ISPI's Honorary Awards 2005

The International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) has two special honorary awards that recognize individuals for their significant contributions to Human Performance Technology (HPT) and to the Society itself. Those awards are the Thomas F. Gilbert Distinguished Professional Achievement Award and the Distinguished Service Award. ISPI is pleased to announce this year’s recipients: William R. Daniels and Christine Marsh. The awards will be bestowed at the 2005 International Performance Improvement Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, April 10-15.

Thomas F. Gilbert Distinguished Professional Achievement Award
This award recognizes outstanding and significant contributions to the knowledge base of HPT. This year’s award goes to William R. Daniels.

William (Bill) R. Daniels has been working since 1973 with organizations in numerous industries to improve managerial performance and organizational productivity. His work has focused on the causal relationship between managerial behavior and organizational results. He is passionate about finding a way to fully use human assets in organizations. An organization that balances its focus on both people and performance (tasks and outputs) obtains a high level of productivity with employees who feel successful and satisfied with their work. Bill also believes that it is extremely important to rely on group work and to listen, listen, listen to each other.

In 1979, he joined Don Tosti and Bob Carleton in the formation of Operants, Inc. Their development of Performance Based Management was a milestone in performance improvement at the organizational level. This program has provided a key foundation for many of the subsequent performance-based approaches to management, leadership, and large-scale organization culture change.

Today, as CEO of American Consulting & Training, Inc., Bill provides the following services: executive and management development, training design and development (including workshops and simulations), and keynote presentations. He also enjoys being a member of ISPI and serving as a past member of the Board of Directors for the International Board of Standards for Training, Performance, and Instruction (IBSTPI).

Distinguished Service Award
Congratulations to Christine Marsh, this year’s recipient of the Distinguished Service Award, an award that recognizes long-term, outstanding, and significant contributions to the betterment of ISPI.

Christine Marsh is more than just a witty, charming lady. She is an astute professional who skillfully applies and articulates Human Performance Technology (HPT): facilitating tough executive strategic planning sessions, enabling teams to identify complex root causes, and designing solutions that get results. Her global experiences demonstrate her ability to work across cultural boundaries, within all levels of an organization; to move effortlessly between functional teams; and to mediate the development, implementation, and institutionalization of new goals and objectives.

Since 1995, Christine has been a truly active ISPI member: presenting concurrent sessions, “Cracker Barrel” topics, and a 2001 Masters’ Series; publishing articles in Performance Improvement; contributing virtually to committees; planning and hosting conference International Rooms. Over the past three years, Christine’s facilitation skills have been instrumental in helping ISPI Europe develop a strong chapter with successful annual conferences in the Netherlands, Paris, and Lisbon.

Christine has also been an amazing ambassador and teacher globally. She used wallpaper (flipcharts were not available) to share the Principles of HPT with professionals in Siberia, presented at ISPI South Africa’s inaugural conference, and shared her experience and wisdom with IFTDO in Brazil and India.

Anyone who meets Christine soon learns that she continues to be innovative through her elegant, simple, insightful, and effective approach to solving business and organizational challenges. Five minutes in her presence may engage the other party in a discovery exercise, illustrative story, role-play, or team effort to answer pertinent questions. One ISPI colleague reports that Christine is an instructive and nurturing coach to newcomers as well as to experienced performance consultants.

Christine continues to make a valuable contribution to ISPI, ISPI Europe, other professionals, and global corporations. She quietly and effectively gains the respect of everyone with whom she interacts. Christine truly epitomizes distinguished professional service and is a role model for this very special award.