Chair Academy (Australia 10-11) - Week 2, Days 1, 2. 3 and 4

DAY 1 - SUNDAY, 8 MAY 2011
Wow - a whole year since I have seen most of these people and I managed to remember everyone's names (except you Sara - so sorry but it also means I will never forget again!)

I was first to arrive and was so pleased to see Pam again! She introduced me to Maria, the new facilitator, who is wonderful as well. I got to work, meeting and greeting, making sure everyone had name tags on and knew to help themselves to tea and coffee.

Starting the session we did a bit of a flashback to where our journeys had taken us since our first week in Creswick last year. As a re-introduction, and an introduction for those who didn't begin with us last year, we went around the room stating who we were, what we do (and if it was the same as last year), one thing not on our resume and what our biggest accomplishment or achievement had been in the preceeding 12 months.

As predicted, at least five people had changed jobs significantly, I would guess it would be at least double that. It was good to acknowledge what we had individually accomplished and interesting to learn that just about every TAFE is undergoing a 'restructure' of some sort. Tells you a lot about the environment we're now all working in.
There are also around a dozen people who did not return for the second week while we have a couple more who have joined us after missing their second week last year.

DAY 2 - MONDAY, 9 MAY 2011
Started bright and early and looked at the StrengthsFinder tests and results. We looked in depth at our own strengths (mine are in order: connectedness, developer, empathy, relator and intellection) and how these strengths are all positive in their own unique way. We looked at how people may describe these strengths using both 'balcony' (positive) and 'basement' (negative) language.
From this exploration I realised that I need to 'reclaim' the role of birthday morning teas and "fun days" as this is really part of my strengths and something I derive a great deal of satisfaction from. I'm also going to look to give people positive feedback based on their strengths with the belief that this will have more meaning and depth for them. I will also look to see if existing work tasks can be reframed based on the outcomes of the strengths tests my team is taking this week.
In the afternoon we began looking at the Dimensions of Leadership. We completed a survey tool which helps us assess what is getting our attention, or at least where we are focussing our efforts right now. Just being able to analyse a situation and know whether it required skills in character, analysis, accomplishment or interaction can help shape the way you approach a particular situation.


DAY 3 - TUESDAY, 10 MAY 2011
Continued looking at the dimensions of leadership and disected a survey we had to complete for homework last night. I was surprised to see that I only scored 1 from 7 characteristics in the optimal score range. I had two characteristics which were very low... Something to work on!When we moved on to leading through change we watched the animation, "Who Moved My Cheese". It was funny to identify people we have worked with who fit those stereotypical roles. Watching something like that makes it easy to see what SHOULD be done yet when we are in our workplaces we quite often don't sit back enough to really work out what we should be doing in regards to change.
We were then introduced to an eight (8) step process to most effectively introduce and lead others through change. We were broken into groups to further explore what was involved and develop an interesting or memorable way to summarise the main points. The group I was in looked at celebrating short term wins to maintain energy and commitment. Our memorable take away was an acronym highlighting the keys things to do when celebrating short term wins:
What has happened?
Individuals who need to be acknowledged
Note progress against the vision
Sell continued commitment to the end vision
After this process we were re-divided into new groups and given a predicted challenge in the vocational education sector to apply the process to.
The group I was in struggled to work out what level of detail to include in our topic; From 200 RTO's to 680 - surviving the competitive environment.
Once we refined our viewpoint we got through the stages fairly quickly. I took the role of allocating Strength characteristics to each stage of the process. this was really useful in learning how to apply what you learn through the StrengthsFinder survey to a work situation. It may mean that the same people are not involved from start to finish but may be brought in and out as the journey progresses.
I announced this morning that I had my wig collection available for anyone who'd like to borrow one for Thursday night's party... when I said I had 35 a round of applause and laughter broke out! But it's sure been a great talking point since... :)

DAY 4 - WEDNESDAY, 11 MAY 2011
Half a day today. We spent the first part of the morning analysing and discussing our leadership survey results. I was pleased to see that many of my own scores had increased since the first round and were in many cases closer to those of my supervisor and/or peers. There were a couple of areas which had decreased since the first survey period last year. this may be because the focus of my role has changed somewhat or maybe because my focus has shifted. I will discuss this further with Victoria to see where she came from when rating my leadership skills.
We also looked at the difference between leading and managing and I was surprised to see that much of what I do in my day to day role is managing according to the Marcus Buckingham definition. I suspect that the amount of leading and managing varies depending on the type of work conducted by the team involved.
We were asked at one stage to tell our tables what two things our mothers would say about us... Hard to think of! I said that she's very proud of me and that my partner is her favourite daughter in law! Well that's what she's been saying a lot of lately! I actually just spoke to Mum on Skype so I asked her what she would say:
1. She's a very kind, loving and caring daughter
2. She's very passionate about everything she does
Not a bad summation at all - thanks mum! :)

End of the road

Sitting at San Francisco airport awaiting my final domestic flight to LAX where I'll connect to my flight home!

What a wonderful three weeks. I have had my beliefs challenged, my view of the world broadened, learned a little more about me and will be coming home wiser than when I left... What more could I ask for?

LA wasn't a very exciting part of my journey, felt like I was wandering a little aimlessly while I was there. The celebrity culture of Hollywood really didn't do anything for me at all. The baseball was actually my highlight, immersing myself into one of America's favorite pasttimes.

San Francisco however was fantastic and a place I wold return to again. My immediate reaction was that it was very similar to Melbourne, perhaps why it endeared itself to me so quickly. The architecture is superb, the decorative detail of the buildings sublime. The art and culture is prominent throughout the city be it street art or cultural museums. I attended the SF Muesum of Modern Art last night and enjoyed the photography exhibit which explored the voyeuristic nature of photography.

I packed a lot into the 2.5days I was there and yet there is still so much more left to see... One day I hope to return to San Fran!

The unexpected journey

Window Rock was a lovely place, I learnt a lot about the Navajo tribe and their cultural beliefs, many of which sit in alignment to my own. I fell in love with a painting called "White Shell Woman" by Shonto Begay. I wish I'd been allowed to photograph it cause it was beautiful!

I had picked Seligman on old Route 66 as my pitstop for the night. It seemed like a relativelybig dot n he map so surely it would be OK. I booked a room online and set off.

The drive was easy this time round, how quickly it becomes second nature to drive on the right hand side.

I made Seligman by about 5.30pm. I was told the were just two places to eat at night, one on the right side of the road and one on the left. As I was walking on the right hand side I stopped at The Roadkill Cafe (yes, ironic for a vegetarian) and funnily enough they didn't have any vego meals. I went across the road to Lilo's in the hope of finding something.

What I found was completely unexpected.

It happened to be one of the best nights of my trip! I sat at the countler and chose one of three vego options. The waiter, Jerry, was hilarious and a very big personality. The old man at the counter next to me, Dave, was lovely and even gave me a ride home at the end of the night.

Its often the unplanned, unexpected trips that can bring you so much joy!

Country roads... Take me home...

Found myself on the wrong side of the road today... Well wrong compared to what I am used to. Luckily I stayed on the right hand side all the way from Phoenix to Window Rock (near the border of Arizona and New Mexico).

Everything started fine, the GPS was a god send t help me get out of Phoenix and used to the new side of the road. However it died an hour out of town and I had to resort to instructions written on the back of an EFTPOS docket from a servo! When this didn't suffice I lashed out for one of those old fashed paper devices called a map - and it got me here!

The changing landscapes were fantastic today, from rocky mountains dotted wih massive cacus plants,to pine forests and snow, to flat desert plains - I feel like I saw it all. The temperature varied significantly too. Started at 83 (30ish) today and ended at 50 (10) here in Window Rock.

Will be back on the road tomorrow afternoon heading west towards Vegas. I'll stop somewhere along the way for the night and be in town by 11am Thursday (5am Friday home time)

On the road again... Just can't wat to get back on the road again...

South Texas College

Was lucky enough to sit in on on a "Great Teachers Retreat" today at South Texas College with my Chaur Academy supervisor, Pam Bergeron. I was amazed at how similar our issues are in Higher Ed despite the fact that we're continents apart. The budget cuts, students attendences, plaigerism (especially online), high school preparations or lack therof, the transition to online courses, the pedagogical issues related to that... I felt like I was sitting in a meeting in my own department only with Texan accents! Education is truly a global issue...

Airport troubles...

So it seems the best laid plans can go awry without warning...

Have arrived at the airport ready to fly down to meet Pam at McAllen only to discover the plane has been cancelled (as it was yesterday) and I now can't get out til 8.55pm (it was originally a 3.55pm flight). So I am stuck on 20 minute internet access to entertain me for five hours...

Last night I also discovered that my flight from Dallas to Phoenix on Sunday, which I had tried to line up as a connecting flight from McAllen, actually leaves at 10pm, not 10am as I had thought... no idea how I made that mistake!! One thing's for sure, I won't be spending 14 hours hanging out at the airport...

Obviously Dallas isn't finished with me for whatever reason... Only the universe knows!

Keynote Speakers 3 and 4

Keynote speaker 3 was Sharon Blackwell who spoke to the characteristics of a strategic leader. These included:
Objectivity - don't bring preconceived ideas and beliefs into the workplace
Communication Skills - honestly, truthfully, encouraging, acknowledge good work
Teaching, menotring and coaching - develop the skills of others and have a succession plan
Calculated risk taking - taking the time to studdy, explore pros and cons, make a decision and then deal with any and all consequences when you do take the risk
Energy - take care of your self (exercise, eat well and sleep well) to keep your energy levels at a sufficient level to operate optimally.

She also kept to the theme of the day by reminding us not to lose sight of the human element... our people.

This morning's fourth, and final, keynote speaker, Carl Hayne, spoke about leadership in the mirror and how we need to make time and space to reflect on our leadership journey. However, when we look deeply, and critically at ourselves, we also need to be able to forgive our shortcomings and weaknesses.

Mavs Win!!!

Just returned from my first American basketball game - what an experience! There wer 20, 296 people there and it was jam packed full of action from the moment we arrived until literally the minute it was over. And then there was nothing.

Nothing.

The stadium was clear in 5 minutes... Nothing like the MCG where the fans are still hanging roung, relishing the sweet taste of victory after a hard fought game. Most bizarre.

Took a stack of photos and if I can't find my camera cord real soon I will have to stay up tonight and delete a couple of hundred so I have plenty of room on my camera for later! Still I think I got some good shots, I'm hoping the one of the player hanging off the rim after a slam dunk is as clear as it looks on my screen!

Dallas Mavericks defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves, 104 - 96.

American culture - going to the basketball!

In an hour I will be heading to a Dallas Mavericks v Minnesota NBA game with a group of 5 other Aussies and our single American 'sports interpretor'!

I'm excited to see what sort of atmosphere there is, I have heard about the hype and passion in American sport so this could be a huge experience! And I'll be able to compare it to the baseball when I see the LA Dodgers play on Sunday 3 April.

Good to immerse yourself in another culture to see what you can learn!

Session 5: 6 Hats theory

This session focused on the work of Edward De Bono, the 6 hats theory. I've heard briefly about it before but hadn't completed any work in it. I found the concept interesting and could see how a couple of my leadership team members clearly play roles under these guises. I know Victoria won't mind me saying but she will often play the "Black Hat" - challenging our thinking and asking us to turn the situation on its head to see another point of view. Jenny V is just about always the green hat, the one who says, "this might be crazy but..." and throws in a left-of-centre idea to shake things up. Where do I sit? I kind of pegged myself as perhaps a white or blue, the data and process driven person... But I could also see yellow, where I try to see a positive in all situations. Sometimes we're not the best person to judge our own characters...

The example we were given is that the college involved its entire staff, on a voluntary basis, to assess a certain situation and think of it from the six hats perspectives. They could only contribute ideas when that particular hat's station... The outcome being that people who get stuck on a set way of thinking often hold up the flow of ideas and progress so by providing a valid place for them to contribute those thoughts, you freed the rest of the group to get on with it.

If I combine this lesson with the collaboration ideas from this morning, it would be good for us to see if the major teams we work in are comprised of people with differing strengths and who wear different coloured hats.

Keynote Speaker 2 and Session 4

Strengths based leadership was the basis of both these sessions today.

The keynote speaker, Rodd Wagner, works for The Gallup Foundation and spoke about strengths in partnerships. The basis of the topic was how we need to push ourselves out of our comfort zones and find people who are opposite to us to create the best results. He covered the four essential elements for a good partnership which included notions such as equal input/equal reward, agreed direction and outcome, and forgiveness.

The session I attended immediately after that built on this concept and spoke in practical terms how a college pulled together a dysfunctional team through a strengths based assessment. They have gone on to analyse these strengths in their work groups and project teams to ensure that they have complementary skill sets for the best outcome. I have completed the Strengths Quest and so as part of the activity we were asked to plot our top five on a chart. Mine were heavily concentrated in Relationship Building (Connectedness, Developer, Empathy, Relator) while my fifth strength (Intellection) was under Strategic. I had nothing in influencing or executing - wonder what is represented in my top 10?

I can very much see how this would apply back at work and wonder what use departments, and indeed, the organisation has made of the DiSC profiling many of us have undertaken. People are often just assumed to be the best people to be put into a project team, perhaps we need to consider the mix of people for a better outcome in future.

Gala Dinner

What a BLAST!! I've just finished dancing to "A Hard Night's Day" (Beatles cover band) and had such a good time! The only problem now is that I am wired and ready to go (on Aussie time!) and everyone else has gone to sleep... and it is Wednesday night!!

Music makes my heart smile...

Session 2: Putting Gen Y in the Leadership Chair (me!!)

Wow... I am completely buzzing right now... What a thrill. My delivery went exactly to plan and I finished with just 2 minutes remaining out of 90... And people stayed back, forgoing their afternoon tea break so they could continue their discussions.

I had 34 people attend with a capacity of 45 so I was delighted with the turnout. There was predominantly Baby Boomers followed by Gen X's, exactly my target audience. I did have one veteran and one Gen Y, both of whom got a lot out of the session.

There was some good dialogue and interactivity in the table-based work. There were also great contributions from the crowd which prompted some good philosophical discussions.

Many people took down my details, especially for my slide download. I've created "bit.ly" addresses for all of my links which will allow me to track how many times people click on them within my presentation. That way I can evaluate what was of most interest or relevance to people.

Lots of people approached me afterwards to keep talking and one guy is also going to see whether I might be able to squeeze in a visit to his college in LA before I head off! The formal feedback was fantastic with the majority of responses being 'excellent' or 'good'.

There is also now discussion around this topic being expanded into a whole day pre-conference session for 2012...

I'm one very happy Gen Y presenter right now! :)

Session 1: Learner-centred Leadership

My original session, the Four Stages of Intelligence was cancelled this morning which was disappointing so I needed to choose a different session. Many of the topics relate directly to an American education environment and so are hard to transfer to an Australian situation. However, this Learner-centred talk seemed like it would be a good general session to attend.

The conversations centered around what creates a learner-centered environment and how the learning environment has changed. Teachers are no longer content deliverers - "Guide on the side not sage on the stage".

In this new paradigm, students are requiring more and constant feedback rather than the traditional formal assessment feedback strategies deployed in most educational institutions.

Things to Google at a later date:
1. "The student learning imperative"
2. "21st Century Learning, A Crash Course"

Keynote Speaker 1: John Zogby

Interesting session this morning looking at data and trends particularly with the Baby Boomers and upcoming Gen Y's.

Heard some new terminology such as "encore living" which is the word for retirement - a notion which is out of reach for many baby boomers these days. John also spoke about the increasing prevalence of 'secular spiritualists', those people who now believe that the great American Dream is about leaving behind something significant, having an impact which is larger than the individual. This resonates quite strongly with me as that is a philosophy I hold dearly and which showed up in my Gallop Strengths Quest (my number 1 strength is 'Connectedness').

John also spoke about the emerging 'tribes' which are a result of social media and how Gen Y are truly becoming a Global community with stats showing 40% EXPECT to live and work in a foreign capital city at some point in their lives.

Leads nicely into my session this afternoon. Off to concurrent session 1 now.

Pre-conference workshop and Richland College tour

Today was the pre-conference workshop and the topic I chose to go to was “Leading Teams”. We spent a lot of time dissecting what makes a team, as opposed to work groups and what the functions and roles of each of these were.

The content was a good reminder of the principles of teams and sparked a number of ideas I would like to explore in more depth once back in Australia. In particular it gave me the ability to stop and review each of my team members and see what their unique strength is within the team and why their contribution as an individual is important. This will hopefully guide me when putting together a project team for the assigned responsibilities I have for 2011/12.

One great piece of information I took away today was a new model of business implemented by Georgia Perimeter College who have reduced their committees by 67%. Their approach sees specific task teams established to deal with problems or issues and given a timeline of just 28 days to resolve it. I made contact with the college representative and he has directed me to the reports based on this model.

I also made contact with the Director of Enrolments, Norah, whom I happened to sit with on a table today and whom I also shared dinner with tonight. They have established a “One Stop” model for enrolments very similar to what we are proposing with the introduction of the new SMS. I will get her contact details tomorrow and be in touch with her as our project rolls out.

Yesterday was a fabulous day. I joined a visit to Richland College with two other Australians, David Bruce and Jenni Hardy from GippsTAFE. Richland had set up a magnificent five hour program for us with specialists from all across their business. We got some great insight into some of their programs as well as some reading material to take away. The biggest difference between our businesses was that they are predominantly involved in preparing students for university (70% of business). I was paired with Donna Walker, who is also involved in enrolments. We had a fascinating conversation about how they use data to drive all their business decisions and specifically how it informs their marketing activities. One thing I was amazed about is that to be an entry level teacher you must have a Masters degree! To reach the top end of the scale you need a PhD!

I had dinner last night with Pam Berger, my Chair Academy facilitator, and also Sonya who is the wife of Academy founder, Gary Filan. Sonya is hopefully going to be able to set me up with some people for a visit to a couple of the Maricopa Colleges once I reach Phoenix next Monday.

I present my paper tomorrow, 1.45pm – 3.15pm local time (5.45am – 7.15am Aussie time!). Not feeling too nervous... There could be 3 people, there could be 30 people – only time will tell!

Next is Now - Dallas is calling

Only three more days til I fly out of Australia and on to Dallas, Texas, to take part in my first international conference. My topic is "Putting Gen Y in the Leadership Chair" and I will explore new media and web-based technologies which can help engage Gen Y employees in the workplace.

I'll be posting up links to my presentation and to other resources I make reference to during the concurrent session. Looking forward to making my conference debut!