Developing Oneself for Success

Although it is required to identify a development plan on an annual basis, my personal development plan has been more of a career planning road map. Upon entering the organization, we were asked to map out a five year plan and present it to our immediate Supervisor. As memory recalls, my five year plan consisted of the following:

Reflecting back, it seems that I have taken that five year plan and stretched it across a career with the intended goal of becoming a Professor later in years. From an organizational development perspective, many opportunities have been offered, but none so rewarding as those in the past two years.

For the purpose of this blog the following reflect types of developmental opportunities, as identified by Noe (2010), have been offered to me and have provided the opportunity of enrollment a Master’s program with Walden University, has enabled me to become more focused, and allowed me to consider/embrace other developmental opportunities in the very near future. The following table captures these development opportunities and how each plays a critical role in my career path and success.

In addition, the opportunity to enhance development within the organization is also milestone. The below presentation captures a drafted proposal to increase developmental tactics and identifies its importance as it relates to the organization's mission and vision.

Promoting Employee Development

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References

Noe, R. A. (2010). Employee training and development (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

To “E”, or Not to “E”; That is the Question

As a distance learner, accessibility to information and learning tools is an important aspect of learner development. In distance learning, multimedia and computer-based training offer the learner various means of connection to critical information and learning tools through audiovisual components, the internet, e-learning, and web-based training. Although Noe (2010) categorizes each of these technological methods as extensions of the other, each offers accessibility in various methods that can enable a learner to expand their knowledge. For instance, the internet serves as a launching pad for e-learning and web-based training, but as a standalone tool, the internet offers the ability for a learner to take a journey through search engines and hyperlinks. Overall each offers the ease in accessibility, flexibility and, at times, cost-efficiency necessary to introduce a subject matter to an individual or a global community.

Imaging the unmanageable schedule of juggling a family, fulltime employment, and a fulltime course load is off in distant memory. The introduction of “e” to learning has offered numerous opportunities to many regardless of race, gender, religion, class, or status. But when does the question come to mind: “e”, or not to “e”? The basis of distance learning is to drive learning through self-motivation, generate social interaction, and offer global expansion (Noe, 2010).

The concept of distance learning has brought a new frontier of innovation and the need to provide education on the go. So how can distance learning be achieved in a more flexible and accessible manner from a learner perspective? How about through e-readers?! The e-reader (e.g. iPad) is the latest innovative method of “e”ducation of the go! Created to be taken on the go like a good paperback novel, the e-reader was agreed to be lightweight, convenient, and portable; yet conversely, the lack of desktop publishing (i.e. note taking and/or highlighting) impacted many of the learners’ decisions regarding continued use of the device as a primary learning tool (Janssens, G. & Martin, H, 2009; Shurtz, S. & von Isenburg, 2011). Although there is still room for improvement, technology continues to grow and change. Through innovation, the e-reader can be enhanced to meet the desired needs of educators and learners at a global level bringing back the nostalgia of opening a book while considering global efficiencies through reducing waste and expanding the avenues of accessibility to the desired learning portal no matter where the learner is located. Now that’s something to ‘chat’ about!





References

Noe, R. A. (2010). Employee training and development (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Janssens, G., & Martin, H. (2009). The Feasibility of E-Ink Readers in Distance Learning: A Field Study. International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies, 3(3), 38-46. doi:10.3991/ijim.v3i3.726

Shurtz, S., & von Isenburg, M. (2011). Exploring e-readers to support clinical medical education: two case studies. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 99(2), 110-3. doi:10.3163/1536-5050.99.2.002

A Needs Assessment

When planning a needs assessment for any organization, institution, or independent company, accessing information is critical. Informational assets could drive the need and/or methods and approach for training implementation. A key component in accessing information relies in the stakeholder identification. It is essential to consider the perspective of the stakeholder while contemplating the most effective and efficient instructional design direction. For the purpose of this week’s entry, a needs assessment is being conducted for a major food chain named Whole Foods. To better illustrate the process, the following is a hypothetical scenario related to the process.

Whole Foods’ premise is based upon community, diversity, wellness, and environmental awareness. The Regional Training team is seeking external instructional design guidance regarding the customer service training course “How to "WOW" Our Most Important Stakeholder”. The latest sales projections reflect a downward curve for a west coast store that generally would generate revenue over the weekly projections. This downward trend raised concern among the Board of Directors and the Leadership team resulting in the possible need for training.

After meeting with the Regional Training team the following were identified as key Whole Food stakeholders:

• Customers
• Employees
• Philanthropic partners
• Agricultural partners
• Environmentalists

To gain additional insight regarding the store and Whole Foods it had been decided to interview, observe, and research the identified stakeholders and organization. The interviewing method would be conducted through online surveys via the Whole Foods website and at the store front location to provide flexibility in participation. To gauge a better sense of the organizational setting, observations and personal interviews would be scheduled and conducted by the instructional design team to gain an internal perspective. Lastly, training and other supporting materials were provided to understand the vision and mission of the organization better.

To effectively manage the needs assessment stakeholders were asked questions during key phases of the process. The following illustrates the analysis phase, stakeholders, and questions posed.

Whole Foods had managed its advertising of local product and market goods. The community relies on knowing when the newest arrival of produce becomes available because of the high vegetarian and vegan population and restaurant venues catering to the local community. Upon the initial opening of the store location marketing enabled the community to plan for various harvest festivals and understand how to best manage nutritional care. The marketing efforts were primarily promoted by its front line employees upon entering the store or during the time of check out. The Regional Training team identified that this particular location changed over the store educator last fall and training the customer service training courses had taken a backseat to other business and stakeholder impactful events.

In this scenario, the importance of assessment is identified as critical. Without the effort, it would have been challenging to illustrate the stakeholders’ concerns and the root cause. As noted by Noe (2010), “The first step in a successful training effort is to determine that a training need exists through a…needs assessment” (p. 132), and in this case training and other identified areas of improvement were required to continue the Whole Foods’ success story.


Reference

Noe, R. A. (2010). Employee training and development (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.