Transformative Change Through Imagination

Transformative Change Through Imagination

by Meghan SchiedelNo Comments
“Pretend you are a boat, and I’ll ride you to an island, but you have magical powers, and I can’t steer you, so you end up going to the island on the other side over there, and on that island, there is a dragon…” this is an actual storyline initiated by my seven year old recently. As a mom to two girls, age four and seven, I am so lucky to get the chance to witness their imagination at play constantly. The stuff they come up with never fails to amaze me and inspire awe and wonder. Just yesterday, the girls set up a rock shop with rocks that they had collected outside and insisted I film an impromptu commercial advertising their excellent rocks at low, low prices. As an educator and someone who has worked with children much of my adult life, I know deep in my core that we need to value imagination and make space for creativity...
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Fixing Shallow Training

Fixing Shallow Training

by Meghan SchiedelNo Comments
Many training professionals have gotten the feedback that there wasn’t enough time or that the training content was shallow. There is so much to cover and too little time! Our instinct in preparing a training curriculum for when you have limited time and resources is to give them a bit of information on many things, but I would argue that this leaves your team feeling overwhelmed and ill-prepared for the hard work they will face post-training. These types of training can be frustrating for employees and can contribute to burnout and turnover. So how do we fix this mile-wide and inch-deep training problem? Here are five things to consider when planning to preempt shallow training.  5 Things to Fix Shallow Training  Prioritize application of knowledge in instruction over covering generalized topics at intermittent times. When you only have an hour, spend 10 minutes on new information and 50 minutes applying this new content. Help participants make connections to other training. For example, if...
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Setting Baselines and Targets

Setting Baselines and Targets

by Meghan SchiedelNo Comments
If you have created a logic model and are in the process of developing indicators of success as part of your evaluation plan, you must understand the process of setting baselines and targets. Targets Targets are pre-established goals set for the program, and they help create a path and end destination for what you hope to achieve with a program or service (the intervention). Often defined in numbers or percentages, they indicate success. Include these numbers in your logic model to help all stakeholders see how success is measured. For example, if your team is creating a STEM career internship for girls, a sample target might be that 90% of participants completed the full three-month internship. This completion rate target is SMART and indicates success in the short term. If you want a target that helps you show long-term impacts of the intervention -the internship- you might wish to a follow-up interview after five years, where you look for 50% of interns...
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