Meetings Bloody Meetings

At the Leadership Blog, Sarge has posted some keys to better meetings. These are: 1. Set a time limit on the meeting. 2. Set an agenda. 3. Invite only those who need to be there. 4. Stay Focused during the meeting.

Alberta Commissioner releases investigation report into improper disclosure of employee information

Commissioner releases investigation report into improper disclosure of home addresses and SINs onto the Internet by two organizations and their law firms.

Commissioner releases investigation report into improper disclosure of home addresses and SINs onto the Internet by two organizations and their law firms

Commissioner Frank Work authorized an investigation under the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) into the disclosure of employee home addresses and Social Insurance Numbers (SINs) by law firms on both sides of a business deal involving a purchase of nine oilfield service companies by Builders Energy Services Ltd.

Shtabsky and Tussman LLP, acting for the vendor company, disclosed the personal information to Stikeman Elliott LLP, who acted for the purchaser. Stikeman Elliott then proceeded to post the personal information on SEDAR, a non password-protected Internet site that publicly disseminates securities information. The complainant is a Builders Energy Services employee who noted his personal information posted on the Internet in the days following the conclusion of the business transaction.

Both law firms advised that the personal information was included in the Purchase & Sale materials inadvertently.

The Commissioners’ investigators found that:

* The disclosure of the home addresses and SINs was not necessary for the purposes of negotiating or concluding the business transaction; * The disclosure of the information by Shtabsky & Tussman to Stikeman Elliott was in contravention of the Act; * The disclosure of the information by Stikeman Elliott onto the Internet was in contravention of the Act; * Builders Energy Services remains accountable for the contravention of Stikeman Elliott as its contractor.

This report outlines organizations’ privacy obligations when personal employee information is collected, used and disclosed during the course of a business transaction. It recommends that both law firms:

* Conduct comprehensive privacy training for lawyers and staff; * Review their processes when representing clients on business transactions where personal information may be collected, used and disclosed, particularly those controls that are in place when material contracts are being posted on SEDAR;

It was further recommended that all parties enact privacy policies and appoint local privacy officers who will be accountable for privacy compliance.

Categories: Employment-Standards

Problems with the Lecture Format

By Andrew Schwartz

ALTERNATIVES TO THE LECTURE FORMAT: How often do you use lectures as your sole training technique? Nearly always? Often? It’s not unusual for trainers to use the lecture technique exclusively. After all, this is what we have all seen and are familiar with. The format is easily mastered, and innovation may not seem necessary when the traditionally accepted technique garners no complaints. Unfortunately, while there are several conditions under which a lecture may be useful to the trainer, for several reasons it is not a very effective tool for changing behavior in trainees.

PROBLEMS WITH THE LECTURE FORMAT: The format requires that trainees receive information passively, without reciprocal involvement. This tends to make trainees feel like children. In fact, this is the precise connotation that the word “lecture” calls up — an authority figure addressing children. The structure of the lesson is therefore instructor-centered rather than trainee-centered. The efficacy of the lecture also suffers from its long history—lectures are expected to be boring. Very few speakers have either training in public speech or theatre, and most lecturers, no matter how hard they try, move slowly toward either monotone or singsong patterns as they settle in. Hearing is a sense that seems to demand constant change — without it, any repetitive tone dissolves into background music. Even the addition of static visual aids helps very little—the human eye is capable of seeing, recognizing, processing, and ultimately tiring of simplistic visual stimulation with surprising speed.

Unless the trainer can make his material unusually interesting, something that few of us accomplish consistently, the constant stream of words will become monotonous to trainees. When there is no room for active participation, it is very difficult for trainees to maintain an adequate attention level. Finally, just as the term “lecture” suggests, there is no room for “back talk.” In a lecture format, any trainee’s expression of a different point of view on a subject matter is simply seen as disruptive or rude. The more controversial (and therefore interesting) questions will be turned aside without adequate attention.

Copyright AE Schwartz & Associates All rights reserved. For additional presentation materials and resources: ReadySetPresent and for a Free listing as a Trainer, Consultant, Speaker, Vendor/Organization: TrainingConsortium

CEO, A.E. Schwartz & Associates, Boston, MA., a comprehensive organization which offers over 40 skills based management training programs. Mr. Schwartz conducts over 150 programs annually for clients in industry, research, technology, government, Fortune 100/500 companies, and nonprofit organizations worldwide. He is often found at conferences as a key note presenter and/or facilitator. His style is fast-paced, participatory, practical, and humorous. He has authored over 65 books and products, and taught/lectured at over a dozen colleges and universities throughout the United States.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Categories: Training-and-Development

Interview Questions

A couple of recent magazine articles on creativity have given me a couple of ideas for interview questions that might suss out something of a candidate’s creativity. In June 2005 Fast Company, Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO says they recruit “T-Shaped people”. That is, people who have a principle skill, the vertical leg, but are willing and able to branch out into other skills, the horizontal beam.

In Men’s Health magazine, Jelly Helm of Wieden + Kennedy, offering five rules for creativity, includes “be fearless”; don’t be afraid to make mistakes. He quotes WK president Dan Wieden, “You’re not useful to me until you’ve made three momentous mistakes.”

Questions:

• Explain the concept of a T-shaped person to the candidate and then ask for specific examples of times when they had to explore a new skill area so that they could complete a project. The answer to this question could also give some insight into how the candidate might contribute with other disciplines in a team environment.

• Ask the candidate to tell you about the three biggest mistakes they have made. Follow it up with, “What did you learn from those mistakes?” or, in the case of the “perfect” candidate, “Why have you not made any mistakes?”

Categories: Recruiting