The Official ASTD Blog

Creating a Leadership Handbook: Part 4

Elaine Biech — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:59:00 -0500

This series has covered various topics of creating The ASTD Leadership Handbook. How do you get started? What’s more important authors or content? How can you ensure practicality? This week let’s consider how a leadership handbook can be high quality—be the best that it can be.

How Can You Ensure Quality?

Those of you who know my work, know that quality is extremely important to me. Quality should be high on your list of everything you do—first, last, and everything in between. The Handbook will be written by well known gurus (Hesselbein, Blanchard, and Collins), include topics that are intriguing (“Leading Across Generations” and “Leading in Difficult Times”), and present tools that are practical (surveys, checklists, and assessment plans). This level of excellence must exude quality.

As you can imagine the quality question is one that permeates everything that we do with this handbook. Here is our three-step plan to ensure that the practical and exciting content is high quality through and through.

Three Steps to Quality

To ensure quality, you need to start with a plan. Here are our three steps to quality.

Step 1: Set clear guidelines. Like any task, provide authors with clear expectations. Not just the logistics, such as length, font size, and layout, but also what they might cover in their content. Ensure that you are very clear about deadlines and don’t set them too far out. It doesn’t take long to write a chapter—especially if they are the experts, like our authors. Set a short deadline—that is close to their acceptance.

Step 2: Start with the best. If you don’t begin with excellent ingredients right from the start whether you are baking a pie, building a house, or writing a book, it is nearly impossible to produce a high-quality product in the end. The authors for The ASTD Leadership Handbook are the best in class. They were selected because they are experts in the topic area they represent in The Handbook.

Step 3: Stay organized. Quality is for the reader’s benefit. As I have worked through this project I kept the reader in mind. For example, the reader needs to be able to easily and quickly find things in The Handbook. I planned the chapter topics and then placed them in five logical sections. I ensured that the titles say what the chapter is about. I am working with Tora Estep, my most trusted editor from ASTD. Together we will ensure that every chapter is written clearly and error free. We’ll ensure that you have a reading list if you want to explore more about a topic. And finally, we will create an index that helps you easily locate content.

But quality doesn’t end with the publication date. It goes on. The website that will be dedicated to this book provides an opportunity for continuous process improvement—a key to quality. Authors will have an opportunity to update their chapters or the tools they have posted as they discover new and better ideas and processes related to their chapters.

As you can see quality is built into The ASTD Leadership Handbook. It is indeed the foundation of this project.

Next Up: What’s It Like to Work with a Guru Group?

What’s it like to work with the gurus of our profession?
How does it feel to review the work of famous authors?
How do you manage folks with more important things to do than write a chapter for your book?

Check back next week for the answers.

Steve Jobs reveals his 5 presentation musts

Victoria Devaux — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:47:00 -0500

As told by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, these 5 things are essential to all presentations: a headline, a bad guy, a simple visual, a demonstration, and a memorable moment. And don't forget to sell dreams, not products. http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/oct2009/sb2009106_706829.htm

ASTD Book Collaboration

lforgacs — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:45:00 -0500

ASTD President and CEO Tony Bingham, and long-time workplace educator and business writer Marcia Conner, are collaborating on a new book to be released in Spring 2010 that examines the use of social media for learning. The book will present stories and case studies of companies using social media effectively. Bingham is inviting members to collaborate on this project by sending their stories and ideas for case studies.

YOU CAN HELP! Is your organization using social software for learning? Are they thinking about it? What questions would you like answered in this book? Email your ideas or background about your organization’s use of social media in learning to press@astd.org and help Tony and Marcia make this a book as powerful as possible. Be sure to include your contact information so the writers can get in touch with you for more details.

The Greatest Generation (of Networkers)

jllorens — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:43:00 -0500

(From The Wall Street Journal) Because so many people in their teens and early 20s are in this constant whir of socializing—accessible to each other every minute of the day via cellphone, instant messaging and social-networking Web sites—there are a host of new questions that need to be addressed in schools, in the workplace and at home. Chief among them: How much work can "hyper-socializing" students or employees really accomplish if they are holding multiple conversations with friends via text-messaging, or are obsessively checking Facebook?

Some argue they can accomplish a great deal: This generation has a gift for multitasking, and because they've integrated technology into their lives, their ability to remain connected to each other will serve them and their employers well. Others contend that these hyper-socializers are serial time-wasters, that the bonds between them are shallow, and that their face-to-face interpersonal skills are poor.

Read the entire article.

Obama Calls for New Ideas to Create Jobs

Ann Pace — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:00:00 -0500

U.S. President Barack Obama says innovation will be the key to creating the jobs of the future. Mr. Obama says he is looking for new ways to recoup the jobs lost during the economic recession.

With a new round of dismal job loss figures expected later the week, President Obama says he is searching for ways to create new employment opportunities.

"This is my administration's overriding focus," said President Obama. "Having brought the economy back from the brink, the question is how are we going to make sure that people are getting back to work and able to support their families."

Read the full article.

Talent Management Is a Top Priority for 2010

Ann Pace — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:00:00 -0500

Philadelphia, PA (PRWEB) -- With the economy cautiously turning the corner, senior leaders are focused on hiring and developing talent, according to a survey of more than 450 senior executives on LinkedIn® by Right Management. 94 percent of executives said talent management is a top priority for 2010. Right Management is the talent and career management expert within Manpower, the global leader in employment services.

The findings present good news for employees and job seekers. Employers are preparing themselves for growth opportunities as the economy rebounds and are looking for ways to enhance performance and productivity. One-third of the senior executive respondents will be hiring new talent in 2010, while 36 percent will focus on developing current talent. Twenty percent reported that increasing employee engagement is a top priority. Career development opportunities and efforts to increase engagement typically improve retention, which may explain why only 4 percent of senior leaders indicated they would be focusing efforts on retention.

Read the full release.

London: After gender bias, women face gender fatigue

Ann Pace — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:00:00 -0500

Women have come a long way in the workplace, helped by legislation and the recognition by many companies that diversity and gender is something they should "get." But diversity's move into the mainstream corporate world has its disadvantages. It can make more subtle discrimination harder to spot and tougher to deal with.

And news about gender often tells a different story to the happy corporate spin about progress for women at work.

News outlets reported on Monday for example that two guardians of Britain's historic Tower of London have been suspended after the first woman warden or "Beefeater" in the Tower's 524-year history accused them of harassment. "If you talk today to people in the workplace they construct the workplace as gender neutral," said Elisabeth Kelan, author of a new book, "Performing Gender at Work."

"They assume that gender no longer matters in 2009 because the issue has long been solved."

Kelan calls this phenomenon "gender fatigue," which she says will make it more challenging to tackle the discrimination that still happens in the workplace but in more subtle ways.

"Gender fatigue actually refers to the phenomenon that people lack the energy to construct the workplace again and again as gender neutral despite the fact that discrimination continues to exist."

Read the full article.

A Flexible Workplace Is a Happier, Healthier Workplace

Ann Pace — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:00:00 -0500

As National Work and Family Month and Mental Health Awareness Month draw to a close, it's a good time to reflect on the impact of flexible work arrangements on the health and well-being of employees and their families.

Years of psychological research provide a strong foundation for flexible work arrangements, demonstrating the benefit to employees' physical and mental health, as well as their family life. To promote this knowledge, the American Psychological Association created an Office on Work, Stress and Health that promotes research, training, practice and policy addressing these matters, including:

a) Promoting understanding of work stress and its impact on the well-being and productivity of workers;

b) Exploring organizational and behavioral interventions to reduce stress, illness and injury in the workplace;

c) Studying the impact of changing work force demographics (e.g., aging workers, increasing proportions of ethnic and racial minorities and women) on health and safety in the workplace; and

d) Building collaborative partnerships among psychology, industry, labor and federal agencies to reduce stress and health and safety risks in the workplace.

Read the full article.

Creating a Leadership Handbook: Part 3

Elaine Biech — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:54:00 -0500

The last post addressed how to develop a handbook’s table of contents and alluded to the idea that The Handbook will ensure that the content from our distinguished authors will be practical and helpful. How will The ASTD Leadership Handbook be useful and practical for you? Those of you familiar with my work know that I am all about practical. How can I help you take any content and easily use it in your day-to-day work?

What Constitutes Practical?

We could turn to any number of definitions: adapted for actual use; results of action; engaged in judicious and sensible practice or work; adopt a means to an end; or others from many sources. The bottom line is that practical means you will be able to implement the content to accomplish something of use.

To ensure that The ASTD Leadership Handbook is practical, we have asked the authors to contribute a tool that the readers can use to better understand the content, to implement the content with others (after all, you are trainers), or to adapt the content for actual use.

What’s a Tool?

What’s a tool? Well that’s what our authors asked too. We suggested that a tool could be a template, worksheet, checklist, model, quiz, survey, or any job aid that helps the reader implement the content of the chapter. To make it as easy for our authors as possible, I provided few parameters. The tool could be:

Previously published or not.
Validated or not.
Relative to the entire chapter or focus on just one area.

The chapters and their accompanying tools are arriving every day. Here are a few of the tools you will have access to. These tools will help you implement leadership concepts you will read about in The Handbook.

John Kotters Eight Step Change Model.
Bill Gentry’s Checklist for Avoiding Leader Derailment.
Marshall Goldsmith’s mini Coaching Survey.
Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood’s Personal Leadership Proficiency Leadership DNA model, they call the Leadership Code.
Patrick Lencioni’s Team Assessment to help you evaluate your team’s susceptibility to the five dysfunctions of a team.
Bev Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evan’s “Jerk Checklist.”
Len Goodstein’s Applied Strategic Planning Model.
Ed Betof’s Checklist for Mentoring Leaders.

This list constitutes less than 1/3 of the tools that will accompany The Handbook. So what do you think? Do these sound practical to you?

How Can You Use the Tools?

Here’s the best part. The tools will be found on a companion website. You will be able to download them. As long as you maintain the copyright and the “used with permission” state,emt on the tool, you will be able to use it for your daily work. Free tools! Now that’s exciting!

Next Up: How to Ensure Quality

Respected authors are good. Realistic topics are good. Practical content is good. But what about quality? In my next post I will provide you with several ideas for how The ASTD Leadership Handbook will guarantee the highest quality possible.

Marketing sector appears strong

jllorens — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:02:00 -0500

London, UK (PRWeb UK) 2 November 2009 -- Figures from the Ashdown Group Jobs Index show it is one of the best performing sectors of the month.

Demand has been driven by a number of factors, including a recent upsurge in online and search engine optimisation (SEO) positions. Figures from data analyst firm IT Jobs Watch show the number of SEO vacancies rose by a massive 50% year on year.

John Lynes, director of marketing recruitment agency the Ashdown Group, said, "There has been a scramble for marketers with a strong understanding of online marketing, as businesses of all sizes wake up to the need to be found online."

Online jobs are booming as individuals spend increasing amounts of time on the Internet. Shopping online has become the norm for many people over the last five years as Internet retailers continue to attract more consumers away from the high street. This trend is set to continue, with experts predicting a strong Christmas performance for online retailers. Online retail sales have grown by 14% year to date according to the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index.

Merrill Lynch takes wraps off training program for advisers

jllorens — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:57:00 -0500

(From investmentnews.com) Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management last week unveiled a training program to help its 15,000 financial advisers develop a retirement income program for their clients.

As part of the program, the firm has announced a service that will allow its wealth management clients with at least $250,000 in assets to transfer funds from their Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. cash management account into a Bank of America Corp. deposit account on a periodic basis to facilitate their retirement income stream.

Using the service, clients can access their retirement income at a BofA ATM or office. Merrill Lynch advisers will also be able to track their retiree clients' spending habits.

Studies With Gamers Suggest Dreaming Helps Humans Learn New Skills

jllorens — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:53:00 -0500

(From abcnews.com) Sigmund Freud thought dreams were a window into our unfulfilled sexual desires. But the dreams of video game players suggest they have a more practical role: helping us to learn new skills.

"It really looks like if you're not dreaming about it, you're not getting better," says Robert Stickgold of Harvard Medical School, who carried out one of the video game studies.

The studies don't prove that dreaming about games makes players better. But they strongly suggest that dreaming and learning are intertwined.

That sleep can help with learning and memory is well established. What's more, the more people dream during the light sleep characterised by rapid eye movements (REM), the better they recall memories. But whether the specific content of dreams plays a role in this sleep-learning process wasn't clear.

Read the entire article.

The costs of underemployment

jllorens — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:48:00 -0500

(From the thesunnews.com) Rich Grogan of Murrells Inlet is working as a sales associate at Sears for about 22 to 24 hours a week on 100 percent commission to help make ends meet for his wife and 2-year-old son.

Grogan, who holds an MBA and an undergraduate degree in finance, has worked for years in management, but his latest job at the United States Bowling Congress was cut in one of the first waves of layoffs last year.

He's now making about one-third of the income he brought in before, but he's happy to have a job.

Grogan is one of thousands of area residents who is considered to be underemployed, which means a person is either working part time when he or she previously worked full time, or that a person is working a full-time job, but using fewer or none of the skills he or she previously used in another career.

Nationwide, about 6 percent of the working population is underemployed, and across the state, about 6 percent, said Don Schunk, a research economist at Coastal Carolina University.

Read the entire story.

Older job seekers often have unrealistic expectations

jllorens — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:44:00 -0500

(From the Salt Lake Tribune) Marta, 59, had hoped to be retired by now. But during a "downsizing" two years ago, she lost her job as a mental-health counselor. Since then, all she has found are "demoralizing" temporary jobs, leaving her with little savings or income.

Carla was laid off two years ago after working more than 30 years in the mortgage industry. Now 62, she can't even get potential employers in other industries to interview her because her experience is all in one area.

Timothy, 56, did find a steady position with an employment-training agency. But he also applied for scores of other jobs and lost out to younger, healthier applicants. Years ago, a major back injury forced Timothy to give up his exterminating business. Now he expects to work until age 70 "or as long as I hold up."

These vignettes -- real stories about real people -- are part of "Buddy, Can You Spare a Job? The New Realities of the Job Market for Aging Baby Boomers," a sobering new study sponsored by the MetLife Mature Market Institute in collaboration with David DeLong and Associates, a research and consulting firm with expertise in workforce issues.

More than 60 percent of Americans 55 to 70 who are working or seeking work have less than $250,000 saved for retirement, the study found. Not surprisingly, half plan to retire later than originally expected, while only 6 percent plan to retire earlier.

Read the entire article.

Workers' critical update: Computer skills

jllorens — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:40:00 -0500

(From the Washington Post) In the current competitive climate, upgrading your computer aptitude can help secure advancement within a company, better employment elsewhere or re-entry into the workforce after a downsizing.

Some companies are helping. In May, the Edelman public relations firm rolled out an interactive desktop system that trains employees in social networking online -- at their own pace.

"In our industry, it's quite critical today," said Laura Smith, managing director of U.S. human resources at Edelman in the District. Those who advance in hands-on use of LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are elevated to another rank in the training system.

Read the entire article.

Online Alcohol Server Training Program Approved in DC

jllorens — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:49:00 -0500

ARLINGTON, Va., Oct. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Health Communications, Inc. (HCI) today announced that eTIPS, an online training and certification program for servers and sellers of alcohol, was approved by the District of Columbia's alcohol Beverage Regulation Administration (ABRA). The District of Columbia's liquor code requires all managers of a licensed establishment to be certified in an alcohol training and education program that is conducted by a Board-approved provider. The addition of eTIPS will greatly expand the training options available for managers in the District of Columbia. Immediate benefits include tools to reduce underage drinking, intoxication, and drunk driving, as well as new flexibility in extending such benefits toestablishments large and small.

Sharing an Employer's Core Values is Leading Driver to Boost Employee Engagement

jllorens — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:40:00 -0500

Philadelphia, PA (PRWEB) October 30, 2009 -- A personal commitment to an employer's core values is the top driver of employee engagement among 91 possible factors analyzed by Right Management in a new global study. The top three factors also include pride in the company's products and services, as well as a belief that an employee's opinions count. Right Management is the talent and career management expert within Manpower, the global leader in employment services.

Right Management surveyed over 28,000 employees across 15 countries to determine the relative correlations between high engagement and a wide range of what are considered key dynamics or influencers.

Read the entire article.

The Value of Evaluation: Usage and value of Kirkpatrick/Phillips model

ASTD Research — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:34:00 -0500

Is your organization getting its value for money from its training evaluation? According to ASTD’s Value of Evaluation report only about one-quarter of respondents agreed that their organization got solid “bang for the buck” from its training evaluation efforts. With the tough economic demands, business leaders have to scrutinize costs even more, to find greater efficiencies. This highlights the need for the true value of evaluating learning to be realized and for current practices to adapt to increased efficiency and effectiveness demands.

Ninety-two percent of respondents to ASTD’s Value of Evaluation report indicated that they measure at least Level 1 (reactions of participants) of the model. However, use of the model drops off dramatically with each subsequent level, with only 18% measuring at Level 5 (return on investment). It therefore seems that organizations are evaluating at the first few levels and then dropping off completely. This opposes expert recommends of evaluating programs at all five levels, but trimming the number of programs that are evaluated as the level increases.

It appears that the degree of usage of a Kirkpatrick/Phillips evaluation level does not tell us much about its perceived value. Although Level 1 is the most commonly used type of evaluation, it had the lowest rating of high or very high value. Only 36% of respondents whose companies use Level 1 evaluation said it had high or very high value. In comparison, Level 3 (evaluation of behavior) and Level 4 (evaluation of results) were seen to be the most valuable, with 75% of respondents indicating high or very high value for each level.

Perhaps reconsidering what levels of Kirkpatrick/Phillips model are used for evaluation will benefit organizations in realizing the true effectiveness of their learning programs and increase their “bang for the buck”.

Source: The Value of Evaluation: Making Training Evaluations More Effective (ASTD/i4cp)

Click here to learn more about ASTD Research.

Deloitte breaks ground for $300 million training facility in Westlake

Ann Pace — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:30:00 -0500

The chief executive of New York-based Deloitte L.L.P., one of the nation’s largest accounting and consulting firms, said Wednesday that following through with plans to build a $300 million training facility during the worst recession in 50 years is actually "a bullish and smart move."

"Make no mistake, when this recession ends the war for talent will resume, and when it does, Deloitte University will be a big differentiator and powerful draw," CEO Barry Salzberg told the group at the groundbreaking for the firm’s training and conference facility in Westlake.

"It’s almost the perfect time for us to do this," he said. "The whole philosophy of building a learning and development facility like we’re doing is to make sure it’s embedded in our culture in good times or bad."

Read the full release.

Winners Chosen for the 2009 Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation

Ann Pace — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:30:00 -0500

The Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University has announced the winnersof the 2009 Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation. The Center for Court Innovation, a New York-based nonprofit think tank thathelps courts and criminal justice agencies aid victims, reduce crime and improvepublic trust in the justice system, is the recipient of the $100,000 first-placeprize-an award made possible in large part through the generosity of TheCoca-Cola Foundation. Founded as a public-private partnership between the New York State Unified CourtSystem and the Fund for the City of New York, the Center serves as the court`sindependent research and development arm, creating demonstration projects thattest new ideas. The Center`s projects include community courts, drug courts,reentry courts, domestic violence courts and mental-health courts.

This year`s second-place winner (to receive $7,500) is Urban Farming, aDetroit-based organization that plants gardens on unused land and in otherspaces (such as rooftops and "edible walls" on building exteriors) to growproduce for people in the inner-city who are food insecure. The organization`sfenceless gardens allow people to pick food for free at any time, day or night,without compromising their dignity. The third-place winner (to receive $5,000)is the Population Media Center in Shelburne, Vt. It uses serialized melodramas(such as prime-time soap operas), written and produced in the local languages ofparticipating countries, to impart lessons about family planning, avoidance ofAIDS, the elevation of the status of women and the prevention of childexploitation.

Read the full release.

On-the-Job Exercise Good for Employee and Employer

Ann Pace — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:30:00 -0500

Programs in the workplace designed to get people to exercise can improve fitness, cut cholesterol levels, reduce job stress and even improve attendance, a new analysis of the medical literature shows.

But it's still not clear what makes for the most effective type of program, Dr. Vicki S. Conn of the University of Missouri in Columbia, the lead author of the research, told Reuters Health.

"We do have really good evidence that the interventions do work," she said. "What we couldn't say from this is that this intervention works better than that intervention."

Conn and her colleagues looked at dozens of studies of workplace physical activity interventions. The studies included about 38,000 people.

They found significant positive effects for the interventions on "physical activity behavior," meaning whether or not people became more active, and also on fitness level. The programs also helped fuel healthy changes in lipids (meaning harmful fats in the blood such as triglycerides), measures of body size, work attendance, and job stress, the researchers report.

Read the full article.

7 Halloween workplace lessons from 'It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown'

Ann Pace — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:30:00 -0500

For many people, one of the best parts of the holidays when they were growing up was sitting around watching the Peanuts movies on television. It didn’t feel like Halloween was coming until “It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” had aired. And fans of Charles Schulz know that his work had many kernels of truth being illustrated by the lovable children he portrayed. Here are some of those kernels that we can use in the workplace—on Halloween or all year round.

Read the full article.

Get a sample of chapter of the new Ultimate series book, Ultimate Basic Business Skills

Tora Estep — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:14:00 -0500

A few days ago, a copy of the latest book in the Ultimate series, Ultimate Basic Business Skills: Training an Effective Workforce, landed on my desk. Like all the books in this new series, it follows a similar format as the ASTD Trainer's WorkShop series, providing everything you could possibly ask for to quickly put together a training program. It includes guidelines for designing programs, agendas, learning activities, tools, assessments, and PowerPoint slides that can be customized as well as printed for use as class handouts.

The topics of the book are the basic business skills that everyone needs to function succesfully, effectively, and efficiently in the business environment, such as customer service, basic communication, presentations, networking, conflict management, writing, problem solving, decision making, and much more. These are foundational skills that newcomers to the business environment need, but the rest of us could also use some polish on. To learn more about the book and what it provides, check out the Ultimate Basic Business Skills webpage and download the sample chapter.

MIT, a new focus on generating ‘people’ skills

jllorens — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:44:00 -0500

(From Boston.com) CAMBRIDGE - The students practice networking and hone “elevator pitches,’’ entrepreneurial ideas summarized in under a minute. They don blindfolds for team-building activities. Failure is met with candid critiques about their leadership styles.

This isn’t business school. It’s a new engineering class at one of the premier engineering universities in the world, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

MIT created the unusual undergraduate program in response to industry pressures to produce engineers who are as skilled at communicating face-to-face as they are at writing complicated computer codes on their own. Business leaders complain that many of today’s engineering graduates, trained as abstract thinkers, have too little grounding in the actual practice of working with others to deliver innovative products amid time and budget constraints.

Read the entire article.

Get a free sample chapter from Brian Lambert's forthcoming book 10 Steps to Successful Sales

Tora Estep — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:17:00 -0500

I had a productive day setting up webpages for some of our forthcoming books. One of those is Brian Lambert's 10 Steps to Successful Sales. Brian is our in-house guru of all things sales related (earlier this year his book World-Class Selling: New Sales Competencies with its competency model for sales training was launched at the ASTD International Conference & Exposition in Washington, DC), and his latest book really delivers. He presents 10 steps for successful sales. To learn more about the book, check out the new 10 Steps to Successful Sales web page, which includes a sample chapter as a download, as well as Brian's own webpage devoted to the topic.

Ghana: We Underestimated Local Skills

jllorens — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:38:00 -0500

(From AllAfrica.com) Accra — Mining giant AngloGold Ashanti has admitted first time since its operation in Ghana that it had not been good listeners with respect to its business culture, traditions and way of doing business in the country.

"We have previously made the mistake of underestimating local skills, while not looking to support our high level skills with the appropriate global operating and technical skills.

The net impact is we have too many expatriate working in areas where local Ghanaians should have the requisite skills and we are short where we see very specific global technical skill requirements," said Group Chief Executive of AngloGold, Mark Cutifani.

Cutifani was delivering the first in the series of annual AngloGold Ashanti Lectures on Business in Africa at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon.

In an interview with The Chronicle, Cutifani noted that it was imperative for governments and its local partners to consider as a priority area, an investment in local needs and allocate capital to help support the infrastructural development in those areas of investments.

"When governments look to partnering us in investments we must first understand what the local needs are, and allocate capital to help support the infrastructural development within those areas and also do more for the development of new industries that can live beyond mining."

Terrific Feature on Genesee Valley Chapter of ASTD

Kristen Fyfe — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:52:00 -0500

Love it when our local chapters make news! It's great exposure for them and increases the brand value of ASTD as a whole. Read the article "Rochester networking becomes important business talent" in the Democrat and Chronicle!

Study: Researchers shed light on workplace gossip

jllorens — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:37:00 -0500

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) - Indiana University researchers are shedding light on the dynamics of workplace gossip with a new study that captured gossipers in the act on video.

The IU team studied the workplace politics at an elementary school in the midst of an uncomfortable transition after a new principal took over.

As part of their research, they videotaped school staff meetings and captured 25 episodes of gossip. The researchers say the footage shows the subtle ways that people who are targets of gossip are negatively evaluated during formal work meetings.

Read the entire story.

Study: Researchers shed light on workplace gossip

jllorens — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:32:00 -0500

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) - Indiana University researchers are shedding light on the dynamics of workplace gossip with a new study that captured gossipers in the act on video.

The IU team studied the workplace politics at an elementary school in the midst of an uncomfortable transition after a new principal took over.

Read the entire story.

How to Keep Your Best Executives

Ann Pace — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:30:00 -0500

Determined to retain your most talented executives? Well, here's some counterintuitive advice: The best way to keep them from leaving is to prepare them to do just that.

In tough economic times like these, retention becomes less of a priority for many companies as they focus on more-immediate business concerns. But companies that neglect this issue during a downturn may be in for a nasty surprise just as things start looking up: Historically, there is a significant increase in the number of executives leaving their companies as market conditions improve and more job opportunities open up.

That's why it's crucial that companies get serious about retention now. And that means giving executives opportunities to take on greater responsibility, broaden their skills and cultivate a network of relationships with their peers. These are the things that executives we have surveyed consistently say they want most from their jobs.

Read the full article.