Professor C. Jack Orr's Web Site

Training and Development is a career option for Communication graduates. It involves numerous modes of implementation, such as, teaching, consulting, workshop presentations, coaching and counseling. This course will place a strong emphasis on workshop design and delivery. It will do so in light of the exciting ideas that are shaping organizational development.

Text: Lee Bolman & Terrence Deal, Reframing Organizations

The inspiriting author of The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch writes, "engineering is not about perfect solutions; it’s about doing the best you can with limited resources." So it is with the art of communication, training and development.

No matter how advanced our science may become our knowledge is always dependent upon the frameworks with which we view the world. As Jerome Bruner says, "The best we can do is   construct representations of what the world is like and test those representations against what we experience-whether we are developmental scientists or two-year-olds." In this course we see organizational challenges through four frameworks: The structural frame, the human resource frame, the political frame and the symbolic frame.

There is, however, another exigency to our work. In teaching or facilitating groups we are always vulnerable to the unexpected. A client may raise an unexpected question. Workshop participants may argue with each other. The media equipment might fail. Novel problems arise that have not been imagined in academic research. A workshop participant might even challenge the expertise of the facilitator! We learn in teaching and training that, "We cannot put off living until we are ready. The most salient characteristic of life is its coerciveness: it is always urgent, 'here and now,' without any possible postponement. Life is fired at us point-blank (Jose Ortega y Gasset)."

This class will help you prepare for educational serendipity

Click on Dr. Orr's Training and Development resume:

A Graduate of Com 570: Molly Nece

Molly is associate director of West Chester University's Training & Development Program. To see what she is doing click WCU Training and Development

View Molly's new venture Legacy Producers

A T&D Graduate of Communication Studies: Karen Hess

Karen and Bob Hess direct Hess Resources. Check on their many training options.