Community Service Event in Boston: Emerald Necklace Conservancy
A “day in the dirt” feels so good. Especially when you are working shoulder-to-shoulder with your hospitality training peers! For our community service event in Boston, we partnered with the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, an organization dedicated to preserving and protecting Boston's historic network of parks and green spaces. Together, we removed litter and debris, making a meaningful impact on one of Boston's most treasured outdoor spaces. Thank you to our volunteer service event co-directors Sarah Roha and Lindy Bagby for organizing!
PresidenTalks Turning Moments into Momentum
As I write this article, it’s been five weeks since the CHART Boston conference ended. I left Boston with so many implementable ideas and good intentions, but too quickly I found myself falling back into my everyday challenges and losing sight of what I thought I had learned at the conference.
I say I “thought” I had learned, because in truth, if we want learning that sticks, we have to apply what we learned. The question we need to ask ourselves is not “what did I learn,” but instead, “what did I do with what I learned?” If the learning isn’t used, does it really matter? Of course that goes not only for our own self-development, but also for the training programs that we design and deliver. We have to build intentional, directed application opportunities, both inside and outside of
CHART President Jennifer Belk White, Ed.D., SPHR, CHT
the training experience, to ensure that the skills and knowledge that were taught will be retained. Training happens in the moment , but we have to be intentional about building momentum to keep driving the learning forward. To be honest, while reflecting on what to write this month, I realized that in the past few years I have become a bit too complacent about my own self-development. When sitting in a session, I will capture a screen shot with my phone and think “I’ll remember that,” without being thoughtful about how and when I will use the information. When reading, I may flag a paragraph or page as important, but I am not always focused on applying that important topic. These reflections led me to revisit the book The Practicing Mind , by Thomas Sterner. Sterner differentiates between learning and practice, noting that practice requires “awareness and will” in a way that mere learning does not. He goes on to say that practice involves the “deliberate repetition of a process with the intention of reaching a specific goal,” highlighting the importance of deliberateness and intentionality as the key to achieving the desired goals of learning. Today, I am recommitting myself to being deliberate and intentional about my own learning and development journey, as well as creating opportunities for deliberate practice and application in the training programs I design and deliver. And, I’m recommitting myself to applying the long list of action items and improvements I came home with from Boston. What about you? What might you choose to recommit to this month to support your own self-development? Have a great month!
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