Bringing a Team Together: A Consultant’s Learning Journey
By: Sonia Di Maulo, Founder and Lead Feedback Enthusiast
The Start of a Beautiful RelationshipOn June 27, 2012 I kicked off a new summer of learning fun for 15 Master’s students enrolled in my class, Consulting in Educational Technology. (For learnings from the 2011 team, visit this Blog Series: Student Voices – a Learning Journey: What my students learned about Performance Improvement Consulting) It’s an intense 6-week class packed with:
Team Guiding PrinciplesDuring the first class we got to know each other and developed expectations and guiding principles so that we can all grow together and create an environment that boosts our learning (mine too!). I led an activity from my Exposing Exceptional Performance workshop around developing Team Guiding Principles. The result of their brainstorm is an incredible list of principles that will guide our behaviours and propel our performance. Their guiding principles below, will foster the perfect environment to rediscover their natural ability to work in a meaningful and collaborative way; to listen and accept the desire and courage to emerge as leaders (individually and as a team). (Shameless plug for my new book, The Apple in the Orchard, which explores this vision. For an excerpt of the book, sign-up for my special report and related articles to the right of this page.) This emergence is essential to innovate, collaborate, grow, and sustain healthy workplaces of the future.(click image to enlarge)
Amazing list, isn’t it? The Future of this Blog PostAs part of their assignments, the students will be posting their weekly learnings on this blog post. It will serve to:
Your Role?As you read this post and the comments that follow (comments begin June 29, 2012), encourage them, respond to them, and add your thoughts!
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| I welcome and respond to comments below._________________ |
At Harvest Performance, we use the power of authentic feedback to help Leaders Cultivate Trust & Collaboration. How do you cultivate trust & collaboration to positively impact those around you? Sonia Di Maulo (B.A., M.A.) ― founder, feedback enthusiast, speaker, performance improvement professional and creator of award-winning programs ― is passionate about helping leaders cultivate trust and collaboration. Her proven 3 plus 1 feedback strategyharvests passion and boosts individual and team performance. Five Ways to Learn More!
Connect with Sonia directly at sonia@harvestperformance.ca, Twitter, 450-624-0459, or Linkedin. |
June 28, 2012
Posted in: New Posts
At Harvest Performance, the power of authentic feedback helps Leaders Cultivate Trust & Collaboration. How do you cultivate trust & collaboration?
91 Responses
I would like to start off by saying that I very much enjoyed the first class and the style in which the material was delivered. I’ll be honest, I came in expecting to sit through the delivery of slides on “what is a consultant” but to my surprise (a good surprise by the way!), the class involved a lot of healthy interaction that really helped set the atmosphere for what we could look forward to expecting for the rest of this short semester.
As I have mentioned in my introduction email, I have done some consulting in distance education. That said, I am seeking to expand my personal knowledge and I already see how I will grow significantly by the end of this course.
There was certainly a lot to take home from the first class. It was fun to think about the different roles, skills, challenges, and tools related to Consultants and it was a great learning experience to build those lists collectively (certainly a lot more interesting then going through a prepared slide).
The six box model that we spent some time examining and understanding was probably what I took home the most from the first class. The Taxi case study helped me to understand the importance of knowing where your client thinks he/she fits in and helps the consultant to determine what the client really needs (a challenge in itself!). I am curious though, had anyone heard of the six box model prior to Sonia exposing it to us? Or even applied it professionally maybe? It’s one of the models that is likely explored in HPT I imagine.
Speaking of the box model, I will end this here and look into the reading that Sonia sent us.
… and it is also time for dinner
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Thanks Sonia for a dynamic and interactive first class. The style of delivery combined with the opportunities to interact with my classmates meant that the time flew by, not to mention that the course as a whole seemed less intimidating by the end of the evening!
I’m looking forward to exploring further the world of performance improvement consulting, and to expanding on what I learned in HPT. And Harry, to answer your question, we looked at the six box model briefly in HPT – but it was only a small part of the course (I found we spent more time with Gilbert’s earlier version, since it was explained in one of our course texts) – so I too will be looking into the readings from Sonia!
See you all next week.
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I agree with Harry, I very much appreciated Sonia’s facilitation style in teaching the class. I peeked at some other posts on this website, and one in particular, “6 Warning Signs That You Are Not Ready to Lead”, presents the concept of Servant Leadership, which I think represents her teaching style as a coach and mentor; and to boot Sonia seems to be the eternal optimist!
I think most of us at one time or another have been in learning environments that are disempowering and disengaging, where students’ knowledge and experiences are not validated and an expert at the front dishes out the information. It’s refreshing to be part of a learning community where collaboration, sharing and respect are valued. I think what’s interesting here too, is when we start to make the distinction between information and knowledge. While learning in the less attractive form usually involves “dishing out the information”, in Sonia’s class with guest speakers’ and Sonia’s sharing of their knowledge, we are getting more than information, we are learning the tacit knowledge as well that you get through experience – the ins and outs, the culture and norms of the field, and more.
One of the things I’ve taken away from the first class relates to the Six Boxes that identifies the main causes of low performance. I found it interesting to learn that some clients prefer not to consider other causes of low performance other than training. I’m interested in hearing more about the reasons for their resistance to finding the root causes, since this would probably help solve the issue in a more sustainable way (instead of using a Band-Aid solution). Also, as a consultant, how do you get a client to even consider looking at these other causes? Also, could they somehow be integrated into training if the client refuses to consider other causes?
To add to the Six Boxes; I just learned in another class that I took this summer in Open Systems Theory, of six psychological criteria for employee productive behaviour. I just want to share this as an extra thought to consider, and I guess I’m also trying to work out how this fits in with the Six Boxes and how it differs. These are criteria that are considered necessary for employees to have in their work for them to be productive: 1) autonomy in decision-making, 2) continual learning (ability to set goals, and accurate, timely feedback) 3) variety, 4) mutual support and respect, 5) meaningfulness (work with social value, and seeing the whole product/service), and 6) seeing a desirable future.
Emery, M. (1999). “Searching: The theory and practice of making cultural change”. Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Ending on that, I am looking forward to learning more about performance improvement and this class. The energy has been great so far!
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I agree 100% with what my classmates have written above – I really enjoyed our first class together and found that the time flew by! I love the fact that Sonia makes the class so interactive and I find her teaching and mentoring style to be very empowering. Sonia’s practice of guiding the class to come up with answers together rather than lecturing “at us” makes the information more relevant and personal!
I appreciate the fact that Sonia is making an effort to develop the class into a collaborative community. I’ve been in other classes (at other universities) where by the end of the course, you really know only a couple of your classmates. I feel that by the end of this class we will have developed our own network, which will be extremely helpful as we all go out into the performance consulting / ETEC world in the next few years. The focus on collaboration and community-building will also help us to develop trust among one another in giving and receiving constructive feedback and growing together!
I also like that the coursework is centered around completing a lot of hands-on work rather than focusing solely on theoretical frameworks. Understanding the theory is certainly important, but learning how to apply it in a real world context from professionals working in that field is invaluable.
Like my classmates, I enjoyed looking at the information about the 6 boxes model and am interested to explore how that model can apply to our work as future consultants.
I look forward to next week’s class!
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An aspect of our first class that was beneficial and insightful for me was exploring the 3+1 feedback model. I like that this feedback model can be applied in many different learning and professional situations in addition to consulting in educational technology. Offering 3 positives and 1 opportunity for improvement is an excellent way to keep feedback focused and inspire improvement while also acknowledging the individual’s performance strengths.
Another aspect of our first class that was beneficial and insightful for me was learning about Human Performance Technology and its connection to this course. I think that it will be really useful to have access to Human Performance Technology material such as the article that Sonia shared with us about the major models in the field. I will be taking Human Performance Technology in September and I am looking forward to obtaining background knowledge before starting the course.
I am really looking forward to the diversity of the assignments that we will be completing for this course. I like the balance between individual and group work. In particular, I am looking forward to interviewing a consultant and hearing the key learning from each group upon completion of the assignment.
I am also looking forward to the guest speaker presentations specifically learning about their experiences in the field including the challenges that they have encountered in building successful careers.
See you all next week!
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I would like to start by thanking Sonia for bringing her positive energy and smile to the class. Indeed, going to a happy and positive class is very encouraging. This is my third course in the Ed-Tech program, and for the first time I don’t feel alienated, rather I feel that I am surrounded by my friends. I actually understood all the terms that Sonia used without feeling dumb!
I appreciate receiving the course outline one week in advance, which helped me decide whether the course content interests me. I was also able to compare between the two concurrent summer courses and drop one of them.
I agree with my classmates, the hands-on classroom activities were engaging and made us excited and motivated about our learning. I want to add, however, that Sonia succeeded in achieving the new environment 9+1 interaction suggested by Positive Psychology, but I don’t recall any 1 negative communication; does any of you remember one? ☺
I also want to mention that the first book, Performance Consulting, is very interesting, informative, and an easy read. Thanks for choosing it!
I am looking forward to meeting my team and starting our interview assignment!
Happy Canada day!
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I am in agreement with my fellow constituents, with regards to the class activities. From an instructional design perspective, Sonia has clearly demonstrated the application of adult learning theory in her taxi cab example using simulation and role-play techniques. I personally have learned a lot from the interaction. Initially, I had forgotten about the 6 box model from HPT, it was a nice refresher to see it in its application.
The guiding principles activity I thought was especially insightful. It is a wonderful icebreaker, and I am going to consider using it at the launch of a project. It guides the group on a common foundation.
In response to Diana’s +1 do better; I have a recommendation for the intro. Doing it via email is a brilliant idea to save time. However, I found myself not being able to place a face to a person’s summary. Perhaps, next time in class, the participant can provide some key words to cue recognition of what the learners read of one another.
That’s all for me folks have a great long weekend; live, laugh learn.
-Justin
ps Happy Canadian Day!!
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oops i meant Dalia, not Diana (apologies; i am tired)
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Thanks Sonia and classmates for an interesting first class. I appreciate Sonia’s effort to create a positive learning environment and I am looking forward to the guest speakers, as well as my classmates’ various presentations.
One takeaway that struck a cord with me was the skill, as a consultant, of knowing when to say no to a client. I look forward to more insights like this which enable me to identify things I will need to work on as I begin consulting as an ID.
I attended a workshop in November that Sonia gave on giving and receiving feedback including the 3+1 concept. I hope we have the opportunity to delve more into this valuable subject in class. My reflection process is quite slow and I find it hard to formulate something valuable to share from Wednesday, so I will share 2 truths which have stuck with me since Sonia’s presentation last year. (Sonia, apologies if I badly paraphrase here.)
1. Feedback says more about the giver than the receiver
2. On receiving feedback say thank you and then stop talking. Saying anything else may lead to talking from an emotional place rather than a rational one.
I find the former to be true, and the latter has served me well already since last November.
Cheers
Kat
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Greetings all!
This week’s class was lovely
for a number of reasons:
1) relevant information
I am looking forward to such a practical class. Discussing Harold Stolovitch, and re-visiting the various ID associations (ISPI, CSTD) and going over some indispensable models (ADDIE, 6-box) is great for me!! Exactly the type of class I needed at this point in the program!!
2) communities of practice
I agree with my colleagues that with such a healthy and joyful environment as the one provided in this class, we will get to build meaningful connections and improve our thinking and practice together!! Something I am greatly looking forward to!!
On a similar note, for those of you that are new to the program: Don’t forget to get added to the Concordia Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) Facebook group and to the Department of Education Students Facebook group. If you have any troubles getting in the group, contact me via Facebook.
3) the feedback theory
Of course, like all of you, I was very much enlightened by the 3+1 theory. It is such a simple principle, yet so revolutionary in a University classroom. When Sonia Di Maulo first talked about it, I was thinking… nah! no worries I do this all the time! Right? I am always careful to give both positive and negative feedback to someone I would provide feedback to. Right? I mean, I know how it feels to be put down and discouraged. I would never do that to someone else. But without a clear, conscious formula maybe my improvised recipes of a well-intentioned being fail without me even noticing. A formula for feedback seems like a great solution and something noble to strive to abide by!!
To make sure that my first steps toward this more conscious way of providing feedback starts successfully, I decided to analyze myself and take the test “How well do you focus on people?”, available on this site. One point that made me reflect on myself was the following: “keep feedback short and focused on the person not the process”. While the first part is self-explanatory, the second part seems more problematic to me.
I must confess, that I think I focus on the process when I give feedback… as a way of evading the topic of the self, where I might hurt the person to whom I am giving feedback to. However, doing it the other way around sounds also interesting, as focusing on the “process”, might insinuate that there is nothing that the “person” can do to fix the situation (almost making the person feel powerless about her/his areas that require improvement). That is something that I will need to further reflect on. Any thoughts?
always looking forward,
Antonia
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I would like to say that I had really enjoyed the first class with Sonia and the classmates. The way that Sonia used in delivering the course materials, and the atmosphere that had been generated during the class were just amazing.
I am sure that through this course I’ll expand my knowledge and experience in terms of consulting, and that could be achieved through classes experience and the assignments (specially the case project assignment).
The topics in both books are interesting, I am forward looking to know more about them.
Its good that from the first class I took many take home points: the six boxes model, the 3+1 feedback model, The taxi case study, and every thing regarding consulting such as roles, skills, how to be unique, tools, etc..
Another thing that I have learned during first class that there are some cases where the consultant doesn’t suppose to lead!!
Thanks Sonia for this inspiring, enthusiastic, dynamic and advantageous class.
Regards,
Rola
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Thanks to Sonia and my classmates for a wonderful first class. As I am new to consulting, there is much that I need to learn. I truly believe that in this class I will learn the key elements required for a successful consulting business.
Concerning learning in the class, what specifically struck me was the six boxes model. The taxi case study was also very interesting. I feel like I learned a lot already from just one class, and I am looking forward to learning more.
Cheers,
Madeleine
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Good morning.
I really enjoyed the brainstorming we did regarding the roles, skills, challenges, and tools of consulting. I found that it helped me to put myself in the shoes of a consultant and imagine how I might personally confront those questions. I am very interested in the concept of education as being a process of increasingly taking on an identify as a practitioner (nod to Antonia’s community-of-practice mention), and I found that the activity helped to not just initiate learning about consulting, but actually becoming one (to small degree).
I also appreciated the amount of group activity and collaboration we had in the class. It really helped to begin to tie us together into a (again!) community of practice. The “outline overview” and “consulting brainstorming” gave us a common set of goals and objectives to work towards, while collaboratively creating our guiding principles cemented the idea that we are all mutually dependent if we want to reach those goals.
For me, the most interesting “take away” was the 6 factor model. It was new for me, not having taken HPT. The heavy weighting on “expectations and feedback” is a lesson that I feel that I can immediately apply in my life. I also see that I learned an interesting pedagogical technique. If Sonia has simply said, “expectations and feedback is the most important factor”, I may have understood, but I doubt it would have resonated. Seeing how many of use identified that square as being most important was very persuasive. It’s like one example of how solutions can be pulled out, rather than pushed on people through argumentation (see Ferdinand Fournies quote).
Thank you Sonia for an engaging first class.
Stefan
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As most of my classmates mentioned above, the first day of the class was a great experience for me. To be honest, it was a different experience from all the classes I have taken until now. I felt more secure and I think based on Sonia’s method of teaching, this class will be very collaborative and constructive.
Sonia’s smile and positive energy helped the class to go smoothly and her strong skills as a mentor and facilitator made it super interactive. I liked the idea of starting the class with asking questions about the consulting and the consultant’s skills, challenges and tools. It helped me to brainstorm and think about consulting and the professor could assess prior knowledge of the students.
I am very excited for the interview assignment and looking forward to the guest speaker presentation and the case study. The real life example of taxi drivers helped me to understand that you need to ask a lot of different questions and do a lot research to find out what your client’s needs. Most of the time the training is not the solution so it is sometimes a challenge to understand what your client really needs. The idea of positive psychology and feedback 9+3 was really interesting. In CELTA (English Teaching to Adults) class I took they asked us to give 3+3 feedback every day. Therefore, we needed to evaluate our fellow classmates on their teaching method. So we always said 3 positive and 3 negative comments to evaluate them. However, I like this class feedback model better because it helps us to have more self-confidence on our abilities and also try to work on our weaknesses.
See you in class!
Sheila
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Boy am I late for this one, but here goes anyway…
I, like many here, had an excellent first class. I got a pretty good idea of what to expect in terms of assignments and our educator set a very pleasant tone that I hope persists throughout our brief semester together.
I’m looking forward to the interviews as I have conducted a few of these before and honestly enjoyed them. I’m also glad to hear that feedback plays a large role in this course as I often find that it’s the aspect that really lacks emphasis.
Mostly I’m pleased to hear that our course will consist of discussions rather than lectures. I personally find I learn the material more effective through communication.
Finally, it was a pleasure to see everyone and I hope to meet more of you in the coming weeks.
Sonia, sorry again for the late reply.
Anton
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Where to start? So many things to remember!
“The Feedback Diary: the good, the bad and the ugly”
The section “I would like to offer feedback like this” made me think – what a great reflection, to think of what about the feedback would make you want to offer that kind of feedback or not: what a learning tool! I really like the idea of keeping track of feedback; not only to remember and learn about myself, but also to learn about giving feedback, and what works and doesn’t. And why not take it further, and turn it into a scrapbook?
I had suggested to a friend not long ago, who could not see how great she is in her profession, to start a scrap book of all her “wins”, experiences and projects she had worked on, so that she could go back and really get a feel for what she can do (she is awesome at what she does). Why not take the feedback diary and do the same? Turn it into a living scrap book of feedback people give to you, as well as other types of feedback, like promotions, job offers, awards, and failures too, I guess; things well done, with images and such. Then again, this may not be focused enough?
There is one time in particular I remember giving feedback to someone (I had thought about how to give her feedback for three days), and I was proud of the way I gave her feedback so that it wasn’t offensive. I wanted her to understand how negative what she was doing was for this community (and for herself), without saying, “what you are doing is awful” – or at least stop her behaviour. I focused on the actions and how they made me feel (what some literature says about communicating feedback). And it was great; she took it so well, was glad that I gave her the feedback, and it made her reflect.
Unfortunately, she did apply the feedback, but not with the same intention I had hoped. Rather than use the feedback to do something positive with it, she used it to continue her negative behaviour in a more subtle way. So, did she apply the feedback? Was my feedback not focused on the right thing? Was I not prepared to anticipate that she would use the feedback to promote her agenda in more devious ways? Help! This experience taught me a lesson: you never know how someone will interpret what you say, and what they will do with it. So, what do I do next time? Maybe I need to get really clear about what results I want to see come out of the feedback, and the possible alternatives that could result and how to avoid them. But I think it goes deeper than that too… maybe it has to do with people’s mental models, and how they perceive the world and their place in it. And I guess I could extend that to the environment and how this affects a person’s view of their place in it. Hmm… I suppose that would be taking a more system’s view of it… (Aha, learning moment). Had I thought of the behaviour as a product of the system, maybe my feedback or actions would have differed. Thank you for letting me share and learn from this. ☺
“Design a Thriving Community in 3 steps”
I like the phrasing of this statement: it sets up the expectation of success, and “thriving” is so … positive. In the past, I’ve found that just creating a community was difficult, for people to be engaged and to collaborate. However, I can’t help but wonder if I had set my expectations in a more appreciative form (visualising the best), instead of just “creating a learning community”, would I have been more successful at what I wanted to achieve? The 3 steps seem to me to be a great start. When I think of classes that were “thriving” learning communities… the 3 elements were there – common guiding principles, a common purpose, and reflection and growth – and these were established as a community, together. I guess that is what created engagement, the creation of the community was created by the community. The space for the community was created top-down (example, by a professor), but the rules, processes, and learning experiences came from the bottom-up (example, the students). How empowering is that? And for a leader, isn’t that the most adaptable way to lead, so that you are sensitive to the community’s culture and mental models? And what an ingenious way to learn about your community so that you can lead them more effectively!
I think I will stop here. I could probably keep going, cause there is more: building the questions for the speakers was a learning experience too.
Have a nice weekend! ☺
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Another amazing class last night!
I really enjoyed the session on Systems Thinking, and how things are interconnected. After looking at my tree drawing a second time, I realized there were connections that I had missed the first time. So sometimes it is worth taking a second look! You may be surprised with what you find! I find this topic very interesting and I will definately buy the books Sonia suggested to us.
In addition, I found the conversation on feedback very interesting. I believe it is very important to give people positive and negative feedback. Of course the reason we give feedback in general is to improve the other person’s performance. However, it is just as important to give positive feedback,so people not only know what they need to improve upon, but also what they are doing right. Giving positive feedback also helps take the sting out of the negative feedback, or what the person needs to work on.
I also found it very helpful to go over the topics and then questions we will be asking the guest speakers before hand, as this will make full use of the time we spend with each speaker. Asking open questions instead of yes/no questions is the way to go.
I am very much looking forward to class on Monday and our first speaker!
Have a nice weekend all,
Madeleine
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Well that was an interesting second class!
Like Diana mentioned above, there was a lot to remember and a lot to take back from the class. All great stuff that I can immediately see the importance of for us as consultants-in-training.
I. Feedback
I noticed that we came back to feedback for a small period of time during our class and I’m glad that we did because I feel it is important, not only for consultants but for anyone who is looking to grow (and we should ALWAYS be looking to grow in many capacities). I believe that one of the biggest challenges when it comes to giving feedback, is choosing the right words to deliver the intended message.
For instance, in my own start-up company, one of the developers loves to give feedback on what other team members have produced and is sincerely interested in helping others around him grow however, the feedback he delivers is sometimes taken harshly because he tends to be too blunt and sometimes comes off confrontational without intending to. Of course, this sort of environment makes others feel uncomfortable. I have since encouraged him to be more positive in his feedback (essentially suggested something like a 3+1 way of returning feedback) and this has started to work a lot better as other members of the team are more open to the feedback they receive and are less offended by the way it is delivered.
II. Building Questions
It was great to collectively create the topics and questions that we will hope to have the consultants answer for us.
I’m going to enjoy the fact that the presentations will be very casual. I think we will all feel more comfortable and open to ask a lot of questions and most likely come up with new questions while the presentations are taking place.
Definitely looking forward to the first presentation on Monday.
III. Systems Activity
This was actually a lot of fun. I’m not much of an artistic type but it was a fun activity that really did do a great job at explaining what systems are and the whole concept of interconnectivity.
Well, that’s about it for now.
Have a nice weekend everyone!
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Another great class!
The first thing that struck me as I was reflecting on the night’s topics was that this is the first time in my MA studies that my first undergraduate degree (Environmental Studies / Geography) actually seemed directly applicable. I learned about systems theory (as it applies to ecosystems and other natural systems) a long time ago… and I guess I’ve been applying that knowledge without realizing it to the information gathering & analysis that has been important in many courses this year (particularly HPT and Project Management).
A couple of other ‘nuggets’ that have stuck with me from last night’s class:
1) Sonia’s assertion that the consultant’s #1 tool is the question… (which builds upon some of what I took from PM and from HPT)
- and in a related note, I too enjoyed the collaborative process we used in putting together questions for our guest speakers.
2) The example we heard about using the feedback diary to document and ‘keep for later’ some difficult feedback – but also the idea that keeping track of the positive feedback can be good for those low-self-esteem moments.
And with that, I’m off to Girl Guide Camp for the weekend! Have a great weekend everyone!
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I also really enjoyed Wednesday’s class! Some of the take-aways I brought from the class were on collaborative question-building, feedback and the living systems theory:
• Collaborative question-building. I enjoyed the activity of collaboratively building the questions for the guest speakers. Sonia’s point that we were able to achieve much more together than any one of us would have been able to do alone really struck a chord. It brings home why being able to work effectively in groups is so important! I also think it’s a great reflective exercise to get us thinking about what kinds of questions we have for the guest speakers before they get in front of us so that we can all have a more fruitful discussion.
• Feedback. I like the information we’ve learned on how to give feedback in a way so that it is both accepted and used. So often I see feedback being given in work settings in a way that is overly harsh, and the reaction of the employee is often to just brush the feedback off, which defeats the whole purpose of the feedback in the first place. I recently had a job where my boss openly stated that she didn’t believe in giving positive feedback to her employees because she was afraid it would make employees “soft” and unproductive (the positive feedback would go to their heads and they would start slacking off). If you did your job well you would hear nothing, as her attitude was why praise someone for doing the job they are paid to do? The information we’ve learned in class really supports the idea that giving positive feedback is truly important if you want your feedback to be accepted. I think this boss didn’t realize how demoralizing her attitude was, which consequently turned into a fairly high turnover rate on her team. I wish I could go back to her now and share the 3+1 model with her!
• Living systems theory. I also enjoyed learning about the living systems theory and liked the focus on creating a thriving community. All too often in past places of employment I’ve seen management try to improve the bottom line by looking at employees as a set of machines, and completely ignoring feelings and motivations. I like the idea that success is not just about improving the bottom line, but rather create a thriving community. Like Kirsti I felt that some of what I’ve learned in other disciplines relates directly to this theory. In economic development projects there is an approach called the “value chain approach” which basically says that in order to improve an aspect of a local economy, you first need to understand the whole economy and all of the interconnected parts. Then you should seek to make the smallest or easiest change in the system that will have the greatest effect on the whole. I see a lot of overlap between that concept and the living systems theory.
I’m looking forward to another great class on Monday!
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Hello everyone,
Second class was really interesting, Just like the first one.
I really enjoyed all the activities had been made during the class. Brain storm the team to Build up Questions for the guest speakers, Systems thinking activities, the thriving community and feedback tools that Sonia gave us, are all useful things that helped us to go deeper in understanding different aspects regarding consultation.
I liked the drawing activity, and identifying the interconnections between things, and how could adding or changing anything could affect the whole system.
In my opinion, systems thinking is really important to be applied in our daily life until it become a skill.
Really, After attending each class I feel more exited to attend the next one.
Thanks Sonia for these beneficial classes and thanks team for your collaborative work.
Have a nice weekend ;o)
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Good afternoon,
I appreciated the discussion we had about systems thinking, and about how it can help to identify the actual problems occurring within a system. From both the discussions we’ve been having in class and the course readings, I can see value in the systematic approach to asking questions to help clarify the reality of a situation. I relate this to previous work experiences where I, as a frontline worker, experienced repeated problems and frustrations in trying to fulfill my job requirements. Management would try to implement solutions, but the time was never taken to really talk with us and discover what the problems really were, and so their solutions repeatedly felt irrelevant, out-of-touch, and counter-productive. I really feel that if a consultant had taken these steps with that organization, it would have rapidly helped to clarify the situation and brought us much closer to finding actual solutions.
The feedback diary is an interesting idea. The thing that I found revelatory about the particular tool Sonia gave us is how each piece of feedback is used in more than one way. Firstly, it helps us to remember and think seriously about the criticism we receive. Secondly, the “I would like to offer feedback like this!” items improves one’s ability to give feedback others. Lastly, the “follow the follow-up date w/Giver” column helps users to hold themselves accountable to turn their insights into actionable behaviours. I see the feedback diary being particularly useful for professionals who need to heavily invest in their personal branding and networking (as consultants do). In addition to self improvement, it enhances self knowledge, which is an important prerequisite to accurately representing oneself.
Another interesting class.
Stefan
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Another interesting and thought-provoking class!
The aspect of this week’s class that most resonated with me was Sonia’s suggestion to keep a feedback diary. I think having a designated space to document not just positive but also negative feedback that I receive will be really useful. I absolutely plan on keeping a feedback diary from now on and would also like to keep track of the specific situations in which I receive feedback. I think this will be helpful particularly when writing cover letters for job applications. I sometimes struggle not to identify the positive skills that I possess when writing a cover letter but specific situations or experiences in which I demonstrated these positive skills. The feedback diary will make this much easier.
I also really enjoyed having the opportunity to collaborate on questions for the guest speakers. I like that we developed topics as a larger group first and then worked in smaller teams to develop specific questions. I enjoy hearing from guest speakers more when they address specific questions as opposed to just general topics because I think it helps keep the discussion on track.
Looking forward to next week!
Stefanie
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I found the group question writing activity really productive for both the guest speakers and as ground work for our consultant interviews. Working in pairs and rotating was nice classroom management too. I am looking forward to Miki Lane speaking to us on Monday. I like the point Kirsti noted above in the importance of questions for consultants. This strikes me as being very true.
Having been a manager and been managed, as well as having been a teacher, I am very interested in feedback. I like the feedback diary tool and have used similar tools when in new or challenging phases of my life such as starting a new job in order for me to reflect on what is happening. Reading the comments I also liked what Diana said about considering how someone will react to the feedback and how the change in behaviour may not have been the one you were hoping for.
I enjoyed the approach to systems thinking but would have preferred to have read (or re-read) about it more beforehand. Saul gives a paper of Gary Boyd’s on symviability as reading in HPT and I find an academic grounding from reading prior to discussion useful in some cases. Of course there are other cases where a discovery approach to learning can be beneficial too. Suggestions of further reading in the form of academic papers which can accessed for free from the library could be useful for students as buying books on every topic of interest means we end up with large libraries ourselves (again, not always a bad thing!)
Cheers
Kat
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If truth be told, knowing how to ask right questions can be a challenge. For me, the most significant take away from Wednesday’s class is that interviewing can be greatly enhanced when questions are knowledgeably formulated. I very much enjoyed brainstorming questions with my classmates. I believe that this activity was a good preparation for our interview assignment, as well as for our potential career as performance consultants. I also like to thank Kristi for sharing her note about asking open-ended questions; I think it is an effective way to allow your interviewee shares his/her complete story. I am starting to enjoy teamwork ☺
Another thing that I enjoyed was drawing a tree, even if it didn’t look good, it was a creative introduction to the living systems theory. Adding parts to our sketch showcased that although different parts of a picture/living system can appear separate or independent, they are actually interrelated and contribute to form the whole picture. An alteration or change in one part results in changing the whole system.
I found this was a difficult question to answer: How to give feedback that will be accepted and used? And I hope that I will find the answer by the end of this interesting course. I will give the feedback diary a try and hopefully that will help me, in return, offer more constructive and positive feedback to others.
Have a great weekend!
Dalia
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TGIF!! That means it’s time for another blog post :p
In regards to the activity where we built topics for guest speaker, I noticed a lot of similar themes that emerged from last week’s course. This served as a revision for me sensitizing me to topics such as getting started as a consultant, challenges, tools, roles and skills.
Loved the alternating group members in the group question generation activity. I think I will deposit this one in my instructional design toolbox.
Systems thinking-whoa eye awakening- i have actually applied this with my client conversations today. I established a common ground for the initiative and created a client-consultant community. My recommendations fostered growth. I am sorry for being vague but I am bound by confidentiality.
Have a good weekend!
-j
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This week’s class was my first, and I was already impressed by the warm class dynamic and am really looking forward to getting to know Sonia and the rest of the group.
One take-home point that Sonia made was that consultants are leaders, and that good leadership, particularly in unfamiliar circumstances means really probing and attending to what we hear back. We have to reflect not just on how to approach others with our ideas, but also how we process feedback (good or bad). Actually, as I read Harry’s anecdote about the overly-blunt developer, I saw myself there; I have certainly had to make an effort to ‘club sandwich’ the negative with the positive in order to work more effectively with people and be more open about my appreciation for others’ efforts–it seems especially important to create opportunities to let people know that the little things they do really matter.
As I worked through the feedback self-assessment and reviewed the feedback diary, it occurred to me that the way Sonia has encouraged us to approach feedback clearly reflects systems thinking. As we engage in the process of consciously evaluating how we give feedback, why we give it a certain way, and how to use feedback we receive, we consider the forces acting on and within ourselves, how these affect our interactions with other people and how we can influence the work environment.
The exercise in which we outlined the steps to fostering a thriving community was also pretty illuminating. My group’s combined effort was not far from the model response, but was comparatively linear. We tacitly assumed that if we simply provided the proper structure, then the evolution of a community would sort of take care of itself, or was somehow implied. We didn’t really account for the continuous change and renewal that “thriving” implies. It was a great reminder to stop and re-examine one’s assumptions about how human systems really work.
See you all soon!
Emily
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I enjoyed the second class like the first one. The experience of preparing the guest speakers questions collaboratively was amazing because in that collaboration we could go beyond what we could have done alone. It was a top down process starting with topics and then finding some questions. We worked on the categories titles at the beginning and then after producing the questions we had a second look so that we made sure that our topics fitted our questions. Furthermore, Switching the partners was also helpful for generating more questions.
I loved the idea of choosing different guest speakers with variety of background and I am looking forward to hearing them. The idea of system thinking and drawing activity made me think of the real inter connection between the each part of system and how it can help us to look over the organization and find the relation between each part and how the change in one section can affect the other. Furthermore, as Sonia mentioned in the class, the idea of system thinking is going back to the system and looking again because sometimes ours eyes would only see something and not the whole picture so if you work collaboratively, it will give you the opportunity to find the gaps and the things which are missing. At this moment we as consultants need to ask our questions and find out the answers to fill the gaps. Therefore, asking the right questions from the right person in the right time is really important.
The idea of interconnectedness in the system and how the consultants’ thoughts, and actions can affect the whole system of an organization was really helpful. We also should remember that as consultants we are leaders and our actions will impact the whole organization and lead it even if you are gone.
Last but not least, knowing how to offer feedback in a system is very important. The goal of feedback is to improve; however if a person does not use the feedback he or she never improves. Therefore, feedback is only effective if it is used. That comes to the idea of keeping a feedback diary with our entire positive and negative feedback and trying to use them as much as we can to improve our performance.
See you in class!
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Dear classmates!
This weeks’ classes were a fruitful collaboration!
1) collaboration
I enjoyed discussing the benefits of collaboration and I agree with Sonia Di Maulo that “teams go beyond where you would go to by yourself”. My team for the interview of a consultant proved that this week. We accomplished more, better, and faster as a team. The other exercise in class, which consisted of determining the rules and agenda of a team brought me a step closer to understanding the laws that govern thriving communities!
2) system thinking
I looked at system thinking the same way I looked at collaboration. Being able to think about the system was like being conscious of the power of the collaboration between the parts of a whole. Example: seeing the relation between the tree and the birds and the river and the air of course!! I love how you can think of so many more things as a group!! Just like you can think of so many more elements when you consider a system. However, what fascinated me the most was Diana’s comment about one little change in the system that can lead to a whole new system. The butterfly effect! I really wish I could have taken the class on this subject with late Gary Boyd, but I am happy to see that what he was striving to bring to the department continues to be transmitted through other teachers
3) I love quotes
I think quotes allow us to hear of poignant statements in a very efficient manner. Good quotes spark curiosity and give birth to curious readers, which, in my opinion, is essential to feed the soul. My favorite quote this week was: “The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind in others the conviction and will to carry on”(Walter Lippman). This is an excellent quality to strive for as instructional designers and as individuals who hope to change the world for the better. For this same reason, I agree that it is necessary to offer feedback in a way that is taken AND used!! I also liked being introduced to the 2 books that were brought to class:
Thinking in Systems, by Donella H. Meadows
The Web of Life, by Tritjof Capra
It is awesome that we are covering authors of various nationalities, like Tritjof Capra who was born in Austria (like myself!!). I don’t think we do that often enough in this department. And you?
always looking forward,
Antonia
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Learning from Miki Lane and Fanny… (I didn’t get her last name — can someone fill me in?):
It’s interesting to see how two careers in practice can seem so different depending on the resources each has, as well as the type of person each is. Can it be then, that each individual is unique and brings different things to the table, which carves out the destiny of your path as a consultant? In organizations, as an employee you are told what to do and how, generally (or at least to a certain degree), but as a consultant, you are your own strategic thinker, visioneer, worker, marketer, networker, financer, etc., so it stands to reason that no two consultants would have the same career, work on the same projects in the same way, etc. From a large view, I see it like a maze of each consultants’ paths that criss-cross as each goes his or her own way. It really is carving out your own path and existence – total control of your destiny.
The 3+1 feedback for the presentations was a learning experience for me, not only for the feedback I received, but also learning from what others did well and could improve. There was a lot of feedback that I could use for myself in other people’s feedback; so each presentation became a learning opportunity.
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The speakers were fantastic, I learned so much from Miki Lane and Fanny! Regarding contracts, I was only thinking about them from the consultants point of view, and what she/he would need to do to complete the project, it didn’t occur to me that the client would also have responsibilites and need to provide things for the project to be a success.
I liked Fanny’s idea of having a short speech ready for when people outside Ed. Tech ask us what we DO! I have struggled with this somewhat myself…
I like the references to Performance Consulting as helping and educating clients/companies. This is a very positive way of looking at it.
I like that this course is very practical and teaches me how to use the stuff I learned in HPT, like performance problems and identifying the performance GAPS in real contexts.
Miki also help me realize the importance of the consultant-client relationship and how trust and confidence in the consultant is very important.
And finally, I really liked Miki’s advice, Don’t rush to solutions, listen, ask questions, very important!
Then, regarding last night’s class, I just want to tell the speakers they did a great job with their presentations!
Have fun working on your papers everyone!
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Hi Everyone,
This was an amazing week of classes!
I thought the guest speakers were fantastic and I took away so many insightful learnings from both. I thought it was really interesting that Miki and Fanny both emphasized the importance of networking through professional associations. Sonia has also suggested this to us a few times in class. I was not aware that there are so many professional organizations in our field. It has motivated me to research the professional organizations in our field and become involved. I also thought it was really interesting when Miki and Fanny shared their thoughts about working for larger versus smaller corporations. I liked Miki’s analogy that working for a larger corporation is similar to “another university experience” because you often have access to many professional development opportunities. This was very thought-provoking for me as I had never considered that you may not have as much access to professional development opportunities if you work for a smaller corporation. I also really liked when Fanny shared that consulting has given her unique opportunities to meet people around the world with similar interests. I thought this was a great way to describe what it is like to be a consultant.
I also really enjoyed presenting my chapter last night. Having the opportunity to use the 3+1 Feedback Model that Sonia introduced us to was a great experience. I like that the 3+1 Feedback Model requires us to give each other immediate feedback following each presentation. I also liked having the opportunity to share my personal feedback about my presentation. I appreciated the supportive atmosphere.
Looking forward to next week!
Stefanie
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Dear classmates!
This weeks’ classes were a journey into the life of a consultant!
1)bad clients
I liked the fact that both our guest speakers, Miki Lane and Fanny Korman, were willing to describe the “bad clients”(BC) versus the “good clients” (GC).
BC: Don’t want to get involved.
GC: Are part of the performance solution.
BC: Know the solution.
GC: Consider other solutions than their own.
BC: Want to increase the scope, but not the budget, nor the timeline.
GC: Become flexible when they see the scope increasing.
I find that, often times, clients don’t have bad intentions and sincerely do not know how to improve a working relationship. On the ID side or consultant side, the same thing happens: we often realize that a relation could be improved, but have not experienced the ideal scenario so don’t know what to suggest for improvement. Talking about those worse/ideal situations helps one become more aware of the relationship options.
2) Ethics
I very much enjoyed going over the ethics of the trade with Miki Lane. I find that we do not discuss that very often in this MA. Actually, this is the first class in which we have touched upon the subject. Knowing those unwritten rules is essential for one’s reputation, but unfortunately this is often overlooked by the department.
Rules not to forget:
a) When you are done with a contract, do not choose your next client to be a competitor of the previous one in the same industry. If you are interested in a competitor, wait a minimum of 2 years before considering such an offer.
b) You cannot accept an offer from the client of the company that sub-contracts you.
c) Always ask yourself: Are you asked to do things that you shouldn’t be doing?
Seriously, I wouldn’t mind having an entire course on the subject of ethics in the field of ID and Performance Consulting. My research interests lie in the subject of ethical and soft skills training, which I consider primordial for any association. However one must practice what he/she preaches so learning about the ethics of our own practice should be even more rooted in the fundamentals of our field. Maybe, if the schedule allows, we could further develop on the topic in another one of our courses in Consulting.
3) Contract
It was very interesting for me to hear about the content of a contract and what should be included in it for protection purposes.
Smart points in a contract:
a) review cycle for the client to approve of progress
b) milestones should include phases of work & of payment
c) at any milestone, both the client and the consultant can withdraw from the project without any penalty.
My notes also covered other interesting topics such as negotiation skills, networking opportunities, tricks for finances, and marketing procedures. I have learned so much from our guest speakers, but also from my peers’ presentations, which further developed on these topics. It was very instructive to learn from both the literature and the experienced.
Thank you Miki Lane, Fanny Korman, and Sonia Di Maulo!!
always looking forward,
Antonia
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I really enjoyed the two guest speakers, Mikki Lane and Fanny Korman this week. I thought their perspectives on working as a consultant in the ETEC field were invaluable and insightful! There were a couple things that really struck me:
1) The importance of networking and having an “elevator speech” at the ready. They shared that networking – through professional organizations, with classmates, at conferences – is vitally important to maintaining a consulting business. I thought Mikki’s observation that once you get a big contract you can’t just go off and work on that contract and forget to get new contracts was really important. I also thought Fanny’s emphasis on having a polished “elevator speech” was really interesting. It brings home the fact that a hugely important part of being a successful consultant is being able to sell yourself to any potential client, and that you never know where your next client might come from!
2) Marketing your successes. Both Mikki and Fanny talked about the need to “market your successes” – you have to be able to share with the world what you’ve done successfully. I thought Mikki’s idea of trying to monetize successes was also very interesting – if you can show the ROI in money terms, it makes it that much more powerful.
3) Contracts should contain an “out” for both parties and should have roles for both parties. Mikki mentioned he builds in milestone points in the contract, so that either party could end the contract without penalty if things aren’t going well. I thought that was a really great idea that could help avoid awkward situations if a project doesn’t go according to plan. I also thought it was important that Mikki mentioned contracts should stipulate not only what the consultant is doing, but also should state what the client needs to provide or do. This will keep the consultant from getting blamed for being off schedule or off project due to the client not providing information on a timely basis (or at all).
I’m looking forward to next week!
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Well, it has been an interesting week!
Overall, I thought the presentations were fantastic and very insightful. First, a big thank you to both Miki and Fanny who took the time to come and answer our questions and secondly, a congratulations to the four individuals who presented on Wednesday! Stefanie, Justin, Stefan, and Diana.. well done!
I have to agree with what Christy mentioned in her first point: Miki’s wise words about how you need to consider taking more than just one contract at a time is a valuable take away. The risk of finishing one contract and then being in a ‘limbo’ state as you wait for another contract would be very frustrating, especially if you are just starting off with your consulting business. I could definitely see how taking on overlapping contracts can avoid this issue all together, even if it does mean that projects might take slightly longer to complete since your team would sometimes be split between two ongoing projects.
That is but one take away but actually, everything that both Miki and Fanny offered as answers to the questions was helpful. I also enjoyed the fact that both of them had different ways of approaching various situations – for instance, the difference in their “elevator speech”.
I have to be honest, one thing I will likely never forget is Miki’s cargo plane story. That really put things into perspective for me and it helped me to better understand that consultants often find value in understanding the underlying systems of the organizations that hire them. Of course, that ties in well with what Sonia mentioned to us about systems and inter-dependencies between all the different nodes. I’ll have to pick up one of the suggested systems books to read at some point this summer.
That said, I am definitely looking forward to interviewing Fanny with my team. The questions we’ve put together will hopefully give us an even more in-depth look at what it is like to be a consultant, from the start of the process to the very end.
I also wanted to point out that I think the 3+1 (or rather… 9+3) feedback model works well in practice. I think there is definitely a lot of constructive learning that will come out of the feedback each of us receive. Though, I admit, I find it is always a little more difficult to point out the ‘Do Better’ – mostly because I really do not want anyone to misunderstand what I am attempting to convey.
I’m looking forward to the many presentations that are still to come but in the meanwhile… Have a nice weekend everyone!
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Good day everyone,
The last 2 classes were really useful for me. The class of the guests speakers and the Chapter presentation class were really beneficial, insightful and inspirational classes; (beyond expectations) ;o)
Now, through the guest’s speakers discussion I could imagine how consulting business works, some details about contracting, good and bad clients and how to deal with them, and the non forgettable story of the cargo planes ;o)
Additionally, the discussion drew my attention to different aspect in consulting that I never thought of; and that helped me to build up more questions for our interview guest!!
The other class ( Chapter presentation class) was really fun, the topics were simple and interesting.
Its funny to watch each other performances and to provide each other with the 3+1 feedback.
I think some times its difficult to give the presenter the DO BETTER feedback, but actually it is important to mention weaknesses as well as strengths to help him/her improve his/her performance.
Thanks sonia for both experiences,
Have a nice weekend everyone ;o)
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A lot of learning happened this week!
Guest speaker- Miki Lane added a lot of context to performance consulting. From his stories, I was able link some theory (remember by presentation?) from actual practice. Furthermore, from his experience fed us insight and inspired question generations to the consultants we are to interview.
Presentation- I learned a lot from my colleagues. Not only from the ones who presented but the ones who gave the feedback as well. From my peers who presented, lessons learned was other tactics in presentation style via modelling. From my peers, based on their feedback, I gain insight on not only what I can improve on, but what elements of a presentation is most valuable to them. For future presenters use the feedback given to this weeks presenters as a means to know your audience.
3+1: Like many of you this is my first experience with this model. I really like it, as it provides areas of focus for improvement without destroying anyone’s ego. Thank you Sonia for introducing this and thank you, everyone, for participating in this model.
Speaking of feedback, I find myself offering feedback more to others outside the context of this course. Is anyone else having the same experience?
-Justin
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Hello
I must say, I really enjoyed my time in class this week! The guest speakers definitely shared a great wealth of tips and stories! It was an amazing opportunity that I’m glad I didn’t miss. It all seemed a bit overwhelming to me at first but it was reassuring to see happy and clearly successful people talk about their experiences in such a positive light.
The class presentations were also a pleasure to watch as i have learned quite a bit, not only on consulting but presenting as well. Again, I don’t feel as worried for my own presentation and am excited to see what the rest of the class has in store. I’m also glad the presenters enjoyed my written feedback and have even gotten some kind emails in return. I’ll make sure to be even more helpful next time as presentation is clearly a huge factor in our class as well as our potential future careers.
Thank you for a wonderful week and I’m really excited for what’s to come!
Anton
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I enjoyed the guest speakers and what they had to share. It was nice to have 2 perspectives at the same time as it allowed them to bounce off each other. As someone else mentioned, the airplane cargo story will certainly stay with me and I am sure I will find myself retelling (with credit to Miki of course) it to demonstrate a small change having a large impact, and also as a great example of training not being the solution to the performance problem. I was glad to hear that working for a large organization can have benefits and act as a spring board.
Some other highlights were: “you’re your best sales person” (so true even though I think this might be challenging for me), the importance of an elevator pitch that is pitched at a non-ID, “gun for hire”, “corporate fixer”, the importance of assigning a moneyary value to the gap to help the client understand the problem, get out clauses at the milestones, “all you an sell is your time”, price fluctuated on client and market (I work in pharma and they make crazy money so they can afford and do spend crazy amounts on training solutions, it is understandable that many industries could not support those levels of costs), the importance of communications skills, active listening, collaborate (these 3 Sonia us having us work on), and lastly posting the clients values on your wall as motivation.
Kudos to Stefanie for presenting first. And thanks to all of the first set of presenters. We will all benefit from the shared feedback and growth as well as the take aways of your presentations. Feedback we can all probably use which stuck will me included: to smile (but I do think it has to be natural and not forced), using the space, the power of silence, and not reading from the screen,
I am looking forward to Orzu’s session on evaluation on Wednesday.
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Our guest speakers, Miki and Fanny, brought quite experiences to the table and were very open about their own reflections on their strengths and weaknesses, and the sometimes harsh realities of working as a consultant. As noted in many of these reflections, both speakers were quite frank about how you can never get too comfortable in a contract, and working on prospective contracts is an important ongoing activity. I found Fanny’s suggestion that we consider networking opportunities outside of our profession (e.g., at the chamber of commerce) particularly interesting. In such a situation, the ‘elevator speech’ can really come in handy, but I think that most of us need personal elevator speeches as well. As we learned from Stefanie’s presentation, it’s important for us to be able to answer questions about who we are/what we want for the consulting path to be sustainable.
Thanks to the four classmates that presented on Wednesday; all of you put a lot of thought into how to make your chapters relevant to all of us. I actually quite enjoyed revisiting my crazy-looking notes after class to figure out which points were really important enough to share with each of you. I’m glad not to have gone first, particularly for the self-feedback 3+1 process, but now that I’ve seen it in practice I’m more confident that I will emerge a better presenter. Like Justin, I’ve been finding myself offering feedback to others outside of the course (including to a current client!) and it has been well-received and helped me feel more comfortable.
An interesting theme that surfaced both during the Q&A with our guests and in Sonia’s feedback to the student speakers was the importance of nonverbal communication. We often spend a lot of time perfecting/structuring a message without working out how it will gel with our delivery styles. It’s often hard to critique your own nonverbal habits, even if you rehearse. This applies not just during presentations, but, as Miki pointed out, when teasing information out of a client. The combination of thoughtful nonverbal communication and active listening seems very powerful and persuasive. Of course, having a clear (and monetary) justification for your position will certainly help!
See you all next week.
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For our first full week of classes… it certainly was a week full of learning, and of insight.
I really appreciated having the opportunity on Monday to hear from our guests about their careers, their perspectives on the field and the various employment options, and their advice for us ‘newcomers’. Among other things, it’s helped me continue to mold my definition of performance consulting (or should I say being a “corporate fixer?”), and also helped me contribute better questions for our upcoming consultant interview. Thanks Mikki, and Fanny!
I also liked the presentations on Wednesday. I thought it was interesting to see how many different ‘spins’ could be put on the same set of presentation guidelines… and in all cases achieve the end-goal – I gained insight into how to plan my future as a consultant, and I learned about reframing, the GAPS model, contracting, and lots more. Well done Stephanie, Justin, Stefan and Diana! Also, (not to be too repetitive of other peoples’ comments, but…) I too gained greater appreciation for the 3+1 model of giving feedback, and gained some valuable insight into presentation strategies. Looking forward to the next round, and to eventually having a turn myself as a presenter.
In the mean time, hope to see everyone on Wednesday for Orzu’s presentation!
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I very much enjoyed the discussion with Miki and Fanny. These conversational learning environments are very engaging, especially when the presenters are very experienced and have effective communication skills. After reviewing my notes and thoughts, I’ve identified 4 key lessons that are important to me.
1) Look for projects that have clear potential to highlight successful performance. Project aren’t valuable just because of the immediate financial compensation. Some projects, if completed successfully, can be turned into highlight success stories that you can use to market yourself in the future. This might be especially important early on in your career. A lack of experience may require you to take lower-value projects (monetary wise), so instead look for projects that will boost future marketability.
2) Remember that clients may be looking to offload responsibility to you. Clients sometimes have the mindset that because they have hired a consultant, they have absolved themselves of responsibility. It’s the consultant’s job to show the client that they still has a responsibility to help find a solution.
3) The elevator pitch is key. Fanny talked about the importance of having a strong pitch and being able to tailor it to different audiences. Personally, as someone who has long had a tendency to self-deprecate and avoid attention, I struggle with the prospect of having to pitch myself. This is something that I will have to work on.
4) Take the time to debrief. Meeting together after a project is completed is important for identifying things that went well, for finding areas for improvement, and for strengthening relationships. It’s easy to see how this would frequently be overlooked, as conscientiously reviewing things that are in the past is not a common activity. Because people engage in it so infrequently, they benefits of debriefing are not at the forefront many people’s thinking.
The value of review seems to be a theme in our course so far. Many people in their blog posts have talked about the value they are seeing in the 3+1 feedback approach, and I have to agree. Having done my presentation this last week, I can say that I appreciated getting the feedback. Before actually receiving much feedback, I suspected that I would focus mostly on the “do betters” without taking the “did wells” to heart, but that hasn’t been the case. In most cases, I’m already focusing on the “do betters” anyway, so getting them from someone else just helps to clarify which of my critical self assessments were legitimate, and helps them take shape. Furthermore, some of the things I identified as weaknesses, others saw as strengths, so it helped me take a more balanced approach to how I was thinking about myself. And to answer Justin’s question, yes, I definitely have been more open to giving both positive and constructive feedback, and I’m thinking about how to incorporate it into my future activities.
See you all Wednesday.
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What an interesting, full of lessons and insights, week of classes!
Here are some of my key takeaways:
Presentation, participation, and reflective thinking: 1) Projecting confidence is key to good presentations, 2) listening: If you listen well, the other person’s statements will suggest questions for you to ask, 3) making eye contact and give people (speaker or audience) clues that you are paying attention and not thinking about something else, 4) smiling generates a more relaxed atmosphere, 5) silence is needed sometimes; no need to panic about it, 6) thinking well and considering your response before giving your feedback to others and even before self-assessing your own presentation, 7) using the space and encouraging your audience to look at you instead of looking at your slides (it is a challenge!),
engaging your audience, continue to re-engaging their attention, and helping them understand your topic is key to accomplishing your presentation objectives.
I’ve learnt all the above from Stephanie, Justin, Stefan, Diana, and Sonia! Chapeau to you all!
Concerning the guest speakers, as Diana mentioned, it is very interesting and eye-opening to see how the approach to the same career differs from one person to the other depending on academic background, experience, personality, and resources. I’ve learnt for Miki and Fanny that you cannot advance in your career working solo, without the help of others. Teamwork is crucial to achieving big career goals and enables you to work on bigger projects. Collaboration brings better ideas: “Two heads are better than one”. Indeed, working on a team with Antonia and Stefan for the interview assignment, made me realize my weaknesses and work on improving them.
The things I also appreciate learning from Miki & Fanny:
Don’t run to solutions, take the time to listen (Active listening as suggested by Justin is very a beneficial professional skill for a consultant).
1) Always think forward: dedicate your time working on your current contract, but don’t forget to look for new opportunities at the time.
2) Working for a large corporation, at the beginning of your career, gives you the opportunity to learn more about your future clients.
3) Publishing papers brings new clients and encourages ongoing self-earning.
4) Subcontracting is a great start-up venue for working on projects.
5) The client and the consultant are partners. Clients must be part of the solution.
6) To maintain best experiences with your client, deliver much more than what your client expects.
7) Being authentic and completing the requirements of each phase are keys to flawless consulting.
9) Keep a mental picture of the vision, mission, and values of your client’s organization, even better, hang it on your wall. It keeps you focused on your project objectives.
10) Finally, don’t forget to celebrate your successes.
Happy learning everyone… Have a great weekend without burning yourself; it is very hot & humid!
Dalia
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Oops! Sorry for the typos:
3) Publishing papers brings new clients and encourages ongoing self-Learning.
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I enjoyed Mikki and Fanny’s fantastic presentations. I liked to listen to their story as a mentor and an intern. It also gave me the opportunity to look at consulting from two different perspectives. Mikki’s advice on not getting a contract which is one 110 percent of our time was very insightful and helpful. I have always thought, getting large contracts would be even better because I never seen the flip side of it. I liked the idea of marketing all your success and selling yourself by attending different conferences and professional associations.
Fanny’s elevator speech advice was also very interesting. Recently I have been asked by a lot of friends about Educational Technology. I tried to explain it in a sentence or two. Now I understood how important it is to learn how to convey your message effectively during a conversation with your client so it is that time you need to know all secrets of the elevator speech to sell yourself as a consultant. I am also looking forward to continuing discussion about consulting with Fanny on Tuesday.
I very much liked the class presentations as well. It was great to see our classmates’ presentation and their feedback on their presentation. I also enjoyed listening to others feedback on the presentations and it helped me a lot to learn from my peers.
Thank you so much Sonia for giving us the opportunity to listen to the guest speakers and also being able to give 3+1 feedback on the presentations.
See you all on Wednesday!
Sheila
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Apologies if this post appears twice – I just spent 30 minutes writing a post which seems to have disappeared before I was able to submit it, so I will try to recreate it here again!
These past two weeks brought a lot of interesting learnings about the field of performance consulting..
First, last Wednesday, Orzu presented about evaluation models. I particularly liked the role-playing exercise at the end of the class where we had to pretend to be a consultant convincing a client to engage in an evaluation. It brought home how difficult it sometimes is to convince clients of the importance of evaluation!
On Monday we had the pleasure of listening to Lorne Novolker speak. Lorne is the founder of Prospero Learning Solutions. Some of the interesting take-aways from Lorne’s presentation were as follows:
– The importance of integrity and credibility. Having integrity and credibility (delivering what you say you will deliver) are very important in terms of keeping long-term clients. Often clients will respect you more for saying no to a project you don’t believe you can deliver on. He used the metaphor of a relationship being like a bank – try to build up as much equity as possible in case you need to make a withdrawal at some point.
- If you are a pain in the neck nobody will work with you. Even if you deliver a superior product, you won’t get hired again if you are a pain to work with. Your role should be to ease the client’s stress, not add to it.
- Learn from your mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes, but make sure you learn from them. Sometimes you learn more from mistakes than successes. But also make sure that you immediately reach out to a client – by phone or in person – as soon as you know there is a mistake. Don’t rely on email as it can often be misinterpreted.
I also liked Lorne’s emphasis on Prospero’s “culture” which emphasizes teamwork, entrepreneurship, and accountability.
This evening (Wednesday) we had 4 class speakers. Some of the key take-aways from those presentations were:
– Learn to distinguish between symptoms and causes when doing a needs analysis. Sometimes we look at symptoms (eg lack of motivation) and think they are causes, but really there is something else lurking in the background.
– Dalia talked about different performance consulting models and how some (competency) are focused on the individual’s competence while others focus more on the job itself (I dare not leave this page to look up the name of this last model, since that was how I lost this post last time!)
- Rola talked about marketing techniques for consultants. In particular, I thought it was interesting to reflect on how your marketing approach may shift dramatically depending on what type of clients you are looking to attract (corporations vs. small firms, etc).
I am looking forward to next week’s discussions!
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On July 16th we had Mr. David Fisher to be our interviewee, I have learned so many things from his experiences. My key learning point was that it is always important to maintain the relationship between consultant and his client as well as between consultants themselves.
On July 18th Orzu presented different models of evaluation,and her presentation added useful information to my knowledge. I liked the activity at the end, where we suppose to pretend that we are clients and consultants, this activity makes me think more about the importance of listing and asking as a consultant during the discussion as will as how it is important to have good communication and convincing skills.
on July 23rd we had Mr.Lorne Novolker in our class, It was interesting to know about his background and carrier path, He had a life full of experiences. At the beginning, He started to do his projects for free but with acknowledgement; and now he has a huge company that has many essential departments.
In addition, I liked the 99 sec slides, it is really nice to share our learning key points.
On July 25th, Antonia, Dalia, Christy and I had presented our topics from both books, all the topics were interesting, and I think we all did good presentations, and the most important thing is WE ARE DONE NOW ;o)
Have a nice weekend everyone..
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The last few weeks have been really interesting and informative. Just reviewing it all in my mind, Orzu’s class, the class with Lorne Novolker, and finally the speakers last night, where to begin! I really enjoyed Orzu’s class especially the class exercise. Trying to convince a client of the benefits of evaluation was much more difficult than I imagined. And, I was really surprised when Lorne told us that less than 10% of projects do a level 4 evaluation. Wow. Otherwise, it was great to hear from Lorne’s talk that much of the theory we are learning in this program is useful and used in the field. Sonia even mentionned that she was giving a course on performing needs assessments to people out there who do not have a Master’s in Ed.Tech degree. Good to know!
Another interesting point for me was when Lorne said he did his first job for free. I was advised against this by certain people in this program. Of course, to get paid for a job is the best. However, it is very difficult to get experience and references starting out. I would encourage classmates to do something along the lines of what I am doing if they can. I am volunteering (for free),teaching computer skills to older adults and also creating the computer courses. I am gaining valuable experience and really enjoying myself. This arrangement is not only helping me to acquire skills and experience, it is also helping people who otherwise may not be able to take computer classes. So it is a win win situation all around!
We also have 4 great presentations last night! Key take-aways are:
- to distinguish between a symptom and a cause (for needs analysis)
- a performance model is focused on the job, a competency model is focused on the person (thanks Dalia good to know!)
-many marketing techniques to help get clients
-and finally balancing the budget, why does it feel like I work a lot more days than 128 a year!and lots of good points on how to set pricing.
Very good stuff all around!
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Hi everyone,
I have to agree with those above me and point out the value of the role-playing scenario we had last Wednesday. It was a good exercise because it really forced us to contextual what are learning. Identifying and discussing consulting skills in a classroom (or in a paper, or on a blog, etc.) is one thing, but it’s quite another to actually use them when you’re face-to-face. Role playing helped me understand the importance of having strong answers and information deeply understood and immediately available so that you’re able to use it in the context of a conversation.
I enjoyed hearing Lorne speak on Monday, and there were quite a few valuable takeaways. Here are 3 of them. (If you’ll excuse the shameless self-promotion :p, expanded descriptions of these takeaways are on my blog. http://elearningpilgrim.com)
1) Act with integrity – When entering a relationship with a client, you have to be prepared to say no if the solution doesn’t make sense. Saying “yes” to every-and-all proposals helps you gain contracts quickly, but might damage both you and your clients in the long run. When assessing a situation, use your best judgement, and stick to your convictions.
2) Be ready to adapt – The rise of easy-to-use elearning authoring software threatened the existing elearning business model. However, Lorne found that by developing strong competencies in those authoring tools, they were able to adjust to market demands while retaining their core values.
3) Create and join compatible cultures – When hiring people to join their team, Lorne looks for people who fit into the culture of the organization. While experience and skills are important, they aren’t as valuable as possessing an ethic that matches the rest of the team. Skills can be developed, but a common set of shared values is fundamental.
Yesterday we had 4 presenters, and I’ve identified 1 key lesson from each.
1) When looking at a problem, as “is this a cause or a symptom”
2) Differentiate between assessment models by determining whether you need to focus on the job (performance), or on the people (competency)
3) Market to your niche
4) Remember that your actual workable days get whittled down very quickly.
I found the activity where we had to calculate a hourly rate to be really interesting. Having done that, I know I’ll remember it much more than if that information had simply been presented.
Have a good weekend,
Stefan
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Hi Everyone,
I really enjoyed Orzu’s presentation about training evaluation particularly because she discussed many important aspects of Human Performance Technology which I will be starting in September. It was very helpful to learn about the types of evaluation and evaluation models beforehand.
I also really enjoyed having Lorne Novolker as our guest speaker on Monday night. Here are some of the key takeaways from my notes: nothing replaces experience, the cost to get your next client is much greater than keeping the one you already have, word of mouth is your best sales agent and self-reflection is important. I can definitely see myself applying these key takeaways in my professional life.
The 99 second slide presentations were fun. I have never done anything like this before. It was interesting to hear about each group’s interviewee and also see that there were many common key learnings.
The chapter presentations on Wednesday night were great too. It was interesting to see that the presenters applied much of the feedback from the first round of presentations to their own. I appreciated the enthusiasm of all four presenters and it reminded me once gain that engaging presentation skills are as important as mastery of content.
Looking forward to next week!
Stefanie
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Sorry for my typo above. It should say “I appreciated the enthusiasm of all four presenters and it reminded me once again that engaging presentation skills are as important as mastery of content”.
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Blog3
Dear classmates!
I will focus this blog on Lorne Novolker’s talk.
1) building trust
I really enjoyed talking more about the aspects that would allow a consultant to protect oneself throughout a contract. I have noted down some of the strategies, we have identified together:
- Have your scope of work well defined. (Have it clear from the start so as to inform the client on what you do and what you do not do.)
- Include termination clauses in your contract. (It allows both parties to leave the project under certain per-determined conditions.)
- Always follow up meetings with e-mails that include the decisions taken throughout the meeting. (These e-mails will serve as reminders for the various parties involved in the project.)
- Encourage open communication. (Most aspects of the work can be mediated through clear and sincere conversations.)
- Have positive debriefing sessions at the end of your contracts.
- When possible, build a relationship with your client that goes beyond business talk. (This will allow you to build respect and trust on a more personal level too.)
- Build up an equity bank without making use of it, until necessary.
- CALL, when you see something coming. (E-mails can be misinterpreted and problems should be discussed as soon as they are foreseen.)
It is important to notice that some of the points mentioned in this list are habits that we normally have when we build healthy relationships with friends, colleagues, and family. Though clients might not be as close to us as our friends, we still need to keep in mind that business relationships should have similar foundations of respect and understanding.
With my first contracts, I was following the above steps, without much confidence. I had identified a majority of them by myself through trial and error experiments. However, building this list TOGETHER was ideal to assure me that these procedures are part of the best practices, when looking forward to build trust and protect oneself from misunderstandings. I believe that having a clear list of strategies, approved by an experienced professional in the field, is ideal to build confidence in these techniques and work on them with the assurance that they are successful strategies to abide by.
1) one element to be proud of!!
My eyes were shining when Lorne mentioned the one thing he is the most proud of: Helping people keep their jobs!! Knowing that I can also impact the employability, professional development, and learning of individuals is all the motivation I need to work in this field. I have always wanted to make my years of studies serve the greater purpose of empowering others!! Hearing how others in our field do so is more than inspiring, it’s moving!!
Always looking forward,
Antonia
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Hello class,
To start, I wanted to thank Orzu for the class she delivered. I thought it was really informative as she covered points on evaluation that I had not thought of before. I alo enjoyed her interactive activity. Working with clients can be a difficult process and trying to get them to agree with you when it comes to adding value for a cost is even harder. Those who role-played did an excellent job and it was nice to see the contrast of different possible client attitudes and how each consultant attempted to get their client in line with what they were suggesting.
I enjoyed the 99 second presentations we all gave, I think it was interesting to see how everyone got something different out of their experience with the consultant they interviewed. Upon reflecting on that, I feel that “People” really are the most important thing when it comes to consulting and in general actually. After all, “it’s not about what you know, it’s about WHO you know” is it not? (at least in large part).
It was a pleasure to have Lorne in to answer our questions. His prospective and story is quite different compared to the previous presenters and as such, it was interesting to compare and contrast his answers compared to the sort of answers we received from Miki and Fanny. Key take aways? People are the most important resource and there is no substitute for experience. And on that note, thank you Lorne!
Finally, very good presentations from all my classmates who presented on Wednesday. Very informative and well delivered!
Have a nice weekend everyone!
Harry
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Orzu’s class on evaluation was interesting. It was good to go beyond the formative and summative we are introduced to in the HPT class and hear about descriptive and causal evaluation. It was also interesting to hear about the COMA and decision-based evaluation models which were not discussed in Claude’s Evaluation course. I also enjoyed the discussion on observation and the role play. Thanks Orzu, great job.
While I missed Lorne speaking on Monday it was beneficial to have the concept of differentiation verbalized. The comparison is natural and it is useful for us to see the varying kinds of consulting models. We each have different paths, histories and priorities, and so will become different consultants, just as the ones we are introduced to are different. The point of having to stand out was also valid. The ability of sales and being able to pitch with confidence is particularly important to us as novice consultants.
And finally, good job to Wednesday’s presenters. Antonia’s iceberg and symptoms not being causes; Dalia’s perseverance in the face of technology and performance model (focus on job) vs competence model (focus on person); Rola’s confidence and types of marketing; and Christy’s practical budgeting advice and great activity.
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Hi friends!
First off- allow me to extend my apologies for my absence on Wednesday, I had to meet a deadline and worked overtime. Luckily I made it by the hair of my chinney, chin, chin. Let’s just say I learned something this week on internship and it was by way of a learning method we all hope to avoid: “learning the hard way”.
Apologies especially go out to the presenters- I wish I could have seen you in action. Gleaning from the above discourse, you all did a marvelous job.
As for my learning’s regarding this course. Lorne had come to speak to us in HPT way back when. I couldn’t remember where I had seen him but when I heard the Coke story- AH-HA! (say it with me :p)
Not only it was a refresher but, having the whole class dedicated to him allowed for elaboration on many concepts he did not address when he visited our HPT class circa 2010? 2011? ah yes..2010-2011.
Hearing him speak about his strengths and partnering with someone who is stronger than he is in other skills, was a take home message. I can relate to him when it comes to technology. Hiring criteria was especially useful.
I am in agreement with my peers with regards to Orzu’s delivery on evaluating training. She was poised, her class was instructional, and I myself learned a lot especially from the role-play. One thing I might add is that I think the developers of the COMA model should rethink their acronym. Heuristically, it has negative associations.
With regards to the 99 second presentations; it was a lot of fun! Especially the maraca sound- made me think of a pina colada. Then watching it again on youtube…yikes. Learned a lot from body language. It’s funny how you don’t see yourself until you see yourself.
That is all for me this week. Have a nice weekend all!
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Orzu’s presentation started off with a smart, engaging question: Whom have you observed/watched today while taking public transportation to school or walking in the street? How did you think of the person you were watching? It was a nice way to break the ice and it made me wonder, why do we watch people/strangers? Is it a kind of social science or may be art?. Thank you Orzu for an informative presentation, and thanks for engaging us in an eye-opening activity that made me realize how hard it is to be a consultant and to convince a client.
Talking about watching people and being watched by them. I wasn’t happy to be filmed during the 99-second presentations; however, after watching the video, I realized how far is a mental image of oneself from reality!!! Thanks, Sonia for giving me the opportunity to watch myself and learn from that video for future presentations. Another interesting point concerning the 99 presentations, it was very informative to listen to and learn from14 different key learnings and see how each of us has a unique and interesting experience.
I also enjoyed listening to Lorne Novolker on Monday. And as Kat mentioned, making comparisons is natural and it is useful for us to see different kinds of consulting models. Here are some of my takeaways that I like to share with you:
you have to represent the learner that you are working for when you discuss a project with a client
1) nothing replaces experience
2) listen more than you speak
3) make mistakes, learn from them, but don’t repeat them
4) revisit your vision & mission statement during recession
5) make sure to keep your client because the work needed to to get a new client is much greater than keeping the one you already have
6) don’t let big titles intimidate you
7) phone calls are better than emails
9) My biggest key learning is the culture of the organization and how all team members need to fit in and act in harmony.
Finally, thank you Sonia for being a great leader, for being creative, encouraging, and positive when you give feedback.
Have a great weekend, all!
Dalia
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This week’s takeaways were many, but I’d like to focus on the ones that have made a strong impression.
Lorne’s presentation really had an impact. Besides being someone who is straightforward, I really got the impression he wanted to share the knowledge he’s gained from his experiences. So I wanted to listen. It was also inspiring to hear how he started his business from scratch and has grown it to what it is today.
Main takeaways:
1. Don’t give up or be afraid to tackle the things that seem impossible
2. Relationships are key = trust, credibility, and honest communication
3. Don’t sell out – keep your integrity whenever negotiating
4. Innovate, adapt and think out of the box – don’t run away from change
5. Always think strategically
6. Surround yourself with the right people; ones that complement your skills but match your values
7. Get a mentor
8. Think long-term gain (paves the way to the future)
Something from every presentation:
Antonia: look for root causes
Dalia: Causes can be process, performance, or competency issues
Rola: Marketing strategies change depending on type of company
Christy: circa $1000/billable day
Have a great weekend!
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Though I missed the presentations on Wednesday, I was luckily present for Lorne’s appearance on Monday, and I’m glad I was. I always enjoy hearing success stories and his was quite exciting, particularly because of the clients he has now managed to surround his company with. He was clearly very proud and he should be.
The key learnings that I took away from his presentation were about being honest with your clients and minding your reputation because that is all you have. It’s great to see a business built around honesty and integrity that also helps a large number of people in the end.
His presentation was truly a great experience and I’m very excited to see what the next guests have to share. I always enjoy comparing different opinions and experiences and, so far, our presenters have definitely focused on different aspects of the same beast. Their job description may differ from one another, but their values definintely intersect.
Great class!
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Orzu
Orzu’s presentation on formative evaluation was very informative. She shared a lot of the challenges she faced in running a project and how she overcame them. discussed similarities and differences between the COMA training evaluation model and Kraiger’s decision-based evaluation model, as well as factors in an organization that might help you choose which is more appropriate. The role-playing exercise was fun, and it was neat that the three groups came up with ‘clients’ with quite different styles.
99 seconds of awesome
The 99-second presentations were excellent; it was interesting to see how each of us handled the brief presentation style, and to get a feel for what the other interviewees shared. I also really appreciated the opportunity to watch the recorded presentations … It really pained me to watch the video, but it definitely added to the learning experience!
Lorne
Lorne gave an interesting new perspective on client relationship management, emphasizing honesty, integrity, and the value of experience. The philosophy he presented really seemed to resonate with many in the class; as newbies, we haven’t spent much time discussing how we express our values through our work, nor the strategic reasons why we should stick to them when negotiating.
Antonia, Dalia, Rola, Christy
To our Wednesday presenters: Great job! I was struck by the strong visual communication, use of metaphor, examples and exercises in this set of presentations.
See you all next week.
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Orzu’s presentation on different types of evaluation was really interesting and I enjoyed it a lot. I heard about formative and summative evaluation, but I’ve never heard of COMA model and Decision-Based Evaluation Model so I learned some new models of evaluation. In addition, the role playing exercise was an eye opener for me since I found convincing the client very difficult so it needs a lot of practice and you need to think about your answers carefully and be a good conversationalist.
99 seconds presentation was a great experience. I have never done it before. I believe it really helps us to improve our presentation skills. It is also some how similar to elevator’s speech. It is very interesting because we need to be able to transfer our key information and make a communication with our audience in a limited time.
I really enjoyed Lorne’s presentation. It was interesting to hear that his career path was different from other consultants. He emphasized on relationship and people and believed that there are two core important aspects of consulting business. He also mentioned experience is very valuable in consulting and we need to learn from our mistakes, but we should not repeat them. The easiest client is the one you already have. So it is strongly recommended to keep them because the cost of getting the next one is much greater than keeping the old one. Lorne also emphasized on credibility and integrity for improving on your consulting business and maintaining your reputation.
The four presentations all had very interesting key learnings for consulting.
1.To distinguish between cause and symptoms.
2. A performance model focuses on the job. A competency model focuses on the person
3. How you could improve your marketing skills.
4. How to configure your budget and billable days.
See you in class!
Sheila
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Oh dear… better late than never?
From Orzu’s presentation (which seems a long time ago now!) I was interested to learn about training evaluation models other than Kirkpatrick’s… so I will be looking at the COMA and Decision Based Evaluation Models in more detail for sure.
As for the 99 seconds presentations, I thought it was interesting to see how 14 presentations could be unique, even if many of us had learnings to do with some version of relationship-building.
When it came to Lorne’s time at the front of the class, I thought it was interesting to hear from someone with more of a sales background and perspective. My particular nugget from his experience has to do with his analogy for client relations… he compared the relationship with clients to a bank account; the more you’ve built it up (with ‘deposits’ of credibility and trust), the more you have to play with (in terms of withdrawal, ie being honest)
And finally, the Wednesday presentations. Great job ladies! I got a good overview of the four chapters, and some insight into important aspects of performance consulting theory as well as more practical business matters. Again, well done!
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Hi Everyone,
This was another great week of classes!
I really enjoyed having Sonia Ribaux as our guest speaker on Monday night. Some of the key takeaways from my notes include: training is part of the solution but not the whole solution (other factors come into play), tell the client what you think the risks are if they want to go with a solution that you do not agree with, think beyond what you see and try to tame your inner critic.
I also really enjoyed the elevator speech activity that we did in class on Monday night. Many of my professors mentioned the importance of having an elevator speech when I was an undergraduate student in Human Relations but this was the first opportunity that I have ever had to actually practice under pressure. A few helpful comments that Sonia shared with me include: ask yourself “What do they need that I can offer?”, focus on your skills and ask the person you are speaking with a question at the end of your elevator speech.
The chapter presentations last night were great. Some of the key takeaways from my notes include: send articles of interest to your clients (Harry), the value in having a mentor (Kat), use the same file name convention to stay organized (Anton) and go for the big fish (Sheila).
Have a great weekend!
Stefanie
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Another great week has flown by!
First of all, hearing from Sonia Ribaux gave more (and different) insight into being a consultant. A few nuggets that stand out for me from her visit are: being explicit about “conditions for success” when negotiating contracts; the reminder that evaluation by observation (as opposed to strict adherence to Kirkpatrick’s model) is valid; and her suggestion of making a personal plan as well as a business plan to help us maintain a work-life balance. I will also be checking out the resources she suggested, as well as her website.
Following Sonia’s visit was the challenge of elevator-pitch writing. It was really great to get feedback on my pitch from Emily and Diane – even though I don’t feel ready to use my pitch yet, I really feel like they helped me gain some clarity, so thanks ladies!
And then Wednesday’s class was full of great presentations, not to mention the inclusion of remote learners. A mix of theory (Harry’s info on the ACT model), and the more practical topics of transitioning into consulting (Kat), organizing office space (Anton) and finding clients (Sheila)… and various extra resources too! A tough act to follow…!
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Hello friends and classmates,
First, I would like to thank Sonia Ribaux for a great conversation! I love your sense of humor and your passion about everything you do/practice in life! My biggest takeaway from her conversation was how she carve out time every week to take and post photographs. Brene Brown, the author of ‘The Gifts of Imperfection’, indicates that when she make creativity a priority, everything in her life works better. It is important to be part of a community of like-spirited people who share beliefs about creativity. Sonia Ribaux risks being vulnerable by posting her pictures, which she calls unprofessional photos, every week, but she doesn’t care and she lets go of comparison. I’m also happy to be reminded that creativity is key to problem solving; thus it is important to cultivate it and add it as part of our life.
Secondly, the elevator speech activity caught me off guard and gave me valuable guidelines to how to go about it. I will definitely dedicate some time to work on it.
Harry, Kat, Anton, and Shelia! Great job guys! Thank you for your engaging questions/activities, attracting/fun visuals, casual performance, humor, great eye contact and projection, and key learnings to remember forever! I’ve learnt the art of presenting from you guys and I will try to apply those learnings in my future presentations.
Lastly, this one reflection I would like to share with all of you, I have learnt from giving and attending presentations in the last few weeks that we are all made of strength and struggle, and practicing connection is the key to successful presentations.
Have a great weekend!
Dalia
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Good day,
Last monday`s class was really interesting, having Sonia Ribaux in our class was a pleasure “Thanks Sonia for joining our class”. I have learned from her experience many different things, for example, sometimes it is good to transfer from job to another to gain more experiences before being The Boss, the photos posting blog is interesting, and always think outside the box.
The elevator speech activity was enjoyable, I have not practice it before, but i realized that there are some concerns when you practice your elevator speech, for example, the importance of follow up the client, the speech should be clear with enough useful background information but not too much details, and always know the need of the client before offering your services so you can provide your client with the best services.
Kat, Harry, Sheila and Anton, the topics were interesting. Actually, your presentations were very good ;o)
Have a nice weekend everyone..
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Hi everyone!
I would like to start off by saying thank you to Sonia Ribaux for joining us on Monday. It was a pleasure to meet her and it was nice to hear her story and how she ended up where she is today. Oh and by the way, I did enjoy going through Sonia’s blog! Loved the photographs and looking forward to seeing more.
The cocktail party activity that followed was great. I feel the ‘elevator speech’ is important for marketing oneself so it was good to come up with one and see how well it communicated to a client/classmate. (By the way, it’s totally okay that there was no wine involved
)
To my classmates who presented: Kat, Sheila and Anton, you were all amazing and a real pleasure to listen to. I like the use of humor, the awesome pictures, the interesting/engaging questions asked and of course, the content delivered.
Anton: I think you did a great job taking such a seemingly simple/bare bones topic and turning it into something of real interest. This was really informative and I definitely related to a lot of what you were saying through my own personal experience with setting up an office space.
Sheila: I think your presentation did two things for me: (1) it reinforced the idea that networking and word of mouth are so very important for growing ones client-base and (2) it helped to grow my understanding of the different methods of gaining new clients – something that I feel is very important for new consultants. Great use of humor by the way!
Kat: Great body language and overall pleasant and informative presentation. I liked how you asked questions that were personal as opposed to abstract and it was nice to see where others felt they were on their own paths to becoming consultants.
Also, I’m happy that our classmates in NY were able to join us virtually. I appreciate that Sonia allowed for that to happen and I really felt like it was a very “ed tech experience”
Have a nice weekend everyone!
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This was another great week!
I enjoyed the presentation by Sonia Ribaux. I liked her emphasis on giving the client several options when there is a problem to be resolved – that way you make yourself their collaborator to resolve the problem rather than making them more stressed out. Even if the client is difficult, you need to show you are on their side.
I also liked Sonia’s ideas about evaluation – that you don’t have to follow the Kirkpatrick model necessarily – you can think outside the box. Her idea of doing confidence level evaluation with sticky dots on a poster was a good idea.
I also appreciated Sonia’s comments about creativity and her photography blog. I agree that creativity can be an asset in problem-solving, and I think it’s great that she is focusing on trying to build her creativity by making that commitment to post a photo every week.
The elevator speech activity was really great! It is so important to have a pitch at the ready that you can present to a potential client in a cocktail party or elevator situation.
I was sorry to have missed Wednesday’s presentations due to a migraine, but am looking forward to next week!
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Hi friends,
Sonia squared is an excellent speaker. Some take aways: what seems ordinary for us, can be “out of the box” for clients, re-frame barriers and present as “we can do this or that”, people evaluating their own learning-confidence interval. Most importantly she is inspirational with her blog. Yet another ah-ha moment for me.
I was especially able to related to her about time management (and not to get stressed). Being an intern, it is difficult for me to judge time to task especially since I am executing some tasks for the first time! (eeek)
The cocktail activity I thought was very useful. Although I don’t have my pitch down packed, it’s something to chew on. Especially at this point in my career I am thinking about the content for the elevator speech.
Hats off to this week’s presenters! Good job! I shall be sending your 3+1s after this.
On that note, think I will do that now!
Have a good weekend!
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Our presenter on Monday, Sonia Ribaux, was a great addition to our series of meeting consultants. I was particularly reassured by the entry into consulting after a number of years in more traditional training positions. Particular take-aways were her comment on training often being only part of the solution and telling the client the potential risks of an incomplete solution. Her comment on 99% of her clients not going above a level 1 Kirkpatrick also matches a lot of what the literature says. Her dislike of the restraints of the Kirkpatrick model are also very valid. I like her attitude of treating the learners with the respect and that they are a good judge of their confidence and learning runs inline with the criticisms of Kirkpatrick, which says perceptions of learning can be a valid evaluation.
The 60 second elevator pitch was a useful exercise and it was great to get feedback from Dalia and Madeline on this.
Sonia’s reminder of the usefulness of Gagne prompted me to print it out and stick it to my wall. Already this week I saw it echoed in a soft skills training by an excellent Belgian psychologist. Thanks for reminding me of it.
I am glad the Albany crew were able to join us on Wednesday. It added an extra dimension to the presentations which was enjoyable and also a useful and practical experience. Thanks to Harry, Anton and Sheila for your presentations, and to all for being an engaged and kind audience for mine.
Here is the link the mentor program if anyone is interested: http://www.concordia.ca/alumni-giving/alumni/connect-learn/mentor/
The more stories we hear the more we have it reinforced that we need to network. I think getting involved with organisations such as ISPI and CSTD as a volunteer is easier that trying to mingle at networking events or conferences, for me at least. I plan to put this theory to the test soon as I am already a member of CSTD and I am looking forward to hearing was our guests on Monday have to say about the new ISPI chapter in Montreal.
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I found the guest speaker we had, Sonia Ribaux, interesting; not only in what she said but also in the way that she spoke to us. Her presentation style resonated with her statements about taking care of her clients, as she was a caring speaker. She always checked in to be sure we understood what she said, or if she had answered our questions; basically she demonstrated attentive listening. I’m realizing (the obvious), as I blog this, that this must be her way of being with clients and colleagues. I can understand why teammates and clients like to have her around.
My main take away from Sonia Ribaux is her emphasis on relationships and her service-oriented approach. The more speakers come to present in our class, the more I’m noticing a theme about people connecting with people on a deeper level; one where people connections are built on trust, communication, and negotiation (the win-win kind). I’m starting to think that consulting isn’t about offering or selling your expertise, but rather building a coaching relationship with people and offering your problem-solving skills and an outside perspective to clients that they can use to help solve their problems. Maybe it means the same thing, but it feels different.
At the gaming conference we got to practice our elevator speech, speak to some presenters and make some contacts. Antonia and I spoke to the VP of the education department from a local TV station that is a part of the PBS network, and an Ed-tech professor from Boise University who teaches in Educational Technology, and who is also with GameDesk. I also spoke with the senior producer of educational games at Scholastic. So there were many great opportunities and much sharing of interesting ideas and knowledge, not only within the conference but also between us as students outside of the conference.
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Hello All!
As many of you mentioned in your blog post, I too really enjoyed the talk by Sonia squared! Very positive and encouraging!SOme things that stood out for me was the mention of consultants having good listening skills, that seems to come up all the time! I really need to work on that one!I also liked when someome asked Sonia what do you do when the client’s solution is the wrong solution, how do you help them to realize that training might not be the solution? Sonia said we should help the client see the big picture, by outlining the risks involved in doing this, they may not achieve their goals in the end. I also liked when Sonia mentioned that consultants should have a personal plan, just like they have a business plan.Having a good work/life balance is very important in general but much more difficult when one is self-employed. I was very surprised when Sonia mentioned that 99% of clients do not do anything for evaluation! But what she mentioned about observing the learners was very interesting.
I also very much liked the elevator speech exercise, it really showed me how important it is to have that speech ready, and it is not that easy!
The 4 speakers on Wednesday were amazing, I learned so much from all the presentations. I also like when Sonia mentioned that Anton used Gagne 9 events with his presentation, it helped me to understand how I could apply the 9 events when I am teaching and presentating.
Have a nice weekend all, enjoy the beautiful weather!
Madeleine
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Blog 5
Dear classmates!
I will focus this blog on Sonia Ribaux’s talk.
These are my key learning points from the exchange.
1) difficult clients
I liked hearing her perspective on difficult clients. She suggested asking yourself two questions when dealing with challenging clients:
- Where does the difficulty come from?
- What would make their (the clients’) life easier?
Also, for a healthy consultant-client relationship, it is important to make the expectations clear from the start. Thus, to make sure that the client contributes to the project, she suggested including in the contract the “conditions for success”, making sure that everyone understands its share of responsibility towards the success of a project.
2) creative training solutions
To make sure that the client accepts a less traditional training solution, one can introduce the solution with carefully chosen words. Thus, one can talk about a game-like training by calling it an “interactive activity”. It is important to present the client with alternatives to that outside-of-the-box solution and to propose a pilot testing of the solution. Sonia Ribaux mentioned that usually, the less traditional approaches are well received by learners and when clients see the enthusiasm of learners, they become more willing to accept your creative view on things. She shared a quote that summarized her thoughts on learning: “Learning and pleasure go hand in hand, but pleasure leads the way”.
3) balanced life
Sonia Ribaux suggests the use of a personal plan in order to make sure that our life is balanced and successful, but mostly personally satisfying. She recommends asking ourselves: “How are you going to organize your life to satisfy yourself?”
I appreciate the fact that she opened herself to us, to share her personal procedure for a balanced life. Hearing about her photography blog was very inspiring!
…and it made me think of my own creative projects that I have put on hold for work. I cannot wait to get back on them… actually, starting from September, I WILL get back to them! This is my personal plan!
Always looking forward,
Antonia
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Wednesday’s class was another great opportunity to learn a thing or two from classmates. I was happy that the group who left for the conference was able to join us non the less and enjoy the wonderful presentations. Everyone did an excellent job and it was great to see how different presenters took different approaches when designing and explaining their slides. Also, the use of humor by many of the presenters made the class and the learning that much more entertaining and memorable.
Feedback truly meant a lot as well and It’s definitely something those who presented (including myself) will keep in mind for the future. Standing in front of a group of people and sharing information is no easy task, particularly when you’re being graded in the process, but it’s an experience you learn from.
Have a great rest of the weekend!
Anton
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Hi everyone,
Another great week of class passed! I really enjoyed Sonia Ribaux’s presentation on Monday. She shared her precious experiences and gave us a lot of good advices. Her advice on having personal plan as well as business plan was a great insight. Especially if someone wants to work, as a freelance consultant, it will help him to balance his life. I also went to Sonia’s website and I liked her passion in taking those great photos and her perseverance and commitment in continuing to express herself in her blog every week. Now I do agree that it is a good idea to follow the creativity and put your ideas and see how people respond to them.
After Sonia’s presentation, we had an amazing lovely activity. I learned a lot from the elevator’s speech activity. Sonia was also in our group so she helped me revise my elevator’s speech by giving constructive feedback. It was an eye opening activity for me. Now I feel more confident and comfortable reaching people and introducing myself and my abilities in a professional gathering such as a cocktail party.
Last, but not least, the presentations on Wednesday, first I’m happy that I’m done☺. Sonia and Class, thanks for your encouragement! Second, Harry, Kat and Anton thanks for your great and informative presentations. I learned how to build partnership by using the ACT model, how to make transition to being a consultant, and finally how to set up my office as a consultant.
Enjoy the rest of the weekend!
Sheila
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I enjoyed talking with Sonia on Monday. So far, I’ve pointed out 3 or 4 key learnings from each consultant, so I’m going to keep going with that theme.
1) When you have a good solution, help clients get out of their comfort zone. Sonia talked about building a simulation to help an NGO identify how to address the issue of poverty reduction. A simulation was unusual and unexpected for that organization, but they ended up really embracing the activity once it was suggested and implemented. Helping clients discover something new is what makes you valuable as a consultant.
2) Frame solutions in ways that clients will be open to. Sonia specializes in using games as a training tool. When asked about how to present games to clients, she recommended framing the games as “interactive activities”. Clients may disregard solutions that superficially sound trivial, but they will rarely reject an activity that gets learners engaged.
This point coincided well with my time at the games in education conference. The keynote address by Seann Dikkers talked about professional development (for teachers, but generalizable to anyone!) being conducted as a form of play. Play means being engaged and motivated to investigate, use, reshape, and construct knowledge from the raw materials of information artifacts. Games can help learnings do that.
3) Have a personal plan to balance your professional plans. Pursuing vitalizing and creative personal projects will go a long way towards maintaining your personal wellbeing and supporting your professional life. For herself, Sonia has set objectives (not resolutions!) to practice and blog her photography weekly.
Again, this point is consistant with something I learned at the conference. In some recently published research, when teachers were asked how they improved their practice as teachers, their personal hobbies were listed as a major source of learning. Investment in your own interests can have unexpected professional benefits.
Thanks to all of the presenters. I observed some strong presentations strategies that I’d like to use more of in the future.
1) wrap your presentation up into a single, final message (Harry),
2) use succinct, subject-verb-object bullet points (Kat),
3) use funny, memorable slides (Anton),
4) have activities that directly pull on prior learnings (Sheila, your activity where we compared and contrasted our interview consultants)
See everyone on Monday.
Stefan
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What a week. Where to begin?
Sonia2 was so candid and personable, and it was wonderful to hear about how she has committed to expressing herself. I enjoyed hearing about the role of student-teacher and peer relationships in her path to consulting, her views on the soft skills required of consultants, and her amusing observations on parallels across industries (particularly concerning ‘cheapness’ and which roles regard themselves as gods).
The elevator pitch practice was a fun exercise. It was good to learn more about how Kirsti & Diane see themselves, what parts of the pitch they found most difficult to write and why. The idea of practicing explaining who you are to people has always seemed like a good one, but also one that was too unrealistic to put into practice because of The Fear. It felt quite healthy to work on overcoming that scary feeling with such supportive individuals.
Harry, Sheila, Anton and Kat did a wonderful job this week, particularly in dealing with the novelty of having virtual attendees. The system we were using wasn’t perfect and really put extra pressure on you. I think an important take-away from all of those presentations for me was the importance of agreeing on a communication strategy before trying something new! We didn’t really anticipate the problem of invisible hand-raising or know much about the etiquette of being in a virtual audience, and it was hard on the presenters. Kudos to you all for handling that situation so well. A special shout-out goes to Antonia, Diane and Stefan for your collective strength in the face of mind-numbing fatigue.
See you all Monday.
E.
Emily Sheepy recently posted..Shiny new website!
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Blog 6
Dear classmates!
I will focus this blog on Marilynne Malkin’s talk and the numerous presentations of this week.
These are my key learning points for this week.
1) ethical projects
Marilynne suggested that we make sure to choose projects that will impact the learners and the community for the better. Also, Madeleine introduced the idea of having an Ethics List, which would help you prioritize project propositions according to your ethical standards. Thus, it is Marilynne’s ethics that did not allow her to accept a project for a cigarette company. Most of us take such decisions by operating on an unconscious level, but to ensure that we always make the right decisions, guidelines can be of great use.
2) managing time
To make sure that we have time to appreciate life while working, Marilynne suggests making deliberate choices on the type, size, and niche in which we would like to work. Each organization comes with its own pace and it is up to you to decide whether or not that pace affects you positively or not. Sonia Di Maulo suggests that we be open about our down time, informing others when we need some time away from work responsibilities. We can do so while still being accountable of deadlines.
3) naming your organization
Emily suggests a number of interesting ways to find a name for your business (ie. such as name generators). Harry also shared with us the various elements one takes into consideration when thinking about the philosophy of a name. Ideally your name should represent you and your services and make it easy for people to refer to and remember. Oh and it should be easy to spell too!!
Always looking forward,
Antonia
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Don’t know why but my last post did not get posted here
there was an error, oh well I will try again!
Hello All
It was a busy but fun week! I really enjoyed Marilynne sharing her experiences with us. Among other things, she had a lot of good things to say about the importance of having a good work/life balance, which was right in line with my presentation.
Also, I enjoyed the presentations last night, Kirsti and Emily(don’t forget to send those slides),provided us with lots of great information.I never thought about how important it was to choose a good business name until last night!
Finally, the case study project was challenging but a great review of what I learned in HPT. All the case study presentations went very well, very impressive, and it was interesting to see how the groups presented their solutions differently. A lot of creativity in this class!
I am looking forward to our last speaker Monday night! And then cocktails…
Have a nice weekend,
Madeleine
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Hello guys,
First of all, It was a pleasure to have Marilynne in our class.
Secondly, I have learned so many things from last monday’s class, and there are some words that still stick in my mined, and some of them are the following:
1) It is very challenging to provide costumers with a feedback, and some times it is the same with some colleagues.
2) The ratio of the hours needed to complete 1 day in a class room of instructional design is 20:1 , and some times it is 40:1.
3) Sometimes in big projects you can breakdown the contract to small ones.
4) It is always good to know more about your client, and searching online is the easiest way to get the needed information.
5) The personal profile activity, and different personal styles of the classmates.
At the end, I admit that the presentations were incredible.
I THINK EACH ONE OF US DID A VERY GOOD JOB ;o)
Have a nice weekend everyone.
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Hi everyone,
Kudos and well done on your presentations/pitches. It is inspiring how everyone took a different approach in information delivery method.
To the individual presenters, bravo! Especially those who had a double whamy this week.
There was such a high volume of using prezy as a tool to deliver presentations so i was inspired to look into it. I am more old school power point type of guy, but i am considering it for my internship presentation.
Our guest speaker was really insightful especially from an ethics perspective. Learning often occurs in changes in thought processes and behaviour. Ethics is so important because as instructional designers we are responsible for designing and developing solution for those changes in behaviours and thoughts, we have to be mindful those changes will foster growth and not hurt anyone or anything. So that was a little bit of an eye opener from a holistic perspective.
Happy Thursday and TGIF!
-Justin
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Hi Everyone!
This was another great week of classes. We covered so much material this week through a variety of different mediums but I am going to focus on our guest speaker and the chapter presentations.
I enjoyed having Marilynne Malkin as our guest speaker. A few of the key takeaways from my notes include: go where the work goes, training can be justifiable if there is a skill or knowledge gap, feedback about a person’s character is very different than their work, and get involved with professional associations.
I will share a few key takeaways from each chapter presentation:
Madeleine- Add copyrights to original materials and it is important to have a personal ethics statement. The discussion about having a personal ethics statement reminded me of a quotation from Roy Disney who says “It’s easy to make decisions if you know your values”.
Kirsti- There are good times to approach businesses. I also really liked the use of metaphors throughout.
Emily- The benefits of choosing a name for your consulting business that has strong image associations attached. The name activity was really unique and I appreciated the thought put into choosing the companies/businesses.
See you on Monday!
Stefanie
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This was another great week in class!
We covered a lot of interesting material this week: Marilynne’s presentation, the psychological profile exercise, the 5 case projects, and individual presentations from Madeleine, Kirsti, and Emily!
Marilynne gave a lot of really great advice in her presentation. Some of the main take-aways for me were:
- I found the discussion about how many hours of work it takes to develop one hour of classroom learning (40:1 or 37:1) to be very illuminating. I never would have guessed it took so long!
- I also liked Marilynne’s discussion about ethics. While we all probably have certain companies that we would or would not want to work with for various reasons, I think it is important to think about it ahead of time so you can be sure to define what type of company you will have.
- I liked her ideas about how to deal with difficult clients. Basically by going out of your way to invite the client to events or treat them as a friend, you can help make a difficult client easier to work with. That’s an important lesson!
Psychological profile exercise: I thought the activity where we looked at the different psychological profiles was very interesting. It was fun to brainstorm with other classmates in my profile group about what annoys us, how we react, etc. and then see how different we are from other groups! It is a good reminder that when working in the real world you need to consider that others may not react the same way as you, or may be annoyed by different triggers, and that the way you deal with them may need to change accordingly.
Case Project presentations: I was amazed at how wonderful all of the case project presentations were. Good job! Before going into the presentations I thought we would be sitting through 5 presentations that gave the same set of recommendations, but I was completely wrong! It’s amazing how groups can come up with completely different sets of great recommendations using the same data set.
On a personal note, I enjoyed working on the Case project with my team. Harry and Stefan were really great to work with, and while the project was quite intense at times, I found I really enjoyed working on it!
Individual presentations:
- Madeleine gave a really interesting presentation on work-life balance, which is something I’ve personally struggled with during my professional career. I liked her idea of writing down what is important to you, and then making sure you make time for those things (health, family, etc). This is sometimes hard to do, but very important so that we don’t get burned out, unhealthy, etc!
- Kirsti presented on how to get new clients, looking more at how to be proactive/ cold call clients you may have no connection to. This is something I’ve never really figured out how to do, so her recommendations were really helpful and insightful!
- Emily presented on various aspects of running a consulting business such as accounting, legal issues, and naming. I really liked her activities around naming – it made me realize that picking a name for a firm is something that needs to be taken really seriously and may take a lot of time to do. I ran a small business in the United States a few years ago and picked a name for the company that I perhaps hadn’t thought through as much as I should have. At some point I started hating the name, but couldn’t change it because I was already known with that name! So taking the time to really think the name through in advance is good advice.
I’m sad that the class is ending next week, but am looking forward to our final class on Monday!
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Here are some of the insights I gained in our last full week of the course.
From Marilynne’s talk – importance of having a good partner and checking if deadlines are actually artifical.
The idea of setting limits was also mentioned and it was fascinating to hear the idea of intentionally staying on Montreal where she was limited by language, but that being a good thing as it prevented the business from being to large. I also like Sonia’s setting of limits with here out of office camping message – beautifully personal and practical.
As others have said the case project presentations were all unique and well done.
The personality exercise was great. It was good to not only get to know myself better, and bond with my fellow “expressives” . Labels can be a dangerous thing but we shared so many “me too!” moments within our group. It was beneficial to also learn about how the other types feel and how they get annoyed, calm down etc.
The individual presentations were engaging as always and my favourite quote of the evening was Emily’s (and I hope I don’t paraphase too horribly) “forget all the hats, this is your whole face” description of naming your business. That will stay with me.
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Wow, it sounds like I missed so much on Wednesday. I’d like to apologize especially to the people who presented Wednesday for me not being there and supporting you. I wish I could have seen your presentations, it sounds like there was so much learning happening.
Marilynne’s talk was interesting, and it was nice to be reminded that we need to be clear on what we’re willing to accept when taking on projects, whether it’s for ethical reasons, or work-life balance. I think what stood out for me most from her talk, is how she chose to not go the bigger route; bigger isn’t always better. How many times in life are we faced with decisions about whether a project aligns with our values, needs, and desires. And sometimes, I’ve found from my experience that it’s SO very hard to say no when a project is really interesting, bigger, more money, etc., but it doesn’t align with us on some important levels. I suppose knowing when to say no is also something that comes with wisdom, confidence, and experience.
I really liked the personality activity. It’s interesting to see how people see themselves, and how different they can be about preferences, self- expression, and dislikes. It was a very nice learning experience. I wish I had been able to capture all the different types as data for future encounters with teams and clients.
I can’t believe it’s already over! And I’m feeling a little blue about it too, especially since next semester is my final semester. I really enjoy the sharing of knowledge and ideas that can happen between students, and the constant search for answers to questions. I’ll miss it a lot!!
See you all Monday for our last class. ☺
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This class has passed by very quickly! As a general comment, I’ve found that I’ve really gotten to know my classmates, both in the classes and online here, which is great. It’s nice to feel like I’m learning as part of a small community.
I’ve really enjoyed seeing people present their solutions to the case study. As Christy mentioned, it was interesting to see the diversity in solutions. For me, that drove home the value of having a vision and guiding principles as a consultant. In most situations, there really will be a large number of possible strategies for getting to a solution. Given that fact, I think it’s important to have some high-level values that can help you hone a set of unique and individualized problem-solving strategies.
I also thought it was interesting to see people apply the things we’ve been learning to their presentations. In every presentation, there were moments where I recognized “oh ya, we talked about that strategy with so-and-so.” For example, at least a couple groups presented a training solution first, but then showed what problems it wouldn’t solve as a way of helping get clients to warm up to a new perspective. It’s an interesting way to reflect on our learning.
I liked how the topic of ethics came up, both in the talk with Marilynne and in Madeline’s presentation. Some of the ethical problems that have come up in our class (like rejecting projects that are unsolvable) are not necessarily what I would have considered ethical problems, initially, so I appreciate being prompted to think about ethics in that way.
See you all Monday.
Stefan
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First off, I apologize for being a day late in submitting my blog response. It must have slipped my mind =/ At any rate, here goes:
I thought I’d start this by simply stating that it was an absolute pleasure to listen to every groups case presentation. Even though we had a tight deadline to prepare, everyone did phenomenal. All the presentations attacked the problem in various ways and it was a real learning experience to observe all the different consulting techniques applied. In my opinion, this final case assignment was perhaps the most interesting, especially since it involved taking our learnings from the course and applying them in a hypothetical case.
The last few chapter presentations were of real interest too. I liked how Kirsti really tied in her content with what had been presented in other chapters of the book. I enjoyed that Emily included external resources in her presentation and I thought her activity of “identifying what each company name speaks to us” was insightful and made me appreciate the thought and creativity that went into the names. As Stefan mentioned, I liked how the topic of ethics came up during Madeline’s presentation. I feel that it is strongly important to be ethical because (1) if you are not, you will find that your reputation will tarnish quickly and (2) you should never take on work that makes you feel uncomfortable or puts you in a situation where you feel that you might be indirectly or directly supporting something you feel strongly against.
Looking forward to our last class on Monday
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We covered so much this week I’m not sure where to begin.
From our guest speaker, Marilynne, we learned about the importance of developing personal rapport with difficult clients. She also commented on the state of the field and the shift in focus from training to performance.
The communication style inventory & activity were interesting; I wish we could have learned more about what it means to be balanced on more than one communication style. I thought it was very interesting that everyone in the driver group was actually driver-expressive. We also had a few “wow, me too” moments.
The case study presentations were truly impressive. I think that we really pushed ourselves as a class to produce professional pitches. I’m really grateful to have worked with Antonia & Diane; we had a lot of fun and really built on each others’ strengths. Each group had its own take on the same problem, and the approach to presenting in each group was unique. Antonia, Diane and I pushed our personal branding and style, but didn’t spend too much time on the nitty-gritty details; Madeleine, Dalia & Rola focused on reframing the problem for the client; Christy, Harry, and Stefan took a very data-driven approach; Justin, Kat, and Kirsti integrated change management into their proposal; last but not least, Anton, Sheila, and Stefanie actually demonstrated a sample team-building exercise. Overall, it was easy to see how a prospective client’s fit with the personalities of the consultants would ultimately determine who gets the proposal, because all of the solutions were good.
The final chapter presentations tied together thematically in a neat way. Madeleine gave us practical tips on balancing the emphasis we place on our personal and professional goals in our lives; Kirsti got us thinking about what makes a client choose you and how to seek opportunities that align with where you want to go; I covered how to assert your professional identity through picking a name.
This course has been a wild ride. Thank you all for being so engaging and awesome.
Did someone say cocktails?
Emily
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I do apologize as well for being late in posting this blog comment, but as we all learnt from various consultants that we interviewed, especially Marilynne, it is important to have a work life balance! A helpful tip in finding balance, when you plan your week, make sure to proactively schedule time with your family and friends, and do activities that help you recharge, rather than wasting your time on activities that add no value.
My biggest learning from this week is my teamwork experience. 1) How each team member works on one part, but subordinating personal importance to the effectiveness of the whole and the group goal. 2) It was also amazing to see many great well thought of solutions to the same problem. I guess we all understand from this case study that there will not always be one right answer. One skill that we all need as consultants is critical thinking, which is key to problem solving and it can be also used throughout our life. 3) Although it is important to find ways to cleverly present our ideas and solutions so that it will appeal to the client, it is more important to be authentic and help the client trust us so he can commit to our solutions.
I have also enjoyed each individual presentation. My take away from listening/watching each presenter is realizing the difference between great and good presenters: Great presenters have presence and are centered. Good presenters knowledgeably deliver their message, but are somewhat off center. It is essential to take the first few seconds on the stage to bring yourself into neutral and focus, and to bring people’s attention.
Great job, all teams and individual presenters! Don’t forget to take time to celebrate your successes!
Have a great weekend and see you all one Monday! Yes, it is celebration time
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First of all, thanks to Marilynne for her valuable insights on project management and consulting. I was impressed by the way she and her husband managed their life in a way that they could have work-life balance and at the same time they have a good, well-reputed business. This is a very important lesson everyone should consider in his or her professional life.
Some of the students shared their experiences working in training department and we found out that most of the interventions used by different organizations are training. Although Marilynne believed that the training is not always a solution, and there are better interventions to employ, she and most of the consultants still choose training as a solution due to some limitations. However, Sonia mentioned that most of the interventions she uses are performance based. She also advised us, as future consultants, that we push the limits and direct the solutions toward other types of interventions, not only the training. Marilynne also mentioned that work related feedback is very common and easy for her, but she finds giving feedback on people’s personal character very difficult. Client’s feedback is more challenging, she believed. Once she had a difficult client, so she decided to have a closer and better rapport with her so that she could give her feedback easily.
I also very much liked the communication style inventory. It helps us better in knowing our classmates’ personality and that of ours so that we can know who is most suitable to work with as a teammate or to find out some of the clients’ expectations through their personality. It was also interesting to see how we share a lot of commonalties.
Finally, now we are done with presentations and case studies. Great job everyone! Case studies and presentations were pretty interesting because every group was unique and they all came up with different creative strategies and solutions. Here are some of my takeaways from individual presentations of Madeline, Kirsti and Emily:
1) Madeline: I liked her time management tips. I found the activity concerning prioritizing one’s values in life beneficial. I can see how it helps us to schedule our life and to have a work-life balance. As consultants, it is essential that we have it in our professional life.
2) Kirsti: I liked the metaphors and examples she used in her presentation. She explained about how to proactively identify performance-consulting opportunities. The first thing we could do is to show what we can offer to an organization as a consultant. The second thing is to conduct proactive goals discussions.
3) Emily: Naming our business is really important and I think the presentation was comprehensive because we became familiar with the thoughts behind choosing the name of four different companies that were almost known for us. She also shared a lot of useful websites on naming a business with us.
See you in class!
Sheila
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Well, another interesting week has come and gone!
I enjoyed hearing Marilyn’s perspective on consulting and the more ‘project management’ side of the business on Monday… and I thought it was an interesting spin to get us to discuss and share responses to some questions with each other as part of the conversation. We’ve generally gotten to know each other a bit better through the last 6 weeks, which made that easier, and I liked that it allowed Marilyn to respond to us without having to be so question based. I also thought it was interesting to see how different people rated themselves in terms of the communication style inventory / personality assessment – and to see the common traits that emerged as a result of the discussions.
As for the case study presentations, I agree with what I’ve seen reported here several times; I thought it was interesting to see how 5 groups could interpret the same data in a variety of different ways. I can see how challenging it can be for clients to choose a “best” interpretation!
And last but not least, the chapter presentations this week were great too. I think Madeleine’s time management tips are valid to everyone (whether a consultant or not!), and I greatly appreciated Emily’s Canadianization of her chapter, as well as her prompting to look beyond the surface of company name choices. Well done ladies!
See you all soon.
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May I simply say what a relief to uncover someone
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