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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (April 15, 2016)
S moke S ignals APRIL 15, 2016 13 Carnegie was born in 1888 COURSE continued from front page chased/Referred Care Supervisor Melody Baker, K-5/Before and After Care Program Manager Tim Barry, Swing Shift Housekeeping Supervisor Ben Bishop, General Manager Executive Assistant Bar- bara Branson, Lead Maintenance Technician Andrew Freeman, Com- munity Fund Director Kathleen George, Employment and Training Specialist Barbara Gibbons, Lead Groundskeeper Gregg Leno, Hous- ing Department Manager Shonn Leno, Lead Pharmacy Technician Kandee Little, Purchased/Referred Care Specialist Tauni McCammon, Education Department Manager Leslie Riggs, Community Fund Grants Coordinator Julia Willis and Smoke Signals staff writer Brent Merrill. From Spirit Mountain Casino, participants included Marketing Department Manager Mychal Cherry, Food and Beverage Depart- ment Assistant Manager Kristina Dizick, Surveillance Department Technician Peter Grout, Marketing Department Casino Reservations Manager Tanya Lopez, Information Technology Department Systems Administration Supervisor Angela Schlappie-Carrasco and Account Operations Department Manager Virginia Singh. Stack was assisted by Senior Human Resources Generalist Steve O’Harra, who served as team lead- er. “I’m really excited about the participants in the class,” said O’Harra. “The main reason I want- ed to do this is I went through the training and it helped me out so much.” Carnegie lived from 1888 through 1955 and established the Dale Car- negie course in communications in 1912. He was a salesman turned lecturer who authored several best-selling self-help books that made him and his teachings a household name. Carnegie also was a radio show personality, newspaper columnist and adviser to many prominent business and political leaders in his day. Among the books he authored are “How to Win Friends and In- fluence People” and “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living.” The current-day Carnegie orga- nization has a network of offices in 75 countries and has graduated more than 8 million people through its various training programs. Dale Carnegie and Associates bill themselves as the premier human effectiveness development program and says that the consistent appli- cation of proven principles leads to real growth in participating individuals. The course focuses on self-confidence, communication skills, human relations, leadership and effective attitude management. “I like these training opportu- nities because they teach people to leave their comfort zones,” said Tribal Council member Chris Mer- cier. “Regardless of what position we hold, at some point we need to Photo by Michelle Alaimo Tribal Parks and Recreation Specialist Jerry Bailey, left, and Tribal Purchased/Referred Care Supervisor Melody Baker prepare to introduce each other during a “Making an Effective Introduction” exercise during the Dale Carnegie Training course on Monday, April 4. Tribal governmental and Spirit Mountain Casino employees participated in the eight-week course held at the Employment Services and Training Center building on campus. tap our inner extroverts and not be so scared of speaking before a crowd or interacting with folks from different backgrounds. These are skills that can last a lifetime and come in handy not just profession- ally, but personally, too.” Week one focused on “Building a Foundation for Success” and the ability to recall and use people’s names. Week two was “Building Memory Skills and Enhancing Relationships” while increasing self-confidence and week three was about how to “Put Stress in Perspective” and motivating others. The fourth week detailed how to “Energize Our Communications” and how to make ideas clear. Week five focused on how to “Disagree Agreeably” and gain the willing cooperation of others while the sixth week centered on how to “Manage Our Stress” and develop more flexibility. Week seven found the class being asked to “Inspire Others” and the final week was about “Celebrating Achievements and Demonstrating Leadership.” O’Harra said the vision behind bringing the course to Grand Ronde was the idea of having current and future leaders learn an effective and common set of language, prob- lem solving, relationship building and organizational skills to better prepare staff members to work collaboratively and efficiently, and improve career growth through improved personal performance. “I want to do anything that is going to help me do my job better. So that was my interest in doing it,” said Riggs. “I found myself looking forward to it. It was a good group of people. The feeling in the room was really good. It definitely felt like we were a team.” Riggs said he feels that his knowl- edge has grown by taking the course. “I feel like I learned a lot about people that I never really knew be- fore and I always really like that,” said Riggs, who won an outstanding performance award in the second week. “I’ve learned a lot about com- municating from the teachings and I always look forward to getting to know people better than I already know.” Willis, who is a Coquille Tribal member, said she watched a team of more confident people being formed weekly. “I’m lucky enough to have some experience public speaking and I’ve seen people that clearly hadn’t and watching them come out of their shell, watching them get more comfortable, it just creates this really supportive environment for everyone,” said Willis, who won the course’s Human Relations Award in week five. “I think everybody has really benefitted from that because there is this definite sense of cama- raderie that occurred organically. And it made me realize how much practice I need even though I get to do this as part of my job. The public speaking pieces have been really helpful to me. I just feel so much more relaxed and I’m taking a lot away from that.” Willis said the course’s focus on human relations has helped her in her professional and personal lives. “That part really made me reflect on how I treat other people and how I communicate with other people,” said Willis. “Now I’m really trying to focus on listening to people, re- membering their names and I’m actually doing it, which has been great. I’m getting so much out of that. What I really like is the idea that I will keep these books, I will keep these lessons and they will stay with me. That’s really helping me.” Cherry, who said she learned about the course from her super- visor, casino Marketing Director Shawna Ridgebear, also said she is benefitting from the lessons. “It’s so practical and hands-on,” said Cherry. “I wanted to focus on improving communication and my listening skills. The actual princi- ples that we’ve been learning, that you can actually apply and practice, has made all the difference in the world for me. I love the simplicity of it. It’s just really working and it’s nice to be more engaged now.” Cherry said Stack pushed her out of her comfort zone. “I’ve done things in front of a group of people that I would have never done in a million years,” said Cherry. “You couldn’t have paid me money to do some of the things I have had to get up and do – like act like the green giant.” Cherry also said that the group now seems like a team. “I love that it’s really created a bond with that group of people too because it’s not like they were strangers to begin with,” said Cher- ry. “These are people that we work with; that we grew up with. To have that bond with those people now is going to be awesome because you can already feel it. I see people outside of class and you just have this little secret. I love it.” Cherry said she would recom- mend the course and she sees it helping people who already work together. “I think it would be awesome for all leaders to go through that train- ing, especially teams of people that work together closely and manage a lot of stress,” said Cherry. “It’s been really good for building camarade- rie with the group of people that we See COURSE continued on page 16
