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THE LEARNING FLASH
Like last month, this newsletter is broken into the following segments of brief articles:
This Month's Schedule Leadership Alchemy Webinar, Rescheduled to July 10th from 1–3 PM ET, Get more info and register ASTD PM for Trainers Certification, Chicago, IL July 21-22nd, Register with ASTD. Leadership Academy Workshop, Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, August 26–28, Get more info and register. Transforming Subject Matter Experts into Powerful Faculty Workshop, Indianapolis, August 21st, Get more info. Faculty Development: Launching Student Success Webinar Series, 1st Session, August 22nd 3:30 – 5:00 PM ET. Get more info. Grow Starts: Jumpstart Admissions Success Webinar Series, 1st Session, August 22nd 12:00 – 1:30 PM ET. Get more info. PLAY GAMES! If you are interested in spending two hours in Indianapolis trying out a management simulation, please contact Margie Brown at ASAP. Project Management Magic
I had a great time participating, meeting your attendees and speaking at your conference. Thanks to the special attendees who wanted to learn more about dealing with their Unruly Teams! If you’d like a speaker for your next PMI outing, please contact Margie Brown. ASTD PM for Trainers: Student Quotes-To-Remember Here are the quotes from our workshop at the ASTD ICE conference in beautiful San Diego:
New quote: "Life, like a pile of leaves, is less fluffy then it appears." Thanks, Jay! Attend one of our ASTD Project Management for Trainers Certificate 2-day workshops: July 21-22nd - Chicago Register now for these workshops. Project Management for Sponsors: Manage Their Expectations We are proud to offer a 1 day workshop (live or online) for your project sponsors and stakeholders too. The session will help you manage their expectations before the project begins! Contact Margie Brown for more information. Stay tuned for info about our Project Management for Sponsors Kit. These kits are in final development and will be available by the end of the summer. If you’d like to order one now, please contact Kelly Russell. Are You Asking the Right Questions? Projects and Strategy In the book Rules to Break & Laws to Follow: How Your Business Can Beat the Crisis of Short-Termism, authors Don Peppers and Martha Rogers share that three assumptions have driven businesses' efforts to grow and meet financial goals:
They claim that these three assumptions are false. If they are right, are we asking the right questions when we start our projects? The authors share that your business creates or destroys value with every decision it makes, every action it takes, every customer contact or interaction it has. For instance, when a customer's complaint is not handled well, your actual value as a company declines just a bit, because the expected future cash flow from that customer declines. Customers around the world are talking, blogging, texting, e-mailing, posting and networking more than ever before. Your customers now find it much easier to share their opinions about your firm. Sociologists have proven that a group of people organized toward a common goal (like a company's employees) are capable of making decisions better than any single group member could have made—better even than the sum of all the members' individual efforts. Employees electronically networked together can leverage this decision-making advantage and can come up with smarter decisions than all the executives. But it's tricky, because while networked employees may be capable of making better decisions, it's still the managers at the top of the hierarchy who have all the authority. This is where I see project management coming in. By creating fluid strategy, aligning projects to this strategy, and tracking this project portfolio, companies can learn to adapt to the changing needs of the marketplace faster than their competitors. Without great project management, companies will chase after ‘shiny objects’ and stumble. Need help creating and tracking projects aligned to your business strategy without spending loads of time and money?Contact Margie Brown for more information on these workshops. Leadership In the Middle
A sales rep, an administration clerk, and the manager are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp. They rub it and a Genie comes out. The Genie says, 'I'll give each of you just one wish.' 'Me first! Me first!' says the admin clerk. 'I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat, without a care in the world.' Puff! She's gone. 'Me next! Me next!' says the sales rep. 'I want to be in Hawaii, relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of Pina Coladas and the love of my life.' Puff! He's gone. 'OK, you're up,' the Genie says to the manager. The manager says, 'I want those two back in the office after lunch.' Leaders: Trustworthiness Through Words “CEOs are less trusted today than at any time since they first started measuring this in the 1960s,” said Frank Luntz, of Luntz, Maslansky Strategic Research. The low trust rate stems from corporate leaders’ inability to connect using clear, concise and compassionate language. No surprise - for CEOs to be trusted, he said, they must: back up what they claim, follow through on what they promise, and honor their commitments. Why does it matter? Customer and employee retention are paramount to many companies’ survival and more difficult. Luntz has come up with these words that tend to build trust.
Luntz is the author of Words That Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear. Want insight into how you are perceived? Contact Margie Brown. Through assessments, coaching and discussion, the Leadership Academy in August can provide you with a clear picture of your perceived trustworthiness. (see below) The Leadership Academy: All Leadership Training is Not the Same There are many good options for growing leaders, but RMA’s Leadership Academy is different because our attendees say it is. Listen to what they say they have learned to do from our sessions:
Join our facilitators in August at the Indianapolis Children’s Museum. Sign up now. Contact Margie Brown for more info. Improving Higher Education
Thanks for attending our sessions (Learning with Games, What Employers Want Students to Know) and playing PLINKO in our booth last week. Thank You to all the vendors who donated supplies for the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth, including the very generous donation of two bookcases and two tables. Congratulations to Rich Horwitz at Eagle Gate College who will receive a free Project Management High School Presentation Kit worth $ 895. Until the end of July, if you enter CCA in the discount code at our website, you can purchase this kit for $695 and receive free shipping. In different presentations, employers shared what competencies were of most value to hiring employers. For example, Darryl Hood from Schlumberger looks for people who can communicate, network, work in a team, be professional and multitask. Health South looks for medical staff that are customer centric, exhibit teamwork, adapt to diversity, and focus on patient satisfaction. Dr. Joe Pace from Pacific Institute shared a pie chart showing Dependability 35%, Honesty 27%, Good attitude, 19%, Competence 19%. It’s clear that to build marketable graduates it is not enough to teach technical and basic education skills. Students need to learn to learn. This changes what and how faculty teach. Faculty must play the role of learning facilitator AND leader / coach. By now you are back at the school, and some of your hopes of implementing new teaching techniques have been difficult because of workload and other start pressures. I’d like to continue to help you by inviting you to join me for two new opportunities in August:
Would you like to improve your faculty’s ability to grow students that employers want? Contact Leah Colville to learn more about our faculty, course, curriculum and course development services. What if it’s the COURSE not the STUDENT? All career colleges track retention, but many miss the key data driving retention problems. Which of your courses have the highest drop-out rate? By increasing the effectiveness of a course, you can significantly increase student success and retention. Contact Leah Colville to learn more about our Learning Audit service. Lou’s Articles in LINK and Career Central If you’ve missed these articles, please drop Leah Colville an email and we would be happy to send you an electronic version:
Admissions: Women as Customers What do you know about your customers? Consider these stats:
Are your admissions reps recruiting enough women? Contact Leah Colville to learn more about our admissions training solutions. Five Questions to Ask During an Admissions Contact
For more information about live or web-based workshops on creating and asking great admissions questions, contact Leah Colville. High School Presentation Did you know we have a new High School Recruitment Presentation packaged for your high school reps to teach potential students project management. It’s not too late to get their attention for a summer or fall start. For a free 30-day trial, contact Leah Colville. Training Truths
From Lou’s book The Accelerated Learning Fieldbook:
To order Lou’s books, check out the Book's section on her web site. If you enter the discount code FLASH, you will receive free shipping and a signed book. Make Learning Sticky Chip and Dan Heath, in their book, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die offer six principles for capturing attention and moving learners to behavioral action:
Used with permission from Lenn Millbower, BM, MA, The Learnertainment® Trainer and Offbeat Training®. Technology
CEOs will increasingly demand that IT leaders excel in leadership, strategic thinking, marketing IT, business and communication. Read the Article.
CEO Survey: Confidence Down, Stress UpThe Q2 2008 Vistage CEO Confidence Index sank to an all-time low this quarter, continuing a downward trend that began more than a year ago. The Index dropped to 69.6, down 2.4 points from Q1 2008. More than 40 percent of the CEOs surveyed believe the U.S. economy will continue to worsen during the next 12 months, and chief executives of small- and mid-sized businesses say because of the economy they are experiencing higher stress levels and slowing down hiring and investment plans. Do you have a skeleton crew stressed to the max? Contact Margie Brown to talk about some half-day options for in-service team building and alignment sessions. Half of Your IT Staff Just Quit If half the men in science, engineering, and technology roles quit mid-career, the trend would be considered a national crisis, yet more than half of the women in science and engineering leave the field mid-career. Sylvia Ann Hewlett, founding president of the Center for Work-Life Policy, recently discussed the research that went into the Athena Factor, a research project examining the career trajectories of women in technology. The research found that there are more women in lower areas of science and technology than most people realize, and Hewlett says that women are excelling in science, engineering, and technology despite the fact that schools are not very good at encouraging them. She says that between the ages of 25 and 30, 41 percent of professionals with credentials in science and technology are female. However, later in their careers, 52 percent of the women drop out, with the rates among women jumping between the ages of 35 and 40. Are you an IT woman frustrated with your job, consider attending RMA’s Leadership Academy in August. Create a strategy to improve your career. Contact Margie Brown to enroll. Web Wonders
Many of you have been victims of my happy/sad leader dollar bill origami trick. Here are a few more for you to practice. If you take a picture and send it to me, you’ll get fabulous merchandise AND you’ll be on my Facebook for bragging rights. GIANT Apologies: I Screwed Up Many of your responded to our cell phone ‘non’ facts last month. So sorry – I normally check these out but thought it had been done. Here’s a sample wonderful response: “This month’s article, “Cell Phone Tricks,” specifically caught my eye. I remembered looking up the content on Snopes for corroboration and the items are untrue or marginally useful. Everything else you write continues to fascinate me. It’s a bright spot in my workday! Rich Goldberg, Unisys Corp.” Thanks to Rich and all! The Contest
No one sent in any recipes for summer cook-outs, so let’s see if anyone is reading! Send us your fave summer book, and we’ll feature them next month. Of course, you will win lovely summer fabulous merchandise for playing our game. Send book suggestions to info@russellmartin.com. Clutter For A Cause Frustrated by clutter and don’t want to add to your area landfill. Try donating your clutter. Here are some ideas from www.trainingsys.com:
Come See Us Recent Articles Free Webinars
Lou’s Blogs Where the RMA Staff Will Be in July Lou Russell:
Margie Brown:
Deirdre Gengenbach:
Nadine Martin:
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Happy 4th of July! Summer means fun, and if you’re like me, you’re looking out at a nice sunny day that seems much more fun than writing a newsletter (not that I don’t love talking to you, but…) If you think you have the most summer fun, send a picture to 
Thanks to PDS 08 for a wonderful conference at Tysons Corner!
Let Your Boss Have the First Say
CCA 08 in Vegas: Welcome New Friends 
Five Things Not To Do in Front of an Audience
Five Ways CIOs Can Impress Their CEOs: Today and in the Future
Money Origami
July’s CONTEST Summer Beach Reads