:sciducator

I have come accustomed to using numbers over this past year. Numbers to help track progress, numbers to help bring about change, and numbers to help promote excellence.  Funny how numbers do not lie.

In 2009, rather than saying, it feels like a good year, I will indeed let the numbers speak for themselves:

* An 80% data capture event for the university.  More metrics are available for academic work than ever before leading to a more thorough account of the 1,000 faculty who work for the university, and a far better break out of scholarship work for accreditation purposes.

* Increased web engagement of university in social media groups and currently serve as a representative/mediator in 3 community media groups.

* A five fold increase in faculty engagement in recruitment with more meeting minimum expectations than two years prior.

* A 70% participation rate on employee engagement events.  Comparative analysis made simple with new benchmarks.  All first time events.

* 15 First Time Training Events – 10 New Technologies introduced – Top Ratings at all events.

* 5 Conference Events – 2 of which received the highest marks of any presenter.

* Assisted 22 people in getting a new job outside of CityU.  Assisted over 100 people in getting jobs at CityU.

* Created the first Washington Chapter for CUPA-HR with our new Board members.

* 2 Newly designed courses – one that will help shape new course design in Inquiry Design and Sustainable Education.

*  11 New cities, 5 Consultant gigs, and over 15,000 miles.

As proud as I am of this work, nothing compares to the feedback I have received from my colleagues over this past year – I have been very blessed to work with such amazing professionals.  You can find many of those examples through my LinkedIn Profile, http://www.linkedin.com/in/ryangunhold.

My work with education will continue in the coming year with the start of the Museum Project, new reach as an Education Consultant, and development of a new Business Development Plan that will have a tremendous impact on education.  The key now is getting enough groups to hear about this work so I can incorporate important feedback into that plan.  Want to learn more?  Want to be one of those groups?  Please respond to this post regarding, or send me an email at rgunhold@cityu.edu.

Have a great 2010.    RG

2 Comments

October and November have been two fun-filled presentation months.  With the all the work done on Engagement, it was time to take the show on the road.  First stop, the Northwest Human Resource Manager’s Conference with Tim Sprake and Murat Phillipe.  These gents did a bang up job of not just presenting why engagement is so prevalent in the workplace as a success factor, but how this becomes impacted by a more diverse multi-generational workforce.

Next stop – the CUPA-HR Conference where we will not only share these important engagement factors, but will also provide some specific data that impacts higher education organizations.  I will be presenting the information there as I get the opportunity to share some of the Chronicle’s baseline data on what we see for engagement at Top Colleges.  Their 2008-2009 report showed common themes that should be the highlight of the presentation.

And finally, with Faculty Conferences quickly approaching, I have been invited to present at least one presentation on Engagement, or some breakout sessions on Effective Collaborative Tools for the Working Practitioner.  In that regard, I am sure that I’ll get use of my current ITMGMT 500 – Managing the IT Career, or the MAL 535 – Leading Diverse Organizations class work.  In either case, whether it is for leadership purposes, or for the working professional, it is sure to get good reach.

Cannot remember a time where so much of my work has been shared.  It brings a great sense of accomplishment to see these collaborative research efforts come to fruition.  Enjoy the show, http://www.screencast.com/users/Ryan.Gunhold-0224/folders/Jing/media/41630e27-7a1d-4d88-86d6-edf2adbbc278

No Comments

After planning and testing for months, the Inquiry Learning Model was completed this past week at the University.  Testing groups include our MIT, dual endorsement groups, and soon, I will suggest this learning design for the university-wide training model.

I have never seen groups leverage so much technology, professional design, and unique client learning experience.  Signs of social media within even our own School of Education have been evident.  Examples include use of Google sites, Goodreads, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Delicious sites.  I will be quite interested to see how well this integrates with new Sustainability Programs.

Even more impressive has been the obvious empowerement that has emerged within these groups.  So impressive are the results that many note being able to manage skills gaps in areas of technology that they would not have been able to manage previously.  That kind of growth – though anticipated, has been above anything I have ever observed within learning groups/organizations.  This does help to prove that inquiry design can do a lot to fill gaps throughout organizational learning models.

No Comments

Beginning last May, we began the transition to our new Performance Management Systems at City University.  We have presented the final results to our Executive Team as well as to all university managers on the Final Engagement Survey Results, and the next steps in action planning.

Quality action planning will be a key ingredient to ensuring that ongoing initiatives throughout the university help take shape.  We’ll be conducting numerous trainings to help implement ActionPro, the action planning software.  This software is great at being able to pull data into action planning steps based on best practices.  Another great function of ActionPro is its ability to map mentors to these best practices so that those who are getting quality results can be leveraged for their implementation strategies.

The final phase during implementation will occur when we transition those programs into Success Factors, which should take effect this summer.  More competencies, great aligned actions – looks like there will be a greater impact throughout the organization when it comes to great execution.

No Comments

All walls are not guarded by men with guns as the statement says in “A Few Good Men.”  However, when it comes to the difference an organization can make, nothing can come close to the honest feedback employees can provide.  In the case of our most recent Engagement Survey, the truth has been collected.  No more pondering, or hearsay.  Just data driven information that tells the real story.

Upon the Feedback Sessions that wrapped up this month, there is a definite sense that our employees have been heard.  The information gathered will be presented in April following the Manager training of Action Pro – the new launch of our Performance Management program.  Though this will eventually migrate into Success Factors, these will be the first steps the university will take in getting actions aligned to organizational outcomes.

A lot of work to get here, and a lot of greatness to still come.  When this work is in place, change will occur more effectively, and more clearly.  And perhaps finally, this organization will begin to reach a potential it had only dreamed of before.

Happy Dreaming,

Ryan Gunhold

No Comments

No doubt, in this tough economy, one of the first areas of budgets to be eliminated within organizations is Training and Development.  So, with such fluctuation of organizational needs, what is the value of having training and development respond to your needs, OR instead to help create the foundations of a learning organization?

This will be a key question as we analyze the organizational needs of every department in the coming month.  Of all the outcomes to be explored the most will be Training and Development.  As we better understand our customer needs, some of the questions I’ll be asking is, how can we best offer such learning programs that will ensure success into current action plans?  What will be our best modes of facilitation?  How will managers track the progress they are getting from their teams?

All answers to be explored soon enough.  Should be an insightfully journey especially in a higher education learning environment, but what else would I expect to be getting myself into?

Ryan Gunhold

2 Comments

Hard to believe in a few hours that we we’ll be saying goodbye to 2008.  So much coming in 2009 to be excited about, but not without giving justice to the work that has been accomplished first.  For years, I have been wanting to write more, and this has been a year to get a lot of that work started.  With three KAM templates begun, I’ll be presenting my Social Change, Organizational Systems, and Leadership in the coming year.  The application of that work comes out with three culminating projects at the university – the new Performance Management System, the use of Social Media Strategy, and future Training Development for our Key Managers.

I’ll also begin teaching for our School of Management in our Masters in Leadership program for the first time in their Masters in Leadership Program.  The theme – Organizational Change in Global Leadership – is one that I will be able to apply numerous practioner models that will showcase my work over the last few years in Training, Development, and Learning communities worldwide.

And most importantly, the Big Picture – the application of business models in academic environments – will have tremendous impact this year at the university.  This work will be forever changing not just for the university, but will serve as a development model for all organizations that value learning.  So much trailblazing to come – cannot wait!

Ryan Gunhold

No Comments

With our independent survey contractor, HR Solutions, I am learning a great many things about how consultant organizations are effective in the scope of their work.  In the past, the university had organization wide surveys, but nothing to the level that HR Solutions is able to provide.  They are able to track demographics, departments, and align it all to organizational outcomes.  What did we use to do as an organization?  Get the results, share the results, and hope we learned from the results.  With HR Solutions, they help provide a system to setup action steps for individual employees targeted to get the most out of the results from the survey.  It’s an impressive process that pulls from all the great theorists I have am currently referencing in Human Development.  Looks like another well planned section of my Knowledge Area Module.  If this keeps up, CityU will end up earning my PhD for me

Ryan Gunhold

http://www.linkedin.com/in/ryangunhold

No Comments

Following the team development training for City University of Seattle’s Human Resource Department, fellow colleagues were noting the value Social Media would have throughout the organization.  Throughout the university and with the obvious rise of the Web 2.0 revolution, it is becoming a hot topic to be a savvy about.  With over five webcast productions I have attended over the past two months, this form of marketing is truly taking root – especially within professional communities.

The purpose of this training was to examine that notion.  Not only for the purpose of the university, but for greater purposes in areas of study in my second KAM (Knowledge Area Module).  As noted during the training, the increased value added to professionalism is incredible.  For recruitment and other areas of social networking, this form of “advertisement” has greater reciprocal investment that old forms of marketing used in the past.  I’ll even be a keynote speaker today on the topic at Bellevue Community College.

Looking forward to the new opportunities this will present.

No Comments

With the new fall term on our heals, there’s a lot of great accomplishments the university can be proud of in relation to the faculty initiative. In every area as far as performance evaluation, learning outcomes, job & career path, recognition, metrics, alignment, compensation, communication, and even mentoring has made progress and established new standards for our faculty. Overall, there is a lot that has been done here that will help to transform our faculty community into one of the highest performing ones using a multi-modality mode in higher education. This community is one that will also be able to integrate the transformational topics we see emerging out of education and business sub-topics using technology. Not to mention, I would only assume that having our campuses connect through various global locations wouldn’t hurt either. We’ll see how this community shapes up in time, and just how much fun we will have supporting it.

Ryan Gunhold, Faculty Recruiter, Teaching Faculty

http://www.linkedin.com/in/ryangunhold

No Comments