Employee Transition Strategy Questionnaire (SAMPLE)

TRANSITION NARRATIVE QUESTIONNAIRE

PERSONAL

1.       What issues or causes are you passionate or concerned about?

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2.       What do you love to do?

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3.       What is your career goal/what do you want to accomplish in life?

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4.       Are there specific organizations or fields that you are particularly interested in?

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5.       Are you more interested in working in positions in the Public, Private or Not-for-Profit Sectors?  Starting a business?

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6.       What areas of your personal performance and presentation do you feel would benefit from growth/new approaches?

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SKILLS

7.       Which of your skills sets do you feel are your greatest strength?

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8.       What aspects of your last position appealed to you the most?

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-          The least?

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9.       What are you interested in learning more about?

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10.   What new skills do you think would be valuable to learn in furtherance of your career goals?

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WORKPLACE

11.   From your experience, which types of work environments have you found most engaging?

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-          Most stressful?

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-          Least motivating?

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12.   Do you have stakeholders/external contacts you could approach for advice, additional contacts, or to present yourself as a potential opportunity to?

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Overview of Outgoing Employee Transition Strategy

The Plan

Moving Forward Together: A Team Transition Strategy would involve three phases:

1)      Build the Transition Plan and Team

2)      Implementation

3)      Follow-Up

Phase 1 – Building the Transition Plan and Team

Based on the number of departing staff, Department Heads will select Transition Team Partners to manage the transitions of no more than ten individuals each.

Transition Team Partners will be selected based on:

-          Their demonstrated commitment to the wellbeing of the team

-          Communication and empathy skills

-          Internal and external connectivity

-          Capacity to manage departing staff (client) responsibilities in addition to their existing jobs

-          Ability to identify opportunities both for their clients and, through targeted connections, the agencies they are departing

Transition Team Partners will be assigned clients and provided with client contact information and details of last position/campaign roles.

While a volunteer position, Transition Team Partners, if staff, would be given flexibility with their regular duties to allow sufficient time to exercise these responsibilities.  All Government employees, including political staff and where possible, stakeholders would be encouraged to support Transition Team Partners in identifying and connecting with targets.

Phase 2 – Implementation

HR will contact departing staff and inform them of their status; HR will then explain the transition service the Department will provide and indicate their assigned Transition Team Partners will contact them.

Transition Team Partners connect with their clients, supplying a questionnaire designed to help clients profile their interests, skills and career objectives.  A meeting to plan next steps will be arranged.  This initial conversation will firmly establish that positive results cannot be guaranteed and it is in the best interests of the client to continue seeking out opportunities through traditional methods throughout the process.

-          In the event that clients have already found new employment, meetings will still be established to retain connectivity between individuals and the agency they are exiting.

During this meeting, Transition Team Partners will use the questionnaire to help their clients build a narrative (i.e. What is your career objective?) to help Partners identify targets and clients frame themselves in interviews. 

Transition Team Partners will work with their internal and external contacts, reaching out to other potential supports to identify targets for each of their clients.  These targets will be suggested to clients and, where there is consensus, informational interviews will be arranged.  Partners can attend these meetings based on their availability and inclination.

Transition Team Partners would provide status updates to HR, who would in turn let Team Partners know of any new opportunities within the Civil Service.  Transition Team Members would also convene monthly to share targets and see where cross-pollination is possible.

This would be an ongoing process until such time as “next steps”, be it new employment, ongoing social assistance, etc, are established.

Phase 3 – Follow-Up

Once next steps have been secured and clients are established, Transition Team Partners will reconnect to see how the new positions are going.

Contacts, targets and clients will be provided an opportunity to evaluate the process.  Transition Team Partners will convene to determine best practices and lessons learned.


EXECUTIVE RECTRUITMENT, a Toronto placement firm, uses more or less the same methodology.  Where the gap lies is in employers recognizing the value of landing outgoing employees.  We'll get there.

1. Conduct a client interview to identify the qualitative and quantitative factors that establishes the ideal candidate.
2. Evaluate that information and, using our extensive database and experience as resources, determine the most targeted approach to finding the top candidates.
3. Begin contacting potential candidates and screen them by way of initial telephone interviews.
4. Determine the contenders who are the closest match to our ideal candidate to meet for more in-depth, face-to-face interviews.
5. Assess the results to determine a short-list of three or four candidates to present to the client.
6. Provide the client with an individual assessment of selected candidates.
7. Arrange interviews with the client and candidates.
8. Perform an in-depth de-brief with both the client and the candidates to ensure a clear understanding of job requirements and expectations, determine a cultural fit and establish both parties desire to continue the process.
9. Co-ordinate follow-up interviews when necessary.
10. Consult with client to determine the best candidate and confirm the candidate’s satisfaction and willingness to accept an offer.
11. Facilitate the offer process.
12. Complete or assist with the reference checks, as the client requires.
13. Give guidance to the candidate as needed with the resignation process.

Peeling the Onion of Tony Clement

“This is where if you do the right thing — first of all, I don’t want to speculate too much but obviously what we’re looking at in some cases are reduct—,” Clement said before catching himself, concerned he was tipping his hand.

“You almost got me there,” he laughed. “I’ll be able to answer that on March 30.”

Since the G20 funding thing came to light, I've been taking a bit of a deeper look into Tony Clement and what makes him tick.  He's gregarious, free with his time and very open to direct engagement; he's also a risk-taker, sometimes when the odds are pretty demonstrably not in his favour.  From a direct back-and-forth via Twitter, I think he honestly believes he has done no wrong over funding for his riding.

Oh - and in a Harper Government that is into strict message control, he's a guy that can barely control himself from being chatty.  All around, he seems like the kind of guy who'd be interesting to have a beer and a conversation with.  Clement probably has lots of ideas rolling around in that pre-frontal cortex of his.

He's yet another example of just how much cognitive frameworks impact our daily lives, whether we choose to acknowledge the fact or not.

Remove Yourself From the Equation to Find Success

The following is a quote from Writer/Director Joss Whedon in reference to his upcoming cinematic take on Marvel's The Avengers:

Says Whedon, "There's a lot of me that got cut out, but I think part of the process in a situation like this is you make the movie, you make your movie, then you remove yourself out of the equation. At some point you stop looking beyond The Avengers movie, at your own stuff... You go, 'You know what, The Avengers are more important than I am so these things that I'm obsessed with aren't necessarily moving the story forward, and therefore they are baggage.'"

The exact same rule applies to leadership, to business, to politics.  When it becomes about you, you've lost.

Or, take it from a slightly different bent:

"Never let your ego set so close to your position that when your position goes, your ego goes with it."

Guy Giorno - it's time your Party stepped up to the plate.

Guy W. Giorno‏@guygiorno

@SusanDelacourt @wicary Is there a difference? Please, based on your long experience in law enforcement, explain it to me.

In reply to Susan Delacourt

 

Susan Delacourt‏@SusanDelacourt

@guygiorno @wicary So you're supplying what EC requests, not volunteering info. Do I understand that correctly?

Okay, Giorno has pissed me off.  I don’t care how smart or how experienced he is, we have here a man who seems a little too comfortable with his entitlements.  His “messaging” is, to me, the epitome of entitled, elitist bubble-dom leadership.  “I owe the public nothing, except what I’m forced to provide them” isn’t good enough.  Not when the public trust in politics in general is at stake.

Voter turnout is on a downward trend.  Globally, people have lost faith in the very fabric of our economic system.  The fact is, younger generations of Canadians have lost faith in our democracy and don’t think that the future looks bright for them, or for our country.

And in the face of this, the Federal Tories trot out lines like “Canadians don’t care” and hide behind legal definitions.  Reprehensible.

General Colin Powell has a presentation he does to business leaders, wherein he uses the following quote:

“The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them.  They have either lost confidence that you can help them or conclude that you do not care.  Either case is a failure of leadership.”

If you want to source that, look it up yourself.  Or I might be willing to consider a trade, with your contribution being full, proactive disclosure to Elections Canada.  Call it good PR, if it makes you feel better.

Meantime, Mr. Giorno, go tell our Prime Minister Harper something on behalf of us non-inner circle types; the majority of the Canadian populace aren’t trained soldiers, yet even we have lost faith in government – and he is the leader of Canada’s government.  I don’t care if he deeply mistrusts Liberals or foreigners, fears Iranians or Stéphane Dion or whoever – he is paid, by us, represents each and every Canadian, not just those that vote Conservative.  It's time he starts earning his keep.  Politics is a game, sure, but the office of Prime Minister requires its occupant to step beyond their ideological inclinations and be more than the sum of their partisan parts. 

Yes, I vote Liberal and have worked for the Liberals provincially and federally (that’s what volunteering information looks like, btw), but there’s lots of improvement to be had in the Liberal Party, too.  Low voter turnout and broad democratic malaise mean there’s a systematic problem.  Robocalls, vikileaks and Anonymous are symptoms, not the cause, of this social illness.  When any Party – and people of influence like this Guy Girono fella – refuse to take responsibility for this crisis of faith, they’re adding to the problem.

I’ve no doubt that if this little rant even gets a viewing by someone maybe kinda associated with Girono or the CPC, they’ll take note of the slant, mark off potential rebuttals and file them away for future use.  They either don’t get what’s happening, here, or they simply don’t care.  Not when they’ve got a majority to run and the ongoing dominance of Canada to plan.  In either case, on the battlefield this would be considered an utter failure of leadership - a Republican himself has said as much.

Canada deserves better.  Majority in hand, it’s time for the Harper Tories to step up to the frickin’ plate.

Wind Turbine Syndrome – or Wind Turbine Phobia?

Come writers and critics

Who prophesize with your pen

And keep your eyes wide

The chance won’t come again

And don’t speak too soon

For the wheel’s still in spin

 -          Bob Dylan, The Times They Are A-Changin’

 

The Old Road Is Rapidly Agin’

It was social upheaval on a scale so vast, it defied comprehension.  The people were astounded by the pervasive nature of this change, which seemed without precedence in history.  The train of progress kept on gaining speed, hurling society forward at such a pace it seemed like new track couldn’t be laid down fast enough to keep pace.  In the face of so much uncertainty, such dramatic upheavals of the world they knew (and found comfort in) the people were afraid – afraid that society itself was going off the rails.

This fear of an unknown future gripped the common man.  A wave of anxiety overtook the masses as the walls of society seemed to topple around them.  People began to panic about being left at the station as progress steamed its way into tomorrow.  All this uncertainty and stress fostered anger and resentment against the agents of progress, best personified by one intrusive, aggressive symbol.

 

Welcome to Victorian England, mid-1800s.  It was a time of rapid industrial growth and social upheaval that saw a polarization between progressives and conservatives over the future of the nation and the consequences of social adaptation.  It’s a time worth understanding well, as it mirrors what we’re going through today.  Wind turbines, you see, are being viewed through the exact same lenses now as were trains then.  Let us consider:

I Hear the Train A Comin’ 

For a time, men of means in Victorian England were struck by railway fever.  Whatever the general public felt, they believed that the future of public transport was in trains; as such, they were “induced to believe that they had only to embark in one of these schemes to ensure themselves a life of affluence and ease.”  Rail’s proponents said trains would better harness a key commodity of the era – time itself – and that railway tracks and bridges would “architecturally embellish” the countryside.

The majority of the population, of course, were not people of means.  To them, the gridding of their countryside, their farms and homesteads with tracks was a unilaterally imposed threat.  History tells us they don’t like the idea of their power to decide their future being taken away from them; the same was true here.  By 1845, there was an almost universal aversion to the railways.  Railway historian Frederick S. Williams summed up the growing NIMBYISM of the age thusly: “A rumor that it was proposed to bring such a thing as a railroad within a dozen miles of a particular neighbourhood was enough to elicit adverse petitions to Parliament, and public subscriptions were opened to give effect to the opposition.”

 

People did not like the idea of seeing a train rumble by past their front door.  A Quaker wrote the following complaint to the Leeds Intelligencer on January 31, 1831:

 

“On the very line of this railway, I have built a comfortable house; it enjoys a pleasing view of the country.  Now judge, my friend, of my mortification, whilst I am sitting comfortably at breakfast with my family, enjoying the purity of the summer air, in moment my dwelling, one consecrated to peace and retirement, is filled with dense smoke of foetid gas; my homely, though cleanly, table covered with dirt; and the features of my wife and family almost obscured by a polluted atmosphere.  Nothing is heard but the clanking iron, the blasphemous song, or the appalling curses of the directors of these infernal machines.”

The concerns of the common citizen extended beyond the aesthetic; farmers worried about the long-term impact of passing trains and coal-smoke on their crops, produce and livestock.  Indeed, at the time, nobody could say with any hint of certainty what the effects of the railway would be on a hen’s laying capacity or a cow’s grazing habits.

A sense of economic opportunity; a fear of health risks and a loss of aesthetic appeal; broader, social upheaval.  Does any of this sound familiar?

The Winds of Change

In Victorian England, broader environmental concerns weren’t so recognized; people were more alarmed over the consequences to their own backyard.  The need for speed and access, the building of a social transportation infrastructure was the big requirement for social and economic growth.  While today, we understand more or less the need to balance social growth with the wellbeing of our environment, our primary concern is still our backyard. 

NIMBYISM is as alive today as it was back then, particularly in the case of landowners who feel an entitlement to do as they please with their own property.  The big need is not so much new infrastructure (though what we have is getting old), but for more energy.  Electricity is the food that sustains industry, technology, the family home – we need more of it that is easily accessed, reliable and safe.  Maslow’s hierarchy of needs remain true here as elsewhere – personal needs trump social concerns, both in terms of usage and NIMBYISM.  We want power, but we don’t want a lot to pay for it, nor do we want to have its generation be a fixture of our own personal landscapes.

Wind turbines have replaced trains as the symbol of social upheaval.  As such, they have become the new lightening rod for progressives and conservatives alike.

Pro wind-turbine advocates like CanWEA see wind-generated energy in much the same light as 19^th Century investors saw trains – as a profitable solution to emerging social issues.  Coal is dirty, nuclear is dangerous, the demand for oil and the instability of so many oil-producing countries makes it both environmentally unsound and expensive.  Wind technology, though in its infancy, offers a partial solution to all these problems.  The issue is not one of generation, really, as it is of storage.

On the other side, wind-turbine opponents present a list of familiar arguments, only given more detail thanks to the growing interest in evidence-based problem identification and solution development.  Therefore:

-          Wind turbines are seen as aesthetically displeasing – and here’s the polling data to prove this.  It’s not just risky, it’s a political hot potato – government, do you really want to go there?

-          Turbines produce health risks.  Not only do they kill birds and bats due to low-frequency waves, but these same waves are damaging human health, too.  They’re actually bad, not good, for the environment.  Its best to pursue something else

-          Landowners don’t want somebody else deciding what happens to their land.  It’s their land, they absolutely must be the ones who decides what happens to their property or what impacts their property.

If you look at the facts, the core opinions against wind turbines are the same as those that were used against trains.  The arguments for wind farms are pretty similar to those for trains, too.  In short, there’s nothing new under the sun – specific positions and tactics aside, what we’re looking at is collective progress that generates wealth for a few but benefits the many vs. change-resistant conservatism that stands against individual loss of control and sees progress as threatening.

The Train Has Left The Station

Trains are common, now; inter-city, GO, subways and other forms of mass-transit are part and parcel of urban life.  A big battle facing the City of Toronto’s Council is whether to go with more subways or Light Rail Trains (LRT).  The right-wing Mayor wants to see more public transit buried underground, freeing up road use for more cars.  He sees this as a solution for managing gridlock.  Whether proponents of subways or LRTs, advocates for more space for cars or greater public transport options, nobody is talking about the health impacts of the vibrations or exhaust of vehicles.  It’s not just trains – cars, buses, fire trucks, all vehicles rumble through the city and across the landscape, carrying their low-frequency vibrations with them.  Not coincidentally, the city is testing the benefits of wind generation to help satiate its voracious appetite for energy.

People in urban areas are accustomed to trains, to electricity, to communications towers, crowds, all the things that mass-transit, urban living and technology imply.  They live near them, work near them, play near them.  Ontario is probably one of the very few jurisdictions in the world to have a train that rides right beneath its Legislature.  The world that would have mortified our letter-writing Quaker friend is accepted and comfortable today.  For ubran dwellers, the sounds, shakes and general turbulence of transit is at most, an annoying background noise that reduces property value.  Frequently, it isn’t even noticed at all.  Certainly, few would claim that their health is severely impacted by the presence of these ambient noise and tremors.

Yet, people in rural areas express their uneasiness with wind turbines.  This woman describes how her family’s sleep is disrupted by the thrum of 11 turbines not far from her property.  Is this all exaggeration, a rural conspiracy to justify an inclination towards NIMBYism?  The symptoms of Wind Turbine Syndrome have been widely consistent in their description: 

 

-          Insomnia

-          Irritability

-          Headaches

-          Difficulty concentrating

-          Dizziness

 The frequency and repetitive nature of these symptoms should not be ignored, but we must carefully weigh their origins.  The Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Energy (WISE) is among those doing serious research into the potential health effects of Wind Turbine Syndrome.  Hopefully, these researchers are turning to history as an indicator of what, more broadly, might be happening here.

Go back to the top of this article and follow the link behind wave of anxiety in the second paragraph.  See any similarity between the symptoms of Anxiety and Wind Turbine Syndrome?  Now, consider the problems first associated with the arrival of the train and how prevalent those concerns are now.  Notice the similarities?

We Have Nothing To Fear…

 There is a strong argument to be made that Wind Turbine Syndrome isn’t a product of wind turbines themselves, but rather, the physical manifestation of anxiety caused by the presence of wind turbines.  This makes total sense.  There are countless examples of people who have severe physiological responses caused by the presence of external factors, but not by those factors themselves.  There’s a word for this phenomenon – phobia.

 

Some people have an absolute terror of flying – the very presence of a plane makes their heart race and their palms get sweaty.  Others will go into panic at the notion of public speaking.  These phobias aren’t universal, though – otherwise, we’d never have world-travelling public speakers.  Even those folk who have phobias can learn to overcome them.  Key to overcoming a phobia is understanding the cause and addressing it – you can’t determine a solution if you haven’t correctly identified the problem.

Is it possible that we have misidentified the cause of wind turbine-related health impacts?  Instead of studying Wind Turbine Syndrome, should we instead be treating Wind Turbine Phobia?  Phobias, of course, are considered to be indicative of weak minds, of mental illness.  We still have a pervasive stigma against mental illness; it’s fair to say that many of those people who suffer from Wind Turbine Phobia would rail against the very notion of their anxieties being internally, not externally, caused.  Such an admission would completely undermine the argument it’s not them, but the changes (beyond their control) being wrought to their landscape that are at the heart of the problem. 

Conclusion

The arguments made by the anti-turbine movement are almost identical to those that were made by the anti-railway movement.  The health concerns expressed by each are also remarkably similar – and both strongly resemble the psychological condition we have now identified as anxiety.  With the rise of the urban community and the growth of transportation networks, the concerns of the former have all but disappeared.  One can imagine that, with the growth of wind farms, future generations will grow up with turbines an accepted part of their landscape.  I would wager these generations will have far lower incidences of Wind Turbine Phobia than their ancestors are experiencing now.

 

In the meantime, our ignoring of anxiety as a legitimate cause for turbine-related health symptoms means everyone is focused on solving the wrong problem.  Instead of promoting or decrying the development of wind farms, perhaps resources could be used to address sound-reduction insulation for homes or broader proactive mental health care investment.

The renewable energy train has left the station; the winds of change are upon us.  It makes more sense to put up a sail than it does to turn our backs.

Have a Care for Canada's Democracy

“I think the view would be if you have the Prime Minister or a minister constantly responding to it, you’re inflating the issue to a point that you don’t want it inflated to particularly given the government’s strong denunciation of its involvement in all of this,” Mr. Powers said.

The Conservative Party of Canada would tell us Canadians don't care about the Robocall scandal. They say that actual Canadians don't care about the environment. They've even told us Canadians don't care about the operations of Parliament, the most important institution in our Canadian democracy.

Of course, they aren't about democracy. They're about empire-building. The CPC doesn't seem to have a lot of faith in Canadians. Or perhaps, is it just that they don't really care about us?

A senior Tory advisor once told me that the only thing politicians care about is power and that they'll do whatever they can get away with to get and retain it. Sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy if ever I heard one.