ISPI Vancouver, VP Logistics

 In the 1990s, Carol was known to many journalists across the country as “Canada’s flower bulb lady” because she created consumer publicity and horticultural industry communication campaigns on behalf of the Dutch growers and exporters.

 In 1997 she and husband Peter moved to the lower mainland, just as her vocational focus was shifting to interpersonal communication – facilitation, training and coaching. Now, she puts her two Justice Institute of BC certificates to good use by helping clients manage conflict in the workplace.

 Her current gardening efforts are confined to home balcony planters in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood, where flower bulbs safely over-winter in pots – something not possible in the rest of Canada.

Contact her at 604-563-8141

www.cjscom.com; www.caroljsutton.wordpress.com

ISPI MEMBER since forever – Past President (twice) and honourary life member

Those of use who have worked with Erica know of her commitment to excellence and that she will do whatever it takes to support her clients. This, she explains, is how she ended up inside a BC Ferry, dangling from a body harness. She was asked to provide training on how to perform rescues (and run practice drills) from confined and enclosed spaces for the client. To accomplish this, her team used a combination of scenario-based simulated training combined with job aids (performance support tools). She had the most fun when she entered a confined space, body harness and all, to pilot test the course.

This occurred prior to the viral world in which we now live, so unfortunately, her exploits were not recorded on film or digitally. But no one who knows Erica would doubt that she would give it her all in, as Elvis used to say, “taking care of business”.

Professional and contact information.

Erica Groschler

President, TPS Consulting Ltd.

http://www.tpsconsultingltd.com/home.cfm

When: Tuesday, April 10 , 2012
5:30 – 6:00 pm light supper & networking / 6:00 – 8:00 pm Cracker Barrel event
Cost: $20.00 for BCODN & ISPI Vancouver members / $45.00 for non-members

Where: The 825 The Atrium, at BCIT downtown, 555 Seymour Street, Vancouver
To register, go to: http://www.gifttool.com/registrar/ShowEventDetails?ID=1647&EID=11829

A veritable smorgasbord of presentations in a “cracker-barrel” format where you’ll get to sample from multiple 30-minutes presentations on performance improvement and organization development subjects, including:

• Mindfulness for Managers, with Laura Carter
• Aligning Competencies Across the Organization, with Sam Chen and Nick Freeman
• Talent Management Practices of BC’s Public Sector Employees, with Peter Choi
• The Joy of Conflict Resolution: Transforming Victims, Villains and Heroes, with Gary Harper
• Facilitation Skills: Refresh your Delivery, with Nazmiye Gurbuz
• Measuring Change, Making it Happen – Three Paths, Three Frameworks, Three Stories, with David Hendrickson
• The Anxiety Chronicles: Personal Angst, Honesty, Humour and Coping, with Rick Thomas
• It’s All in Your Head: How a Basic Understanding of Neuroscience can Help Improve Performance, with Adrienne White
• Performance Improvement…Not Just Change in Behaviour, with Inge Zegel

We look forward to seeing you there!

In keeping with the Valentime theme, the topic at the February 14, 2012 ISPI Vancouver meeting was “Love IS the Answer”. The format for the event was a salon, expertly facilitated by David Gouthro, one of our long-time members. Smart, creative, insightful attendees made for a terrific evening.

We had a great exploration of the behaviours, definitions, and possible measurements of love in the workplace. We looked at how love can impact work performance, and we brainstormed around “If love is the answer, what is the organizational question?” Conversations and informal surveys quickly showed there are no straight forward answers to this question and provided more food for thought. Here are some of the questions we pondered:

• How do we define love?
• Does love play a role in organizations, and if so, what role does it play?
• What is the opposite of Love (in organizations)?
• What performance measures would be used to measure some of the elements of love?

If this topic has peaked your interest, you may enjoying reading this article, by Roger Harrison, Ph.D., which was the pre-reading for the session.

Share your thoughts with us, by replying to this post.

ISPI MEMBER since 2009, former VP of Logistics, President (and current Past President).

Inge Zegel is literally a “high flyer”. As a former skydiver with over 500 jumps to her credit, she often motivated and trained others to “take the leap”. This evolved into her current role as a trainer and facilitator.

Although her skydiving days are behind her, she continues to elevate in other ways. She recently hiked the French Alps: 670 km from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean, with a total ascent of 34,000+ meters.

She also fulfilled a lifetime dream by attending “circus school”, learning to fly on the trapeze and even participating in a corporate event. One way or the other, our Past President will find a way to soar – both literally and figuratively, as flying through the sky is in her genes.

Professional and contact information.

Inge Zegel
Facilitation & Instructional Design
www.zegel.ca / 604-317-7109

“The potency of love in organizations is largely denied and repressed,” he says in the article. “We experience the same fear of it that we previously did with sex and power.” And he goes on to quote Kahlil Gilbran (“The Prophet”, 1969): “Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love, but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.”

Why talk about love in the workplace now? Because we all need to give and get love, he says. “If nothing else, love is made necessary by the fact that there is no such thing as independent life. It arises from our fundamental connectedness.”

The dark side of any human motivation, however, can lead us to behaviour that looks and feels less than loving. Fear acts to block and muddy motives and actions such that it may become difficult to discern the individual’s original motivation. And for people to be fully engaged in their working lives, we need to drive out the fear, to allow people to find genuine satisfaction in all that they do in the workplace.

“It is worthwhile to make as many aspects of the workplace as possible into something that people can and will love, to find ways of doing work that give people experiences of giving their best, of serving the work and others in ways that satisfy their need to love,” he says.

Dr. Harrison asks us to consider these points and a number of significant questions, and the ISPI Vancouver “salon” on February 14 is designed to pose such queries and provide a forum for discussion of your thoughts and answers. For instance,

· What have you observed people in the organization doing that might be motivated by love, rather than by other wants and desires?
· Is love the opposite of fear?
· Where does the need and/or desire for power fit into the scenario of “love made manifest” at work?

That’s on Tuesday, February 14. See you there!

Pre-reading

Contributed by Carol Sutton, VP Logistics and Marketing Coordinator

During this meeting, Greg Nichvalodoff and David Cory walked us through a mock interview/debrief with fictitious employee, Mary Middle, who completed a self evaluation using the EQ-i 2.0 Model of Emotional Intelligence. The report generated clearly defines the areas where emotional experiences have delimited Mary’s ability to contribute effectively as an employee. And although, it didn’t look good for Mary, one thing was clear, if she had the courage to challenged her emotions, then change is possible. This was clearly illustrated by Greg who shared his experiences providing executive coaching and leadership development services to an anonymous corporate client.

Greg and David also presented research that supports their view that emotional intelligence is a major determinant of a person’s success. The models included:

1. Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni, (2002)
2. BarOn EQ-i by Reuven Bar-On, (1997).
3. The Center for Creative Leadership Model which includes 3 orientations (people, process and organization) and 4 behavioural pillars (centered and grounded, action-taking, participative and tough-minded)
4. The LEADS capability framework for leadership (leadersforlife.ca) which is being adopted by Health Authorities across Canada includes 5 areas (lead self, engage others, achieve results, develop coalitions, systems transformations)

Find out more about Emotional Intelligence

Find out more about Greg’s consulting company

In keeping with the spirit of Valentine’s Day, we will convene a conversation (AKA Salon), facilitated by David Gouthro, about the power of love in the workplace and how its presence can enhance performance improvement.

Topics covered in the conversation include:
• What we mean by the power of love in the workplace
• How we have used it successfully
• How can we imagine using it even more effectively in the future

The entire evening will be a series of interactive conversations about the role and power of love in the workplace. We will be learning from each other. Everyone is encouraged to bring their curiosity, experience, and expertise to enhance our capacities to infuse our performance improvement technologies with altruism, respect, and mutual interdependence.

David Gouthro is a skilled facilitator who has led ISPI events many times in the past. He is currently the national president of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers. David possesses a rare talent for instilling inspiration, courage and innovation in audiences and individuals engaged in his programs and presentations. For over twenty years, he has been encouraging others to seize the day and act to develop greater personal effectiveness, regardless of their situation.

If you’re interested in some pre-reading, try Roger Harrison, “Accessing the Power of Love in the Workplace: an Emerging Theory”. Access at http://globaltransformingensemble.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/power-of-love.pdf

Register today

Ken teaching the Straw through the Potato trick.

Ken Bellemare – member since 2005, presenter and former VP of Marketing.

OCCUPATION: train-the-trainer specialist and magician

DID YOU KNOW that while in Bahrain, Ken played cards and entertained Shaikh Fawaz in his weekly medullas at the King’s palace.  Ken was in the Kingdom of Bahrain to train sports coaches as part of the Canada National Coaching Certification Program of which Ken was a founding member. This was a natural offshoot of Ken’s background as a college football player and athletic director.

Ken and his court - sport coaching workshop in Bahrain.

To “do away with boring presentations” phone Ken at (778) 327-9624 or email him at kbellemare@shaw.ca

As we arrived, we got to create new names based on the children’s book: Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants by Dave Pilkey.  In case we were tongue-tied during our salmon dinner, a variety of provocative questions were scattered around: “You have just discovered a large cookie jar full of something wonderful  It isn’t money.  What’s in there?”

Each game focused on a different learning objective.  The learning point for the “I’m A…” game, for example, stressed that there are more dimensions to an individual than race or national origin. “Your initial needs”, on the other hand, helped to identify learner expectations at the beginning of a session.  Another well-received ice-breaker was “Imaginary Ball Toss” in which the control of the imaginary object gradually changes from trainer to participant in a safe and creative way.

Ken Bellemare also contributed a number of games to the mix, including his “Really like/Really don’t like” activity. This Wizbanger activity forces participants to take a different point of view and opens your mind to new possibilities.  Ken’s “Stop, Look & Listen” activity provided an excellent way for participants to provide instant feedback without speaking. It also forces participants to take a stand without the influence of peer pressure.

In the energizers department, participation was paramount and the attendees gleefully joined in for a rousing and energizing chorus of “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean” in which the group was divided into 6 parts and stood when (and only when) their part was called for. The “Follow the Leader Waka Waka” dance sequence was also a blast. I have to honestly say I don’t remember the learning objective for either of these but it was fun!  The objective may well have been just to get us moving and that it did!

For closing, we did a number of activities including one of my favourite Thiagi exercises “opened my eyes, got me on my feet, touched my heart, made a 360 degree change”.  Snoopy creative learnings and paper airplanes flying with “what I’ll use from tonite” made an energizing ending to a session where time too managed to fly.

Thank you, Carol Ann for facilitating an enjoyable, educational and engaging evening!