Articles

Copyright 2001 Cyndi Maxey and Debbie Rakestraw. FORUM Magazine

Introduction

Scenario: One of your associations elects a new president who adds two new directors and three committees to respond to a need for increased Internet marketing and research for their industry. Consequently, you realize that your staff needs training fairly soon on meeting facilitation, Internet research, and web-based communication. Some interpersonal skills training wouldn’t hurt, either, as the new president has a strong personality that will be challenging.
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Networking is not a matter of how many people you know, but of how many people know YOU. The great networkers know this. They know that a network is never a finished product; it is always dynamic—a continual creation of communication links. So, what’s new?

Technology has changed the process of how we create the links. Anyone who has experienced the phenomenon of no returned phone calls has heard the wake-up call. The Internet, e-mail, teleconferencing, cellular phones, pagers, and a myriad of other types of telecommunications affect the way even great networkers need to network. Let’s look at how attending a meeting of a professional association has changed. Continue Reading →

Imagine that you have a wonderful staff that is self-motivated every day. They do great work, ask for challenging projects, and beg to be trained. It sounds like the perfect workplace, doesn’t it? You would think that most managers would savor the situation, but sadly, there are too many who sabotage their staffs with their own actions.

According to research conducted by ToxicBoss.com, 80% of the employees who quit their jobs do so because of problems with their bosses. Researchers Chandra Louise, PhD and Fred O. Smith, MD, cite that while employees may give the human resources staff other reasons for quitting, they tell their friends, “I’d still be there even for that pittance of a salary if it weren’t for that awful boss.”
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By Cyndi Maxey and Barry Lyerly

NSA-Illinois member Cyndi Maxey and her co-author Barry Lyerly share some tips on how to co-author a book based on their book Training from the Heart, Developing Your Natural Training Abilities to Inspire the Learner and Drive Performance on the Job, (2000) ASTD Books, Alexandria, VA. Continue Reading →

Co-authors
Rhonda Blender and Cyndi Maxey

ABSTRACT
Patient wait times still exist, and elimination of office wait times still appears to be an important marketing tool. Patients feel increased demands on their time, and if the wait is too long, they may not come back. However, if it is reasonable and handled well, it accumulates with other positive perceptions of service, and patients return. In this article, the authors review the reality of wait times in medical practices today, what dissatisfies patients most, the treatment patients want while waiting, and a checklist of steps to take to reduce wait times in a medical practice.

Text Highlights

1. A study of patient satisfaction data collected at the University of Chicago Hospitals Center For Advanced Medicine concluded that patient rating of the promptness of physician service is directly related to the patient’s report of likelihood to return for follow-up services.
2. Patients seemed to associate long waits most closely with a physician overall negative attitude toward patients.
3. Avoiding contact with patients may only generate additional patient feelings of uncertainty and impatience.
4. An organization needs to look at specific systems/process issues that contribute to wait delays.
5. The top business issue mentioned was consistently long waits.
6. Most patients comment less on the length of the wait than how the wait is handled

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By Cyndi Maxey and Barry Lyerly

Maybe it looks like a jungle out there, but nature is sustained through an orderly, delicate balance of many interacting elements: new trees spring from seeds sprouting on rotting logs, predators feed on creatures lower in the food chain, some plants thrive in sunshine and others in the shade of the forest, plant photosynthesis gives off oxygen, which, in turn, supports animal respiration. This natural balance ensures that each species occupies a special niche where resources are available for its survival.

Today’s business world resembles a jungle in many respects. As corporations downsize and the workforce shrinks, more is being asked of employees than ever before. Employees are on their own more than ever, because managers have less time for coaching and handholding. Face-to-face meetings are giving way to email, teleconferencing, and voicemail messaging. Organizational changes are occurring rapidly, and employees must be quick to adapt. Trainers are pressured to do more with fewer resources and to demonstrate results in less time. The heart of the workplace—its meaning and significance—gets lost in the chaos. Continue Reading →

I grew up in Peoria. Most of my major values were established while growing up in Peoria. That’s where I was when I was ten, when values begin to set. Reflecting back on the city, I relearn what it taught. To the readers of the Chicken Soup books and to others searching for simple life philosophies, I offer up these “large lessons from a small city.”

A smile and a friendly “Hello” go a long way.
One of the culture shocks that I experienced shortly after my move to Chicago twenty-two years ago was that people didn’t smile and say “Hi” at the grocery store, on the street, or at the cleaners. In fact, people seemed to go of their way to avoid each other. Peoria taught a different etiquette. If only Chicagoans and other urbanites could imagine going through a day when everyone you meet smiles and says “Hello.” That could amount to perhaps thirty people per day looking at you instead of avoiding you. That would have to affect your outlook. Continue Reading →

Copyright June 1999, Training & Development, American Society for Training & Development. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

Self management is essential in today’s work environment. Faced with constant change and volatility, employees must be able to work and act independently. Management scholar Peter Drucker, in a recent Training & Development interview, declared, “I no longer teach the management of people at work, which was one of my most important courses… I am teaching, above all, how to manage oneself.” (September 1998, p.24) Author Robert Kelley (How to Be a Star at Work, Times Business Books, 1998), found that self management was one of many star employee strategies. In studies at Bell Labs and 3M, he discovered that stars constantly ask themselves how they can be more valuable; they worry about what should get on their to-do lists. Self-managed people realize that it’s their responsibility, not the company’s; they readily take the initiative.

As trainers and developers, shouldn’t we also be encouraging employee responsibility and initiative? Why not emphasize self management in the learning environment itself? Recently, I conducted presentations training for one of the most dynamic, committed groups of young women I have ever encountered—a New York based marketing team of an international cosmetics company. In the two days we worked together, I was struck by their commitment to learning—to trying everything, thriving on creative thinking, and constantly applying the concepts to their jobs. These learners were not looking to be spoon-fed, nor did they agree with everything put before them. They made their own “to-do lists.” They were truly self managed.
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Published in Training & Development Magazine, May 1998

I remember Miss Bernadette Sperling, my high school English teacher, warning, “Do not write in the margin. Keep your work neat and clean and easy to read.” (This was, of course, in the days when we still wrote reports in longhand.) “Neat, clean, and easy to read” rarely happens in the training classroom. Recently, one of my clients gave me an updated version of the trainer guide for a course I had been facilitating for the past year. I smiled outwardly as I accepted it, but inwardly I was panicked—”A new clean guide! Oh no! What about all my notes … everything I’d learned?”

Most trainers will admit to writing in the margins. Because our effectiveness is directly tied to our ability to listen to the group, we are constantly making mental and written margin notes—to keep learning, energized and effective. Let’s take a look at what experienced trainers know—about energizing a group, adapting to groups, and impromptu editing.  Continue Reading →