This track focuses on topics related to the newest in learning strategy and leadership. Invited speakers will join those speakers selected via the call-for-papers process to explore topics related to the strategic management and use of learning organizations to gain a competitive advantage, reduce time to market for new products, reduce costs for the enterprise, as well as increase overall enterprise revenues. Speakers will discuss how current thinking and trends have impacted traditional organizational boundaries, along with the corresponding strategic implications for learning organizations. Topics such as identifying competencies that reflect new organizational directives, identification of those roles within the organization that yield the highest return, as well as new thinking in key leader development will be discussed.
Pathways to Growth: How to Build a Winning Sales Organization
Monday, August 26th, 9:45 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Walter Rogers, CloudCoaching International
To help sales organizations thrive in today’s turbulent sales environment, entrepreneurs, authors, and peak performance strategists Tony Robbins and Walter Rogers wrote Pathways to Growth specifically for organizations seeking faster, better and more predictable results. The book introduces a Sales Management System comprised of 9 essential disciplines that form a framework that ensures companies are consistently executing on the strategies that matter most to them. These 9 essential disciplines are divided into three areas, with each area having a unique set of outcomes.
1. Team Meetings that drive focus and collaboration.
2. Individual meetings where the leaders gain the depth and awareness to truly become a coach or mentor to the sales professional
3. Executive Reviews where professionals are bringing thought leadership and insight into the boardroom and helping to solve for growth and business development.
When sales teams have a clear, companywide sales management system in place and align themselves around it, they are able to pursue and have clarity on critical objectives and their key metrics, anticipate and capitalize on changing market conditions, and ensure clear and rapid communication with their customers, inside their company and with their partners.
Ultimately a system is a pattern and when a proven patterns are repeated long enough it becomes a pathway to growth that anyone can follow.
Well-designed Sales Management Systems trigger behaviors that are easy, repeatable, measureable, and self-correcting. Laser focused sales teams develop talent with a focus on real business outcomes. Placing emphasis on creating a regular cadence of discipline around team and individual activities and leveraging the team to infuse a culture of learning will energize the team and drive quantifiable and accelerated results
Pathways to Growth will give you the tools and concepts you need to breakthrough and achieve your growth strategy.
Driving Innovative Workforce Development at the VA Acquisition Academy by Dept of VA
Monday, August 26th, 2:00 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Louisa H. Schaefer & Richard Garrison, Department of Veterans Affairs, VA Acquisition Academy
More than ever programs funded by the US Federal Government are under incredible scrutiny and stakeholders are demanding programs be more transparent and innovative. The VA Acquisition Academy (VAAA) PM Fellows Program is a two-year development program providing PM, leadership, and general business training. It is Intended for high-performing applicants with limited formal PM training or skills and follows a small cohort structure (24 Fellows/Interns per cohort). The program follows a Competency-based training model and provides specialty PM tracks for dedicated careers in construction, IT and Healthcare.
The PM Fellows program is an excellent model of a blended and holistic training program. Throughout the two year experience, PM Fellows will participate in a combination of classroom and on- the-job training, allowing the participants to apply new skill sets to organizational challenges in real-time. The program also has a robust mentoring and coaching system, with individual mentors matched to each Fellow and a Coach dedicated to each cohort of Fellows.
The session will focus on the components of the PM Fellows Program and the advantages to a blended and holistic learning model that incorporates traditional learning, real job experience and an integrated support system. The session will also explain how self-directed learning is incorporated into the program through specialty tracks and individual development plans. Technology also plays a large role in the program through webinars, self-learning modules and opportunities to collaborate and share knowledge thorough access to a knowledge collaboration site and community of practice. Innovative training programs with layered/blended learning may begin to change how higher education is administered in the coming years.
Leadership Development Game: From Analog to Digital
Monday, August 26th, 2:00 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Kendra Herlig, Booz Allen Hamilton
Our innovative Leadership Development team created an effective and large-scale board game which through simulating leadership challenges helped leaders learn their strengths, weaknesses, and better techniques for collaborating for success. In this digital age, however, an analog and intimidating board game was not the solution many clients were looking for. The game mechanics were sometimes obstacles for the leadership development goals of the game. The question arose: what would happen if the same game was delivered via iPad? This session explains the road that was taken to digitize a successful board game and the effectiveness of this endeavor.
Learning! 100: Re-inventing Education in a Federal Agency
Monday, August 26th, 3:00 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.
Alice Muerlerweiss, Muellerweiss and Associates, Inc.
If you ever thought it impossible to transform learning in a large Government agency – think again! Come learn about the strategy that led to a non-traditional training model that reached over 200,000 employees Nationwide in the first 9 months that resulted in a staggering ROI. The presenter will share key components of the model, success factors, and lessons learned to design your plan to improve corporate learning. If you are interested in evolving or building your organization’s learning model this session is for you!
Transforming a Workplace from Operational Excellence to a High Performance Sales Culture
Tuesday, August 27th, 9:45 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Keri Ohlrich, PhD, ManpowerGroup & Steve Johnson, The Next Level Sales Consulting
Our Sales Transformation program has been in process for the last 2 years. During this session, we will provide an overview of the business case for change, the unique approach, the scope of this enterprise-wide change, the results achieved to date, and the lessons learned. Attend this session if you are looking to undertake a transformational change initiative. This will be extremely relevant for organizations that have a compelling environment/reason to change workforce behavior on a sustainable basis to capture a market opportunity and/or reposition/ reinvent themselves to be more competitive. Through this case study discussion, you will understand the key ingredients used to launch a successful transformational change initiative throughout the enterprise; Discover lessons learned and best practices for changing the behaviors of the workforce that lead to cultural change throughout the organization, and Learn 3 key strategies used to sustain the behaviors until they became the new culture.
Coaching Partnerships: A Strategy to Achieve Success
Tuesday, August 27th, 9:45 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Terrie Long, Greenville Hospital System
In this session Greenville Hospital System (GHS) will share their success story of developing a partnership program for high performing managers to work with managers of lower employee engagement workgroups. GHS will discuss their program design and implementation processes that have proven successful, as well outcome data that indicates the overall success of the program. Participants in the program saw an average improvement in Power Item scores from the employee engagement survey, of .42, compared to .31 improvement of nonparticipants. Commitment scores and Action Planning Readiness scores also improved at a greater rate for participants. During this session, you will: Learn about the overall design/intent of the Coaching Partnership program; Gain insights into how to structure and implement a similar program in their organization; and, have opportunity to see Coaching Partnership participant feedback regarding their perception of the program and how it supported their personal development as managers.
Changing FDIC ‘s Culture With Leadership Development & Enrichment Training
Tuesday, August 27th, 11:45 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Dr. Thom Terwilliger, FDIC
This case study shares the FDIC’s approach to changing the culture through leadership development and enriching training during the financial crisis. This approach resulted in business success and moving the FDIC to the best place to work in government from being unrated in 2008, and recognition as a learning elite organization What are the learning objectives? What will the participants learn or be able to do after the session? What are the key takeaways? You will learn: how the culture is expedited through a crisis, and refocusing training to meet on-demand needs for the business line; and, how using a strategic approach to growing the learning enterprise in support of the business proposition and in enriching the culture through a focused strategic approach.A case study of the FDIC’s approach to changing the culture through leadership development and enriching training during the financial crisis. This approach resulted in business success and moving the FDIC to the best place to work in government from being unrated in 2008, and recognition as a learning elite organization.
Organizations Stop Growing When Leaders Stop Growing
Tuesday, August 27th, 2:00 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Ravi Kulkarni & Lynn Whitney Turner, Clearvision Alliance
Why do some businesses scale while others fail? The ultimate competitive advantage for any organization is in its people’s ability to align, execute and renew itself faster than their competitors. (Organizational health: The ultimate competitive advantage, Keller/Price). To do so requires becoming a learning organization and learning starts at the top.
Authentic Leadership: Develop the Best, Inspire the Rest
Tuesday, August 27th, 3:00 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.
Michelle Maldonado & Tatiana Sehring, American Public University
From millenials to boomers, today’s work environments are more diverse and complex than ever before. Employees are asked to do more with less, to execute swift but sound decisions and produce successful outcomes to grow their organizations.
This presentation introduces emerging concepts of authentic leadership and their convergence with emotional intelligence, mindfulness and other personal leadership development principles that help support individual and workplace transformation.
Workplace Application: This presentation will help attendees understand their own personal leadership development journeys and how it impacts talent and organizational development.
Learning! 100: Learning Culture
Wednesday, August 28th, 10:45 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Jerry Roche, Elearning! Media Group & Invited Panelists
Enterprises with a robust learning culture and HR ecosystem have 40% premium on their valuation versus those who lag. Yet, can one department really change an organization’s culture? Join this session and share how two Learning! 100 organizations instill their learning cultures.
Learning! 100: The CEO & CLO Partnership – Aligning Strategies and Goals
Wednesday, August 28th, 2:45 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Joe DiDonato, editor at large, Elearning! Media Group & Invited Panelists
This panel will discuss how top Learning! 100 companies have successfully aligned their teams’ efforts with their companies’ strategies and goals. The panelists will discuss techniques and tools used to translate corporate objectives, goals, and strategies into departmental and individual goals for the learning organization. The attendees will also hear how that process might differ from company to company in different industries. Attendees will not only learn about the tools and techniques used to translate broad corporate goals into individual goals within the Learning and Development organization, they will also learn how progress towards those goals are measured and tracked. And finally, panelists will discuss how they coach team members to understand the relationship between their goals and the overall corporate strategies and initiatives. It’s not as complex as it sounds. But the process requires a constant degree of vigilance and attention to keep the alignment current.
