a complex challenge and must work together to work it out within a certain time periodacting and storytellingconcept mappingrepertory gridscritical incident technique, as utilized in job analysis,mentoring·one-on-one Personal Management Interview (PMI) programs, namely purpose-finding and role-negotiation sessions—approximately 60-120 minute each, and preferably twice per month, depending on life cycle rhythm of work. The final installment in this leadership series will address future vistas in leadership.References ATD Research, 2014. Change Agents: The Role of Organizational Learning in Change Management, Association for Talent Development (ATD), Alexandria, VA.  ATD Research, 2014. The Coaching Approach: The Key Tool for Successful Managers, Association for Talent Development (ATD), Alexandria, VA.  Austin, R. and Devin, L., 2003. Artful Making: What Managers Need to Know About How Artists Work, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.  Cameron, K., Dutton, J., and Quinn, R. (eds.), 2003. Positive Organizational Scholarship: Foundations of a New Discipline, Berrett-Koehler, San Francisco, CA.  Cameron, K. and Spreitzer, G. (eds.), 2012. Oxford Handbook of Positive Organizational Scholarship, Oxford University Press, New York, NY.  CIPD, 2014. HR: Getting Smart About Agile Working, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, London.  DMI, 2014. “Design-Driven Companies Outperform S&P by 228% Over Ten Years—The DMI Design Value Index,” Dialog, Design Management Institute (DMI), Boston, MA.  Martin, R., 2009. The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking Is the Next Competitive Advantage, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA.  Senge, P., 1990. The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, Century Business, Random House, London.  Stanford, 2013. 2013 Executive Coaching Survey, Stanford University/The Miles Group.  Steyrer, J., 1998. “Charisma and the Archetypes of Leadership,” Organization Studies, Vol. 19, No. 5, pp. 807-828.  Tkaczyk, B., 2014. “Critical Clarification on Coaching,” International Coach Federation (ICF).   Tkaczyk, B., 2014. “Positive Inquiry Skills: Crafting Vital Coaching Questions," Association for Talent Development (ATD).  Tkaczyk, B., 2014. “Crafting Continuing Learning and Development: A Positive Design Tool for Leadership Development,” Development and Learning in Organizations, Vol. 28, No. 4, pp. 5-8.  Tkaczyk, B., 2014. “Daily Check-Ins Stimulate Self-Improvement,” TD, Vol. 68 No. 8, pp. 72-73.

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