I have heard from a few folks already about the plans they have to celebrate Employee Learning Week in their companies, organizations, and ASTD chapters. It is so exciting to see folks getting psyched about promoting the value of learning! Remember there are lots of tools on the Employee Learning Week website - including downloadable logos, public service announcements to send to your local radio stations, and press release templates to announce your activities to your local press. You'll find everything at www.employeelearningweek.org. Remeber to send me an email, letting me know what you've done to celebrate ELW and we will send you a Champion of Learning certificate to recognize your efforts! You can email me at kfyfe@astd.org.

Tags: employee learning week, chapters, champion of learning, astd, elw

Categories: ASTD in the News | Chapters | Government | International | Membership

Despite the roughest economy in decades, organizations showed a commitment to learning and development, spending $130 billion in 2008 - or roughly $1,068 per employee. That's one of the big findings in the just-released 2009 State of the Industry Report from ASTD. The numbers are down a bit from 2007, but the news is not glum. Read the press release here for more data. Or you can access the full report at www.astd.org if you are a member of ASTD -- and why wouldn't you be with great research like this?

Tags: state of the industry report, learning and development expeditures, training budgets, research

Categories: ASTD in the News | Government

President’s Chief Performance Officer to Speak at TPM-ASPA Conference (Alexandria, VA) October 21, 2009 – The Public Manager and the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) announce that Jeffrey Zients, Deputy Director for Management, US Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the nation’s first Chief Performance Officer, appointed by President Obama, will speak on Strengthening Trust in Government at their upcoming conference in Washington, D.C. The conference, entitled “Strengthening Trust in Government: Opening Dialogues, Building Collaborations,” will be held November 2-3, 2009 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.  

Zients will be speaking about President Obama’s Management Agenda, a topic first covered in the winter 2008 issue of The Public Manager that addressed issues the next administration would face. Zients’ remarks will be included in an updated forum on the President’s Management Agenda, which will be featured in the winter 2009 issue of the journal to be published in mid-January 2010. 

Happy Learning!

Tags: jeffrey zients, president obama, omb

Categories: Government

Hot off the presses! It is confirmed that Jeffrey Zients, the nation's first Chief Performance Officer, will be speaking at the upcoming conference hosted by The Public Manager and the American Society for Public Administration. The conference will be held November 2-3 in Washington, D.C. For more information on Zients, see the press release. To HEAR him speak, go to the conference. Register at www.thepublicmanager.org/2009conference. Early bird registration has been extended until October 30!

Tags: the public manager, conference, chief performance officer, government, public sector, barack obama, jeffrey zients

Categories: ASTD in the News | Conferences | Government | Public Policy

Please join us for a lively and informative discussion on the topic of accelerated learning and its varied applications in the federal workplace.

Our panel of subject matter expert presenters includes Ethan Saunders, Fellow in Human Capital Strategies at ICF International, Jason Nelson, Program Training Manager, Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, and Courtney Vital Kriebs, Senior Project Manager in Education at ASTD.   
When: Wednesday, October 28, 11:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m.  Where: The Bureau of Labor Statistics, Postal Square Building, First Street entrance, lower level, conference facility.   Use First Street exit at Union Station red line metro station and walk across the street to the building.  Leave enough time to go through building security.   RSVP:  Please RSVP to Jack Malgeri, jrmalgeri@aim.com.  Please also provide your organization’s name and office telephone number for building security entrance purposes. We expect an excellent turnout for this event so reserve a space as soon as possible.   

Happy Learning!

Tags: rapid learning, training, federal government, learning

Categories: Government

By Jill Aitoro at GovExec.com

Leading government into the land of wikis, blogs and social media isn't easy.

Even Sean Dennehy, whose title is evangelist for the intelligence community's widely lauded collaboration Web site Intellipedia, was initially skeptical.

"Cal Andrus spoke to a technology advisory group that I was a part of about wikis and blogs, and we all said, 'This guy is crazy,' " Dennehy recalls. Andrus, who worked in the application services office at the CIA, had won the intelligence community's Galileo Award in 2004 for his white paper on using the Internet to boost information sharing.

Despite a preconceived notion that Web 2.0 technologies had little place in the intelligence community, Dennehy fiddled online with the build-as-you-go encyclopedia, Wikipedia, to see where Andrus was coming from. Sifting through the discussion and history tabs for each entry, he quickly saw similarities in the online community's style of collaboration and the way he and his colleagues at the CIA worked as intelligence analysts. Both approaches involved a lot of dialogue and building on the ideas of others. The big difference, though, was information sharing on the Web required only a few mouse clicks.

"Everyone has a light bulb moment," Dennehy says. "That was mine." He went back to Andrus to ask how the intelligence community could get this sort of wiki up and running. In 2006, Intellipedia officially launched. Three years later, the application boasts about 5,000 contributions and 15,000 edits per day.

But getting there hasn't been easy.

"It's bloody hard, because every inclination in government is to close these types of things down," says Don Burke, officially known as the Intellipedia doyen, who spearheaded the initiative with Dennehy. "People want some magical formula to innovation, but it's not that predictable. They just need to fight like hell."

Caught in the Middle

The Obama campaign built an election platform on Web 2.0 technologies using social media sites, streaming video and blogs to gain support from the country's digitally savvy populace. Building upon that success, President Obama now is driving those initiatives into the federal government. The White House has launched a number of collaborative tools and Web sites to better serve citizens, including Recovery.gov, which tracks how economic stimulus funds are allocated and spent. The president also leveraged the popularity of the video-sharing service YouTube to provide live online access to his speeches.

Click Here to read the entire article.

Happy Learning!

Tags: web 2.0, technology, federal government, social media sites

Categories: Government

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) joined President Barack Obama today in underscoring the administration's commitment to ensuring that every American worker has access to opportunity, including the 54 million people across the nation living with disabilities. To "level the playing field" for those with disabilities, OPM announced it will launch on-line training opportunities for Federal hiring officials.

"I believe strongly that the Federal government should be the model of diversity for all of America," said OPM Director John Berry.  "And that America includes an amazing untapped talent pool of people with disabilities who are eager and ready to join the Federal government. We must do more than just enact inclusive policies, we must actively recruit, develop, retain and promote a workforce that is drawn from and represents the diverse faces of this nation."

The training OPM will be offering, and which will be available to Federal agencies in November, is designed to educate managers, supervisors and human resources managers on ways to use the Schedule A Hiring Authority to recruit and hire talented individuals with disabilities.

In addition to the training, OPM, in coordination with the Department of Labor (DOL), will hold a hiring fair in the spring for those with disabilities. The fair will bring together a number of Federal agencies that have immediate hiring needs and that will hire "on-the-spot."

For complete article, click here.

Happy Learning!

Tags:

Categories: Government

The Public Manager and the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) are pleased to announce that their 2nd annual transformational management conference will be held November 2-3, 2009 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in downtown Washington DC.

“Strengthening Trust in Government: Opening Dialogues, Building Collaborations” will open a practitioner-oriented exchange on effectively addressing this universally strategic topic.

This two-day event will feature:

• Expert speakers from the worlds of both practice and applied research

• Interaction with a wide array of experienced practitioners from all levels of government

• The latest collaborative technologies and social networking tools

• An “agenda building” session that will be shared with the new administration in Washington and other government leaders at the state and local level, and

• Exposure to best practice techniques and case illustrations presented by those most familiar with the planning and implementation of these innovations.

The Public Manager and ASPA are particularly excited about teaming with the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) and dozens of key sponsors, exhibitors and supporters who are all helping make this event possible.

For registration and more information, click here.

Happy Learning!  

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Categories: Government

(Alexandria, VA) – October 5, 2009 – With the rise of “green jobs” and an increased focus on training for green industries, the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) has created a tool for learning and development professionals who are tasked with helping their organizations develop increased sustainability and ecologically intelligent practices. ASTD is the world’s largest association dedicated to the training and development field and leads the profession by providing practical resources that can be quickly deployed in the workplace.

“Lead the Green Evolution” is the title of a new ASTD Infoline created for organizations that are “goinggreen.” Infolines are concise hands‐on publications that focus on one topic and come complete with job aids and tips for best practices.

“Lead the Green Evolution” lists several compelling reasons companies are going green. They are:

• Deal with climate change.

• Reduce consumption.

• Save money.

• Attract and retain better talent.

• Attract customers and influence suppliers.

There is a significant training and development component for any organization adopting greener business practices. This Infoline includes helpful content such as listings for “Green Terminology,” “20 Ways to a Greener Business,” and “Greening Your Training.” Tips for starting a green initiative and a 45‐ item job aid to assess and execute the initiative make this Infoline a must‐have resource for any organization moving toward a more environmentally-conscious operation.

For more information on “Lead the Green Evolution” and ASTD’s other Green Training Resources, click here. To schedule an interview, please call 703.683.8192.

Happy Learning!

Tags: green training, green jobs, green business, training resources

Categories: Government

Human resources consultant Bette Price has developed the term "gen-blending" to describe the mixing of people from various generations at workplaces. These employees work together as equals to address company issues. "The goal is to collectively brainstorm in order to identify problems and get a broader vision of the company," says Price, who is publishing a book on the topic. Gen-blending typically involves three generations--Baby Boomers born in the 1940s and 1950s, Generation Xers born in the 1960s and 1970s, and Millennials or Generation Yers born in the 1980s and 1990s. In 2008, media firm Time Warner started a program called digital reverse mentoring where university students tutor senior executives about using such tools as Facebook and Twitter. Similar efforts are emerging in sectors like finance and commercial services, but are mostly concentrated in energy, engineering, and technology companies, says Price. This is because there is a greeter need for knowledge transfer at those firms. where there is greater need for technical knowledge transfer. Many firms continue to offer traditional programs where senior employees mentor junior employees, which experts say lets senior employees feel engaged.

Click Here to read the entire Financial Times article by Rebecca Knight.

Happy Learning!

Tags: generation xers, baby boomers, millenials, generation yers, gen-blending

Categories: Government