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...
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
Saturday, 26 March 2011
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...
Friday, 25 March 2011
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!
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.
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.
Thursday, 24 March 2011
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
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...
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! :)
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"
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.
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.
Tuesday, 22 March 2011
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.
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
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!
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!
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