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Congratulations! You Made a Mistake... 

When is the last time you heard yourself say those words to your employee because she took a risk in the spirit of continuous improvement that didn't work out?

When your employee does make a mistake, how do they learn from it? More importantly, how do you make sure that others learn from it?

Every manager I coach or train asks will ask me how to get their employees to "think outside the box" and be more creative and innovative when problem solving.  However, the issue isn't that the employee doesn't know how to be creative and innovative, the issue is that the manager doesn't know how to create an environment conducive to taking risks and trying something new. The good news is that this article will provide great tips on how to create that environment. The great news is that YOU have the ability to make it happen.

Make it meaningful. Why would they want to innovate, think differently, try something new or take a risk? What's in it for them? Could it provide new career opportunities, learning and development, financial incentives, pride, recognition?

Lead by example. When is the last time you shared a mistake or blunder with your team and then talked about lessons learned, how it helped you to grow or think differently? When they hear you talk about those experiences, it sends a message that it is ok to make a mistake as long as you share your learning with others.   

Support their decision. If you truly want your employees to go out on a limb and take a risk, you have to be willing to back them up when they do. You also have to be willing to go to bat for them with others in the organization when it doesn't work out.   

Offer encouragement. Most people are afraid of retribution if they make a mistake. It is up to you to encourage your employees to challenge the status quo and think differently.   

Set clear boundaries. Obviously there are situations where mistakes can't be made and risks shouldn't be taken. Those situations depend on the level of the impact if something goes wrong.  

President's Message    

"Excellent firms don't believe in excellence - only in constant improvement and constant change."   

- Tom Peters

Every October ATD National has an All Leaders' Conference (ALC), which is a convention for board members to share ideas to improve our chapters. This year Robin Doss (2014 VP Professional Development and 2015 President Elect), Yvonne Bogard (2014 VP Technology and 2015 VP Virtual Programs) and I attended this two-day conference in Washington, DC in early October.

An additional bonus at ALC was the time we spent meeting and collaborating with board members from the Pike's Peak (Colorado Springs) and Northern Rockies (Ft. Collins) chapters. We will see benefits from these conversations as we better support each other and collaborate in 2015.

An exciting ALC announcement is that Sandi Ruther (ATD-RMC Chapter President in 2011) will be our National Advisor for Chapters (NAC) in 2015. Sandi has been a great supporter for many of us, and her role as liaison between National and your chapter will also help us improve in 2015 and beyond.

Back in Colorado, nearly 30 of you joined us on October 2nd with guest speaker Ken Phillips in a live event about how to create effective surveys to capture Level 3 (behavioral) improvements from your training. With this event and his two webinars, we have tools to make our training events more impactful and measurable data to share with decision makers.

Your chapter continues to thrive. Today we have $27,906.58 in the bank, which covers a year of expenses, as part of our Chapter Operating Requirements (CORE). We currently have 218 members.

I'm excited about the strength of our 2015 board which includes Michele Padilla as President, and newly elected Robin Doss as President Elect. I'll provide details about the rest of your 2015 board in our year-end report. Board members are just one way to be a chapter volunteer. The main benefit of volunteering is to gain or build skills, and to network in your professional community. Contact me (president@atdrmc.org ) or Sue Fody (volunteer@atdrmc.org ) and let us know how we can help you.

We hope you will join us for our final two events this year. On November 20th, Nathan Lindsey returns to the Regis South Campus to help us delve into dynamic human interaction within the workplace. Finally, we'll wrap up the year with our Holiday Celebration on Thursday, December 11th. Please save the date for an evening of fun, networking and celebration to thank you for being part of the ATD-RMC award-winning year.

We are here to serve you. Please let us know if you have any questions or suggestions. You can email me at president@atdrmc.org.

Thank you,

Becky Magnotta

2014 ASTD Rocky Mountain Chapter President.