Rebecca's Role and the Office of Quality Initiatives (OQI)

• Rebecca is a Leadership and Professional Development Officer with the Office of Quality Initiatives at Carleton.
• Responsibilities:
  • Develop leadership skills and professional development for employees at Carleton, including both staff and faculty (no distinction between them).
  • Broad scope: social–emotional learning, leadership styles, management development, and related areas.
  • Part of a broader OQI team focused on organizational excellence and organizational development.
• Complementary roles within the office:
  • Healthy Workplace Officer: focuses on fostering a healthy workplace, impacting organizational culture and team morale.
  • Senior Quality Advisers: portfolios include strategic planning support, process improvement, and lean practices; provide facilitation and consultations.
• Core activities of the office:
  • Facilitate processes, start conversations, and support board retreats and governance structures at Carleton.
  • Emphasis on learning, professional development, and leadership development as major components of the team’s work.

How Training Needs Are Identified at Carleton

• Multi-pronged needs assessment approach:
  • Direct suggestions from staff via email, phone, and a website portal (poor little portal mentioned) for requests.
  • Session-level feedback: each training session includes time for participants to provide input on what they want to see more of and how to improve.
  • Regular feedback during sessions (start, end, or during) to capture fresh needs.
  • Engagement with campus groups and teams to identify needs from multiple perspectives (team leaders, executives, etc.).
  • Aim to avoid reinventing the wheel by co-developing or leveraging pre-existing expertise/resources.
• Planning and scheduling:
  • Operates around academic terms: fall (Sept–Dec), winter (Dec–Apr), and spring/summer terms.
  • Fall offerings, winter offerings, spring/summer offerings to align with academic/work cycles and improve accessibility.
• Implementation approach:
  • Co-create training when possible; leverage existing resources; respond to identified needs with appropriate delivery.
  • Ensure training topics are varied to cover different needs across the year.

Trends and Common Training Needs

• Technology and AI:
  • Technology adoption is essential for leveraging skills, enabling connection, communication, collaboration, and efficiency.
  • Emphasis on accessing and using tools like Microsoft Office with organizational licenses.
  • Growing interest in how AI (e.g., ChatGPT, Copilot) integrates into work processes to enhance productivity and value-added work.
  • Staff and students express a desire for more information and training on AI and its practical workplace applications.
• Resilience, coping, and change management:
  • Ongoing importance of resilience, coping strategies, and managing change.
  • Post-COVID realities, remote/hybrid/in-person work arrangements, and work-life balance considerations.
• Other recurring themes (implied):
  • Leadership development, management skills, and ongoing professional growth to support organizational culture and performance.

Important Elements of Effective Training (From Andragogy and Practice)

• Adult learning principles (andragogy) vs. pedagogy:
  • Emphasizes lived experience and prior work/career context.
  • Learner-centered approaches that respect adults’ developmental stages and experiences.
• Key practices for effective training:
  • Know your learner: tailor content to learners’ experiences and needs.
  • Co-development: collaborative design with participants to ensure relevance.
  • Structure and engagement: careful consideration of curriculum structure, engagement strategies, delivery modes, and question design.
  • Accountability to learners: maintain a learning-first mindset and demonstrate commitment to learners’ outcomes.
  • Application to the real world: connect training content to workplace performance and organizational goals.
• Personal application by Rebecca:
  • Uses her Master’s in Education (Adult Education) to inform curriculum development and evaluation.
  • Balances theory with practice and strives to apply theory to improve training effectiveness.
  • Emphasizes role-modeling and walking the talk by prioritizing her own learning and encouraging others to do the same.

Feedback, Evaluation, and Continuous Improvement

• Collection and use of feedback:
  • Post-training satisfaction questionnaires (both quantitative and qualitative data).
  • Opportunities to provide feedback in Brightspace or via separate emails (anonymous options mentioned).
  • Feedback used to understand what worked, what didn’t, and what should be improved.
• Data analysis and planning:
  • Regular planning sessions (a couple of times per year) to review metrics, data, and qualitative/quantitative feedback.
  • Metrics are important for reporting to leadership; qualitative feedback complements metrics (testimonials, narratives).
  • Continuous improvement mindset throughout the year, not only during formal planning periods.
• Action based on feedback:
  • Adjustments to existing trainings, addition of new topics, or development of new sessions based on learner input.
  • Willingness to capture separate feedback and continue conversations to refine or expand offerings.
• Value of testimonials and community learning:
  • Testimonials are valued for showcasing success and building a culture of continuous learning.
  • Emphasis on creating a community around learning and sharing knowledge.

Performance Management and Training Requests

• How training gets initiated:
  • More common path is from direct requests by managers or directors who identify a need for their teams.
  • Leaders may request training for a specific group or for broader audiences.
• Nature of Carleton’s performance management:
  • Not identical to government-style performance management; structure is different.
  • Training requests often come from above for a particular team or department rather than university-wide mandates.
• How needs are explored:
  • One-on-one discussions to understand the specific need and desired outcomes.
  • Determine the best next steps based on the identified need and available resources.
• Future possibilities:
  • Potential for university-wide training initiatives or mandatory topics in the future; not ruled out but currently more localized.
• Balancing needs:
  • Prioritize learner needs while recognizing organizational goals; both perspectives are considered.

Excellence and Recognition: Helping with Awards and Standards

• Platinum standards and Healthy Workplace awards:
  • Some Carleton units have achieved Platinum and other recognitions (e.g., Healthy Workplace, and programs like Student Enrollment).
  • The Office of Quality Initiatives can play a supporting role in award processes.
• How OQI contributes:
  • Facilitating consultation questions for award processes.
  • Collecting and summarizing feedback from divisions for reports.
  • Translating feedback into more accessible reports or applications for recognition.
• Scope of involvement:
  • Involvement depends on the unit and award requirements; can range from note-taking to synthesis and facilitation.

Culture, Morale, and the Learning Ecosystem at Carleton

• Carleton’s culture:
  • Perceived as employee-centered and student-centered with broad training opportunities.
  • Emphasis on learning as a core organizational value linked to morale and performance.
• The role of training in organizational strategy:
  • Learning and development are integral to achieving strategic plans and ongoing organizational development.
  • When people learn and grow, team morale and organizational morale tend to improve (the domino effect).
• Rebecca’s philosophy and approach:
  • Walk the talk: prioritize her own learning and model the behavior she encourages.
  • Believe in a growth mindset; there is always room to learn in every situation.
  • The learning mindset is crucial for individual and collective success.

Personal Reflections: Motivations and Favorite Aspects

• Rebecca’s favorite aspects:
  • The learning component and helping others learn.
  • Supporting colleagues and fostering a learning culture.
  • Role modeling and encouraging others to adopt a learning mindset.
• Practical and ethical implications:
  • The importance of making training relevant, engaging, and respectful of learners’ experiences.
  • Balancing organizational goals with individual learner needs.
  • Ensuring inclusive, accessible training and protecting learner autonomy and feedback confidentiality when requested.

Closing Thoughts and Community Tone

• The conversation closes with appreciation for the Carleton learning ecosystem and the collaborative effort of the team.
• Recognition of ongoing collaboration and the value of training in supporting both student and employee experiences.