From November 12 –14, 1999, the HPT Think Tank was held in San Diego California. The theme for this event was "From Theory to Practice". Our purpose was to create a face-to-face dialogue among the ISPI Advocates and some acknowledged leaders in the performance improvement field. From this dialogue, our goal was to derive position statements on critical issues facing our field, followed by recommendations ISPI could then carry forward into sustainable actions.

We used HPT history to set the tone with activities that encouraged participants to identify significant achievements, notable contributors and critical events that have shaped the field of performance improvement. Throughout the three days, participants had opportunities to revisit this history and leverage their views of what was meaningful to create new ways of thinking about where HPT (and ISPI) should be headed. Lynn Kearny’s graphic recording used analogies for history, paths, and direction to help participants clarify their thoughts and focus on the future of our field.

The agenda supported the theme.

Participants

Early on, participants expressed their thoughts about the many trends that affect our work in HPT. They observed that we are seeing interconnections among these trends that affect the flow of information to many more places than we’ve ever seen before.

Using the process templates developed by Roger Addison and Lynn Kearny, the participants selected areas of interest, formed workgroups to support each one, and drafted position statements and initial recommendations for:

Our first ISPI Think Tank was a success. We can say this because all the important signs were there: