The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) was passed in 2005, placing new responsibilities on employers with the goal to make Ontario organizations more accessible. The act breaks down the barriers faced by persons with disabilities with the aim to make Ontario accessible by 2025. (Note – Phase 1 deadlines - AODA Customer Service Standards - have earlier due dates).
Besides being the right thing to do, making our workplaces more accessible benefits all of us. The Royal Bank of Canada estimates that the spending power of people with disabilities is about $25 billion each year. So besides being the right thing to do, it also makes good business sense.
This legislation is being implemented in phases with Phase 1 being Customer Service Standards. Public sector organizations were required to meet the Customer Service Accessibility regulations on January 1, 2010. Private sector organizations are required to meet the standards effective January 1, 2012.
Who must comply with the Customer Service Standard?
If your business or organization provides goods or services either directly to the public or to third parties (for example to other businesses) and you have one or more employees in Ontario, you must comply with the legislation. Those with 20 or more employees must also file accessibility reports starting in 2012.
Are you compliant with the AODA? Do you know what you need to do?
Don’t worry, we’ve done the work for you so you don’t have to. We’ve scheduled educational and working sessions similar to our popular Bill 168 sessions, to get your organization compliant quickly. Click here for more information.
Let me tell you about Phil the IT Guy. Phil and his wife Kim, were colleagues of mine at a previous employer. Phil learned all about computers, and networks and he was Phil the IT guy. Around the time I started my HR & Training consultancy, Phil started an IT company aimed at providing IT services to Small to Medium businesses. Recently he posted that he and his band mates would be playing at a local pub near his home. My husband and I decided to travel out of town to see him play.
I mentioned before Phil went on stage that I didn’t realize that he had a hidden talent – I didn’t realize he was a musician. He said he didn’t know he had that talent either until three years ago when he decided to take guitar lessons! And Phil hadn’t played any other instrument up until he made that decision!
Wow! And here was Phil the IT Guy, now also the Phil the Guitar Guy, rockin’ and singin’ with his fellow band mates to a standing room only crowd. I was so happy for him. It was what I call, a “goose bump” moment. Here was a guy getting out there doing something new, something outside the boundaries! Sure he was still Phil the IT Guy but he had realized a new potential as Phil the Guitar Guy too!
Totally impressed, I asked him how he did it. Reflecting on our discussion, I realized that the way Phil went about learning to play the guitar to successfully performing in a band is the same way he goes about being successful at work and in his business as Phil the IT Guy.
Phil’s Nine (P9) Tips for Success!
- Passion: He wanted to learn to play the guitar and had the passion to try it.
- Prepare: He got a good guitar, set aside time for lessons, and got a good instructor. A GenY who is a music student at McMaster.
- Practise: He practiced. He practiced because he wanted to learn to play the guitar.
- Patience: He kept at it even when it was frustrating at times.
- Persistence: He was noticed for his persistence. His instructor asked him if he would be willing to form a band with a few other students.
- Purpose: Phil and his band mates needed a new challenge, a new purpose to get them to the next level. So Phil asked the local pub if they could play a set one Saturday night.
- People: Phil and his band mates informed people. Now it was out there. Their goal was shared with the people that mattered. The people that mattered supported them.
- Pride (or Panic): The date was set. No backing out now. Phil admitted to thinking of the big “F” word – “FEAR!” A little bit panic set in – wondering what they had gotten themselves in to, but courage and pride in wanting to perform well kept them going.
- Perform: The big night came and Phil and his fellow band mates rocked the night. Family and friends were there for a great performance and a memorable “goose bump” moment.
Do you see anything special in what Phil (and his band mates) did? Are there tips you can take back to the workplace? I think this story about Phil the IT Guy, now also Phil the Guitar Guy, is a story that we all can learn from.
PROUD of you Phil. Joanne
Joanne Royce, Royce & Associates, Human Resources & Training Solutions, Creating Happy, Healthy, and Productive Workplaces!
P.S. Speaking of change and realizing your hidden potential, we’re starting a “Getting Your Job Search Started” Program over the next couple of weeks. Participants receive a workbook, weekly Webinars and coaching to support and help them develop a strategy for getting a job! Contact us for more details.
Children don’t have any restrictions when it comes to creativity. They play and create with little effort. What happens to crumple this effortless creativity? The following story might explain.
When my daughter was in kindergarten, I volunteered to help in the classroom. One day, Mrs. Teacher asked the children to make a rabbit using plasticine. She didn’t provide any other instructions. They went to work and it was wonderful to see little rabbits springing up around the classroom. Everyone made three-dimensional tall rabbits, but my daughter did something different. She built a one-dimensional rabbit with incredible detail layered onto a flat circle for the head, another for the body and little flat ears and legs. Kind of like some art or story books you see where the characters are made out of plasticine flattened onto the page and then photographed. She was focused and working very hard on building her unique rabbit. Mrs. Teacher went around the room making positive comments about the tall rabbits, and then she came up to my daughter. I’m sure you might guess what comes next. My little girl stopped her work and smiled up at her teacher, expecting some kind of encouraging remark. But instead, with hands on her hips and a frown on her face, Mrs. Teacher said, “You were supposed to make a tall rabbit, not a flat one.” All the pride and joy my daughter felt in creating her rabbit crumpled before my eyes. I gently told her, “I really like your rabbit, especially the little eyes, nose, and whiskers.” But the damage was done. My daughter was already furiously crumpling up her beautiful flat rabbit into a big tall lump of plasticine. I half expected her to toss the lump at her teacher, because I felt like doing that myself. So what happened?
Creativity is crumpled if we are quick to judge.
Creativity is crumpled when constraints get in the way.
How often in the workplace do we crumple creativity by confining problem solving and ideas into restrictive parameters? (Make a rabbit, but it has to be a three-dimensional, tall rabbit). Or worse, do we crumple creativity by expressing an opinion that something won’t work, is a stupid idea, or isn’t the way we do things around here?
What can we do about this? During the HRPA 2011 Conference, several speakers mentioned that the role of a manager when it comes to encouraging creativity is to be quiet and listen, get out of the way, and provide free time.
Many might say it isn’t possible to allow people “free” time to create, but Google has an 80/20 rule where engineers are expected to spend 20% of their week working on anything that interests them … with no parameters and no restrictions. Google believes people work better when they’re passionate about something and Google has benefited by 20% time with results like Gmail and Google News.
So the next time you hear or see someone doing something unique or outside conventional parameters stop and think very carefully about how you’ll approach them. What will you say? Will you crumple creativity or encourage it? If you are interested in learning how to UN-crumple the plasticine rabbit and encourage creativity in your workplace, contact us!
Joanne Royce, Royce & Associates, Human Resources & Training Solutions ~ Creating Happy, Healthy, Productive Workplaces.
I enjoyed the first day of the HRPA 2011 Conference. There were many great speakers and I’d like to share some of my favourite quotes:
Social Media Victories – Patrick Schwerdtfeger
- If Facebook was a country it would be the third largest country in the world, after China and India!
- Conversations are markets. Where do those conversations take place? (On-line!)
- A Twitter survey states that only 8.7% of tweets have value enough to “pass-along.” (There’s an opportunity here!)
- The open rate of emails (called InMail) sent through LinkedIn is 7 times higher than through regular email! (Are you on LinkedIn? You should be!)
730 Days from Now: How Your Life Will Change – Leonard Brody
- When Sidney Crosby scored the winning goal, there were 3.5 million status updates on Facebook within 30 minutes and most of them were by women over the age of 40!
- People with large and healthy tertiary networks (i.e. on Facebook, LinkedIn) are more successful and wealthy.
- Gen Y are aliens. Their brains are different. They are able to process and compute/filter data faster.
- All CEOs should have Human Resources education and knowledge. If they don’t, it will be a fatal flaw.
- Rise of the Hacker; we are so connected we have world collaboration to fix problems.
A Crisis is a Terrible Thing to Waste – Bill Taylor
- Companies need to become the “MOST” at something. Middle of the road is the road to nowhere.
- We need to CARE more about each other.
- You can’t be distinctive, compelling, and exciting in the marketplace, if you aren’t distinctive, compelling and exciting in the workplace.
- CEOs need to ask, “How do we conduct ourselves as a community first, and then as a company second?”
- You can’t let what you know, limit what you can imagine.
- Are you learning as fast as the world is changing?
I even heard the words “nurture” and ”nurturing” used many times during the day and no one rolled their eyes. Yes, it is okay to “nurture” your people and to create “nurturing” environments! Happy people are your competitive advantage!
Best regards, Joanne
Human Resources & Training Solutions
