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My instructions are so clear: Why don’t they just do it?

My instructions are so clear: Why don’t they just do it?

Marie Gervais, PhD. Global Leadership Associates Inc. www.global-leadership.ca

Managerial frustration, what to do?

In my work helping managers understand cultural adaptation to the workplace, I frequently hear frustrated comments about both newcomer and young workers looking like ‘deer in the headlights’ for simple instructions, even when English language proficiency seems adequate. Managers can also be baffled as to why workers so frequently do exactly the opposite of what they have been instructed to do. And why do so many workers seem incapable of performing simple tasks? Continue reading “My instructions are so clear: Why don’t they just do it?” »

Integrating foreign workers to the workplace

Integrating foreign workers to the workplace

Marie Gervais, PhD. Director, Global Leadership Associates Inc. www.global-leadership.ca

Integrating newcomers into the workplace

Imagine you have just landed in a country where you will be working and living for the first time. Everything is new and strange. People don’t respond the way you expect them to and the environment, food and even the smells around you are completely unfamiliar. When you come to the workplace for the first time, if you already speak English, you don’t understand the accents of your co-workers. If English is new to you, add the confusion and culture shock of having to learn a language before doing your job. Continue reading “Integrating foreign workers to the workplace” »

Pay attention to culture at work Part 2

Culture at work

Pay attention to culture at work and be amazed at the results 2

Marie Gervais, Global Leadership Associates

Part two: how validation of culture improves motivation, discretionary engagement and productivity…

Tip number 2 about understanding culture at work: everyone wants to belong, yet we all want to be seen as our own unique selves, which appear to be two contradictory forces. Belonging involves conformity and uniqueness involves standing out from the crowd. How this affects work is surprising: the more we are valued for our unique qualities and the uniqueness of the various groups that have contributed to making us who we are, the more we feel we belong and the more willing we are to collaborate with others. The more we are forced to compromise ourselves to belong, the less belonging we feel and the less we consider our uniqueness of value. Continue reading “Pay attention to culture at work Part 2” »

Pay attention to culture at work and be amazed at the results!

On a break

Pay attention to culture at work and be amazed at the results!

Take one: Learning to pay attention

Marie Gervais, PhD, CTDP

In several posts about culture at work, I noticed comments along the lines of, “Just create the corporate culture you want (duh),” as if contributors are a little slow on the uptake. So I have decided to write a series to show what culture at work actually looks like and why it matters. Managers and decision makers who think that they have nothing to learn from paying attention to culture in the workplace are missing some critical information, which I hope will become apparent over the next few posts.

Continue reading “Pay attention to culture at work and be amazed at the results!” »

Industry’s training mistakes with e-learning

Industry’s training mistakes with e-learning

Marie Gervais, PhD., Director, Global Leadership Associates

These days, more and more industries are turning to e-learning as a cost effective way to address their training concerns. This trend comes close on the heels of a previous training trend that has widely been considered cost-effective; that of using videos for safety training. I question the effectiveness of plunking en employee in front of a video, leaving the room for a cigarette and returning later asking in a bored voice, “Well buddy, did you learn anything?” From an adult education standpoint, placing a learner in front of video with no specified objectives, criteria, or possibility to practice skills, is basically a waste of time and money. Add to that the possible negative presence of a “trainer” who is bored out of his skull and could care less whether or not the company’s safety record improves. The whole scenario is de-motivating for the employee not to mention a good way to ensure that commitment to safety will decrease rather than increase. Continue reading “Industry’s training mistakes with e-learning” »

Tapping the potential of your multi-ethnic managers in food processing

Multi-ethnic workforce

Tapping the potential of your multi-ethnic managers in food processing

Marie Gervais, PhD, CTDP

In food processing there is increasing promotion of a diverse workforce to managerial levels. Additionally, more and more skilled workers from various countries enter the food processing workforce horizontally. This places the industry at a distinct advantage if decision makers understand what that advantage is and how to tap into it. In this article I will look at just one of these advantages and consider the obstacles that may be keeping us from reaping its benefits. Continue reading “Tapping the potential of your multi-ethnic managers in food processing” »

Coaching to find your inner problem solver

Coaching Your Inner Problem Solver – Get to the Root or Hack at the Leaves!

Karen Gingras

We all solve problems on a daily basis. From trying to avoid a traffic jam to find that we forgot the *$!* phone at home and can’t even call work to say we are going to be late. And that’s just on the way to work.

Out of frustration we “hack at the leaves”, trying to solve all the little crisis moments for today without being able to take the time to reflect on what the root causes of our frustrations might be. Of course, the same issues keep cropping up and so we end up in a cycle of frustration, with slower work and more mistakes, not to mention higher blood pressure. Continue reading “Coaching to find your inner problem solver” »

CSTD certification complete!

Great news! I have now passed all the requirements for the highest

level of certification with the Canadian Society for Training and

Development! This process involved a minimum of 10 years in the field

and a doctorate, a three hour knowledge exam,

a facilitation video that was judged by a panel of experts,

a written explanation to determine how the facilitation video met

all competency requirements, references, and a substantial fee…

My new designation is Marie Gervais, PhD, CSTD which is recognized

around the world by the international branches of Societies for Training

and Development. It means I can facilitate and design adult education

materials for any group anywhere in the world and be considered at the

top of my field. Whew, made it!

Moving beyond the known

In most of the adult learning training situations I facilitate, I use incident studies and case studies. Frequently the incidents pertain directly to the participants’ sector or jobs and are highly engaging for them. For the incident study portion of the training, I walk participants through one of the incidents step-by-step pointing out the cultural clues and then providing an overview of where the clues are pointing.

I then ask participants to go through the process with a new incident, first underlining the cultural clues as we did in the demonstration and then orally describing the situation the way they understand it. This usually results in a general description that is missing an understanding of both significant themes and cultural specifics, in spite of the fact that they can find and underline the clues. Continue reading “Moving beyond the known” »

Training

My instructions are so clear: Why don’t they just do it?

Integrating foreign workers to the workplace

Pay attention to culture at work Part 2

Pay attention to culture at work and be amazed at the results!

Industry’s training mistakes with e-learning

Tapping the potential of your multi-ethnic managers in food processing

Coaching to find your inner problem solver

CSTD certification complete!

Moving beyond the known

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