Educational Sessions

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The Future of Learning
Nancy J. Lewis, Vice President, IBM Sales and On Demand Learning and Brenda M. Sugrue, Manager, IBM Sales Learning Solutions

Research says at least 80% of employee learning happens in the workplace. If we're seriously going to rethink learning for the 21st century, the place to start is the place learning happens. IBM has, and the results are transforming learning for its 350,000 employees worldwide. Join Nancy Lewis and Brenda Sugrue for a candid, real-world look at the next generation approaches to performance and work-based learning being delivered at Big Blue these days, and how these new approaches accelerate time to productivity and produce a comprehensive, seminal change in the way learning delivers business value.

Nancy J. Lewis is the Vice President, IBM Sales and On Demand Learning with responsibility for IBM's leadership in learning design and development, learning systems, collaborative learning and expertise. Her organization is focused on learning innovation and the effectiveness of IBM's top strategic learning initiatives. In this learning leadership role, she created a new strategy and approach for learning emphasizing work-based, integrated, personalized and collaborative learning. This established the future of learning for IBM, a comprehensive and fundamental change in the way learning delivers business value. Nancy has many years of experience in need's assessment, training and development, performance consulting, and learning and process design to enhance organizational effectiveness

She is a regular speaker at industry conferences on learning best practices. Nancy has been selected to serve on the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) Certification Institute Board of Directors and the ASTD Learning Executives Network's Advisory Council. She is a member and Co-Chair of the Conference Board's Council on Learning, Development and Organizational Performance, serves on Training Magazine's Editorial Advisory Board. Nancy has been selected as a member of the Wharton/PennGSE CLO Program Advisory Board. Under her leadership, IBM was ranked to the #1 spot in Training's Top 100 for 2004 and 2005 and has garnered numerous awards and honors for its learning solutions from professional organizations and governments.

Brenda Sugrue leads the design, development, and measurement of Learning Solutions for the almost 40,000 sales professionals at IBM. Prior to joining IBM in 2006, she had many roles in the field of learning, including Director of Research for the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD); Associate Professor of Instructional Design and Technology at the University of Iowa; Project Director at the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST/UCLA); e-learning business owner; and consultant to many organizations on learning strategy, design and technology. Brenda has authored dozens of articles, reports, and book chapters in the field, and served on the ISPI Board of Directors.

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Masters' Series Presentations
Sunday, April 6 and Tuesday, April 8

The Masters' Series program is designed to provide conference attendees with an in-depth analysis of the trends and issues facing human performance improvement practitioners. These speakers were selected by 2007-08 ISPI President Jeanne Farrington, CPT, EdD, because of their expertise and accomplishments in human performance technology.

Sunday, April 6;  4:00-5:00 pm

Changing "Unemployable" to "Successfully Employed!"
Karen Preston, CPT, SPHR, former Director (now retired), Employment Outreach, Distribution Centers and Deb Russell, Manager, Outreach and Employee Services, Walgreen Co.

Building workforce competency can be a challenge for any performance technologist. But what if the goal is bigger and includes successfully integrating large numbers of workers with disabilities, especially cognitive disabilities?

This presentation will describe how Walgreens' staff successfully tackled this challenge at a large, high-tech distribution center. The jobs were not simple; they involved computers and required the ability to deal with exceptions. But Walgreens developed strategies to make them achievable by people with such disabilities as mental retardation and autism.

Today over 40% of the workers at the site have a declared disability, many cognitive; yet the center is 20% more efficient than any other in the chain. Learn why the program has been featured on NBC News and has received awards from disability organizations. Find out what approaches worked and how they helped build success and teamwork for all employees.

Connecting the Dots: Learning and Performance Results to Achieve Your Organization's Goals
Darryl L. Sink, EdD, President, Darryl L. Sink & Associates Inc.

Ever notice people putting training together and wonder why they choose to train people on a given topic? Do you ever hear comments like...

"We need training put together on effective leadership."
"We need a course on active listening skills."
"Our people need training on how to troubleshoot."

What is missing? The topics are not connected directly to business or organizational needs and goals. We do not know the why of what should be driving the program!

During this presentation, Darryl makes the case that we are not aligning our learning and performance programs directly to business or organizational needs and goals: "The process starts with finding out what the needs are, articulating them clearly, then staying focused on them as we design and develop our programs."

The Procrastination Equation: A Mathematical Formula for Dysfunctional Delays
Piers Steel, Associate Professor, Human Resources and Organizational Dynamics, Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary

Procrastination and other motivational problems have been experienced throughout history, in every country, and by every person. However, we do not put off all tasks equally or to the same degree. Those who procrastinate more tend be less healthy, less wealthy, and less happy. Fortunately, there is a straightforward formula for understanding what motivates oneself and others. Based on the meta-analytic work of Piers from the Haskayne School of Business, it is covered in media venues around the world, including the New York Times, USA Today, Psychology Today, and Los Angeles Times. Practical, scientifically based solutions will be offered for improving your own motivational baseline and that of others.

Tuesday, April 8;  9:00-10:00 am

Closing Performance Gaps: For People and Intelligent Technologies
John W. Lewis II, EdD, Sr. Manager, eCommerce, Capital One Services, Inc.

This presentation will provide several frameworks and examples for closing performance gaps with the appropriate method to maximize business results. With the knowledge worker and online consumer as primary opportunity audiences for these approaches, several areas of human performance technology will be discussed, including training, performance support, content management, process improvement, usability, and search optimization. As we continue closing performance gaps for humans via technology, the interesting challenges quickly require solutions for closing performance gaps for the technology. What do we know about closing performance gaps for humans that can be applied toward closing performance gaps for intelligent technology?

Connecting with Tomorrow's Workforce: Trends and Technologies
Diane Gayeski, Associate Dean and Professor, Ithaca College

Globalization, outsourcing, massive retirements among the baby boomers, the entrance of Nexters into the work environment, and the impending war for talent are impacting the strategies and technologies we use for workplace performance and learning. Simply stated: "What used to work, doesn't." Learn how leading organizations are using innovative strategies and technologies to recruit, train, support collaboration and mentoring, and retain the top talent. We will also apply audience analysis for the different generations in the workforce to be able to design effective performance management systems and, in doing so, will learn what makes Nexters "tick."

Workplace Performance: Where People Meet Processes
Brian Desautels, CPT, President, and Jane Brenneman, SPHR, Vice-President, JB2D Performance Inc.

Enable people, engineer processes! The investment of human capital requires management of the people-process intersection to ensure that an optimized yield is realized. The real value from managing the intersection is found in the seamless way that decision makers can move among three fundamental business questions: Do we have the right people? Do they fit with the right processes? Can their contribution be maintained against contrarian influences?

But, we find the intersection filled with hazards, detours, cautionary flags, and stop lights in the form of missed deliverables, high turnover, lawsuits, injuries, and broken collaborations. Only through effective use of workplace influences (interventions) by the performance manager will people's passion be sparked and contributions optimized.

We will review a performance framework and examine the environment and dimensions of the workplace today, place ownership appropriately, mitigate performance obstacles, and identify influences that enable people to do their best work.

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• Encore Session Schedule

Each year, based on evaluation data provided by attendees at the preceding Annual Conference, ISPI selects the highest ranked sessions and invites these presenters to deliver their sessions again as Encore Presentations.

Creating a Motivating Environment
Matthew Richter, CPT, The Thiagi Group
Sunday, 11:00 am

Organizations spend millions of dollars each year trying to increase motivation at work. Unfortunately, their attempts don't affect performance long term and often make matters worse. They focus on rewards, recognition, feedback, and so forth. This presentation takes a different approach. It uses principles of intrinsic motivation to provide organizations with strategies and tactics for creating environments where employees will find their own motivators, commit to long-term working relationships, and become more satisfied on a day-to-day basis.

Participants will be able to:

• Differentiate between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
• List positive employee motivators.
• Identify tips, techniques, strategies, and tactics for increasing intrinsic motivation at work.
• Summarize the concepts of employee motivation.

Track: Motivation, Incentives, & Feedback (MIF)
Audience Level: Intermediate

Engaging Learners, Motivating Managers, and Energizing Organizations: Ensuring Success with e-Learning
Lance E. Dublin, Dublin Consulting
Monday, 10:30 am

Being successful with e-learning requires more than just having the right content, great design, and effective technology. It requires a well-thought-out implementation strategy to ensure your learners are engaged, your managers are motivated, and your organization is energized. By integrating proven techniques and approaches from change management, consumer marketing, and organizational development, you can ensure your learners, and the people who support them, are truly ready, willing, and able to succeed with your e-learning.

Participants will be able to:

• Analyze the critical implementation issues for their organizations.
• Define the elements of an effective change communications model.
• Develop an integrated approach to implementation based on the change communications model.
• Apply proven change management techniques and consumer marketing methods in their implementation plans.

Track: Management of Organizational Performance (MOP)
Audience Level: Intermediate

A Global Approach to Performance Improvement: The Accelerated Performance Curriculum
Linda J. Pfeifer, CPT, EdD and Julia Bulkowski, MA, Informatica Corp.
Sunday, 2:00 pm

Diverse global teams in a hyper-competitive cross-cultural environment require rapid employee development. An innovative approach to talent management, the Accelerated Performance Curriculum (APC), provides a framework for LMS implementation, reduces ramp-up time for new employees, facilitates culturally sensitive curriculum deployment globally, provides a standardized skill gap analysis tool, and enhances performance opportunities. This session introduces the APC design with a case study on worldwide implementation with the Global Customer Support organization at software company Informatica Corporation.

Participants will be able to:

• Design an APC in a global context to achieve (1) accelerated ramp-up for new hires, (2) reduced training time for top performers, and (3) departmental clarity regarding lateral and vertical career path options for employees across departments and geographies.
• Secure C-level support by demonstrating value and high-retention indicators.
• Cultivate self-directed career management for all employees across geographies, cultures, and departments.

Track: Instructional Systems (IS)
Audience Level: All

How Do You Explain HPT to Clients? A Simulation (Two Parts)
Arnoud Vermei, Carol M. Panza, Michiel Bloem, Juan Pablo Ortiz (Client Executive Committee Members-Dr. Edward Schneider, Belia Nel, Ken Junkins, Camille Ferond with Christine Marsh as an alternate) 
Part 1 - Sunday 11:00 am; Part 2 - Tuesday 1:30 pm

Do you find it challenging to sell your HPT approach to potential clients?

Have you heard yourself saying, "I know I have an approach that will make a difference and deliver results, but how do I convince my client?" If you recognize this dilemma, this is your "must attend" session of the conference. Join Arnoud Vermei (Netherlands), Carol Panza (USA), Michiel Bloem (Netherlands) and Juan Pablo Ortiz (Sweden) and our incredible client panel, including members from South Africa, UK and the USA, for this innovative two-part session.

Do you find it helpful to learn by doing?

Using a two-part action learning approach, you will discover better ways to present the value of an HPT approach. Working together with a diverse team of HPT practitioners, you are offered the opportunity to develop and deliver a presentation to a client team, based on a real life performance improvement opportunity, facilitated and supported by a group of recognized senior HPT professionals. You also can attend this session as an observer if your conference schedule precludes being at one or the other of the sessions.

During Part 1 (Sunday 11:00 am) - You will join a consulting team and be introduced to the client company, the performance issue and the professionals playing the roles of key executives for the client. Your team will determine what it wants to ask client executives during a "Bidder's Conference" in order to gather sufficient information to prepare a credible proposal for a performance improvement effort. Your questions answered, you will work together and plan your proposal and presentation development process within session #1.

Between Part 1 and Part 2 - Your team will, then, have the conference sessions, presenters, other participants and your teammates as resources in order to actually put together your presentation for delivery on the last day of the conference, in session #2. There will also be opportunities to interact with client company "executives," session facilitators and others, in a "Communications Center" that we will designate for you, dedicated to posing and sharing answers to additional questions developed after the Bidder's Conference as required by the teams.

During Part 2 (Tuesday 1:30 pm) - The teams will make their presentations. Then, after all the teams have presented, the "client executives" will provide their reaction/feedback to the proposals they have heard, and indicate their preference. This will be followed by a general debrief in which all participants (teams, Board members and observers) will be asked to join in.

Track:  
Audience Level: All Levels 

Performance Improvement Business Case: Measuring and Aligning Social Impact, Market Creation, and Profit
Mariano Bernárdez, CPT, PhD, MBC Consulting Co. & Sonora Institute of Technology, José Ángel Valdez Gómez, ITSON, and Roger Kaufman, CPT, PhD, Florida State University, Roger Kaufman & Associates, & Sonora Institute of Technology
Tuesday, 10:30 am

This session will show how organizations can develop business cases that not only measure conventional bottom-line and profit results, but also social impact and market creation. Participants will explore a new methodology and tools to measure and balance corporate social responsibility, social impact, and conventional bottom-line indicators.

Participants will be able to:

• Explore a new methodology used by breakthrough organizations to develop double bottom-line, Mega-oriented business cases.
• Measure with tangible indicators mission and vision strategic statements.
• Measure the contribution of social impact and corporate social responsibility to the conventional bottom line.
• Develop strategic, long-term business plans that demonstrate the impact of social programs, market creation, and client success in the conventional bottom line.
• Learn how to measure conventional and social return on investment.

Track: Management of Organizational Performance (MOP)
Audience Level: All

Training to Imagine: Improvisational Tools for Enhancing Performance
Kat Koppett, The Thiagi Group
Tuesday, 1:30 pm

This highly interactive, practical session will explore the theories and activities of improvisational theater and their application to the world of business. Improvisers make up scenes and stories on the spot, with no pre-planning, in front of paying audiences who demand to be entertained. To achieve their daunting task, improvisers have developed rules and exercises to enhance creativity and collaboration. These tools enhance environments in which innovation, good communication, and teamwork are valued.

Participants will be able to:

• Identify ways to build trust.
• Increase and maximize spontaneity.
• Accept offers.
• Improve listening and awareness skills.
• Use storytelling techniques.

Track: Instructional Systems (IS)
Audience Level: All

Training Impact Evaluation That Senior Managers Believe and Use
Robert Brinkerhoff, EdD, Western Michigan University
Monday, 3:30 pm

Use the Success Case Method to "tell training's story" with data that are credible, compelling, and simple and do not mislead senior management with suspicious statistical gyrations and over-blown estimates of ROI. This breakthrough method's results make a CFO-proof business case for manager involvement in training and help your organization build capability to leverage learning investments into sustained performance improvement. Review real examples from Allstate, Hewlett Packard, Grundfos (Denmark), among others.

Participants will be able to:

• Consider the five-step Success Case Method to tell training's story in their organization.
• Avoid the pitfalls of the traditional ROI and impact evaluation methods that underestimate the training function's contributions and undermine effectiveness.
• Critically analyze case examples from leading global organizations.

Track: Analysis, Evaluation, & Measurement (AEM)
Audience Level: All

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