TEEKAY ONLINE COURSES

Arron Grant, Training & Recruitment Manager

It was not that long ago that Quentin Cox and I took part in the Global Live Stream to discuss online training and how Teekay Gas has adapted to this fast-tracked change within the maritime and training environment. At that time, and since, we have run numerous online courses such as LICOS, Shipboard Safety Officer, Competency Assessor as well as our new hire induction.

Although the aforementioned courses are fantastic within their own right and have continued the development of our officers, they are not remotely Teekay specific. Therefore, we were extremely keen on re-establishing some of our in-house courses.

Thanks to the extremely hard work and collaboration of the training team, IT and Moonraker, we were able to host our very own LICOS course and Effective Appraisals workshop online. Both pilot courses from an online perspective, commenced on 30 November. For each of these, there will be a review of what worked and what can be improved and then we can look to booking further dates in 2021. This is a fantastic achievement by all and I eagerly await the outcome of the review. This also opens doors to other courses which we can look to host online.

Training Centre Manager John Williams, and I are currently working with Stream Marine Ltd to create a blended learning module for Polar Survival. We are also collaborating with Whitehorse Maritime to create an online COLREGS learning and assessment tool. Finally, I am working with The Nautical Institute to enhance the Competency Assessor course by making it more aligned to Teekay procedures and using case studies from our own vessels. This will only pay dividends in our officers’ competency assessments.

2021 is an exciting year for developments within training and I look forward to taking many of you on the journey along with us. As always, keep an eye on TGS Training Yammer page, or contact your Training Co-ordinator for the latest course dates.
 

Effective Appraisals
Yvette Elcock, Moonraker Development Services Ltd

Moonraker has enjoyed a long training and development partnership with Teekay Gas. The arrival of COVID-19 set us a new context for delivering the Effective Appraisals Workshop which we had successfully launched in Q1 of 2019. With the closure of the Training Centre, we accepted the brief of working with Arron, Bernie and John to transform and transition the Effective Appraisal Workshop from face-to-face to on-line. We were delighted to be working with the team again as the global pandemic showed no signs of easing.

Our challenge: To maintain our facilitation standards in a virtual environment and still create an informal, relaxed, and fun learning experience.

Hayley Redfern led the content design and brought her experience from other client work with her:

“The brief was to use all my previous knowledge and experience of designing first-class skills-based workshops through a range of technology including:

• The Zoom platform: including breakout rooms for small group private discussion
• The Prezi platform: an engaging presentation format with powerful visual appeal
• Mentimeter: an interactive tool for real time polls, quizzes, feedback, and responses to create a fun and engaging experience.
• Responster: an online questionnaire that captures participants’ learning goals at the start of the workshop so Campbell Ford and I as the facilitators can be responsive to participants needs.

It also collects closing feedback which enables us to keep improving the fit with the Teekay SPIRIT and SOPs.” Campbell Ford as the contributory designer and co-facilitator takes up the story:

“We worked collaboratively with all the key Teekay stakeholders, including James and Chris, to ensure the new on-line workshop is fit for purpose. Whilst consolidating the critical aspects, we always kept uppermost in our minds how to help our participants stay engaged and enthusiastic within the constraints of video conferencing. We interrogated system compatibility and my experience enabled me to contribute technology insights. We also wanted to get the most effective blend of supporting technologies whilst being mindful of the virtual environment.

We ran trial after trial of all elements of the 4-session workshop that came together over just a few short weeks and included a balance of theory, models, tools, and skills practice so that participants can apply everything as soon as Officers are back on board. It was particularly useful working in partnership with the CDOs to have their involvement and expertise on session 4 of the workshop, Enhancing Written Documentation.

Feedback from session one was more than encouraging: The pilot has been a great success and we are all delighted by the way the first cohort of Officers participated fully, with cameras and mics on from the start, sharing experiences and knowledge to support each other’s learning. We salute you. We are confident that participants are going to experience an on-line Effective Appraisal Workshop which equals its face-to-face predecessor. It will be different for sure, but brings its own new advantages and we are looking forward to the journey with the Teekay team.

Bernie Cresswell & John Reid Career Development Officers

The first online Effective Appraisals Workshop commenced Monday 30 November. It began with some introductions from the facilitating team, Hayley Redfern and Campbell Ford. Teekay Senior Management provided written testimonies this time, although this will be in a pre-recorded video format for the future. Arron Grant from Training & Recruitment appeared in person to wish everyone a successful course outcome.

We were straight into it thereafter with Session 1 when we covered the topics on effective questioning, TED (an acronym for “Tell me more about that, Explain the situation in detail for me and Describe that further for me.”) and how to use closed questions and the question funnel.

After a short break it was onto effective listening skills and ob- serving a video interview that brought interaction from all participants. In the afternoon activity, the group broke into smaller groups and practised some writing skills, utilising the positive and negative indicators from SP2673G. The listening theme continued with some fun activities and the course students had really taken onboard that the more they put in the more that they got out of the workshop.

Session 2 on the following day covered monitoring performance, observing versus perception, the behaviour iceberg and preparing effective feedback all before a coffee break. Again, the students engaged throughout and made many good points. After lunch we had another practical skills session and there was guidance delivered on how to get to the evidence that was greatly received. All personnel were engaging on their learning points and how they will take this forward in their careers. The sessions ended with some notes on the final session content and covered some pre-work to complete.

The final session was a week later and covered themes on how to deal with difficult situations; the Thomas Kilmann Conflict mode was covered in detail and the use of P.A.C.E (“Pause – Take Command, Acknowledge – Listen, Clarify – Question and Evaluate and Respond.”) and how to manage your approach and emotions on those difficult conversations. The morning ended with how to create a high-performance culture.

Teekay’s Career Development Officers, John Reid and Bernie Cresswell took centre stage for the final session by delivering on evidence based written documentation that culminated with a skills practical activity which gauged the student learning and understanding of the material. This was a great way to end the sessions as it was clear that the Officers on this pilot course had taken onboard the information delivered and applied it perfectly to the written skills practice. The quality of the written work was of a very high standard and this bodes well for the future.

We are really looking forward to the delivery of this workshop in 2021 and reap the rewards with a higher standard of appraisal reporting on our personnel in 2021 and beyond.

Miguel Sion
Chief Officer Yakov Gakkel

We all understand the importance of the appraisal process; how to set goals for our period on board; how to give technical feedback or how to reply to the question of “is the crew member ready for promotion?” Effective Appraisals Workshop gives us the essential tools to transfer what we see onboard into feedback that can be put down in black and white.

While attending the workshop, I also realized that the appraisal process cannot be a static number of interviews on board. We have enough room to improve and turn this process into a dynamic system, where the words motivation, guidance, learning, teaching or training will be used every day.