Get certified now to use this powerful business simulation. Certification for product use will be required in 2012. Benefits of certification include: listing on DLI website, access to experienced simulation user group, receiving DLI referrals.

February 16, 2012
431 Spring Garden St, Greensboro, NC 27401

Register Now

Register online, by calling 336-272-9530, or by emailing smetzger@discoverylearning.com.

Cost

$350 pr $300 if registered before January 6

Agenda

• 8:30 AM to 9:00 AM – Breakfast
• 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM – Abbreviated Simulation Run
• 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM – Working Lunch
• 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM – Classroom Facilitation

On the serious side, however, the message of this movie cuts to the heart of one of our basic fears…Change. Intellectually, we know that lots of change is good, but emotionally, there is always some angst, some discomfort, some worry. Yes, even some fear! This movie was made for organization teams, so it addresses many of the situations AvoLead clients face. Its powerful and inspiring messages, however,  can be applied not only to organizational change, but also to life change of any kind.

Is there change going on in your life or work that you find unsettling? How are you dealing with it?

Do any of this movie’s messages help you see change from a different perspective?

Do you have any words of wisdom for others who are going through change in their organizations that is causing them fear or anxiety…or even functional paralysis?

The movie content is also available in book form, and these books make great gifts or tools for a team-building event at your company, church, or nonprofit. Each book includes a free DVD of the movie.

Enjoy!

Guest post by Elizabeth H. Cottrell, RiverwoodWriter and Heartspoken.com. It was adapted from a post which originally appeared on her blog.

It’s a fascinating recognition of male and female stereotypes reflected in the language of leadership and a call for the adoption of new ways of evaluating and talking about leadership. “These new business realities usher in the need for a new leadership model, one that replaces command and control with transparency and inclusion. This will increasingly highlight the value of a more feminine approach. Where in the past communal behaviors naturally favored by women may have been obstacles to leadership success, in a collaborative future they may well become an edge.” The author mentions several research findings showing specific traits typically associated with females that are often lacking in males. These include their participatory style, their reaction to stress in the form of increased empathy rather than decreased in males, their tendency to be interactive, and their sensitivity to body language.

This is the author’s compelling conclusion:

The most successful leaders of the future will take the time and effort necessary to make people feel safe and valued. They’ll emphasize team cohesiveness while encouraging candid and constructive conflict, they’ll set clear expectations while recognizing what each team member contributes, they’ll share the credit and the rewards. And, most of all, they’ll foster true networked collaboration through a leadership style that projects openness, inclusiveness and respect.

Any leader can do that. Female leaders just already do it more naturally.

Note: The author of this article, Carol Kinsey Goman, is an executive coach and the author of The Silent Language of Leaders: How Body Language Can Help or Hurt How You Lead.

McGonigal directs games R&D at the Institute for the Future and is devoting her life’s work to harnessing the enormous time,  energy and skills now devoted to gaming (which at its core is problem-solving) and applying them to solving real-world problems. As I clicked one link after another to learn more about this, I found her website, Gameful, and her definition of the word gameful: “It means to have the spirit, or mindset, of a gamer: someone who is optimistic, curious, motivated, and always up for a tough challenge. It’s like the word “playful” — but gamier! Gameful games are games that have a positive impact on our real lives, or on the real world.”

Then I was astounded to find the following video of her compelling presentation to the prestigious TED audience (an organization devoted to spreading good ideas). We’ve included it below because it’s so thought provoking. Here is McGonigal’s goal in her own words: “Instead of providing gamers with better and more immersive alternatives to reality, I want all of us to be become responsible for providing the world with a better and more immersive reality.”

AvoLead professionals are trained to bring transformational change to organizations of all sizes, domestic and global. Call us to discuss ways that we might bring the power principles of gaming into your organization, so the world can be made better by what you offer.

Do you think this is crazy…fascinating…pie in the sky? We’d love to know.

As one commenter to the article suggested, the conclusions boil down to two things our grandparents taught us:

• Lead by example
• Don’t tell me, show me

Besides confirming these common sense conclusions, Dr. Simmons feels that the analysis offers this take-away: “Because the evidence shows that behaviors are the strongest predictors of leader effectiveness, we can and should train folks to be more effective leaders. Hire the most conscientious people you can find, but when you get ready to promote people into positions of leadership, make sure they have a proven record of mastering tasks, relating well with others, and responding to mandates for change.”

Do you find this holds true in your organization? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

April 21 • 1:00-2:30pm • Live Webinar

additional dial-in information will be distributed 1 week prior to webinar

REGISTER NOW

by calling 336.272.9530 or email smetzger@discoverylearning.com

Discovery Learning, Inc. announces the introduction of a new assessment tool, the Influence Style Indicator™. Designed by Chris Musselwhite, president and CEO of Discovery Learning, Inc. and Tammie Plouffe, managing partner of Innovative Pathways, the Influence Style Indicator measures an individual’s dominant, secondary and underutilized influence styles.

Get certified now to use this new innovative assessment by attending the April 21st online certification workshop.

*Certification or qualification is required for product use. Benefits of certification include: listing on DLI website, access to experienced survey user group, receiving DLI referrals.

Invite a fellow consultant and discover a new tool for your kit at Discovery Learning®

Additional Training in Toronto June 21 — check Discovery Learning website for updates

Also find Discovery Learning, Inc. on Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube

Perry Buffet’s very interesting article “Using Influence to Get Things Done” in the February 22, 2011 issue of strategy + business highlights a dilemma often faced by senior management: the need to advocate tough-sell positions in typically collegial small groups such as councils, boards, or committees, where critical decisions are often made informally. Decisions made at this level, even when they have to be passed up the line for approval, can be critical to an organization’s success. “Thus,” concludes Buffet,  “an executive’s ability to influence peers and superiors as they undertake a broad range of crucial decisions involving such issues as strategy, budgets, brand positioning and pricing, and capital investments is a valuable skill — a skill that could be called influential competence.”

Recognizing the critical value of influence competence to the ability of their executive clients to achieve maximum effectiveness, AvoLead professionals trained recently at Discovery Learning, Inc. in Greensboro, NC, to become Influence Style Indicator™ Assessment Consultants by learning to administer and analyze the exciting new Influence Style Indicator™ assessment tool.

The assessment tool helps the client understand the three primary influence orientations and the five main influencing styles, and it identifies his or her own predominant style. Even more important, it offers specific and implementable techniques and suggestions for interacting effectively with others whose predominant influence styles might be different.

Could you benefit from learning how to engage more effectively with your peers to get things done and add more value to your group or organization? Besides individual assessment, the Influence Style Indicator tool can be administered within a group or team to help members understand themselves and how they can work more strategically with their co-workers to accomplish established goals. Call AvoLead for more information.

When has influence competence been important to your career? Leave comments below.

How refreshing and empowering to find a book on contemporary leadership that not only frames relevant issues that organization leaders face by identifying boundaries they are likely to encounter, but it also offers practical solutions to spanning these boundaries based on a decade of real-world research by leadership professionals at the Center for Creative Leadership. I’ll wager that readers of this book will: 1) either already be dealing with many of the issues presented and find the discussions a veritable lifeline or 2) they will instantly recognize situations they have encountered in the past and understand for the first time why they were so intractable and challenging.

The rapidly shifting landscape of corporate and nonprofit leadership creates unique pitfalls as well as opportunities. Research surveys of over 125 senior level executives revealed an appallingly low number who felt they were very effective at knowing how to collaborate effectively across boundaries in their current leadership roles. Five primary boundary types were identified for discussion purposes, though the authors recognized that often they are closely linked:

1. Vertical boundaries between hierarchical levels of the organization
2. Horizontal boundaries between functions
3. Stakeholder boundaries with customers and vendors
4. Demographic boundaries in working with people from diverse groups
5. Geographic boundaries of distance and region

Concluding that boundary spanning practices can turn boundaries into frontiers ripe with untapped potential, the authors explore what these practices might be, providing compelling actual stories/examples to illustrate them, and offering exercises and strategies to implement them in your own situation.

The authors first discuss the boundary management practices of Buffering (Creating Safety) and Reflecting (Fostering Respect). Then they move into practices that forge common ground: Connection (Building Trust) and Mobilizing (Developing Community). Next in the evolution of boundary-spanning are the practices that develop new frontiers: Weaving (Advancing interdependence) and Transforming (Enabling Reinvention).

“Together, these practices combine to create what authors Chris Ernst and Donna Chrobot-Mason call the Nexus Effect. The Nexus Effect allows groups to be more agile in response to changing markets; be more flexible in devising and deploying cross-functional learning and problem-solving capabilities; work with partners in deeper, more open relationships; empower virtual teams; and create a welcoming, diverse, and inclusive organization that brings out everybody’s best.” (From the Editorial Review in Amazon)

While the challenges described here will be familiar to those who follow leadership trends and practices, I believe the authors have developed and presented what many will find to be an original, useful and implementable approach to thinking about and managing them.

What boundary-spanning practices has YOUR organization used? Please let us know in the comment section below.

One of the blogs for nonprofits that I follow is called the Wild Apricot Blog, “dedicated to small associations, member-based organizations and non-profits.” They have had several recent articles about ways that nonprofits can use LinkedIn effectively to increase their online visibility among an important demographic of professional LinkedIn members. In hopes of saving you some research time so you can quickly understand the pros and cons of using LinkedIn for your nonprofit, I’ve listed clickable links for these and some of other relevant articles below with a short summary of each:

“Is Your Organization LinkedIn Yet?” This article discusses using LinkedIn’s relatively new company profile function for nonprofits. Information can be found in LinkedIn’s Learning Centre. The article suggests that creating a LinkedIn organization profile and getting your staff and board members to include links to it on their own personal LinkedIn profiles, can increase Search Engine Optimization and enhance name recognition and credibility.

“How Can Nonprofits Use LinkedIn?”  Podcast from The Chronicle of Philanthropy. This article explores the burgeoning use and benefit of LinkedIn for nonprofit organizations. It especially goes into the significant difference between nonprofit presence on LinkedIn compared to Facebook.

“Are Nonprofits Warming Up to LinkedIn?” by Joanne Fritz.  This article discusses the important differences between LinkedIn and other common social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and shows that the use of various social media tools for nonprofits is an evolving picture.

February Net2 Think Tank Round-up: Using LinkedIn for Change - nonprofit folks shared their experience in using LinkedIn to “create a community around their cause.”

“Should Your Nonprofit Be on LinkedIn?” by Joanne Fritz

“Tips for Using LinkedIn for Nonprofits” by Joanne Fritz

“LinkedIn Sharing: A New Tool for Nonprofit Outreach.” This article discusses the additional Share functionality that LinkedIn has added to their site. Here’s a very short video about this too:

Beth’s Blog by Beth Kanter – “How Networked Nonprofits Are Using Social Media to Power Change.” Beth Kanter is known for her sensible approach to using social media in the nonprofit world.

Bobby’s Blog by Bobby Thalhimer offers “Trends and Issues in Local Philanthropy.” Bobby is senior vice president of advancement for The Community Foundation in Richmond and has been a generous mentor to many young and growing charitable organizations.

Social Media for Nonprofits is a reputable LinkedIn Group where those interested in nonprofit management can learn and share.

Read the review yourself, but among the things that Eblin suggests we should let go are: Self-Doubt, Running Flat-Out, One Size Fits All Communication, Self Reliance, Micro Management, Sole Responsibility, and Myopia. Some of these will undoubtedly resonate with you or with some of your coaching clients.

I’m adding The Next Level: What Insiders Know about Executive Success to my “To-Read” list (as well as Guy Kawasaki’s book to be released 3/8/11: Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions. Don’t you just love that title?)