Are you having trouble with your personnel or selection class? check out this website for a great resource from the US Department of Personel Managment!


http://apps.opm.gov/ADT/ContentFiles/AssessmentDecisionGuide071807.pdf

A few months back a friend of mine approached me about volunteering at Jobs for Youth (JFY) a non-profit organization dedicated to helping economically disadvantaged young adults gain viable job readiness skills to enter the workforce. Albeit an already overcommitted schedule, I agreed to spend an hour of time during my lunch break at work to conduct mock interviews. After the hour I spent coaching two clients on interviewing skills, I was hooked. I soon found myself looking forward to my time at Jobs for Youth each week and expanded my repertoire to include teaching a couple of classes. Each time I volunteered I experienced an assurgent feeling of personal gratification and commitment to the mission of the organization.

Over time, I began making recommendations to improve class content and offered my time to design and execute extraneous projects to benefit JFY in reaching its objectives. Because non-profit organizations are notoriously under-funded and often under-staffed, I saw this as a tremendous opportunity to form a mutually beneficial relationship to give back to the community while gaining valuable leadership, project management, and consulting experience. It was beyond a win-win situation.

As a result of my suggestion, I met with some of the directors to assess current organizational needs. Together we formulated a project proposal to identify client retention issues and developed an action plan to address the problems JFY is facing in keeping clients motivated to stay in the program. Over the next few months, I will be looking for volunteers to help with this project and will have it underway by early January with a targeted completion date of May 21, 2010. If you are interested in participating in this project, please contact me at emj3634@ego.thechicagoschool.

Labels: Community Service, Consulting, Non-profit

This was a fantastic and fun event! Participants received the qualification training for Level II certification to administer the 16PF. This is a valuable assessment tool for professionals in a wide range of settings. The tool aids in personnel selection and development, as well as in coaching and counseling applications through identifying personal qualities of individuals that influence behaviors. Yet another tool to add to my professional kit!

Participants who completed the first portion of this training session will be invited to The Society for Business Psychology's next sponsored event: 16PF part 2.


http://www.ipat.com/about/16pf/Pages/default.aspx
IPAT - The 16PF® Questionnaire
'This is a self-report assessment instrument that measures the 16 normal adult personality dimensions discovered by Dr. Cattell in his landmark research. Using client responses to the questionnaire, standardized scores (stens) are derived for each of the sixteen personality factors. In addition, scores for five Global Factors (the original Five-Factor Model) are computed. These scores enable clients to formulate personality models useful in industrial/organizational applications, clinical settings, counseling, and research for predicting human behavior.'

Labels: Assessment, Business, Training

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni

Predictors of High Performance Teams

Dysfunctional teams are built on a foundation of lack of trust.

Trust Team Healthy Team
Absence of Trust:
o Conceal weaknesses and mistakes
o Hesitate to ask for help or offer constructive criticism
o Hold grudges
o Dread meetings
o Find reasons to avoid spending time together

Trusting Teams:
o Admit weaknesses and mistakes
o Ask for help
o Accept questions and input about their areas of responsibilities
o Give the benefit of the doubt
o Focus on results, not politics
o Offer and accept apologies without hesitation
o Look forward to meetings and other
opportunities to work together



Conflict
Fear of Conflict:
o Team meetings are boring
o Back channel politics and personal attacks are permitted
o Ignore controversial topics
o Waste time posturing and managing personal risk
Healthy Conflict:
o Have lively, interesting meetings
o Extract and exploit the ideals of all team
members
o Solve real problems quickly
o Minimize politics
o Put critical topics on the table for discussion

Commitment
Failure to Commit:
o Creates ambiguity among the team about direction and priorities
o Watches windows of opportunity close due to excessive analysis and unnecessary delay
o Breads lack of confidence and fear of failure
o Revisits discussions and decisions again and again
o Encourages second-guessing among team members

Strong Commitments:
o Creates clarity around direction and priorities
o Aligns the entire team around common
objectives
o Develops an ability to learn from mistakes
o Takes advantage of opportunities before competitors do
o Moves forward without hesitation
o Changes direction without hesitation or guilt

Accountability
Avoiding Accountability:
o Creates resentment among team members who have different standards of performance
o Encourages mediocrity
o Misses deadlines
o Places an undue burden on the team leader as the sole source of discipline

Effective Accountability:
o Ensures that poor performers feel pressure to improve
o Identifies potential problems quickly by questioning one another’s approaches
without hesitation
o Establishes respect among team members
who are held to the same high standards
o Avoids excessive bureaucracy around
performance management and corrosive
action

Results
Not Focused on Results:
o Stagnates/fails to grow
o Rarely defeats competitors
o Loses achievement-oriented employees
o Encourages team members to focus on their
own careers and individual goals
o Is easily distracted

Collective Results:
o Retains achievement-oriented employees
o Minimizes individualistic behavior
o Enjoys success and suffers failures acutely
o Benefits from individuals who subjugate their
own goals/interests for the good of the team
o Avoids distractions



Teams: Why Some Succeed and Others Fail, Yoder & Heneman

Team performance is related to attractiveness of performance, agreement with team goals, team goal level, willingness to use cross-train, perceived participation, team efficacy, and team commitment. Variables explain 85% of variance.

Labels: Collaboration, Consulting, Team

What better way to celebrate Halloween but to take off that witches hat, put on that thinking cap and collaborate with peers! I was both very curious and enthused of what type of experience this would lead to.
We were first asked what we expected to gain from the event; what did we hope to learn and leave with in the end. Some stated they wanted to leave with a better understanding of storyboarding, others simply wanted the experience this provided, others were eager to get a better idea of the consulting world…I, myself, was looking forward to being put in a situation where I would have to collaborate with individuals I had never met before and see how comfortable and confident I would be in providing ample insight and creativity to problem solving.
Aside from storyboarding, we were introduced to such topics of, how to generate creativity in the office environment, how to make ideas and presentations stick (made to stick), thinking outside the box and having effective problem solving tools, why client buy-in is important, and how a healthy work environment can support and embrace this way of doing and thinking. We were able to connect these ideas with the experiences we have had in the workplace. Every speaker was excellent, each had their own story and own way of telling it. My favorite example of thinking outside the box and having an idea “stick� is the laptop example where the office was transformed to imitate Starbucks and an airplane in order for the idea to really come to life and present itself. I found it to be a very different and unique approach. I also have to give credit to the organization that supports this type of thinking and trying out new ideas. Gravitytank was a very fitting environment for this workshop.
After the discussions, we split up into groups where we put storyboarding to the test! We came prepared having read the assigned material (very interesting) on 3M and their approach to innovation. The best part about the group activity was that I didn’t know what was coming up next. That gave me a different perspective throughout process because I wasn’t automatically thinking of the outcome, or thinking of the answer, trying to focus on one solution that would solve a problem. Instead we worked through the problem step by step which allowed us to have different perspectives and ideas once we had to actually create our storyboard.
The post-it notes were the best way to give us the freedom to get it all our ideas down without over-thinking it or trying to organize our thoughts in any way. The simplicity of it made it work that much better. And from that, we were able to organize our ideas and last, put together our storyboard.
In the end, I wish we could have had more time to sum everything up and put it together as a group. I was watching the clock b/c I had to catch my train so my mind soon was elsewhere once 5:00 hit.
I look at storyboarding as a different approach not only as a problem solving technique but as a unique and tangible way of brainstorming, presenting ideas and gaining feedback. Since the workshop, I have noticed how this fits in with day to day occurrences especially school related assignments.

-Alison Hicks

Recently I was introduced to a new method of analysis in business psychology. This technique incorporated creativity and collaboration in one interactive activity referred to as “storyboarding.�

Kelly Main, a Psy. D student at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, hosted the training at Gravity Tank. The workshop began with a presentation of how Gravity Tank has created a work environment dedicated to creativity, innovation, and collaborative efforts. Next we were introduced to the concept of storyboarding and its use in the traditional sense, which is largely in the movie production industry. We also learned of its benefits in the business world and how storyboarding has assisted Gravity Tank Consultants in their services by finding great solutions using a process that requires client engagement.

Following a brief break in which we were able to digest what we had learned we reconvened the session in smaller groups to practice this new technique. Applying the storyboarding technique to a pre-selected case study, we completed an exercise that displayed how this creative process could provide an opportunity to collaboratively work through problems, uncover connections, and draw conclusions. Storyboarding also enables the participants to be flexible in their thinking not feeling obligated to any idea or thought. We were able to simply change our mind about certain themes as we continued through the process.

This workshop opened up a new way of thinking for me. This was a new way to view the process of analysis. One that involved cooperation and teamwork. This process also made it easier to take a deep look at all concepts surrounding any theme. This was very beneficial in creation. This technique may add value to any organization lacking the creative minds to be innovative by tapping into the creativity in each participant drawing out hidden themes that can lead to greater understanding of the problem. This process also aided in determining the true problem by making connections within the symptoms as they were presented to us.

Moving forward I have determined a possible method of incorporating the storyboard process into my work as a consultant. Building on the skills that were acquired in this training, I am making use of this process of analysis to uncover information that would be otherwise difficult to attain. I have truly benefitted from this training and suggest that my peers and colleagues research this technique carefully as it can be utilized differently to meet the needs of each professional.

Below is a link for a video illustrating the storyboard process. Keep in mind that this example is applied to movie and film production, but this process can easily be adapted to other industries.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-yeI83fN6s


Shannon D. Pellet, M.A.Doctoral Candidate, The Chicago School of Professional PsychologyMentoring Project Manager, Society of Business Psychologyhttp://thechicagoschool.edu/ThirdParty/businessStrategic Planning Chair, I/O Task Force

Labels: Business, Collaboration, Consulting, Creativity

Have you ever had to make a tough decision and ended up playing out all of the possibilities in your head? It is certainly a method that I have used to determine the best course of action. For those of you who are not familiar with psychodrama, this is very representative of that process.

Psychodrama allows you to physically play out different parts of a past story or a future event. When I attended the workshop this weekend, I wasn't really sure what to expect. From the first explanation of the process, I realized that this was a tool that I needed to incorporate into my consulting practices.

For my first "drama", our group selected one individual who was struggling with her relationship with her sister. Different group members were selected to "play" different family members. This helped the individual see how her internal conflict shaped her interactions with her family. The individual was also able to take on the roles of her mother, father, and sister to increase her understanding of her perceptions about each family member. By allowing herself to "be" the other characters, she was able to feel their emotions and understand their behaviors.

How does this translate to business psychology? This is a great tool for CEOs, senior management, and entrepreneurs to use. Psychodrama would allow them insight into their customers, shareholders, managers, and employees. For example, a manager could use this tool to decide how an employee would respond to a policy change, raise, promotion, or termination.

I would highly recommend at least one workshop on psychodrama. This tool could change the way executives receive coaching, training programs are designed, and the way innovation is created.

Lee Derryberry

Labels: Business, psychology