Karen Sieczka

Why be Creative at Work?

Why even try to be creative at work? So why should you bother looking more closely at creativity or even encourage it from your staff? For one thing, promoting creativity at work has many benefits and an organization's continued survival may depend on it.... Read >

Failure IS an option!

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all. --Edward de Bono As entrepreneurs, we have all failed at one time or another. An idea doesn't pan out, a deal falls through, we get rejec... Read >

Creating Curriculum for the Workplace: The Process

Researching, designing, and preparing curriculum for workplace training is a creative process that can be broken down into some simple steps: What subject is going to be taught? Usually the subject matter is based on organizational goals or mission, a... Read >

What is soul food?

Preserve your family's recipes. Get them on paper before it's too late. What is soul food? Everyone seems to have their own take on the topic but most can agree soul food is ethnic in its origins. Most agree it was creation of the slave population in ... Read >

Tips for successful event planning

Preliminaries What is the reasoning behind the event? Meet goals of the organization? Raise money for specific or general purpose? Community Education? To publicize a particular need? New donors? Cultivate volunteers? All of the above? Does the event enha... Read >

Workplace training versus traditional classroom training

Teaching in the classroom and teaching or training in the workplace may seem, to the inexperienced eye, to be one in the same technique. A person gets up in front of a group and imparts information to them. The group is them tested or evaluated in some ma... Read >

How to Build Employee Confidence

We often see only a glimpse of an employee's capabilities during working hours and believe this is the total of his or her potential. Cultivate and tap into employee skills by following some simple guidelines: Have high expectations. People rise t... Read >

Quick Tips on Coaching Employees for Improved Performance

As supervisors, we often are working with potential and need to assure that employees have the skills to poise them for success. Many of these skills can be improved with simple coaching sessions. Consider: What are their career goals? What short ter... Read >

Okra: It's Not Just for Gumbo Anymore

It seems as Southern as whistling Dixie but this tasty pod is migrating to a city near you. Think okra is just a southern vegetable? Think again. Above the Mason Dixon line this underrated, underused vegetable may not be as familiar as tomatoes but ok... Read >

How to get the Most from Your Volunteer Experience:

Thinking about doing some volunteer work in your community? Great! Volunteering makes you feel good while benefiting local organizations and agencies that need help to augment their staff and services. Working as a volunteer is not quite like working a re... Read >

The Foundation for Literacy Begins Early

Children are amazing. They are born with the innate capacity to learn from everything they feel, see, and hear around them. Much like a tiny seed has the ability to become a beautiful plant if given the right conditions, children have unlimited potential ... Read >