The OD & Change program has served as a foundation to learn internal and external consulting skills. I most enjoyed understanding the process consultation class, as well as the leadership and Marketing class. Succession Planning and Talent Management play an essential part of what I will be able to provide to clients. As a kinesthetic learner, I have most enjoyed the practical hands-on tools that I am now able to leverage on-the-job. The MPS-OD&C capstone experience was challenging to be able to complete during COVID19, but my professor was very understanding and supportive during these trying times.

Thank you, fellow learners, for affording me the opportunity to learn with you!

Bio-script of Teresa Talamo, Talent Management, & Organizational Development Leader

View Teresa Talamo’s Professional profile by clicking here to visit the site

Teresa is a seasoned professional with over 10 years of experience in Corporate HR Executive Search & Retention program design with HRIS System integration. Beginning with Winn-Dixie BI-LO Holdings Inc., now Southern Grocers, Teresa advanced through several Change Management roles and was promoted to Corporate Training for the South Florida district after only 3 years. During her 6 years with the Company she supported several store pre-openings with new-leader on-boarding training for 14 stores in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

Teresa spearheaded college recruiting and Management sourcing for Dillards, a fortune 500 retailer and Homestore in 25 markets, successfully placing mid to senior-level executives throughout a 4-year time period in the South Florida area. 

Teresa worked as a pro-bono Consultant of Change Management for the National Executive Service Corps where she assisted organizations like Douglas Gardens Mental Health Center., accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) and the National Council for Behavioral Health Care Organization. Teresa partnered with executives to facilitate a standardized Recruitment and training process improvement project that lasted for 6 months. Concurrently, she conducted executive search services for the Hispanic Unity of Florida.

Teresa became Manager of Talent Development for Isle of Capri Casinos, a pioneer in the gaming industry, with a national presence in over 12 states in the US, and since absorbed by El Dorado resorts. During her tenure she managed Leadership Development programs, launching a toolkit for the deployment of high-potential training to the entire South-East region. Teresa also oversaw recruitment; her staff recruited several new leaders with over 80% quality of hire.

Teresa became a Program Manager of Talent Management for Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits in 2018. This organization specializes in Wine & Spirits sales & distribution in the Us, Canada & the Virgin Islands with over 20,000 employees. Teresa designed and deployed performance management, succession planning, on-boarding, off-boarding, assessments, and competencies programs.

In her new role as Sr. Manager of Talent and Organization Development for Chen Medical, she supports a client group in all Talent & OD initiatives. Chen Med has over 700,000 patients across 44 locations. Over the last 10 years Teresa has developed a reputation for excellent service and retention in a variety of industries, including Healthcare, Finance, Marketing, Entertainment, Property Management, and Retail. She has served as an HR chair member for the city of Pompano and a keynote speaker for several major Universities in South Florida.

As an honor’s alumni with a 3.9 GPA Teresa spearheaded a special topics research project to discover current challenges, emerging trends, and stakeholder perception of value in OD and Talent Management services. Teresa’s research took place in the summer of 2018, alongside Dr. Donahue, Program Director of the School of Workforce Education for Penn State University.

Her current aspiration is to teach others how to retain top talent through talent cultivation strategic initiatives that add value to critical roles. Teresa can be reached via email at Tere.Talamo@gmail.com or 754-888-4426.

Click here to learn more about Teresa by viewing her Curriculum Vitae

 

As a team facilitator, focus areas to create a collaborative team environment when the organizational culture does not foster collaboration are;

1.) Facilitate group understanding of business needs & measurable goal milestones
2.) Cultivate mentoring programs amongst members
3.) Collaborate with leadership to strengthen rewards programs
4.) Serve as a dedicated liaison decentralizing expertise
5.) Be consultative in nature with an appreciative approach to coaching
6.) Create self-discovery Bandwith vs. accountabilities
7.) Be aware of the complexity of remote geographies and time constraints
8.) Be a change advocate & foster commitment to action planning

Reference:

Gratton, L. & Ericsson, T.J., (2007). Harvard Business Publishing: 8 Ways to Build
Collaborative Teams.

What can you do as a facilitator of groups that will help to establish a culture of emotional awareness on a broad perspective? 

Relating to others Perspectives or putting oneself in others shoes is one example of how a group can create an inclusive environment where they can better understand each other. For example, the group can role-play diverse reactions to one situation and understand how each think. The group can also learn each others strengths and opportunities to customize their approach when collaborating.

What specific elements do you feel are particularly relevant in establishing a team culture that is aware of and responds to group EI?

A team atmosphere in which the norms build emotional capacity influences emotions in constructive ways that build relativity to respond to uncomfortable situations. Furthermore, the study within the HBR of effective teams, found that self-evaluation and the solicitation of feedback from others creates awareness of oneself and how others perceive you. This builds cohesiveness within the team, enhancing team efficacy.

What do you view as the greatest challenge in establishing a team culture that is aware of and responds to group EI?

People often avoid confrontation, because of its disruptive connotation. This behavior can fester and erode a sense of trust in a team. As a result, creating a safe environment where people can be open to healthy disagreement and functional debate can be difficult.

As a facilitator of group EI, how can these challenges be overcome?

The most constructive way we can regulate team members’ emotions in uncomfortable situation is by proactively establishing norms in the group for both confrontation and caring in an appreciative approach with one another.Team building is a great way to enhance group EI. In fact, my team took the Meyers Briggs MBTI and we are going to debrief on each of ours at a team building retreat. Also, during meet and greets we discussed each others strengths and things like, are you a morning person or an afternoon person to better understand how to collaborate as a team.

Reference: Druskat, V. U., & Wolff, S. B. (2001.) Building the Emotional Intelligence of Groups. Harvard Business Review, https://hbr.org/2001/03/building-the-emotional-intelligence-of-groups

According to the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations (2015), “The Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) is an ability-based test designed to measure the four branches of the EI model of Mayer and Salovey. MSCEIT was developed from an intelligence-testing tradition formed by the emerging scientific understanding of emotions and their function and from the first published ability measure specifically intended to assess emotional intelligence, namely Multifactor Emotional Intelligence Scale (MEIS)” (para.1). MSCEIT is guided by these principles:Caruso (2015)

• Emotions are critically important to our success
• These emotional skills can be measured objectively” (para. 5).

Reviewing my EI results: Introversion INtuition Feeling Judging

As a Mentor, it was no surprise to see that I always seek deep signification among my thoughts, my relationship with other people and material life. I try to understand the motivations of others and have a sharp insight regarding people. I am very meticulous when doing things and extremely loyal to my own values. My vision is to provide better service for all people. As I am completing this goal, I can keep courageous, resolute and organised.

Wondering about your Emotional Intelligence(EI)? Take the free assessments below:

MSCEIT Vocational Rader: https://www.arealme.com/16types/en/ EI Test: https://globalleadershipfoundation.com/geit/eitest.html

References:

http://eiconsortium.org/measures/msceit.html

https://www.verywellmind.com/what-are-emotions-2795178

In what phase do you feel the team facilitator role is most critical?

To answer this question I think you first have to address the question of: What group process or operation am I trying to improve? Is this a task or relationship issue? As a facilitator understanding your function to the organizational purpose is key before you can identify an approach for team development. In my personal experience, managing the growth of interpersonal relationships within teams is most crucial to developing teams in the 21st century.

What developmental stage do you think poses the greatest challenge for teams?

One of the most challenging aspects to develop high performing teams is the ability to gauging emotional variances. The intricacies of team dynamics and political navigation makes this topic particularly complex, and is seldom surfaced through self-discovery, as most people are not as socially aware of others perceptions of them and PERCEPTION is REALITY.

What can the team facilitator do to help teams overcome this challenge?

Essentially, once you define your purpose, if helping a group develop interpersonal relationships is it, this is best addressed when -the facilitator can help members understand their own and others expectations- such that individuals can recite and demonstrate how they can break silos and/or manage their role in a group contract.

As a facilitator it is important to monitor climate in group commitment and engagement in team building. Some helpful tools for group members to assess their behavior include; DISc, EQ 360 & MBTI (self-awareness in leadership style can help members better understand their own and others expectations).

A facilitator may also leverage specific competency development actions tied to the organizations values or cultural norms. Depending on the groups maturity, members can ultimately be guided to better understand how they want to be managed and/or how to manage others by adapting to members of the group.

References:

https://www.selfawareness.org.uk/news/situational-leadership-and-developing-great-teams

https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthunckler/2017/02/20/emotional-intelligence-in-business-and-life/#1e9cbd117f6c

https://www.pairin.com/2018/07/13/soft-skills-primary-predictor-success-academics-career-life/

Spotlight from the The science of building successful teams, Harvard Business Review :

It was interesting to learn that team members human behavioral cues can be measured with quantifiable data -based on tone of voice, body language and frequency of communication- all with a badge! My experience with this topic as an internal consultant includes gauging level of interest and power among stakeholders (example table A.1 below). This article refers to mapping energy, engagement and exploration and that increased quality face-time increases team performance.

A.1

In this article I learned that charisma among a group is an important part of determining if a project team will be lead to completion. My biggest take away from the article was that members that are comfortable approaching others and are democratic with their time are the glue to connecting a high performing team dynamic. In order to engage others, you must be engaging through your communication!!! The article also mentions that such things as a scheduled coffee break and a longer table to allow for interaction with people you did not know creates opportunities to increase communication, which increased productivity by 8% (see example table B.1 below).

B.1 

Conversely, when measuring or defining team success there are agile considerations, such as office environments, language and societal norm limitations. Some organizations are very politically navigated by chain of command, which creates barriers for subordinates to develop relationships. Some project stakeholders touch highly sensitive information, that naturally, creates limitations to what we can communicate and to who. These inter-dependencies should be considered, as well as the maturity level of the organization for transparency. Lastly, geographical complexity in globally expanding markets are pivotal factors.

The basis of the studies conducted with the badge are for face to face communications that are said to be more effective than email and phone calls, however being exposed to more agile environments web conferencing is more efficient and cost effective in preferred ways of working. The study did not include cloud based tools, with these tools we can also measure show rate in meetings, participation times and receptiveness of an audience during webinars that are important data points to consider. Some other measures being taken are surveying groups to measure effectiveness of a webinar by using companies such as Qualtrics. In addition, millennial’s value the work-life balance that transpires from remote communications. Therefore, face to face communications may not be as valuable in the workforce as millennial’s will make up 75% of our workforce by 2025.

Facilitators lead, train, present new information, make process suggestions, mediate or play a combination of these roles in group sessions. However, the main function of a facilitator is to improve a process.

Often times, facilitators are tasked with serving in a dual function, such as that of a;

• Facilitator/Trainer
• Facilitator/Subject content matter expert
• Facilitator/Mediator and
• Leader/Facilitator

Serving in a dual role can come with special challenges or confusion that occurs because of the dual nature of those roles. For example, I experienced a number of challenges in my earlier years in my career in Leadership Development. I served as a Facilitator/Trainer, in this dual role I aspired to be interactive for the purpose of teaching modules to benefit leadership in knowledge gain. The most challenging part I found about this dual role was the crowd, by this I mean my trainees.

The trainees were reluctant to learning and some seemed skeptical, or uninterested in participating. As the facilitator/trainer it was important to monitor cues of disengagement and continuously re engage detractors. The root cause I found in part was the trainees were not self-enrolled, and executive leadership made development mandatory. The lesson learned in this case to overcome consisted of;

• Gaining trust with participants by empowering them as SME’s
• Continuous effort from the facilitator to be interactive
• Gauging level of interest from participants and
• Explaining the benefits of knowledge gain

Reflections

Tools in thinking about challenges to selling and any continued thought development in workforce education; In learning how to become a thought leader and nurture relationships I believe I am more capable of selling OD in a passionate way by continuing to love what I do in regards to teaching others about my service, facilitating interventions with clients and continuing my willingness to communicate within the market. I know that by taking smart risks my long-term vision will be worth the time spent today for a future benefit. The nature of having an open mind and being willing to teach as well as learn will sell itself, as people learn more about my service. Most of all I have an unstoppable need to always keep going, “the desire to never peak”, as I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and understand that selling is a numbers game. The more people we touch in a meaningful way, the greater the odds of selling. It is through living in these traits that I can overcome challenges to selling the value added to organizations by partnering with businesses, understanding their need and the applicable intervention approach.

The most important things that have come to discovery about myself, in the context of marketing OD; I have learned that in the field I am able to build relationships that will support the Marketing OD effort if I choose that as an interest for my career. Knowing the essentials for relationship nurturing and targeting the right client was my “Aha” moment that I want to make sure I don’t forget about. In reflection on the impact as a OD professional I feel this is a good base for my future pursuit or industrial psychology, as I have been given a new perspective on the importance of marketing to current stakeholders and building a database. Tapping into past and current leads will put me in a position to sell value naturally, through established connections and recommendations of those connections. 

Appreciative intelligence allows one to maintain hope that a situation can and will improve despite how dire it appears in the moment. Metzker explains that we all have some degree of appreciative intelligence.

Ponder your own for a moment…under which paradigm of thought do you operate? Are you an unshakable optimist, an entrenched pessimist, or somewhere in between?

Their research has found that appreciative intelligence grows from three absolutely necessary abilities:

• Reframing
• Appreciating the positive
• Seeing how the future unfolds from the present (Thatchenkery & Metzker, 2006)

Lee paraphrases re framing as “seeing and object, situation, or person from a different perspective” (2010, p. 36). Further, she explains the second attribute as one, which allows daily reality to be viewed appreciatively through a chosen perspective of value, use, and positivism. The third ability encompasses an almost strategic knack to understand how the current reality can become the preferred future state.

Applying one’s quotient of appreciative intelligence was found in the research to lead to the following four resulting qualities:

1. Persistence
2. Conviction that one’s actions matter
3. Tolerance for uncertainty
4. Irrepressible resilience (Thatchenkery & Metzker, 2006, pp. 15–16)

The idea that you should call upon your talents and develop even more abilities to use those talents, in essence produces an optimal future, very much aligned with AI’s philosophy. As people practice appreciative intelligence, their capacity increases for all those qualities listed above. Remember, what is focused on grows.

So why are leaders appreciative, here is what the research shows;

• the leaders are willing to be with their people;
• these leaders believe in the positive;
• they are learners in the AI; and
• they care about people (2010, pp. xvii–xix).

An “appreciative eye” of sorts, seeks out the generative capacity within a system and develops it with a typical outcome of circumventing the problems by way of leveraging the system strengths. Further, “the appreciative eye seeks to learn by examining the best of what is in any given experience” (Guberman, 2014, ¶ 1). Those trained to use this concept in their leadership then discover “ways to meet challenges, upsets and opportunities with an appreciative eye” (Davy & Weiss, 2011, p. 10). The appreciative leader lives an appreciative worldview.

“Appreciative leaders are highly skilled at turning negative issues into positive questions” (Whitney et al., 2010, p. 35). They call this ability “the flip” (p. 35). Trosten-Bloom, and Rader explain that appreciative intelligence allows the appreciative leader “to see positive potential, and they invite it to come to life by asking positive questions” (p. 35).

Exercise: Choose a problem or challenge that you seem to face over and over. Leave a reply on how you can affirmatively turn your own focus of inquiry using appreciative leadership language?

For example:

The habitual problem __________    vs.

Note the possibilities for improvement here __________. 

Can you see the difference in these statements and the nature of AI language in the second? You try it now.