Former Boeing Workers
Embrace Dependable Strengths
Noreen
Brownlie and Penny
Remfer recently facilitated a successful DS workshop with 18 dislocated
Boeing workers. Here’s what they wrote:
“Other classmates noticed
strengths that I was unaware of. Those unknown strengths
gave me confidence,“ commented one of
the participants in the Dependable Strengths training
at WorkSource Aerospace in Everett, Washington. “I
learned things about myself that will help me in
many areas of life, not just job-seeking.” The
May 17-19, 2004 workshop was comprised of 18 former
Boeing workers who had been unemployed from six months
to more than two years. |
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Workshop
facilitators --
Noreen Brownlie (left) & Penny
Rempfer (right)
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Edmonds Community College Employment Specialist Noreen Brownlie
has worked with the laid-off Boeing population at WorkSource
Aerospace for more than a year. She felt the Dependable Strengths
Articulation Process (DSAP) would help to empower and motivate
the clients at the Center, and would broaden their job search
tools, improve interview performance and assist these dislocated
workers in their networking techniques. Noreen invited Penny
Rempfer, a Boeing employee of 26 years and a doctoral candidate
doing her dissertation on Dependable Strengths, to co-facilitate
the workshop with her.
“Margaret Mead found that most
people only know about 20% of their potential,” says
Penny Rempfer. “I
have found, through teaching this workshop, that this process
helps individuals learn more about themselves. It validates
what they already know to be true and in many cases, gives
them ideas of strengths that they never knew they had. This
process gives people the knowledge that they have unique
patterns of strengths that are of value. It is a definite
confidence builder!”
The 18 participants at the WorkSource Aerospace Center training
embraced the Dependable Strengths Articulation Process with
openness and enthusiasm. Relationships that had endured layoff
and the frustration of unemployment were strengthened. The
classroom was frequently filled with conversation and laughter.
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Some
participants doing a report on Partnership for
Excellence
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Workshop attendees commented on their newfound Dependable
Strengths and how they might apply this knowledge. “I’ve
learned that using a resume alone can limit the scope of
your potential. The workshop increased my confidence with
new tools.” Another participant said, “It
was a class that helped empower the unemployed individuals
and
give us another option to network our strengths and skills
with other people. The hardest part was getting us out of
our comfort zone and approaching strangers.”
Brownlie and Rempfer want to organize bi-weekly one hour
gatherings following the weekly Monday morning Professional
Networking Group meeting to check in with Dependable Strengths
graduates and to track how DSAP has impacted their search
for employment.
“Hearing the Good Experiences of my dislocated worker
clients and listening to them speak about their strengths
gave me a deeper appreciation for each of them,” says
Brownlie. “I never dreamed facilitating my first DSAP
workshop would be this rewarding. Penny brought her expertise
and humor, and together, we felt a profound connection with
our group. The Dependable Strengths process helped many of
our extremely introverted participants break through and
begin to express themselves in the language of strengths.”
One attendee said, after an exercise in the workshop, “I’m
not the person that I thought I was.”
“This workshop not only gave the participants new
job search strategies and tools,” says Rempfer. “it
was able to profoundly change the way each person thought
of themselves and gave them a positive outlook by focusing
on their unique pattern of strengths. They realized that
they truly have value and add value to whatever they do.”
(On a more recent note… Noreen added that one of their
DSAP graduates had just received a good second interview
with Aerotek).
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