Adding Value as a T&D Professional May 15, 2009

As Learning Professionals, we know the importance of investing in training and development. The Central Florida Chapter of ASTD is offering you an opportunity to invest in yourself to increase the value you can bring to organizations. We are holding a half-day Professional Development Workshop on the morning of May 15. The topics have been selected based on input from our members in recent surveys. In addition to a brief overview of the ASTD competency model, we will cover the following:

Session 1: You see the trend happening again - organizations are abandoning their leadership development efforts as the economy becomes more difficult. What are some steps we can take to keep leadership development relevant? We need to make a connection between a company’s business strategy and its leadership development activities. Leadership is even more important in challenging times - leaders must be committed to their own growth and the development of their people. In this workshop we’ll explore how we can help leaders integrate relevant development activities with running the business. We’ll discuss ideas for a leadership “boot camp” and look at what some successful companies are doing to continue developing their leaders.

Speaker: Paul A. Cave, Ed.D. - an experienced facilitator, teacher and consultant. Throughout his 30 year career, Dr. Cave has worked in procurement, owned an award winning consulting firm, and consulted with companies ranging from mid-size corporations to Fortune 100 companies in a variety of industries on four continents. As a consultant and facilitator he has helped organizations and individuals examine and improve sales strategies and approaches, improve leadership capabilities, and hone negotiation strategies and skills to achieve personal and business results.

Today, he uses his experience to design and deliver cutting edge programs for instructor-led as well as synchronous, on-line classes. His most recent program is Negotiate Like a P.R.O.: Managing Complex Negotiations.

Session 2: In the last several years many organizations have had to think very clearly about how they measure Human Performance Improvement and demonstrate the impact of their training programs. The concept of ROI can be daunting to many T&D professionals, especially when budgets are shrinking. In this session we will explore how using good assessments to measure effectiveness can often be more impactful than getting to ROI.

Speaker: Dr. Michael Zia Mian - Director of Consulting services at Censeo Corporation, a leader in web based employee assessments. Michael’s experience is in helping organizations identify, select, and develop talent through assessment strategies. His specific areas of expertise include competency modeling, selection systems, test development, performance management, and employee surveys. Michael has worked with clients from a wide range of industries, including companies in the telecommunications, pharmaceutical, financial, and government sectors. Prior to joining Censeo, Michael was a consultant and project manager at Wilson Learning Corporation, a global provider of HPI solutions. During his tenure at Wilson, Michael managed the development and implementation of large-scale employee assessment and testing solutions for Wilson’s clients. Michael has a Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of South Florida, and occasionally teaches undergraduate level courses in Psychology.

Session 3: Blogging, Podcasts, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. – the electronic options can be somewhat overwhelming to keep up with these days. Jennifer Lee and Leah Turner have been using these and other tools successfully with their company, Creating Your Masterpiece. In this interactive session, you will learn and apply ideas to use these tools for marketing your business, searching for a job, or as a reinforcement or application option for training programs.

Speakers: Jennifer Lee and Leah Turner, co-founders of Creating Your Masterpeice, a local company that is frequently interviewed on Orlando radio and TV programs.

Jennifer Lee has spent the past 20 years training, coaching and managing sales professionals in a variety of industries throughout the world. Her passion for coaching others is what motivated her to leave the corporate world behind and follow her true path and purpose in life.

Leah Turner is committed to partnering with individuals to help them reach new heights in their personal and professional lives—through personal foundation workshops, one-on-one coaching, and motivational speaking. She has spent more than 20 years as a marketing and communications executive, where her responsibilities included training, motivating and coaching. That experience led her to see that her true passion was empowering individuals to achieve fulfillment and success; and accomplish their goals and dreams. She refined her coaching skills at COACH University, and become a Personal Coach and Certified Core Essentials Graduate (CEG). A graduate of the University of South Florida, Leah received her bachelor's degree in Mass Communications.

Our agenda is as follows:

8:00 to 8:30 am Registration and networking

8:30 to 10:00 am CPLP overview & Session 1

10:00 to 10:15 am Break

10:15 to 11:15 am Session 2

11:15 to 12:15 pm Session 3

12:15 to 12:30 pm Q&A and wrap-up