MARCH 2008 LEARNING FLASH

It's Almost Spring: Russell Martin and Associates Learning Flash March 2008 

 

I’m flying back from San Antonio where I met the sun again!  It was in the 80s, sunny and I caught a glimpse of the fast approaching SPRING!!  I’ve picked out this little poem for you I Meant To Do My Work Today by Richard Le Gallienne:

 

I meant to do my work today, But a brown bird sang in the apple tree,
And a butterfly flitted across the field, And all the leaves were calling me.

And the wind went sighing over the land, Tossing the grasses to and fro,
And a rainbow held out its shining hand-- So what could I do but laugh and go?

 

In this issue:

  • Thanks for coming to our 20th Birthday Party!

  • Project Management in the Middle

  • Teach Your Project Sponsor to Be a Sponsor

  • Review Our Prototypes: PM for Sponsor Kit, Stakeholders Kits, Project Dashboard

  • Capella offering $10K Project Management scholarships 

  • EFFECTIVE March 1, 2008 NEW OFFICE POLICY Dress Code

  • Six Key Emerging Technologies for Learning

  • Spring Into Webinars

  • Lou is Podcasting

  • Best Places to Work in Indiana

  • Search and Give

  • Seven Rules for Using Games to Teach

  • Contest - Stump our consultants!

  • Get Your Games Here

  • Leadership Lessons from Presidential Campaigns

  • Diet Mistakes: 5 Reasons You're Not Losing Weight

  • I’ll take the Diet drink and 10 more pounds

  • Irish Joke for the Season

  • Change in Play, Change in Kids

  • Where the RMA Team Will Be in March

 

Thanks for coming to our 20th Birthday Party!

 

It was great celebrating with you at Training 2008 in Atlanta at the Atlanta Zoo, in Lincoln, Nebraska at Southeast Nebraska Community College, and at ASTD TechKnowledge® 2008 in San Antonio.  Check out pictures on Lou’s Facebook (search for Lou Russell and request to be my friend www.facebook.com).

 

Project Management in the Middle

 

Many of you have asked me for a copy of this picture, so here it is!  Consider this as you think about project management improvement for your organization:

 

This picture indicates that someone either planted a telephone pole in the middle of a road OR someone paved the road around this telephone pole. If you keep thinking about it, it is unlikely that either project took a short period of time, and might have taken a day or more.  That means that whoever did this had plenty of time to notice that this isn’t the smartest move.  If you think more, you might guess that it took more than one person to do these projects.  That means a group of people agreed together to do this stupid thing.

 

So, how often does this happen in your organization?  Why?  Well, at RMA we believe that everyone on projects is sane from their perspective but together they can create insanity.  Often through metrics or poor communication, projects frequently can end up like this.   Most people doing projects never intended or wanted to be a professional project manager.  They just have a job that requires some project management.  Consider our 10 Steps for Successful Project Management 1-day course for your teams.   Contact Margie at mbrown@russellmartin.com.

 

Teach Your Project Sponsor to Be a Sponsor

 

Here are some tips for teaching your sponsor to support your project before it starts (adapted from an article by the brilliant Joan Knutson www.joanknutson.com).

Ask for clarification on the following (or prototype answers for review):

  • Why is this project needed? How does it support our corporate goals?

  • What will the end result look like?

  • How will life be better when the project is over?

  • How will we measure success?

  • What areas of the organization will be affected? Who needs to be involved?

  • What are the constraints– in time, in money, in quality?

 

Use simple diagrams (like in my 10 Steps to Successful Project Management book) and visual explanations to prototype for review:

  • Scope and Constraints

  • Communications plans

  • Change management plans

 

If you need help educating people in your company (or on your project) about what Project Sponsors (and Stakeholders!) actually do, contact Margie at mbrown@russellmartin.com.

 

Review Our Prototypes: PM for Sponsor Kit, Stakeholders Kits, Project Dashboard

 

Thanks to those who have signed up to help us review these. We are working on the prototypes at this time, and you will hear from us shortly.  One of our PMP consultants Janice Daly is managing this project.  To join, email me at lou@russellmartin.com.

 

Capella offering $10K Project Management scholarships 

 

Ten students at Capella University each received $10K scholarships for project management degrees.  Project management is a core competency for new workers not just ‘old’.  Check it out at http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS232249+29-Jan-2008+BW20080129 .

 

Effective March 1, 2008 NEW OFFICE POLICY Dress Code:

You are advised to come to work dressed according to your salary:

  • If we see you wearing Prada shoes and carrying a Gucci bag, we will assume you are doing well financially and therefore do not need a raise.

  • If you dress poorly, you need to learn to manage your money better so that you may buy nicer clothes, and therefore you do not need a raise.

  • If you dress just right, you are right where you need and you do not need a raise.

Sick Days:  We will no longer accept a doctor's statement as proof of sickness. If you are able to go to the doctor, you are able to come to work.

Lunch Break:

  • Skinny people get 30 minutes for lunch, as they need to eat more, so that they can look healthy.

  • Normal size people get 15 minutes for lunch to get a balanced meal to maintain their average figure.

  • Chubby people get 5 minutes for lunch, because that's all the time needed to drink a Slim-Fast.

 

Six Key Emerging Technologies for Learning

 

The 2008 Horizon Report from the New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative profiled Six Key Emerging Technologies.  In defining the six selected areas for 2008—grassroots video, collaboration webs, mobile broadband, data mashups, collective intelligence, and social operating systems—the project draws on an ongoing discussion among individuals in business and education.  Okay, I don’t know about you but I didn’t know what “data mashups” was, so check it out at http://www.educause.edu/PressReleases/1175&ID=1546 .

 

Spring Into Webinars

 

March 24, 2008  1:00 - 3:00 PM Teach Less to Learn More: Accelerated Learning

April 21, 2008  1:00 - 3:00 PM 10 Steps to Successful Project Management

May 19, 2008  1:00 - 3:00 PM Growing ROI by Growing Project Sponsors

June 20, 2008  1:00 - 3:00 PM Leadership Alchemy

July 29, 2008 1:00 - 3:00 PM My Team: Can't Live With 'Em, Can't Work Without 'Em

For more information, click in the title.  Click here to REGISTER NOW

 

Attend one of our ASTD Project Management for Trainers Certificate 2-day workshops:

4/24-25            Atlanta , GA                 5/30-31            San Diego, CA

7/21-22            Chicago, IL                  9/8-9                Alexandria, VA           

10/23-24          Atlanta, GA

Click here to register for these workshops  

 

Lou is Podcasting

 

I have been playing with podcasts, and have the first in a series of new podcasts at www.careercollegecentral.com or you can download them by clicking here.  Additional podcasts will appear at Career College Central about every two weeks.  Watch for more 10 Tips in 10 Minutes editions next month.   I also recorded a small promotional piece for the ASTD certificate workshop Project Management for Trainers which you can listen to at their website www.astd.org (see previous section for more info about these workshops).

 

Big thanks to Lindsay Blamire for continuing to help drag me into this decade with all her amazing technology ideas.  Do you have a topic you’d like me to record a podcast about?  Just let me know at lou@russellmartin.com. 

 

Best Places to Work in Indiana

 

Congratulations to our friends Duke Realty Corporation, Emmis Communications, Forum Credit Union, Fusion Alliance and Indiana Business College for being named a finalist for the 2008 list!  Good luck in May.

 

Search and Give

 

Check out the Yahoo support search site www.goodsearch.com. Once you identify your preferred non-profit (there are 1000s to choose from), they will receive $.01 for every search you do.  You can also add the Good Search to your toolbar.  Leah Colville lcolville@lplusearn.com recommends the ARPO-Alliance for Responsible Pet Ownership a no-kill animal rescue group where her beautiful dog Paolo came from.

 

Seven Rules for Using Games to Teach

 

Here are tips that will help you choose or design games that maximize learning:

  1. Make sure every game maps directly and clearly to a learning objective.

  2. Never play a game for a game’s sake, even in the OPEN or CLOSE.

  3. Pick games that work in the environment (physical or virtual space).

  4. Adapt common family games like Scrabble, Sequence and even Poker.

  5. Keep it safe – play in teams and watch out for competition that gets too mean.

  6. Balance the difficulty – test it to make sure it isn’t too easy or too hard.

  7. Camp it up with theme song music and props.

 

Contest - Stump our consultants!

 

Great job last month on the Love Puzzles!  Lots of Beatles and Texas Instrument groupies out there! This month, send us your learning objectives (e-learning or instructor led) and we’ll send you a game suggestion.  Everybody wins because you get free ideas and we get to do what we love to do – build learning through fun.  The samples will be available for everyone next month!

 

Get Your Games Here

 

Did you know RMA and L+EARN sell ready made games?  Here are some ideas:

  • Let us build Lecture Bingo cards for your next big meeting – participants listen for words to complete BINGO – if they do, they must explain the meaning of each of the words to win prizes (great review for all).  Great for very complex materials, guest ‘subject matter expert’ speakers and basic recharging.

  • Need a fresh and effective way to break into High School Recruitment?  Take a look at our High School Recruitment kit – teach classes of high school students the basics of project management while promoting your organization.

  • GameShow Pro and GameShow Prep: If you haven’t tried the newest release of Learningware’s famous GameShow Pro you need to get moving.  Let us design your game questions for a quick enhancement to compliance training!

 

Leadership Lessons from Presidential Campaigns

 

An excerpt from some great observations from my friend Kevin Eikenberry, author of the great new book Remarkable Leadership:

  • Create Opportunities for Communication 

Perhaps more than ever, political candidates excel at finding opportunities to communicate their messages. Use the lesson of the candidates: they never miss an opportunity to share their message with those they hope to lead.  

  • Hone Your Messages 

The political candidates work hard to hone their messages. Are your main organizational messages clear and unwavering?

  • Admit Mistakes 

Innovation will create some mistakes. As a leader in an organization you must be willing to admit your mistakes.

  • Build Networks 

Candidates know they can’t win a nomination alone. Build a strong network, and consider how you can tap it to support the efforts of those you lead.

http://www.kevineikenberry.com/uypw/ezine/08/issue5_07_print.asp 

 

Need to grow your leadership?  Join many Fortune 500 companies who have trusted us with their leadership.  To find out more, contact Margie at mbrown@russellmartin.com.

 

Diet Mistakes: 5 Reasons You're Not Losing Weight

 

Taken from WebMD by Kathleen M. Zelman, LD, MPH, RD, these common dieting pitfalls can sabotage weight loss:

  • An extra tablespoon of salad dressing can add 75-100 calories, an extra tablespoon of butter adds 102 calories, and that 1-ounce bag of chips with your sandwich at lunch adds 162 calories. 

  • Eating while cooking, starting each day with a high-calorie coffee drink (dang!), finishing off the kids'  plates at dinner, or having one too many glasses of wine -- these are just a few of the sneaky habits that sabotage weight loss efforts.

  • Research shows that breakfast skippers weigh more than breakfast eaters.  Strive for three meals a day.

  • It’s not always best to eat the salad. The Burger King Tendergrill sandwich with honey mustard dressing has 450 calories while their Whopper Jr., with mustard instead of mayo, has only 290 calories. At McDonald’s, the Caesar salad with crispy chicken and creamy dressing totals 490 calories, while a Quarter Pounder weighs in at 410 calories.

  • Consider the calories in small portions of some of our favorite snacks, and see how quickly they can add up when portions are multiplied, for example, 1 Twinkie: 150 calories, 12 peanut M&Ms: 125 calories, 1 ounce of French fries: 88 calories, 1.5 donut holes: 100 calories, 3 Hershey kisses: 75 calories, 3 Oreo cookies:160 calories, 15 tortilla chips: 142 calories, 20 potato chips: 162 calories

 

I’ll take the Diet drink and 10 more pounds

 

Rats in a Purdue University (BOILER UP!) study that were fed regular feed and yogurt sweetened with no-calorie saccharin took in more total calories and gained more weight than rats fed regular feed and yogurt sweetened with sugar.  Researchers speculate that over time, reduced-calorie sweeteners like saccharin, aspartame, and sucralose condition the body to no longer associate sweetness with calories, thereby disrupting its ability to accurately assess caloric intake.

 

Irish Joke for the Season

 

Especially for Dan Brandon…Five frogs are sitting on a log. Four decide to jump off. How many are left? Answer: five.

Why? Because there's a difference between deciding & doing.

 

Change in Play, Change in Kids

 

Here's the issue: A growing number of psychologists believe that changes in what children do has also changed kids' development. All that time spent playing make-believe actually helped children develop a critical cognitive skill called executive function.  A central element is the ability to self-regulate. Kids with good self-regulation are able to control their emotions and behavior, resist impulses, and exert self-control and discipline.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19212514&sc=nl&cc=es-20080224   Also, get the Legos back out…

 

Where the RMA Team Will Be in March:

 

Lou Russell 

  • March 6-7, 2008        Woodcliff Lake, NJ

  • March 14, 2008         Indianapolis, IN  Catholic Business Exchange

  • March 17, 2008         Chicago, IL

  • March 18, 2008         Virginia Beach, VA

  • March 20, 2008         Dayton, OH

  • March 26, 2008         Indianapolis, IN   Governor’s Conference on Volunteerism

Margie Brown

  • March 25 - 26, 2008  Indianapolis, IN   Governor’s Conference on Volunteerism

Leah Colville:

  • March 10 – 12, 2008 Washington D.C.   CCA Hill Day and Forum

  • March 25 - 26, 2008  Indianapolis, IN   Governor’s Conference on Volunteerism

Mary Cook

  • March 6, 2008           Indianapolis, IN

Susan Mosey

  • March 11-13, 2008    Washington, DC

  • March 26-27, 2008    Washington, DC

Dave Popple

  • March 25, 2008         Rockleigh, NJ

Susan Vaughn

  • March 18-19, 2008    Franklin Lakes, NJ

 

Lou Russell 

President/CEO

www.russellmartin.com