ASTD Metro DC Metro DC ASTD Blog

Interview with Fernando Sanchez Arias on Global L&D

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 18:23:01 GMT

In today’s competitive climate the global professional can benefit from how-to tips in gaining leverage within their vocation and so the Metro DC chapter of ASTD turned to Fernando Sanchez Arias, an expert in Learning and Performance Improvement, to share practical tools. To learn more about the man and the mission we conducted a Q&A on his current work in identifying cultural intelligence and cross cultural
interaction.

METRO DC ASTD: What do you wish to convey to our audience about your current work?

Fernando: My personal/professional objective is to make an invitation to the audience to appreciate the differences we have in our own subcultures. Faith is a subculture. A profession such as an engineer is a subculture. These differences need to be appreciated. We focus so much on the differences that we lose the perspective of making the most of similarities. If I can appreciate that you are different from
me then I can recognize you will do things in a different way, and if I am humble enough I can use these differences to make me a better person and professional. Instead of focusing more on the wrong side of differences seek the similarities and build on that to be more effective in your interaction. Whether a boss, colleague or a neighbor, by embracing the differences we will be more effective as learning leaders
and set the example within our companies.

In my presentation I will discuss how to go beyond understanding diversity and dive deeper into cross cultural issues as we have an obligation to our clients to develop them as global citizens. More and more the world is becoming smaller. We should appreciate the differences, embrace that there will be things not liked and use this to improve performance. And this is my invitation for today’s discussion.

METRO DC ASTD: I understand you are enrolled in a dual learning program.

Fernando: Coming from the practical world I needed to enhance my practice and thus entered the Doctoral Program on Work-based Learning Leadership at Wharton School and the Graduate School of Education (GSE) of the University of Pennsylvania. This program helped me to understand the need to add academic and scientific rigor to practice.

METRO DC ASTD: In our discussion Fernando revealed the seven factors within the principled model on how we think; feel; act and are spiritually connected. He describes these models as the Four Cs in español with a fifth component.

Fernando: Initially introduced during an ASTD webinar in December 2011, the Four Cs is the essence of the model with the seven factors as a periphery. He shares:

Cabeza or head. How do we process emotions and identify biochemical reactions that create positive or negative emotions such as happiness, euphoria, anger, sadness, fear? How do you express these or do you repress them?

Corazón or heart. It is good to speak aloud how you feel?. It is also important not to avoid expressing emotion? How able you need to be to identify your emotions and influence your reactions in a particular cross-cultural environment.

Cuerpo or body. How do you act; perform or execute? Several examples include societies that are good in planning and thinking while other societies are performers. Culturally what is an acceptable amount of physical space to give another? How can my body gestures add effectiveness or not to an interaction? And my attire, how do I look? Appearance is also part of my physical domain.

Conexión or our spiritual connection. What is your faith? How do you live in your faith? Are you spiritual or religious? Are you conservative or liberal in your spiritual or religious practice? Acceptance is part of the essence of the person.

Contexto or context. Provides the structure to the four domains above. These help to form questions. How does one think, feel, execute, move, look?

This five-point model contains the four Cs with the fifth as the context. It suggests, with knowledge, one will be able to interact better, process data, and make decisions. Additionally, there are seven factors which comprise the model. They are:

Respect. The ability to value and appreciate another through our differences. We all have the freedom to be different and one must accept that. If unable to adapt to the differences within this work culture it may be necessary to find another workplace.

Elastiity. Versatility/agility is the act of adapting to any change or condition that might not be easy to you. For example, Brussels is a silent city. As an expat living in Brussels I understand this culture and adapted to its ways. In fact, I am teaching my children to speak softly, to whisper. Adaptation is not only an acknowledgment of your environment, but it is also a component of success.

Synergy. The ability to make the most of an interaction to produce the best results. In cross cultural issues it is important to look for ways to match the synergy with people that you might not like. Key issues to consider: Can I complete the work alone? How capable, competent and skilled must I be to work with someone I may not like yet still do the job?

Purpose. To be clear with the end in mind. What is your objective? To relate well or to work and produce a wonderful result? We tend to focus too much on relationships and the emotional side of interaction. The problem may not be that he doesn’t like you; instead, the real issue is he doesn’t like your ideas. Don’t take his opinions personally. Use this as a learning opportunity and move on. The clear objective in cross cultural work is to overcome obstacles that are blocking you.

Ethics. The capacity to understand the values and beliefs of others. The judgment side of ethics is based on laws of social agreements which differs from one city to another. The ethical part of our interaction is to understand the laws and social agreements within the varied group. What may have worked in one country may not work in another. Awareness is crucial and observation is key.

Time orientation. Is the company’s culture working in the past, present, or future and what are the perceptions? What value to past or future is intrinsic to the present culture? What is punctuality for this specific social and cultural group?

Creativity. Are you appreciated when sharing ideas? How creative are you in improving relationships?

An essential piece of growth and development is to do things that make you uncomfortable. Take the risk. If you don’t succeed, seek assistance, build your network and learn to be a wonderful observer. Part of effective observation is the ability to read people, their chemistry and environments. The key to observation is to ask questions and remain a humble learner. A humble learner is one with wisdom who
asks the right questions and has no fear in asking. In my presentation I introduce thirteen domains – the five Cs and seven factors -- and the connection to all is humbleness, humility. This is the thirteenth and most powerful factor of all. Humbleness should exist personally and professionally, across relationships
and in business. Some cultures critize humility while other cultures believe it is powerful because it shows leadership, wisdom, strength, and courage. For me is the platform of any sustain cross-cultural interaction and relationship.

METRO DC ASTD: For the seasoned expert, what advice would you offer in remaining competitive?

Fernando: I ask what is your flame? The burning flame that fuels you. What triggers your emotions and gives you butterflies? If the butterflies no longer exist this suggests you are burned out and losing track of your life no matter how wealthy or recognized you are in your field.

METRO DC ASTD: What to do?

Fernando: First see if the flame is burning. If not, identify a flame. One way is to mentor someone. This will help you change your perception. Mentorship forces you to look at things through another lens. I also encourage executives to learn another language especially if not bilingual or trilingual. Learning something from the beginning such as a new language will take you to another level.

In closing Fernando adds, I encourage any seasoned executive to act as an example of balance between cognition, emotion and action. That is, you need to be an example of thinking better every day, handling your emotions the right way and executing so that people can admire you in a more holistic and balanced way. Incorporating these actions dramatically enlightens the life of any seasoned executive who wants to improve his or her career.

To learn more about the work of Fernando Sanchez Arias visit http://www.fernandosanchezarias.com/ or at his international research, learning and development center www.mejorar-se.com

Vacation and Informal and Social Learning

President DC ASTD — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 15:36:37 GMT

Hello Everyone,

I went on vacation a week ago or so and as we researched for vacation and finally got on the road, I discovered that I was really participating in Informal Learning and Social Learning.

Before I went on vacation I asked my friends and co-workers about Toronto. I had been a long time ago, but it was at a different point in my life. I had little kids and my interests for vacation were totally different. I read a lot of websites and learned a lot from this informal learning activity.

I then started to ask friends about Toronto. They started to tell me about the places I should go to visit. In this social learning activity, I found out that I should go to the CN Tower and walk on the Glass Floor. Yes, after the first step on the floor, I did have a little problem continuing on, but that isn't my point. :-) I learned from another person about this attraction.

During my visit I used Yelp to find restaurants. On Yelp, I would find restaurants close to my location and then read the postings from the people that contributed comments. These comments were very educational. They either enticed me to go to a restaurant or warned me away, thus the learning occurred.

The vacation didn't end in Toronto. As we moved on to Geneva, NY (The Fingerlakes), we dropped in on Geneva on the Lake and asked a few questions about the Inn. We learned that we should try Bellhurst Castle down the road for lunch because they had finished serving lunch. Upon arriving for lunch at Bellhurst, my husband surprised me with a nights stay at the castle because he had socially learned from the front desk clerk they had a room free.

From there, we moved on to Philadelphia. The concierge at the Hyatt Penns Landing taught us that we should try the Xochitl Philly Mexican restaurant.

The next day we moved up to the Hyatt on the Hudson in Jersey City with the beautiful view of Manhattan. I had learned about this a few years ago from a AAA office in Connecticut somewhere.

From my VegNews magazine, I learned about the Blosson Du Jour and Cafe Blosson vegetarian restaurants which we dined at and had excellent meals. I had also learned of a vegan shoe store, MooShoes on the Lower East Side from VegNews. While talking in to the sales person in MooShoes, she helped us learn about a vegan bakery called Babycakes NYC that was right around the corner. We promptly went there to have the delicious treats.

This is not all that I learned about from other people, websites, magazines, and books with no formal training involved. And yes, this post is a stretch in giving examples of Informal and Social Learning, but I don't think I am off that much and my vacation was great!

What do you think?

Yours in Learning,

Michelle Moore

Talented People

President DC ASTD — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 14:44:23 GMT

Do you know how many talented people are in this chapter? Check out the list below and you will see some of them that have blogs where their talent is on display.

As always, please check out the Events Calendar to see the upcoming events. From SIGs, to Workshops, to Webinars, you will find professional development that will help you in your personal and professional goals.

Summer Reading

Members' blogs and books to get you started for the summer.

Veronica F. Adams,

Riding the Wave Training & Development
Creative thinking blog:

Kathy Reiffenstein

And… Now Presenting!
Professionally Speaking… blog:

Darlene Christopher

Web Conference Guru blog:

Halelly Azulay

TalentGrow blog:

Diane Ullius and Michael Milano

Designing Powerful Training (ASTD and Jossey-Bass, 1998)

William J. Rothwell

Invaluable Knowledge: Securing Your Company's Technical Expertise
Competency-Based Training Basics (ASTD Training Basics Series)

Mark Boccia (with Elaine Biech and others)

The Book of Road-Tested Activities (ASTD)

Deadra Welcome

Concerning Learning blog

Diane Elkins

E-Learning Uncovered blog:
Books:
E-Learning Uncovered: Articulate Studio ‘09
E-Learning Uncovered: Lectora X
E-Learning Uncovered: From Concept to Execution

Diane Ullius

Word Tamers Blog
Book
Designing Powerful Training (Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer and ASTD, 1998)

Yours in Learning,

Michelle Moore

Professional Development and Networking

President DC ASTD — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 12:15:23 GMT

Do you know how much professional development and networking this chapter offers its members? Most of it being low to no cost? Well, I won't count the amount because there is SO MUCH of it.

Please check out the Events Calendar to see the upcoming events. From SIGs, to Workshops, to Webinars, you will find professional development that will help you in your personal and professional goals.

One event that I would like to highlight is the Networking Event that will occur on Wednesday. It sounds like it is going to be a great time out at Food, Wine & Co. in Bethesda, MD on Jun 15, 2011 from 5:30 PM - 8:00 PM. I will be there with my daughter and a co-worker.

This chapter has so much to offer in terms of Professional Development, Networking, Career Listings, Personal Connections that might help to get you to your next goal through actual connections or a good piece of advice that can put you on the right path.

And of course, let's not forget the volunteer opportunities that can be used to develop, enrich, or perfect knowledge, skills and abilities or to build your portfolio.

See you Wednesday!

Michelle

Volunteerism

President DC ASTD — Mon, 16 May 2011 07:55:04 GMT

Did you know that volunteerism doesn't just benefit the chapter? It also benefits the volunteer by building knowledge, skills, and abilities in an area of interest. It is another form of professional development that can benefit the volunteer through learning something new, refining current skills, providing portfolio assets, and of course providing more experience to be added to their resume. Of course it benefits the chapter because the chapter needs volunteers to run the day to day activities, manage short term projects, and to reach its goals.

I have been a volunteer since 2007. Since then I have learned how to create a podcast, manage the technology of an association, stick within the guidelines of by-laws, assist with the preparation of an IRS Form 990T through providing appropriate financial information, be a VP of Finance, and so much more! Many of these things would not have been possible without my volunteer experience with DC ASTD.

If you are a member, please consider a volunteer role. We have them listed on the website with instructions on how to volunteer. If you don't see a role you like, contact me and let's see if there is a mutually beneficial need (either short term or long term).

Upcoming Events

5/19/2011 - May Dinner Program: Rethinking Organization Culture and Implications for Performance
5/20/2011 - Learning Innovations in Project Management Training
Please see the Event page for these events and the SIG events.

Yours in Learning,
Michelle Moore
President
Metro DC ASTD Chapter

Congratulations New CPLPs

President DC ASTD — Mon, 09 May 2011 20:40:29 GMT

Congratulations to Lorraine Barclay Nordlinger, CPLP! Lorraine, our Director of Sponsorships, got the news last week that she passed the CPLP. We are so proud of her and congratulate her and all of the other new CPLP's.

If you are interested in this certification, please navigate to http://www.astd.org/content/ASTDcertification/.

Upcoming Events

May Dinner Program: Rethinking Organization Culture and Implications for Performance
***The early bird discount will expire on May, 13, 2011***

Have a great week!

Yours in learning,

Michelle Moore

President

Metro DC ASTD Chapter

Road Tested Activities

President DC ASTD — Sun, 01 May 2011 21:57:14 GMT

Last year a call for training activities was put out by Elaine Biech's for her new book, "The Book of Road Tested Activities," which was just published.

Congratulations to the members of our chapter that submitted activities.

Teamwork: Personality Polaroid

New Tools: Speedy SMEs

Laura Mendelow

Leadership: Create a Vision

Mel Schnapper

Icebreakers: Immodest Interviews

New Tools: Success Chains

J.T. Kostman

Icebreakers: Spell it Out

Emily Crouch

Openings: Definition Bingo

Mark Boccia

Virtual Warm Up

Virtual Role Play

Darlene Christopher

To purchase the book, navigate to the ASTD Store and be sure to use the Chapter's ChIP code, 2034, if you decide to purchase.

Upcoming Events

Please check our Events page for the many upcoming events and Special Interest Group meetings.
May Dinner Program: Rethinking Organization Culture and Implications for Performance

Learning Innovations in Project Management Training

Yours in Learning,

Michelle Moore

President

Metro DC ASTD Chapter

A New Start

President DC ASTD — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 10:02:38 GMT

Hello,

Welcome to the Metro DC ASTD Chapter's new website. There were many factors that led the chapter to this move including:

Discontinuance of chapter membership services by ASTD
Approaching contract expiration of our Cvent event management subscription
Approaching web hosting contract expiration
Inability to offer each member a unique username when logging into the website
Which in turn limited the ability for us to offer content only to members and also for members to contribute content to the website
And even more...

This solution, hosted by Wild Apricot, provides all of those things in one association management offering. We know that it won't be perfect and that there are features we had in all of the other solutions that might not be in this solution, but we felt it would better serve our members and constituents and felt it was the right time to do this.

Please view the great video that Diane Elkins created to introduce the website and then log in and update your profile. If you have any problems please don't hesitate to let us know. And if you like the features please post a comment below letting us know what you think.

Thank you to the following people for working so hard on this website conversion!

Alexa Krezel
Kathy Reiffenstein
Diane Elkins
Tom Tatem (eFlash)

Resources and Sharing

It just so happens that Kathy Reiffenstein, presenter for Thursday's program, was my first DC ASTD Podcast guest. If you would like to hear her interview, please navigate to this link. While you are there check out all of the great podcasts that have been created by Darlene Brady Christopher and her team.
Check out these resources at the ASTD Store. Free to ASTD members. If you do purchase please use the Chapter's ChIP code - 2034.
- Brand: You
- Create a Brand-New Online You

Thanks

This week I would like to thank Kathy Reiffenstein for presenting at our program. Kathy taught us about "Raising Your Professional Visibility: Strategically Create Your Personal Brand, Enhance Your Network and Professionally Toot Your Own Horn." I am still working on my tagline. If you would like to know more about Kathy and her business please view her website: And...Now Presenting.
Thank you to the Program volunteers: Linda Ferguson, Donna Christopherson, and Deadra Welcome.

Upcoming Events

Please check out our events page for upcoming events.

Members Looking for Opportunities

In the future, as I hear of members looking for opportunities, I will post a 2-3 line description of the opportunity they are looking for and a link to their LinkedIn profile. If you have an opportunity that you might be able to offer, please help if you can.

Linda Ferguson has 15+ years of experience as a Learning and Performance professional and is looking for a FT position in NoVA. She is a seasoned professional who helps leaders and front line staff gain insights to achieve high performance. For more information see her LinkedIn profile-http://www.linkedin.com/in/lindajferguson

Yours in learning,

Michelle Moore

President

president@dcastd.org

Metro DC ASTD Chapter