January 2008

Betsy Allen

Bounce-Back Strategies: Never Do for Participants What They Can Do for Themselves
by Betsy Allen

How many times do you need to revisit information to recall it? What does it take to move content from short- to long-term memory? Given different learning styles, how do we present information so learners retain it?

Research suggests that it is necessary to review information (in different modalities, e.g., visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactual) six times over a twenty-one day time frame to ensure retention. These “bounce-back” strategies provide learners a 30-, 60-, and 90-day reminder of how they wish to behave differently. Below are 13 bounce-back strategies you can be tailored to individuals' learning styles and preferences.

1. Start, Stop & Continue
   
   If you’ve ever attended the Bob Pike Group’s Train-the-Trainer boot camp, you’ll recognize this strategy as one that we model. Introduce this exercise part way through a training class by asking participants to record how they would complete the following three statements:
   
   
   • I will start…
   • I will continue…
   • I will stop...

   Ask participants to think in terms of what they want to start doing that they wouldn’t have known to do before the class; what they will continue doing because it was affirmed in the class; and what they will stop doing as a result of learnings from the class. Participants complete these sentences inside a folded card addressed to them. The instructor mails the card back to participants in 30, 60, or 90 days.
   
   Bonus: This activity can also be used as a “closer” where participants share their start, stop, and continue phrases with a partner, triad, or small group before sealing the card and giving to the class instructor.

2. SMART Goals
   
   A donation to a high school sports team qualifies you as a member of the Boosters Club. Similarly, composing one to three SMART goals serves as an accountability booster for behavior change.
   
   Once participants have a sense of what the class will cover, “what’s in it for [them]” and how they can apply it, ask them to record up to three SMART goals using this formula:
   
   
   • Specific and detailed
   • Measurable (how many or how much)
   • Attainable
   • Relevant to success in one’s role
   • Time by which it will be completed

   The goals relate not to what participants will do while in class, but rather, to what they will now be able to do back on the job. Participants are encouraged to incorporate these bounce back strategies into their time management systems, where appropriate.

3. Bounce Back to the Boss
   
   Why involve the boss? Here is one of many reasons: Mary Brod and John Newstrom, in their research published in the Transfer of Training, discovered—as a result of training— that managers experience the first and second, respectively, most important impact on the participant’s learning (behavior changes on the job). Involve the manager by involving him/her in any of these strategies.

4. Fish Bowl
   
   The boss’s manager has potential to double the impact. Make it public and triple the impact. Try this for return on your investment. Thirty, 60, or 90 days after the class, each participant, boss, and manager meet in a room. Managers are seated in a circle with their backs to the participant’s bosses, standing behind their manager. The participants stand in the center and, one by one, share what was bounced back and the progress of each strategy to date.

5. Squared, Full Circle, New Angle
   
   On the first day of a multi-day training, have participants draw a large square and circle on one side of an 8½ x 11-inch piece of paper, and a large triangle on its backside. During the class, participants are encouraged to add ideas to the page of paper. In the square, participants capture (at formal or random intervals) ideas that “squared” with them and that they plan to implement. In the circle, participants record ideas which have come “full circle”— where the behavior has been demonstrated—and it has been affirmed. In the triangle, participants capture ideas that they once knew and have now looked at from a new “angle”.
   
   Bonus idea: Together, learners then come up with the next change to make and circle back to the trainer reporting how round one went and what round two looks like.

6. You Scratch My Back, I’ll Scratch Yours
   
   Early in the class, pair participants with a learning partner. Choose any one of the bounce back strategies, and instead of reminding the participant of his/her desired behavior change, remind the designated learning partner, who then contacts the learner and offers support to achieve the desired change. The learner then does the same for his/her designated partner.

7. Ask it, Find it, Report it
   
   Training often lights an informal lamp of inquiry. You learned just enough new stuff to know there is more where that came from, and that the technology is changing not just by the minute or second, but by the nano-second. Learners need to be encouraged and accountable for life-long learning, not just-in-time learning. At the end of class, learners ask, select, or volunteer to pursue lines of inquiry which surfaced during the class. Assign each participant a designated inquiry to research, and then report back to fellow participants on the findings.

8. Hit the Trainer and Chew On It
   
   Ask learners to write down three to five favorite ideas, favorite brands, or a favorite gum flavor, and their name and contact information on a piece of paper. Then have them crumple the page into a ball, move to the center of the room, and on the count of three, toss the wadded pieces of paper at the instructor. Once the pieces are tossed, invite learners to pick up a wad that is not theirs and find the person whose paper they picked.
   
   The learners then send the message back to the owner in 60 days, along with a pack of their favorite flavor of chewing gum. When learners receive the reminder from a fellow class participant, they are reminded of their desired behavior change and so “chew on it” and enjoy the gum!

9. Collective Wisdom
   
   At some point during class, begin to circulate a “collective wisdom” page. As the trainer, you pause for “words of wisdom” from individuals or teams. As new learnings are discovered, learners record them on the “collective wisdom” page. At the end of the class, the trainer gathers the “collective wisdom” page(s) and commits to consolidate and mail it to each learner in 30, 60, or 90 days.
   
   Bonus Idea: This can also be facilitated as a chain letter, traveling from one learner at a time, each adding an application idea that they have thought of or done since the training session. Once the complete list is received by the instructor, he/she makes a copy, and then redistributes it to all learners.

10. Let the Learning Live On
    
    As a closing activity, ask learners to create content puzzles, such as key words and / or phrases missing letters or steps in a process covered in the training, listing the steps out of order. (Reference Powerful Presentations, Vol. 1 by Betsy Allen & Bob Pike for additional content puzzle frames). As the trainer, commit to distribute these learning puzzles in monthly emails to participants. Learners who correctly solve the puzzles are rewarded.

11. Picture This
    
    Incorporate the use of wall charts in multi-day, interactive training sessions. Make a conscious effort to capture all participant learnings on the wall charts. Then, at the end or during class, designate someone to transfer the information to an electronic format and combine key content created in advance in preparation of the class. Combine content with photos of engaged learners. In support of bounce back strategies, commit to sending three pictures on a particular day of the month for the coming “x” number of months in exchange for the participants’ commitment to send you pictures or evidence that they are applying what they learned in their job.

12. Shoes Made for Walking
    
    At some point during the class, ask participants to find their “sole” mate; in other words, the person in the room whose shoe size is closest to theirs. On a piece of 8½ x 11-inch paper, each participant traces his/her shoe. Participants exchange tracings, each partner captures how, when, and where they intend to walk or “behave” differently as a result of the class. Toward the end of class, sole mates exchange papers and agree to mail the “shoes that were made for walking” in 30, 60 or 90 days. As part of the assignment, participants also email the class instructor to share how they have “walked their talk” and truly applied the new knowledge at their job.

13. Celebrate the Change
    
    Open the class by collecting two “change” (two coins) from a random sample of participants. Walk around the room asking, “Would you like to change?” When someone says “yes,” then give them two coins (two change). Invite them to share their change and invite others “to change” by giving away or keeping the coins. At the beginning of class, mention that “to change” isn’t easy and yet many participants have accepted the invitation to change.
    
    At the end of class, participants will identify two behaviors that they wish to change. Designate a future date on which participants will email the instructor telling what they have changed. Celebrate the change by compiling and redistributing the class’s successes.

January Monthly Meeting:
Leading a Cross-Generational Team
by Sherry Heideman

Generational diversity is a unique quality in today’s workplace. For the first time ever, four distinct generations are working together on project teams, and across departments to achieve common goals. For training and development professionals, this poses both a challenge and an opportunity to provide leaders with the tools and techniques that will positively illustrate these differences. First, however, we need to increase public awareness of the unique characteristics of the generation mix among Matures, Baby Boomers, Generation Xers, and Millennials.

During this session, participants will learn about the makeup of each of the four generations, and will share effective learning approaches that have impacted the preferences of each. We will contemplate answers to questions such as: How have learning professionals integrated diverse techniques into classroom delivery and blended learning? What has worked and what have been some lessons learned?

Communications
On average, each of the four generations prefers a different mode of communication. Providing feedback, for example, presents a challenge for meeting the needs of each generation’s preferences. Most would agree that employees find value in receiving feedback, especially when it meets the following criteria: frequent, accurate, specific, and timely. These criteria, however, would be defined differently by each of the four generations. For example, what does the employee want to hear and how often does he/she want to hear it?

Retention
Organizations are anticipating that large numbers of Matures and Baby Boomers will retire in the next five to six years, putting pressure on leaders to retain current talent. In this session, participants will learn how to identify which approaches motivate employees to stay, and which will tempt them to respond to creative recruiting tactics.

Leadership and Followership
Matures prefer command and control, while Baby Boomers request participation and collaboration. Generation Xers seek autonomy, while Millennials seek out clear goals and direction. Understanding these differences increases a leader’s ability to lead, influence, and optimize available resources.

In summary, it is important to find ways to utilize your people assets in today’s workplace. The generational patterns may not accurately resemble each individual specific to his/her generation and many individuals may relate to multiple generation preferences/patterns. The key is to be aware of and appreciate the differences among each generation and creatively integrate their values and approaches, enabling you to support them as they learn to manage and leverage the unique makeup of your organization. Register for this session today.

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Influencer LIVE! Book Tour from the Authors of Crucial Conversations

ASTD Twin Cities Chapter is delighted to be a local premier sponsor for a special introductory presentation on Influencer: The Power to Change Anything the latest release from McGraw-Hill and the New York Times bestselling authors of Crucial Conversations. Join us on a journey around the globe and into the lives of gifted change geniuses. Become a powerful influencer yourself by learning the skills employed by some of the world's influence masters.

The ASTD-TCC Board got a preview of this presentation at the 2007 ASTD Leaders Conference in October. Here's what 2008 President Beth Spencer had to say about it: "Influencer has a powerful, simple message that you can immediately use in your own life and work. I was amazed at the profound changes people are making around the world through actions that any of us can do."

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Bob Cummins

Request for Marketing Team Members
by Bob Cummins

We are looking for volunteers to serve on the 2008 ASTD-TCC marketing committee. If you are looking to gain marketing experience, or if you have marketing expertise to offer, we would like to talk to you!

If interested, please contact Bob Cummins at 651-283-9495 or robert.cummins@coachingbystillwater.com. Any amount of time or any level experience would be greatly appreciated! We look forward to hearing from you.

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Joseph Moses, Ph.D.

Entrepreneur SIG Meeting:
Branding – A Promise and a Process

January 15, 2008
Tuesday

11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Ridgedale Library Confernece Room
12601 Ridgedale Dr.
Minnetonka, MN

REGISTER ONLINE

Entrepreneur SIG Meeting
Branding: A Promise and a Process
by Diane Autey

What comes to mind when you see or hear the word “brand”? For most people, a visual image of some sort—a logo, letterhead, collateral and/or and a web site—comes to mind. However, for anyone who has ever worked on creating brand recognition, they’ll know that the concept of branding is much more than that.

On January 15, join us for an energetic discussion led by Dr. Joseph Moses about the power of branding individuals, companies, products and services. Dr. Moses describes branding as, “a process of making—and keeping—promises.” Learn how the promises delivered by key messages, products and services have the potential to work together to create a valuable brand.

Take advantage of this opportunity to learn, network and share ideas among other entrepreneurs and professionals. This presentation promises to be enlightening and inspiring for all who attend!

This event is free of charge and pre-registration is not required. You are welcome to bring a bag lunch.

For more information, contact co-chairs Carol McCormick at mccobuch@comcast.net or Diane Autey at diane@projectsdonewrite.com.

About the Presenter
Joseph Moses, Ph.D. is executive editor and vice president of Beaver’s Pond Press and is former director of marketing communications for GE Security.

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Improving Performance by Leading Fearlessly™
by Bruce E. Roselle, Ph.D.

In today’s organizations, factors that lead to success and promotion are increasingly subtle, particularly at middle management levels and above. And factors that derail leaders are intangible and highly nuanced. Successful leaders respond to most situations and circumstances effectively. They understand themselves in depth, recognize when they respond ineffectively, and know how to shift their response to one that reflects high performance.

The key to Leading Fearlessly™ and improving performance in yourself and others is to fully understand the role of irrational fears and faulty beliefs that cause you to stumble, and then to catch yourself when you begin to react carelessly to situations.

The following types of behaviors best reflect high performance:

• Decisive, action-oriented
• Confident, optimistic
• Focused, clear-thinking
• Collaborative, deep listening
• Compassionate, thoughtful

Unfortunately, not everyone always responds to challenges in “high performance” mode. Examples of ineffective reactions look like this:

• Confusion: a normally intelligent person suddenly becomes uncertain about a decision or action and responds like a “deer in the headlights.”
• Perfectionism: the person is driven by impossibly high standards, expecting to hit the mark every time. He/she rigidly controls the outcome or procrastinates until the last minute before throwing it all together.
• Defensiveness: the person assumes responsibility for protecting one from personal attacks, or takes things that others say, personally.
• Resistance: the person avoids the control of others, and responds with either passivity or aggression to avoid the control of others.
• Discouragement: the person is overwhelmed by the idea of achieving a goal; he/she becomes pessimistic, feels hopeless, and lacks energy or motivation.

Unconscious fears. People recognize these types of reactions when they occur. These ineffective behaviors are driven by internal irrational and unconscious fears that cluster in three areas associated with our most fundamental needs: acceptance, importance, and security.

• Personal rejection: The thought is that “people will not like me, accept me, or include me.”
• Role insignificance: One thinks that “others in authority will not look to me, value me, or allow me to play an important role”.
• Irreparable hurt: The thought is that “the situation will shift dramatically, and people important to me, or I, myself, will be damaged emotionally, financially, or physically in a way that cannot be repaired.”

What we believe in any given situation determines how we will behave in that situation. Faulty beliefs are fed by irrational fears about what we must do to protect ourselves.

When faulty beliefs kick in, practice responding with a healthy counter belief. This act will help minimize the number of times you react thoughtlessly and maximize your high performance behaviors. Like removing a virus from your computer, recognizing your faulty beliefs and practicing replacing them with healthy beliefs will remove impediments and improve performance.

Steps to improving performance. This process will help you improve performance:

• Identify catalyst situations. Become aware of events which prompt a negative reaction (confusion, defensiveness, resistance, perfectionism, or discouragement). You will typically recognize a past pattern that serves as a sign that a reaction might reoccur.

• Be on the alert for your “early warning” signs. The quicker you recognize a reaction in progress, the easier it is to circumvent. Your body usually provides a signal that the fears have become agitated, often with emotional symptoms of anxiety, feeling tense, flushed, agitated, and confused, or possibly physical symptoms such as tightness in the neck, stomach, or shoulders.

• Ask yourself this question: “What in this situation is causing me to sense my irrational fear (e.g., rejection, insignificance, or hurt)?” Asking this introduces a rational, conscious question into an irrational, unconscious fear reaction. It is sometimes difficult to recognize who or what is causing the fear to become agitated. It helps to consider, “who is the audience here?” In other words, who am I most afraid of disappointing or getting hurt by? By simply posing the question, the fear usually lessens or disappears and your normal, high-performing response mode takes over.

• Gain perspective of the situation. Ask the follow-up question, “How big a deal is this?” or “What’s the worst that could happen here?” or “Will this still be important five years from now?” These types of question help lessen the effect of your faulty beliefs by providing perspective on the situation.

• Reinforce your healthy beliefs. Remind yourself what you truly believe as a rational adult in a given situation. Speak your new, healthy beliefs to yourself to counterbalance the compounded impact of reacting out of your faulty, habitual beliefs.

This approach is not built on stuffing feelings, stifling your reactions, or speaking affirmations in the hope of developing new behaviors. Instead, it is based on the powerful combination of recognizing when your unconscious, irrational fears are aroused, and then choosing to respond with high-performance behaviors based on healthy beliefs. When you do this, you respond to situations in the most effective way possible, as a fearless leader.

Bruce E. Roselle, PhD, is an organizational psychologist who brings a breadth of experience and a deep sense of purpose to the task of helping organizational leaders develop greater effectiveness and a more wholehearted, fearless attitude. For more than 20 years, Bruce has served organizations in leadership and team development, executive coaching, and psychological assessment.

A former Board Member of ASTD-TCC, Bruce has written and co-written articles that appeared in Counseling and Human Development, the Executive Excellence magazine, and the Career Development Quarterly. In addition, he has been quoted in newspapers, magazines, radio and television on his views regarding creating work that is fun, leading wholeheartedly, handling fears effectively and dealing with stress at work. This article comes from the content of his most recent book, Fearless Leadership, conquering your fears and the lies that drive them (2006), which won awards in 2007 for Best Business Book and Best Self-Help Book from independent publishing associations.

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• Don't miss the ASTD-TCC Member Orientation before the January 18 Monthly Meeting from 10:30 - 11:30 at the Metropolitan. This free orientation is for members interested in learning more about the chapter and the opportunities it provides. Please RSVP through the chapter office by replying to Drew at drewm@astd-tcc.org.
  
  
• Note: The January Spirit in Work SIG meeting has been moved from January 8 to January 15, 2008.
  

• The ASTD-TCC Season Pass will save up to $80 on six monthly meetings, an ASTD-U session, and your annual membership renewal. Take advantage of this offer before enrollment ends on January 14, 2008.
  
  
• Have you used Dialogues yet? This forum is a new, valuable member benefit and is provided for the use of members in good standing. The purpose of Dialogues is to provide a means for ASTD members to share ideas and network with others; sharing your experiences, asking questions, and reading about great training and workplace learning and performance resources.
  

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From December 1-31, 2007

New Members

Wells Fargo

Renewing Members

Carlson
MN Dept. of Human Services

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What would you like to read?
If you have ideas for articles or information that could be shared in Spectrum, feel free to contact the 2008 editor, Sarah Brammer, at smbrammer@embarqmail.com.

Upcoming Spectrum submission deadlines and topics: