January 2007

Spotlight: Leveraging Your Learning Power

Learners, theirexecutive sponsors, and Faculty coaches can create magic by workingtogether on executive development. We spoke to one educational dreamteam about best practices in facilitating learning - and harnessing newknowledge 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 IRCalumnus – and that means anyone who has taken at least one program –you will receive an email invitation shortly to visit a new websitedesigned specifically for you. In Alumni Services, you can update yourrecord, pick up templates and tools specific to the program youattended, connect with other alumni and find out how they are applyingtheir learnings, and post job openings for people managementpractitioners. We even have a section reserved for your executivesponsor 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 isExecutive Director, Administration, at Western Law within theUniversity of Western Ontario in London, ON. She has completed an IRCOrganization Development Certificate, and is currently working toward aMaster Certificate in Organizational Effectiveness.

“I work at a university,and it is deep with culture and traditions. Making changes to this typeof culture can be difficult. The Deans of Faculty rotate in and outevery five years. Commonly the Dean oversees every aspect ofadministration and student services, which provides him/her limitedtime for outreach to our alumni and research fundraising andpartnership opportunities.

“Before I took the Change Managementprogram, I’d been thinking about how to realign the administrative teamand move forward, and also meet the new challenges which would providethe best student experience. But with the university being so solid inits tradition and culture, it was hard to even imagine change.

“Ultimately, we did decideto create a new business strategy on how we performed our day-to-daywork 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 Managementand the Faculty of the Industrial Relations Centre. That’s what ignitedthe spark that got me thinking: it could be done; we could change, andcreate a strategy focused on serving students.

“We had to make atremendous change. The way we thought about our roles changedradically, and we introduced a lot of cross-training amongst the team,shared resources, and rethinking each and every administrative role. Wemoved to become more efficient and effective in our processes anddelivery of our service.

“The structure shiftedtoo. The administration of the Law Faculty is supported by theExecutive Director, who oversees the day to day administration: HumanResources, IT and classroom technology, facilities, the basicoperational 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 focusand develop external relations; alumni and fundraising. Now when theDean rotates, the external relations are affected, but theadministration 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 toimprove and enhance customer support was in the middle, and then webrainstormed all ideas onto a large paper on the wall with markers. Itis great as you heard from everyone from all parts of the team. Itreally broke down boundaries, and you even heard from people who areusually quiet. Then common streams and themes emerge. This wonderfultool helped us map the basis for our strategy. I still pull it out andlook at it today to witness our incredible progress.

“Change Managementadds value for anyone in HR - not just for those undertaking change. Itgives valuable insight into the fact that it is possible to move yourorganization forward.”

Our spring programs willsoon be underway and we want to ensure you receive the benefit ofreduced tuition with early registration. Two tuition discount deadlinesare 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 Capacityprogram, which features a blend of jazz metaphors and models, casestudies, and small learning groups. Three intense days of learning willhelp you diagnose how well your organization builds its pool ofleaders. It will also give you the tools to nurture leadership talentat 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’semotional “style” impact his or her employees? One of our Master ofIndustrial Relations grad students is trying to answer that question inan enterprising research project. Specifically, Jared Friesen isinvestigating the “relationships between supervisors and theiremployees and the role leader emotion plays in determining such workoutcomes as employee satisfaction, commitment, and behaviours.” If youare interested in participating in this online survey (it takes about35 minutes to complete), go to: http://mirresearchstudy.blogspot.com

Org Design Gabfest

Our friends in theOrganizational Design Forum are holding their annual conference thiscoming April. The conference's theme is "Enabling Extraordinary Resultsin Dynamic Environments" and includes interesting sessions such as howto measure the impact of a re-org.

The event takes placeApril 18 to 20 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Forum regularly attractsthought leaders in the area of org design, so if this is your cup oftea, check out the agenda at www.organizationdesignforum.org

Free Download: Strategic Negotiation Secrets

Click hereto download the just-released Don Wood Lecture paper, in which CBC'sHR/IR leader George Smith shares his rich insights on strategicnegotiations.

Spotlight: Leveraging Your Learning Power

We spoke to aneducational dream-team about best practices in facilitating learning -and harnessing new knowledge to help overcome an organization's mostpressing challenges. Sharing their views are Allyson Thomson of theOntario Ministry of Finance; her executive sponsor Assistant DeputyMinister 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 forQueen’s IRC Master Certificate in Organizational Effectiveness.)

“I’ve never run intobarriers to applying new knowledge when I return to work. One reason isthe Ministry involves staff in developing their learning plans withmanagers - so when I meet with my manager we identify learningopportunities that are of benefit to me and to the organization as partof that process.

"Another is that I am sowell-supported. I’m in a temporary role as Senior Divisional ProjectManager of the Transition Project Office, working with a team ofproject managers and analysts to coordinate a major restructuringinitiative within the Tax Revenue Division. Recently, my AssistantDeputy Minister, several key directors from the division, me, and [IRCFaculty] Brenda Barker all met to talk about what kind of learning wasof most use to me, to the division, and to the organization. Thisdemonstrates 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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