Change by Design has been awarded a new contract by long-time business partner Jacksonville-based ISF to perform a series of activities to improve workforce capability of Florida’s childcare worker population. The project is an activity initiated by the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) biyearly, with the work for the upcoming cycle kicking off in December of 2022. For this year’s effort, Florida DCF wants to re-frame their approach to incorporate the understanding that childcare workers are the first teachers who Florida’s children will be entrusted.
Change by Design was recently selected by the International Municipal Signal Association (IMSA) to continue our relationship by awarding us a new contract for a new group of legally defensible assessments, project workflows, and detailed course designs for five new public safety disciplines. The award decision was made because of Change by Design’s reputation and our prior success of working together with IMSA. This new contract represents the second project with IMSA, following:
An initial contract in mid-2022 to design and develop legally defensible exams for five different public safety certifications areas. such as Traffic Signal Installation and Maintenance and Fiber Optics (Installation and Maintenance)
A concurrent contract to design and develop the same solution for another 5 public safety certification disciplines, which includes creation of detailed process workflows and course outlines for each discipline that can be localized and utilized by regional trainers to generate tailored coursework
One week from today, many of us will enjoy precious time with loved ones during Thanksgiving. The rituals of familiar seasonal foods and comfortable family traditions rejuvenate my spirit, bringing a calmness and contentment after such a demanding year. Although I am not a member of team turkey, I do enjoy a good holiday honey ham from time to time. However, with so much travel back and forth from Houston this year, Paul and I thought it fitting to each enjoy a Texas-sized rib eye as our centerpiece. Thankfully we have that choice, because not everyone can choose what they are eating for Thanksgiving or the company they have while sharing the meal.
The Thanksgiving holiday is still a good month away, yet I can't help feeling profound gratitude for today. This second round of chemotherapy seems to have much less caustic side effects that the last, so I can actually drink and swallow liquids, chew and taste food again, and even talk. While I still have heavy fatigue, the absence of the crippling pain I was suffering from over the past three months has brought me renewed vigor... enough to even go out and spend time with other people.
Although it stares us in the face every year, how we each think about change is maddeningly different based on our place in life. We see the seasonal cycles every year, passing now from Summer to Fall. Yet most of us don't think of Fall 2022 the same way we experienced 2020, 2001, 1993, 1976, 1963, 1945, or 1931 because of the current events of the day.
Creating training solutions for businesses usually brings up seemingly straightforward assumptions. For example, if you are addressing a quality issue in the manufacturing process, your assumption might be to just narrow it down to a materials issue or a labor issue. Unfortunately, this streamlined path to a common-sense answer is deceptive, and possibly even disillusion. Before taking action could deliver a crippling loss to your organization, read on to learn how models and simulation are used to test assumptions, plus what you can to further avoid the dangers of an echo chamber.
