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A Career Magic Wand: 8 Ways to Leverage Your Portfolio by Niké Basurto Sometimes I wish that Hogwarts existed and that magic wands were really a thing. After creating brownies that didn’t make you gain weight, I would really like a magic wand to help guide me through my career. Seriously, take a second to think about it. Would you ask for easy breezy interviews? Or maybe you would ask for a magical resume or a “Room of Requirement”, where project ideas would just magically appear on demand? It’s not made out of unicorn hair and an oak branch, but your work portfolio can be almost as useful as a magic wand for your career. Your work portfolio (sometimes referred to as a career portfolio) is a set of professional products you’ve created that showcase your learning and development and/or organizational development skills. What are some ways to leverage your portfolio? Glad you asked! A Work Portfolio Can… Give you an advantage in a job search...

ADDIE: Relic or Still Relevant? by Niké Basurto Prior to starting the MATD program at Roosevelt, most of my training and organizational experiences came from someone at work saying, “Hey, we need this. Can you do it?”. Therefore, I’m constantly grilling, er, speaking with instructional design professionals about their experiences.  One theme that has come up frequently in these discussions is that the ADDIE instructional design methodology is rarely replicated in the workplace the way it is taught in school. To be honest, I freaked out just a teeny tiny bit.  What if the way I learned instructional design was antiquated? What if I show up to job interview sounding like I’m from 1976? Before we delve too deeply into grad student angst, let’s take a second to review some basics. The image below offers a quick primer on ADDIE for readers who are unfamiliar with this instructional design approach. ADDIE is an acronym for Analysis, Design, Develop, Implement and Evaluate. It maps out a...

Follow the Yellow Brick Road to Change Management! by Niké Basurto How is change management like the Wizard of Oz you might ask? Tornadoes, disaster, good and wicked witches all come to mind. Other themes from the movie that apply to change management are mutual support and buy-in. Very much like Dorothy needing all of the friends she meets to help her as she navigates Oz, so do all employees need to be involved in organizational change management. Although it seems unlikely that a teenage farm girl from Kansas could be senior management, she is in a way, facilitating and managing change in the ways that her friends feel and behave. Ultimately these changes help Dorothy to facilitate positive change in her friends and in the kingdom of Oz. She sees their potential, fosters their growth, seeks their guidance and treats their diversity as assets. Like the transformations in The Wizard of Oz, organizations need visionary leadership to show management and front line workers the benefits and...