Comments Off

By Erica, January 29, 2010 4:02 pm

A course I’ve been working on for months was published on Tuesday. I received five pages of comments/suggestions today from a very reliable source. The SME has yet to acknowledge the announcement that the course was published, much less that I’ve received these five pages of changes. She’s checked-out. My supervisor and I decided to review the comments. I have to admit nearly all of them are excellent points and I wish I’d received feedback of this quality months ago. It would have made such a difference.

As it stands, I am making corrections to a course that is three days old. I’ve had to stop the trainer certification process. It’s kind of embarrassing. I suppose I can chalk one up in the Pro column that at least the course wasn’t trained without these comments. I’m not sure which column this falls into, but the SME is not involved in this process at all. My supervisor and I decided she’s no longer helpful and this is the last straw with her inability to be “open” with us. I feel like this is a learning opportunity for her, but it’s also a management issue that our client will have to handle. The person who handed us the comments is in the position to take care of the issue as he works for the client, is in charge of training and is our liaison.

I’m sure nothing will be said to the SME because the important thing is for the course to be the best it can be and there’s a serious time issue related to this course. It must go out NOW! because it is a vital piece in a larger initiative our client is unveiling. I know there are other SMEs that I would call to personally work through this. I would try harder to work on our relationship because they try harder. But, I’m going to let this issue go and not contact the SME. It’s probably not the best call, but it’s the right thing to do with this already politically-charged situation. I’m not sure what I could do to change the way the SME thinks about her involvement with my organization and training in general. She may not be taking advantage of this learning opportunity, but I am. Sometimes I just have to let things go.

Comments Off

By Erica, January 22, 2010 10:55 am

I live in Virginia. It’s been a crazy week in the news. I haven’t done a Fridays post in weeks and somehow this song is running around in my head this week. Now it can run around in yours too. Beautiful voices.

Comments Off

By Erica, January 5, 2010 1:36 pm

I talked to my supervisor today about applying to an Ed.S. program at another university. Ours doesn’t have a program so I had to look elsewhere. I was a little apprehensive about talking to her about it, but I’m not sure why. She was supportive and said she’d write a letter of recommendation for me.

She’s not given to touchy-feely proclamations but she said that she’d sure hate to have to replace me. I take that as a compliment and not as a statement of what a pain the hiring process is for her. She and I have had many discussions on what we each want to do with our professional lives. She has one last child at home and next year the youngest will take off to another city. My supervisor is thinking of taking at least one class but is really leaning to resuming her formal education to pursue a PhD.

I hope we’re able to remain supportive of each other no matter what path opens for each of us. I know I won’t be at my place of employment forever, but I do appreciate how many opportunities I’ve had and do have working there.