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Wrapping up Employee Learning Week(s)

December 23, 2008 By Leave a Comment

For the past few weeks I’ve disappeared from my virtual worlds–blogs, RSS, Facebook, twitter, FriendFeed–as I’ve been immersed in Employee Learning Week–which turned into weeks.

This year I had an ambitious goal at PLCMC. To celebrate Employee Learning Week I wanted to start with the basics of learning…learning styles. In my email to staff announcing ELW I included a link to a survey I created which would administer Kolb’s Learning Styles Inventory.

Over 200 staff completed the survey–about a third of our employees, and even though I had macros and mail merges set up to make tabulating the results easy it still took a while to create individual reports for each of the 211 employees who completed the survey.

Here is a copy of the email I sent out wrapping up the survey.

Curious how PLCMC employees learn?

As part of Employee Learning Week, over 200 PLCMC staff completed a Learning Styles Inventory.

The results are in!

When you look at the dominant learning style for those who took the survey:

35% have a dominant learning style of Applier (Finding the practical application of ideas.)

29% have a dominant learning style of Actor (Action and getting things done.

27% have a dominant learning style of Thinker (Creating concepts and models.)

9% have a dominant learning style of Innovator (Offering ideas, alternatives and examples.)

This breakdown is illustrated in the following pie chart:

The bigger picture – we’re fairly balanced at PLCMC.

Although our indivudual learning styles vary, when you look at PLCMC as a whole, our preferences for learning are very balanced. Many staff were dominant in several areas and one person was completely balanced with 25% in each quadrant. If you total all of the submissions and plot the results as one unit, our overall learning style looks like this:



What can I do with this information?

As individuals, we each have our own unique learning styles and preferences. Each of the people you work with has a unique learning style as well. When we combine that diversity among our employees great things can happen. The key is to remember that not everyone learns the same way. Simply by being aware of our similarities and differences, we can make an effort to reach out to those who are different from ourselves.

Filed under: Learning

Free Teleseminar: Thriving as a Professional Trainer in these Turbulent Times

December 3, 2008 By Leave a Comment

At ASTD’s ALC Bob Pike CSP, CPAE-Speakers Hall of Fame promised ASTD President’s to help professional trainers. “Where there is fear, their is opportunity.” he said. “And I’m hearing way to much fear as I visit chapters.” The free teleseminar is called, “Thriving, not surviving, as a Professional Trainer in these Turbulent Times.” Based on his 40 years experience in the field Bob will share the strategies that will help turn the present environment from a negative to a positive — for full details and free registration follow this link:
http://TinyWebLink-001.com/?pid=4516802 .

The webinar will be December 5 with free replay available for those who register in advance.

Filed under: Learning Opportunities

Free Webinar: Learning for Learning Professionals

December 3, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Learning for Learning Professionals: Competencies, Strategies and Resources

Event Type: Webinar
Date: 12/11/2008
Start Time: 1pm Central/2pm Eastern
Duration: 1 hour

Description: As trainers, continuing education coordinators and staff development managers, we believe in lifelong learning. We are committed to helping library employees improve their skills and build successful careers. As cheerleaders for organizational and individual learning, do we sometimes lose sight of our own learning? What are we doing to invest in ourselves? What are the competencies that we will need as we lead our libraries in future skill development and employee learning?

To celebrate Employee Learning Week, join us for an exploration of current and future competencies for learning professionals working in libraries. We will look at strategies for our own development and the resources available to help us pursue them.

This hour-long webinar is co-sponsored by WebJunction and ALA’s Continuing Library Education Network and Round Table (CLENERT).

Mary Ross, CLENERT Board member and former manager of staff development at the Seattle Public Library, will lead the discussion. She will be joined by Betha Gutsche curriculum designer for e-learning initiatives at WebJunction, and Jennifer Homer, vice president of external relations for the American Society of Training and Development.

Register here.

Filed under: Learning Opportunities

Next Week is Employee Learning Week – ELW2008

December 3, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Next week is Employee Learning Week 2008. On the WebJunction message board, Betha Gutsche has offered a challenge:

I’d love to see more libraries in the 2008 Champions of Learning roster. Last year, there was one—PLCMC. They got a proclamation from the Mayor of Charlotte to declare a city-wide Employee Learning Week. Putting it in words that “workforce development is everyone’s business” is a step in the right direction.

It’s not too late to participate. It can be as simple as what we did at PLCMC last year–sending out emails to employees highlighting benefits we offer to our staff in learning. You can read copies of the emails we sent out last year here.

ALA-APA has partnered with ASTD as well and offers a library toolkit and poster for Employee Learning Week.

So let’s hear it. How are you celebrating learning this year? Don’t forget to submit your celebration to ASTD so you can be recognized as a champion of learning!

Filed under: Learning
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