The Death Of High Performance Programs: Transferring Knowledge In The New Millennial

The “Opportunity Gap” and the “Skills Gap” have been the focus of conferences this year. Solutions have been proposed, but none has aligned technology with the cultural capital that exists within an organization to close the gaps. Cultural capital is the accumulation of symbols, language, political knowledge and expertise that senior leaders use to get the job done daily within an organization. Emerging leaders who have not been immersed in this cultural capital, particularly diverse candidates, struggle to identify or find the resources and develop the skills necessary to succeed in an organization. Frequently training dollars are allocated to high-potential candidates who often are able to assimilate these skills quickly, but rarely if ever are they, when at the managerial level, tested on their ability to transfer these skills to others. This inability of high-potential mangers to transfer cultural capital between the different layers of an organization is a real cause of the skills and opportunity gap.In 2012, at a larger retailer in the southern US, we began testing a pilot program for a practical management training in the form of a Licensed Online Open Course (modeled after the MOOC) to determine if managers with access to a structured and disciplined curriculum could have an impact on human capital productivity and increase retention among managers and their followers.  The LOOC and its content were created by the Donohue Mentoring System™ (DMS).We concluded that on-the-job training, using the DMS LOOC delivery and mentoring, fosters cultural capital, increased job motivation and satisfaction, and subsequently increased output (productivity) by 10%. Using a survey comprised of 19 questions, we were also able to determine that trust in superior officers increased by 10% and self-assessed value of work increased by 10%. These increases resulted in a reduced employee churn of 50%. As we carried on pilots in 2013, 2014 and 2015 with other large corporations, not for profit and a government, we were surprised to find that the system delivered the same noteworthy results each time. We found that when managers are presented with a technology solution that allows them to train candidates (mentees) and transfer knowledge to their mentees, leadership magic happens, and people engage with each other. What surprised us the most was that no matter the size of the pilot program, mentees for the most part surpassed their mentors’ knowledge pre-program.

Unopened Public Street Easements in Washington: Whose Right to Use That Land Is It, Anyway?

This Comment argues that landowners whose property abuts unopened public street easements have a right to reasonable, non-interfering use of such easements until the city or county opens the street for its intended purpose. Unopened public street easements are dedicated streets that a city or county has not developed or used. Often, landowners use this land to store firewood, park boats, or garden. In 1995, the City of Seattle enacted Municipal Code section 15.02.100, which prohibits all use of unopened public street easements. Several Washington court decisions purportedly support the Seattle ordinance. These decisions suggest that abutting property owners have no legal right to use unopened streets absent permission from the city. However, other Washington court decisions have held that abutting property owners have a right to reasonable, non-interfering use of unopened streets. Under these decisions, this right of use continues until the city or county uses the street for its intended purpose. Other major Washington cities follow this rule. In 1999, the Washington Court of Appeals attempted to reconcile the conflicting decisions but was unable to resolve the issue satisfactorily. This Comment argues that courts and municipalities have misconstrued cases purporting to prohibit all use by the abutting landowner and that an abutting landowner may make reasonable non-interfering use of an unopened street easement

Evaluating a Nondirective Health Coaching Package and a Directive Coaching Package for Increasing Physical Activity

Physical inactivity is a worldwide public health problem. Applied behavior analysis has demonstrated success in this area; interventions such as goal setting, self-monitoring, and feedback have produced increases in physical activity of adults. Nevertheless, strategies with a more nondirective approach, such as health coaching, are gaining traction in practice independent of behavior analytic approaches. We do not know about the relative effects of nondirective approaches and the established, directive interventions in applied behavior analysis, or about client preference for nondirective and directive approaches. The present study employed a multiple baseline across participants design to evaluate a largely nondirective, client-centered health coaching approach for increasing physical activity of adults and the subsequent introduction of a directive coaching approach. Four adult females participated in the study remotely via telehealth. Active zone minutes were the primary dependent variable in the present study, and physical activity metrics were measured by the Fitbit Inspire 2. Meaningful increases in active zone minutes were observed for 1 of 4 participants, and preference for nondirective and directive coaching styles varied across participants

Whole Person Learning: Embedding Ethical Enterprise Leadership In Business Education

This study introduces a collaborative business education curricular design known as “whole person learning.” The post-financial crisis market environment requires business education to encompass curricular, commercial and community skills. Drawing on the Toronto based National Mentoring Program (NMP), “whole person learning” develops business leadership ethics competency within a personal experience context. Exposure to mentorship institutions imparts an awareness of macro societal patterns, while experience with mentorship interaction instills an aptitude for micro skill performance. Therefore, “whole person learning” enables business curricula to connect academic scholarship, application strategy, and aspiration service outcomes

Study of flight management requirements during SST low visibility approach and landing operations. Volume 1 - Definition of baseline SST landing system

Baseline instrument landing system for low visibility approach and landing of supersonic transport

Above- and belowground herbivory jointly impact defense and seed dispersal traits in Taraxacum officinale

Plants are able to cope with herbivores by inducing defensive traits or growth responses that allow them to reduce or avoid the impact of herbivores. Since above- and belowground herbivores differ substantially in life-history traits, for example feeding types, and their spatial distribution, it is likely that they induce different responses in plants. Moreover, strong interactive effects on defense and plant growth are expected when above- and belowground herbivores are jointly present. The strengths and directions of these responses have been scarcely addressed in the literature. Using Taraxacum officinale, the root-feeding nematode Meloidogyne hapla and the locust Schistocerca gregaria as a model species, we examined to what degree above- and belowground herbivory affect (1) plant growth responses, (2) the induction of plant defensive traits, that is, leaf trichomes, and (3) changes in dispersal-related seed traits and seed germination. We compared the performance of plants originating from different populations to address whether plant responses are conserved across putative different genotypes. Overall, aboveground herbivory resulted in increased plant biomass. Root herbivory had no effect on plant growth. Plants exposed to the two herbivores showed fewer leaf trichomes than plants challenged only by one herbivore and consequently experienced greater aboveground herbivory. In addition, herbivory had effects that reached beyond the individual plant by modifying seed morphology, producing seeds with longer pappus, and germination success

Aerothermodynamic radiation studies

We have built and made operational a 6 in. electric arc driven shock tube which alloys us to study the non-equilibrium radiation and kinetics of low pressure (0.1 to 1 torr) gases processed by 6 to 12 km/s shock waves. The diagnostic system allows simultaneous monitoring of shock radiation temporal histories by a bank of up to six radiometers, and spectral histories with two optical multi-channel analyzers. A data set of eight shots was assembled, comprising shocks in N2 and air at pressures between 0.1 and 1 torr and velocities of 6 to 12 km/s. Spectrally resolved data was taken in both the non-equilibrium and equilibrium shock regions on all shots. The present data appear to be the first spectrally resolved shock radiation measurements in N2 performed at 12 km/s. The data base was partially analyzed with salient features identified