Newsletter
January 2007
Spotlight: Leveraging Your Learning Power
Learners, their executive sponsors, and Faculty coaches can create magic by working together on executive development. We spoke to one educational dream team about best practices in facilitating learning - and harnessing new knowledge to help overcome an organization's most pressing challenges ...more
This Issue:
- Alumni Service Centre: Fill 'er up at our new website, designed to provide perks for IRC's alum ...more
- Alumni Voice: Patricia Grant tells how Change Management ignited a whole new vision for UWO's law school ...more
- We Save You Money: Benefit from reduced tuition with early registration in spring programs ...more
- Leadership Capacity: Book now to get jazzed about developing your organization's leaders ...more
- Survey Invitation: The impact of a leader’s emotional “style” ...more
- Org Design Gabfest: Here's what's on the conference agenda for leading OD thinkers ...more
- Free Download: Check out strategic negotiation secrets from CBC's George Smith in new Don Wood Lecture paper ...more
- Spotlight: Ensuring that the power of learning gets applied to organizational challenges ...more
Upcoming Programs:
- Feb. 26-Mar. 1, 2007, Kingston - Leadership Capacity
- Mar. 5-Mar. 8, 2007, Kingston - OD Foundations
- Apr. 15-Apr. 20, 2007, Kingston - Negotiation Skills
- Apr. 23-Apr. 26, 2007, Kingston - Change Management
- Apr.29-May 4, 2007, Kingston - Industrial Relations
- May 1-May 3, 2007, Kingston - Business Strategy
- May 7-May 11, 2007, Kingston - Dispute Resolution
- May 28-June 1, 2007, Kingston - Labour Arbitration
Fill 'Er Up At Our New Alumni Service Centre
If you are a Queen’s IRC alumnus – and that means anyone who has taken at least one program – you will receive an email invitation shortly to visit a new website designed specifically for you. In Alumni Services, you can update your record, pick up templates and tools specific to the program you attended, connect with other alumni and find out how they are applying their learnings, and post job openings for people management practitioners. We even have a section reserved for your executive sponsor to help him or her help you get the most out of your professional development. Check it out and let us know what you think by sending a note to alan.morantz@queensu.ca.
Alumni Voice: How Change Ignited a Whole New Vision for UWO's law school
Patricia Grant is Executive Director, Administration, at Western Law within the University of Western Ontario in London, ON. She has completed an IRC Organization Development Certificate, and is currently working toward a Master Certificate in Organizational Effectiveness.
“I work at a university, and it is deep with culture and traditions. Making changes to this type of culture can be difficult. The Deans of Faculty rotate in and out every five years. Commonly the Dean oversees every aspect of administration and student services, which provides him/her limited time for outreach to our alumni and research fundraising and partnership opportunities.
“Before I took the Change Management program, I’d been thinking about how to realign the administrative team and move forward, and also meet the new challenges which would provide the best student experience. But with the university being so solid in its tradition and culture, it was hard to even imagine change.
“Ultimately, we did decide to create a new business strategy on how we performed our day-to-day work and service. We spent a year planning, and two years implementing, and we are working on the last element between now and June.
“I couldn’t have done it without Change Management and the Faculty of the Industrial Relations Centre. That’s what ignited the spark that got me thinking: it could be done; we could change, and create a strategy focused on serving students.
“We had to make a tremendous change. The way we thought about our roles changed radically, and we introduced a lot of cross-training amongst the team, shared resources, and rethinking each and every administrative role. We moved to become more efficient and effective in our processes and delivery of our service.
“The structure shifted too. The administration of the Law Faculty is supported by the Executive Director, who oversees the day to day administration: Human Resources, IT and classroom technology, facilities, the basic operational needs of the faculty. We have an Associate Dean (Administration) who supports the faculty, and an Associate Dean (Academic) who supports the students. The Dean has the time to focus and develop external relations; alumni and fundraising. Now when the Dean rotates, the external relations are affected, but the administration continues do what they do best.
“When developing our strategy we used the 'mindmap,' which was introduced as a tool in Change Management. Every person in our change scenario was involved, the main idea to improve and enhance customer support was in the middle, and then we brainstormed all ideas onto a large paper on the wall with markers. It is great as you heard from everyone from all parts of the team. It really broke down boundaries, and you even heard from people who are usually quiet. Then common streams and themes emerge. This wonderful tool helped us map the basis for our strategy. I still pull it out and look at it today to witness our incredible progress.
“Change Management adds value for anyone in HR - not just for those undertaking change. It gives valuable insight into the fact that it is possible to move your organization forward.”
We Want to Help Your Organization Save Money - Really
Our spring programs will soon be underway and we want to ensure you receive the benefit of reduced tuition with early registration. Two tuition discount deadlines are coming up, and they happen to be for our two most popular programs.
Negotiation Skills: Developing Negotiating Styles and Tactics to Master the Dynamics of Collective Bargaining
Program Runs: April 15 to 20
Register by Feb. 15 to save $300 on tuition
Go to: http://www.industrialrelationscentre.com/negotiation-skills/training.htm
Change Management: Driving and Building Support for Successful Change Projects Using a Time-Tested Framework
Program Runs: April 23 to 26
Register by Feb. 23 to save $300 on tuition
Go to: http://www.industrialrelationscentre.com/change-management/training.htm
Make your training budget go further, and avoid being placed on a waiting list, by registering soon for these popular programs.
Leadership Capacity: Get Jazzed About Developing Your Leaders
Registration is picking up for the engaging Leadership Capacity program, which features a blend of jazz metaphors and models, case studies, and small learning groups. Three intense days of learning will help you diagnose how well your organization builds its pool of leaders. It will also give you the tools to nurture leadership talent at individual, departmental, and organizational levels. Leadership Capacity runs February 26 to March 1 in Kingston.
Go to: http://www.industrialrelationscentre.com/organizational-leadership
Survey Invitation: The Impact of a Leader's Emotional "Style"
How does a leader’s emotional “style” impact his or her employees? One of our Master of Industrial Relations grad students is trying to answer that question in an enterprising research project. Specifically, Jared Friesen is investigating the “relationships between supervisors and their employees and the role leader emotion plays in determining such work outcomes as employee satisfaction, commitment, and behaviours.” If you are interested in participating in this online survey (it takes about 35 minutes to complete), go to: http://mirresearchstudy.blogspot.com
Org Design Gabfest
Our friends in the Organizational Design Forum are holding their annual conference this coming April. The conference's theme is "Enabling Extraordinary Results in Dynamic Environments" and includes interesting sessions such as how to measure the impact of a re-org.
The event takes place April 18 to 20 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Forum regularly attracts thought leaders in the area of org design, so if this is your cup of tea, check out the agenda at www.organizationdesignforum.org
Free Download: Strategic Negotiation Secrets
Click here to download the just-released Don Wood Lecture paper, in which CBC's HR/IR leader George Smith shares his rich insights on strategic negotiations.
Spotlight: Leveraging Your Learning Power
We spoke to an educational dream-team about best practices in facilitating learning - and harnessing new knowledge to help overcome an organization's most pressing challenges. Sharing their views are Allyson Thomson of the Ontario Ministry of Finance; her executive sponsor Assistant Deputy Minister Marion Crane; and Queen’s IRC Faculty member Brenda Barker.
Allyson Thompson, Senior Divisional Project Manager, Transition Project Office, Ontario Ministry of Finance in Oshawa.
(Queen’s IRC Certificate in Organization Development; candidate for Queen’s IRC Master Certificate in Organizational Effectiveness.)
“I’ve never run into barriers to applying new knowledge when I return to work. One reason is the Ministry involves staff in developing their learning plans with managers - so when I meet with my manager we identify learning opportunities that are of benefit to me and to the organization as part of that process.
"Another is that I am so well-supported. I’m in a temporary role as Senior Divisional Project Manager of the Transition Project Office, working with a team of project managers and analysts to coordinate a major restructuring initiative within the Tax Revenue Division. Recently, my Assistant Deputy Minister, several key directors from the division, me, and [IRC Faculty] Brenda Barker all met to talk about what kind of learning was of most use to me, to the division, and to the organization. This demonstrates the value the leaders of this division place on learning.
To read the full Spotlight article, go to: http://www.industrialrelationscentre.com/talent-management/articles/leveraging-your-learning-power.htm
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