A nombre propio y de mi equipo completo de The Refinery, me complace anunciar que el Dr. Mark Frein y David Gibbons se han unido al grupo de socios propietarios del grupo, a partir de hoy.  

Tanto Mark como David han contribuido a esta compañía de manera inconmensurable desde que ingresaron a ella en mayo del 2007 y febrero del 2008, respectivamente. Su labor no solamente ha ayudado a mejorar la calidad de los servicios que ofrecemos y ha refinado nuestro compromiso con la excelencia en el servicio al cliente, sino que ambos continúan innovando y desarrollando nuestra práctica y a nuestra gente.  

Al desempeñar los diversos papeles de “líder”, “innovador” y “coach”, David y Mark han sido muchas cosas para The Refinery y ejemplifican quiénes somos como compañía. Es un tributo a nuestro equipo y al compromiso que tenemos con nuestros valores ya que ambos nos han ayudado, y lo seguirán haciendo, a llegar a una segunda década de operaciones en la que expandimos nuestra labor a nuevos territorios del Continente Americano y del mundo.

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Terry Dillon discusses the importance of developing leadership confidence.

I have spent the last 3 months travelling around North America visiting various mining sites. I have been everywhere from Newfoundland to Alaska and several places in between. In that time I have observed, shadowed, interviewed and listened to over 150 supervisors and senior managers. The focus of the conversations has been exploring “what makes for good supervision”. When we think of the good supervisors – what is it they are good at and what are the factors that determine their success or failure?

The issue of developing good quality supervision is particularly important in mining, an industry that has undergone rapid growth after a prolonged period of contraction. The industry has a chronic shortage of experienced Foreman and Senior Foremen. Mining companies have invested heavily in traditional management and leadership training programs with only limited success. The lack of success is in some part because the programs are not always as industry specific as they need to be.

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Como biólogo, frecuentemente me encuentro realizando analogías entre los sistemas naturales y humanos, es interesante reflexionar sobre las similitudes, y como de alguna u otra forma los sistemas humanos buscan de manera consciente o inconsciente replicar, función y estructura de los sistemas naturales.

Un tema que constantemente tratamos en nuestros talleres es pensamiento sistémico y como desarrollamos esa habilidad de entender y comprender a un sistema, recientemente mientras esperaba un vuelo a casa,se me ocurrió realizar esta comparación con la esperanza de mejorar mi capacidad como educador, y dar una ejemplo tal ves mas tangible y ligado a nuestra propia naturaleza.

Para ilustrar lo anterior permítanme dar el ejemplo utilizando el concepto de complejidad biológica, partiendo del eslabón organismo, sabemos que  un organismo está compuesto por una serie de sistemas, que interactúan entre si en perfecta sincronía. Ahora los sistemas son producto de arreglos y conexiones especificas entre órganos, sabemos que un órgano está compuesto por tejidos, y los tejidos están conformados por un conjunto de células especializadas que se encargan de realizar funciones fisiológicas específicas.

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“A ship in harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships were built for.”  – John A. Shedd 

My name is Valerie and I am a new doctoral student in Human and Organizational Systems. I was encouraged to write this blog – to share the first year of my doctoral program – so that others may gain some insight from my experience. 

My aim with this blog is to tell a “real” story versus the “perfect” story we often make up in our heads about these kinds of “achievements” and the people who actually achieve them.

If my life were a song, it would be – “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”.  Given I work in business perhaps Hungry Like the Wolves or Everybody Wants to Rule the World, might be more fitting – but it isn’t for me. I have something hardwired in my DNA that makes me question, search, envision, collaborate and create.

In my formal education my path started with a BSc in Psychology to answer the question – who the hell are we?  Then onto an MBA to answer – how do we make things happen?  And now a PhD to ask – what does it all mean and for what purpose? 

In my informal education l am a world explorer.

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For this month, I thought I’d share a post I wrote last year. Last year I had the opportunity to attend events and work with some amazing women to delve deeper into why women are still not represented in upper echelons of organizations. This was a topic I explored a lot last year and I would love to share it with you. Additionally, this is still a very relevant topic and I came across this article my first day back from the holidays: http://www.thestar.com/business/companies/article/906409–mentors-position-key-to-higher-pay

Gender parity initiatives are about change; they are about changing mindsets, changing systems, changing behaviours. Much research of late has shown that women are not making the strides that were hoped for in reaching the top of organizations (example, Catalyst Pipeline’s Broken Promises), and I’m suggesting that we start to think a little differently about why that is in a way that is thoughtful and actionable.

In our business at The Refinery, we are acutely aware of what needs to be in place for leadership development solutions to be successful.

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Recientemente estuve en México, involucrado el proceso de inducción e implementación de un programa encaminado a gestionar el desempeño de los empleados de una corporación  transnacional. Durante dos meses y medio, tuve la oportunidad de aprender sobre la cultura e interactuar con empleados de dicha organización en México.

A continuación, me gustaría compartir con ustedes algunas de la lecciones aprendidas, que se derivan de mi experiencias al trabajar en este  proyecto.

Si el programa, contempla el concepto de gestión del desempeño, debemos hacer énfasis en explicar de manera clara y concisa, que significa   “gestionar” no debemos asumir que la gente entiende de facto este concepto. Particularmente en México, donde este concepto despierta dudas e inclusive escepticismo. Durante mi experiencia, el hablar o describir los elementos diferenciadores entre gestión y evaluación directa es muy importante, para esto me refiero a aspectos como, la gestión implica un alto nivel de comunicación efectiva entre el empleado (subordinado) y su supervisor.

Donde el saber escuchar con intención y dar retroalimentación de forma efectiva son factores críticos y esenciales para desarrollar un comunicación efectiva.

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Like many Vancouverites, I am an avid hockey fan. I watch almost every game and I live and breathe for Canucks hockey. I assume that some of you can identify with my enjoyment of watching the first game of the season, when anything is possible. I’m feeling a little withdrawal from hockey season, so this is my reprieve.

I’ve actually wanted to write a blog post about sports and business for awhile. It’s a comparison that I’ve heard on quite a few occasions and one that I find often resonates with people. While any comparison of this nature is never going to be perfect (just as is the case for any metaphor), they serve as a way to make sense of all the complexities that we face every day. While one should never forget the complexities of the world around them, they should also try to avoid getting to caught up in it.

Thinking about the role of a coach is an interesting analogy.

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Hace algunos días después de una serie de reuniones con clientes potenciales, en el Centro y Norte del país, reflexionaba sobre como un cliente potencial determina o decide que nuestra firma, es la mejor opción y la mas adecuada para cubrir sus necesidades en desarrollo organizacional y liderazgo.

Además, garantiza un proceso capacitación y educación que contribuyen a la transformación de fondo de la organización, y brinde a su planta laboral conocimientos sustentables, efectivos, aplicables y transferibles otros miembros de la misma organización.

En este proceso de reflexión llegue a varias consideraciones que me gustaría compartir:

La intención: Considero que la relación entre el cliente y empresa consultora debe ser lo mas transparente y clara posible, pero mas importante aún, es el hecho de mostrar un interés genuino en el desarrollo y crecimiento de los individuos y equipos que conforman a la organización.  Para mi esto es  algo que se debe demostrar y casi transpirar cuando estamos enfrente de un cliente, es nuestra pasión y lo que al “final del dia “ lo que nos inspira, motiva y conmueve.

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I’m not a big fan of much of the language surrounding training and development.  It is gauche to call adults “students” as opposed to learners or some other term.  But for the most part, these changes are political as opposed to real.  We still teach/train students because they tend to want us to be teachers.  Some learn.  Some don’t.  Some learn a lot and go on to do things with what they learn.  Call them “learners” or “students” or “trainees” or whatever is the best-fit term.  There are characteristics of students of management and leadership that make them so much fun to work with … students from whom we as teachers learn a great deal as well.

I had the pleasure of working with such a group of students last week in Thunder Bay.  It was a group of trainers from a world-leading mining company.  Why were they the “perfect” students?

1. They were there to learn.  Shockingly, many people attend training and development experiences with other motives.  One of the most common is to advance their career(s).  I do hope that the trainers I worked with advance their careers, if they wish to do so.  But I truly believe the group of people, from all over Canada and the US, were there, first and foremost, to learn things.

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I’ve just been placed on a wife-imposed detox program for the next 30 days. My addiction: TV sports. Until 6 months ago I didn’t even have cable. Then the local cable company cold-called us just before the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and offered us such a great 6 month deal that I risked a divorce and signed us up. I couldn’t miss the Olympics – the drama, the passion, the power – and it was my patriotic duty after all with the Olympics only a stone’s throw away from where I live.

Even my wife succumbed as we all became Olympic sized couch potatoes which culminated of course in us watching Canada’s Olympic gold medal win in hockey. Then, of course, it was on to the Stanley Cup finals as Chicago outlasted the Flyers. By late June my wife Kelli was ready to hurl the TV off the balcony as she watched her once active husband and two young boys get fat and lazy and glassy eyed watching every second of not only the action but the replays and post game commentary.

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