NZATD for October 08

First up was Jude Moen a Bank manger turned trainer. She talked about her change the associated problems she faced and some of the methods she used to get her through her transition. She ended up basically using her personality to get her through and by not pretending to be something she wasn't was well received by her students. So with know formalized training she now works full time as a tranner with westpac and the prison her in Christchurch. Her biggest piece of advise was be yourself, show people respect no matter who they are and you will get the same in return.

The key note for the evening was Glenda Hamilton, she is the training manger for NZIM, I've know Glenda for about a year now and did some work with her last year. She was just starting e learning within NZIM at that stage and she asked me to have a look at what she had developed at that early stage. Her project has really taken off now.

She talked about the American Society for Training Development (ASTD) Conference in San Diego this year.

ASTD (American Society for Training & Development) is the world’s largest association dedicated to workplace learning and performance professionals. ASTD’s members come from more than 100 countries and connect locally in nearly 140 U.S. chapters and 25 Global Networks. Members work in thousands of organizations of all sizes, in government, as independent consultants, and suppliers.

ASTD started in 1944 when the organization held its first annual conference. ASTD has widened the profession’s focus to link learning and performance to individual and organizational results, and is a sought-after voice on critical public policy issues.
She made a number of interesting points about the two day conference and has offered me the use of some of the resources she brought back. Glenda used the conference as a benchmarking exercise and was plesently surprised that she was very much on track as far as learning and development was concerned within NZIM.

ASTD has a great resource store that can be accesed on line.

The key note at the conference was Patrick Lencioni and for the 9000 Americans that turned up this guy was the draw card.

Some of the tools and information she brought back were very useful and I'll be using some of them in the very near future. I was especially interested in the competency model they are using.

Insted of going on about the different aspects that Glenda talked about visit the web site to get an overview of some of the information available.