Employees take Carnegie course to improve personal, professional lives

A well-dressed, professional man stands before a classroom filled with 22 employees representing various departments of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and Spirit Mountain Casino workforce.

He speaks with a style and comfort that only comes from being well-rehearsed.

Mike Stack, president of The Stack Group that presents the Dale Carnegie Training course from an office in Tigard, talks about the secrets for building courage, how to build a foundation for success, becoming a better listener and increasing self-confidence.

And just about the time when most students would succumb to distraction by what is occurring out the window or on their cellphone, Stack leaps into the air and shouts, “You don’t take the Dale Carnegie course, you live it!”

Stack orders the course’s participants to do the same and leap into the air while repeating the training’s signature phrase. Participants repeat the task until they have satisfied Stack’s desire to see them “work at it” and yell the words at the top of their lungs – anything less than full volume is not going to meet his expectations.

The Dale Carnegie course “Skills for Success” was an eight-week training held in Grand Ronde at the Employment Services building from 8:30 a.m. to noon Monday. The course began with a preliminary introductory meeting Thursday, Feb. 18, and concluded Monday, April 11. Nineteen of the participants were Tribal members.

Employees who took the course were Parks and Recreation Specialist Jerry Bailey, Purchased/Referred Care Supervisor Melody Baker, K-5/Before and After Care Program Manager Tim Barry, Swing Shift Housekeeping Supervisor Ben Bishop, General Manager Executive Assistant Barbara Branson, Lead Maintenance Technician Andrew Freeman, Community Fund Director Kathleen George, Employment and Training Specialist Barbara Gibbons, Lead Groundskeeper Gregg Leno, Housing Department Manager Shonn Leno, Lead Pharmacy Technician Kandee Little, Purchased/Referred Care Specialist Tauni McCammon, Education Department Manager Leslie Riggs, Community Fund Grants Coordinator Julia Willis and Smoke Signals staff writer Brent Merrill.

From Spirit Mountain Casino, participants included Marketing Department Manager Mychal Cherry, Food and Beverage Department Assistant Manager Kristina Dizick, Surveillance Department Technician Peter Grout, Marketing Department Casino Reservations Manager Tanya Lopez, Information Technology Department Systems Administration Supervisor Angela Schlappie-Carrasco and Account Operations Department Manager Virginia Singh.

Stack was assisted by Senior Human Resources Generalist Steve O’Harra, who served as team leader.

“I’m really excited about the participants in the class,” said O’Harra. “The main reason I wanted to do this is I went through the training and it helped me out so much.”

Carnegie lived from 1888 through 1955 and established the Dale Carnegie course in communications in 1912. He was a salesman turned lecturer who authored several best-selling self-help books that made him and his teachings a household name.

Carnegie also was a radio show personality, newspaper columnist and adviser to many prominent business and political leaders in his day. Among the books he authored are “How to Win Friends and Influence People” and “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living.”

The current-day Carnegie organization has a network of offices in 75 countries and has graduated more than 8 million people through its various training programs.

Dale Carnegie and Associates bill themselves as the premier human effectiveness development program and says that the consistent application of proven principles leads to real growth in participating individuals. The course focuses on self-confidence, communication skills, human relations, leadership and effective attitude management.

“I like these training opportunities because they teach people to leave their comfort zones,” said Tribal Council member Chris Mercier. “Regardless of what position we hold, at some point we need to tap our inner extroverts and not be so scared of speaking before a crowd or interacting with folks from different backgrounds. These are skills that can last a lifetime and come in handy not just professionally, but personally, too.”

Week one focused on “Building a Foundation for Success” and the ability to recall and use people’s names. Week two was “Building Memory Skills and Enhancing Relationships”while increasing self-confidence and week three was about how to “Put Stress in Perspective” and motivating others.

The fourth week detailed how to “Energize Our Communications” and how to make ideas clear. Week five focused on how to “Disagree Agreeably” and gain the willing cooperation of others while the sixth week centered on how to “Manage Our Stress” and develop more flexibility.

Week seven found the class being asked to “Inspire Others” and the final week was about “Celebrating Achievements and Demonstrating Leadership.”

O’Harra said the vision behind bringing the course to Grand Ronde was the idea of having current and future leaders learn an effective and common set of language, problem solving, relationship building and organizational skills to better prepare staff members to work collaboratively and efficiently, and improve career growth through improved personal performance.

“I want to do anything that is going to help me do my job better. So that was my interest in doing it,” said Riggs. “I found myself looking forward to it. It was a good group of people. The feeling in the room was really good. It definitely felt like we were a team.”

Riggs said he feels that his knowledge has grown by taking the course.

“I feel like I learned a lot about people that I never really knew before and I always really like that,” said Riggs, who won an outstanding performance award in the second week. “I’ve learned a lot about communicating from the teachings and I always look forward to getting to know people better than I already know.”

Willis, who is a Coquille Tribal member, said she watched a team of more confident people being formed weekly.

“I’m lucky enough to have some experience public speaking and I’ve seen people that clearly hadn’t and watching them come out of their shell, watching them get more comfortable, it just creates this really supportive environment for everyone,” said Willis, who won the course’s Human Relations Award in week five. “I think everybody has really benefitted from that because there is this definite sense of camaraderie that occurred organically. And it made me realize how much practice I need even though I get to do this as part of my job. The public speaking pieces have been really helpful to me. I just feel so much more relaxed and I’m taking a lot away from that.”

Willis said the course’s focus on human relations has helped her in her professional and personal lives.

“That part really made me reflect on how I treat other people and how I communicate with other people,” said Willis. “Now I’m really trying to focus on listening to people, remembering their names and I’m actually doing it, which has been great. I’m getting so much out of that. What I really like is the idea that I will keep these books, I will keep these lessons and they will stay with me. That’s really helping me.”

Cherry, who said she learned about the course from her supervisor, casino Marketing Director Shawna Ridgebear, also said she is benefitting from the lessons.

“It’s so practical and hands-on,” said Cherry. “I wanted to focus on improving communication and my listening skills. The actual principles that we’ve been learning, that you can actually apply and practice, has made all the difference in the world for me. I love the simplicity of it. It’s just really working and it’s nice to be more engaged now.”

Cherry said Stack pushed her out of her comfort zone.

“I’ve done things in front of a group of people that I would have never done in a million years,” said Cherry. “You couldn’t have paid me money to do some of the things I have had to get up and do – like act like the green giant.”

Cherry also said that the group now seems like a team.

“I love that it’s really created a bond with that group of people too because it’s not like they were strangers to begin with,” said Cherry. “These are people that we work with; that we grew up with. To have that bond with those people now is going to be awesome because you can already feel it. I see people outside of class and you just have this little secret. I love it.”

Cherry said she would recommend the course and she sees it helping people who already work together.

“I think it would be awesome for all leaders to go through that training, especially teams of people that work together closely and manage a lot of stress,” said Cherry. “It’s been really good for building camaraderie with the group of people that we have there. I think that is a bond that won’t be broken.”

Cherry credits Stack with making the course interesting and compelling.

“He (Stack) brings it,” she said. “He makes learning very fun. He has a very strong presence. I like that about him. I haven’t had an opportunity to pick up that phone one time. Not one time. It should be like that all the time. It should be like that in your day-to-day interactions with people, with guests, with your team, in your meetings. It’s very liberating.”

Willis said she wants to be like Stack.

“He is so good at it. He just is,” said Willis. “You watch him and how comfortable he is speaking and you think, ‘I want to be able to do that’. I want to be able to get up and just be funny and impromptu and comfortable. He is so engaged with the class. He’s been very inspiring.”

Stack said he took the Dale Carnegie course after graduating from Oregon State University in Corvallis in 1984 while working for an office supply company in the San Francisco area. He had been taking myriad trainings to learn about the office equipment he was selling when the company offered to pay for half of the Dale Carnegie course and take the other half out of his paycheck.

Stack said after participating as a team leader in a sales class, he started thinking about becoming a trainer.

After 11 months in California, Stack moved back to Oregon and began his career with Dale Carnegie in 1985.

Stack said he enjoyed being in Grand Ronde and that he hopes to return annually.

“One of the unique things about Dale Carnegie training is every class is different,” said Stack. “Our sessions are always the same, but it’s the makeup of the people that always make the course fun. I really liked teaching the class in Grand Ronde and one of the unique things about the Grand Ronde class is that it has the elements of a family business. There are a lot of family relationships there and yet it doesn’t dominate the class. Everybody is there taking the class to better themselves. It now becomes up to the individuals to keep putting that (learning) to work.”

O’Harra said he hopes to offer the course again and that he will work with the Tribal Employment Rights Office, Education Department and Human Resources co-workers to make it happen.

“We had the blessing of all the different departments that were working together and then we presented to Tribal Council and got their blessing,” said O’Harra. “It’s truly been a joint effort between areas and that is the whole idea behind the Tribal Employment Services Center is to be working together, providing opportunities for Tribal members.”