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Virtual Training Basics by Cindy Huggett

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I have been teaching online since 2002. Myself and Cathy Van Dyke converted the Facilitating Career Development (FCD) class to a hybrid model and CCE didn’t know what the heck we were trying to do 🙂

We thing we were the first people to actually move the FCD class to a hybrid model.

Since then I have added online, discussion-based, 5-week long seminars that are completely asynchronous using a variety of Learning Management Systems (LMS) over the years. Even so, I picked up a number of tips from Cindy and tons of affirmations that I am doing things right (and now I have the research to support it).

If you teach or train online (in COVID many of us have had to) and if you are new to teaching online, get your hands on this book, it will help you prepare to be a better trainer online.

Small Teaching by James M. Lang

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Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning.

As an instructor, I am always looking for ways to improve my teaching and ensure that people are retaining the information I am sharing. This book, brings numerous tips backed by science, research, and the author practicing them to the reader.

I really appreciated the way he presented the information broken down into three major parts. (1) Knowledge and how we learn it (2) Understanding which is taking the knowledge and DOING something with it, and (3) Inspiration. What are some tips on how to inspire our students.

Each section introduces the theory, then gives models of use, review principles to remember, and provides a nice tips and summary.

My big take aways are that you have to practice retrieving from memory and the more times you can do that, in different ways, the more you will remember. Reminds me of the time I had to memorize what seemed like over a hundred trees by their bark, leaf, and their Latin names. We played pool at night in the local bar and your opponent would give you a quiz. If you answered it right, you got to shoot. 🙂

He also introduces ways to “interleave” learning by adjusting your class time. Things like using the first or last 5 minutes of each class to review key points. Using short quizzes that are not heavily graded and spreading them out before you give the test that has many points attached to it.

I particularly liked his section on Inspiration and how he demonstrates the importance of telling stories to improve learning. Stories on one of the foundations of my career coaching practice and it was good to see the research behind this.

If you teach in classes to any level, even if it is in a hybrid model, or totally online, this books has lots of tips that will improve what you do.

Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham

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The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster.

Holy jumping up and down Martha!! This book scared the crap out of me. The Russians were so worried about looking bad in the world’s eyes they covered up this nuclear disaster for years. Their incompetence in building the reactors was where it began, but it did not end there.

Their fear of upsetting communist party members above them, kept many people who were involved quiet. Based upon the construction problems and shoddy workmanship, it was merely a matter of time before they had an accident.

One appalling thing (there are many) was that the nuclear blast was carried on the jet stream to other countries like Finland and no country was notified of the explosion.

This book gives an insight to the “thinking” that goes on in Russian minds, most likely to this day, as well as the fundamental problem of nuclear energy…can it be controlled?

A fairly quick read with over 140 pages of glossary, notes, and index.

Yeah, you should read it.

INTERVIEW: Exploring Implicit Bias

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In my own effort in exploring implicit bias in my own life, I have challenged myself to watch podcasts like How to Citizen with Baratunde, a variety of articles like Adesuwa Igbineweka’s, TedTalks, and reading books like White Fragility.

In this interview with Dr. Cheryl Love and Lakeisha Mathews, I continue to explore implicit bias in my life and in our work as career service providers.

Knowing that we all view the world from our own perspective; how we were raised, where we were raised, our family’s culture, etc…this means that we all have some level of implicit bias. In this interview we explore these questions.

Q1:  What do you see as issues affecting quality career services on this topic of implicit bias?

Q2:  What can career service providers do to improve their own sensitivity to implicit bias?
Watch this interview now with Dr. Cheryl Love and Lakeisha Mathews as we explore this topic for career coaches and service providers.

BIOs
Dr. Cheryl Love is a Career Counselor and Liaison to the College of Education & Integrative Studies and the Bronco Dreamers Resource Center at Cal Poly Pomona.  She is the Coordinator of the Clothes Closet Service for the Career Center and is Adjunct Faculty for the Educational Leadership Department at Cal Poly Pomona.  Cheryl has 32+ years of experience as a Counselor and Teacher in all four Higher Education systems in California (UC, CSU, Private and Community) as well as the Public School and Non-Profit sector. She has a Master’s Degree in Counseling with a Pupil Personnel Service Credential from California State University, Fullerton and a Doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles in Educational Psychology emphasis in Counseling. 

She serves on the Executive Board of the Black Faculty and Staff Association as the Scholarship Chair and Membership Co-Chair at Cal Poly Pomona and serves as the Co-Chair of the National Career Development Association (NCDA) Committee on Diversity Initiatives and Cultural Inclusion, and is a member of the Higher Education Constituency Advisory Board for NCDA.  She is also a board member for the California Career Development Association (CCDA).   She has presented on a number of occasions at NCDA, and CCDA Conferences on Diversity and Inclusion and Social Justice Issues. 

Honors include:  Cal Poly Pomona Outstanding Advisor of the Year and Diversity Champion Award in 2017; Recipient of the National Association of University Women (NAUW) 2018 March Church Terrell Award given to people who have a passion for working towards gender and racial equality and African-American mobility; and in 2019 a recipient of the Champion for Fighting Student Hunger Award offered by the Cal Poly Pomona Basic Needs Initiative.  

Lakeisha Mathews is Director of the Career and Internship Center at the University of Baltimore and is also the owner of Right Resumes & Career Coaching, career development business focused on providing professional documents, career coaching and training for mid-level and mid-management professionals in a variety of industries. 

Mrs. Mathews holds several industry certifications including Certified Career Coach, Certified Resume Writer, Global and Career Development Facilitator, and Executive Career Coach among other designations. She received her M.S. in Human Resource Development from Towson University and a B.A. in Communication from the University of Maryland College Park. Lakeisha is currently pursuing a Doctorate of Education in Higher Education Leadership and Innovation from Wilmington University. 

Lakeisha is committed to the field of career development and in 2011, she was elected as president of the Maryland Career Development Association. In 2016, Lakeisha co-authored a chapter in the book Find Your Fit, published by the Association of Talent Development. And, Mrs. Mathews has served as the Trustee-at-Large, as the Trustee for Higher Education Career Counselors & Educators, and is currently the President-Elect-Elect for the National Association of Career Development. 

She is a native of Baltimore, MD and seeks to give back to the greater Baltimore community by serving on non-profit boards and supporting workforce programs. Lakeisha has provided pro bono employability skills training to disadvantaged youth and currently supports the Baltimore City Youth Works program and Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, Corporate Internship Program, to provide work opportunities for at-risk youth.  

Of most importance is Lakeisha’s client-centered approach to career coaching. Hearing success stories continues to be the favorite part of her job as a Higher Education Administrator, Educator and Career Coach! 

Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a weekly email for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching.

He is the author of A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Your Clients Create Their Next Move and the recipient of the 2020 Kenneth C. Hoyt Award from the National Career Development Association.

Sign up here to receive my  TOP 10 TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH AN UNDECIDED PERSON.  You will also receive the career practitioner’s weekly email on a variety of career topics, industry news, interesting events, and more. 

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How to get better at deeper thinking.

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What are some ways you can train yourself to do deeper thinking? Why is this so important? I believe we are all a bit like a golden retriever in a room with four tennis balls bouncing around. We chase emails. We click on five different social media platforms. We send and receive text messages. We are too busy most days to simply slow down and think.

I read Cal Newport’s book, Deep Work to help me understand this topic better. He talks about the many benefits of Deep Work that requires longer periods of uninterrupted time that is much more productive. Cal’s definition of Deep Work is professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improves your skill, and are hard to replicate.

woman journaling
Pixabay/ kaboompics

One way that I try to do deeper thinking is to take monthly day-long retreats where I turn off my phone, leave the computer behind, stop all social media, and I journal, think, meditate, walk, read, and simply slow down. (Read more about my retreats).

I also try to start each day with walking meditation and take a 20-25 minute meditation break mid-day most days. You can learn more about this topic here.

I want to talk about how spending some time writing
can improve your deeper thinking.

I believe there is something powerful in taking a pen in hand and writing on paper…the kinesthetic connection between your hand and your brain is powerful. I can’t give you the scientific information to support this, I know it is true. It is why I love using card sorts with clients and call that particular workshop, The Magic of Card Sorts. Something deeper happens when you use your hands with your brain.

Writing forces you to take those thoughts out of your head to organize them on paper which helps with deeper thinking.

That simple process requires you to consider an order of importance, and then to describe your thoughts clearly. When you “leave it in your head” it seldom gets worked out enough. By writing it down, it helps you process the information and gets you to identify key themes or key points.

I like to mind-map my blogs. Here is a picture of my mind-map for this blog. My original was much sloppier writing so I re-wrote it so you could read my handwriting 🙂

It helps me organize my thinking and I can always add to it as I am going.

If you would like to practice deeper thinking for yourself, start journaling. I strongly encourage you to not type in a computer and to get yourself a journal book to write in. I try to write each morning and often I will flip back through my journal book to see if there are themes emerging and also so I can develop my thinking and add to some of my earlier thoughts.

You may want to nudge yourself to write for your colleagues or people you work with as a way to clarify some thinking. Again, most of us would do that on the computer. I challenge you to consider starting with pen and paper.

As you work on your deeper thinking and begin to write, I encourage you to share your writing with your network. You can do this on a blog or in a LinkedIn post or even write a LinkedIn article. When you push out your thoughts publicly, people can add to your thinking or be challenged to think themselves in a different way.

Finally, many of you are doing great things in your work. Why not consider writing an article for one of your professional associations?

I know that the Maine Career Development Association produces a monthly newsletter and they would consider articles from their members. Your chamber of commerce likes to share information, your place of work may have a newsletter, and national associations are always looking for good content.

For example, National Career Development Association has a monthly web-magazine called Career Convergence. They encourage members to write and are only looking for about 950 words. They provide editors to review your article before submitting and give great advice. I’ve written a few articles there. Here is one I wrote about “Stay Interviews” that I wrote a few years ago.

Here is one I wrote for the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) in their Academic Advising Today, quarterly e-zine on how Academic Advisors are the like the Wizard of Oz 🙂

My point that I want you to take away is that writing can help you do deeper thinking. And we all need to find ways to do deeper thinking to slow down our fast-paced lives and to really T H I N K about what is happening and how we can improve our lives.

What are your thoughts on deeper thinking?

Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a weekly email for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching.

He is the author of A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Your Clients Create Their Next Move and the recipient of the 2020 Kenneth C. Hoyt Award from the National Career Development Association.

Sign up here to receive my  TOP 10 TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH AN UNDECIDED PERSON.  You will also receive the career practitioner’s weekly email on a variety of career topics, industry news, interesting events, and more. 

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The Irishman by Charles Brandt

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If you liked the movie, The Irishman, by Martin Scorsese, you’ll love the book. Originally published as I heard you paint houses, (mob lingo for killing someone), but I am sure he sold another 100,000 copies of the book after the movie and needed to change the name 🙂

This inside look at the Mafia still astounds me. Jimmy Hoffa was playing with the mob and Frank Sheeran, the Irishman, found his way into the mob as the enforcer. To think that “Jimmy Hoffa was as powerful as the President of the United States ” is dumbfounding. He didn’t get that powerful without the mob.

Sheeran not only painted houses, but he is also a carpenter. That means he disposes of the bodies too. Holy crap!! This guy was heartless, but at the same time you grow to like him a bit (just like in the movie).

Having grown up in the Detroit area, I had read about Jimmy Hoffa a lot…he was in the news a lot. But no one could ever find the body or figure out “who did it”. Well you find out who did it here…and in the movie.

The more amazing tidbit that comes out is the role of the mob in killing JFK and his brother Robert. Whew… truly mind-boggling what was going on underground.

I read at night and I read until I fell asleep. Even when I was tired, I had a hard time putting this book down.

A great read.