2019 Award Recipients

Outstanding Research / Student Research

Case Study: Triad Model Case Management applying Human Performance Technology

Student: Kelson Zehr

University: Capella University

Dissertation Chair: Dr. Keith Johansen

Committee Member: Dr. Darlene Van Tiem

Committee Member: Dr. Pamela Robinson

Description:
Despite the level of organizational investment in training and performance improvement, little is known about different models of case management as performance improvement interventions for ever-increasing health care issues. Based on Van Tiem, Moseley, and Dessinger's Performance Improvement/Human Performance Technology model, this case study used qualitative semi-structured interviews and quantitative archival aggregate patient data to answer the following research questions: RQ1. How did the implementation of the triad model of case management process improvement change case management processes and implementation methods? RQ1a. What happens to key performance indicators (cost of service, patient satisfaction, and quality of care) when the triad model of case management is implemented? RQ2. How did acceptance and resistance to a new case management model manifest themselves during the implementation of the triad model improvement intervention? Seven hospital employees answered questions regarding possible resistance to change during the implementation phase. Data analysis included comparisons of the participants' responses regarding cost of care, quality of care, and satisfaction with services to quantitative archival measures of those variables. Mean comparisons revealed that only quality of care difference was positively significant after the implementation. Participant interviews indicated all three key performance indicators improved with this intervention. Participants also approved of the change to this model after initial work inequity perceptions  were resolved. Recommendations for future research include evaluating beyond the time frame used in this study to assess for change and possible resistance to change in an organization using emerging trends in the completed human performance technology (HPT) process.

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Case Study: Comprehensive Performance Analysis

Outstanding Human Performance Intervention

Organization: U.S. Custom & Border Protection

Title: U.S. Custom & Border Protection Unified Targeting Course (UTC)

Description:
Prior to the creation of the Unified Targeting Course (UTC), our organization was delivering multiple courses that included duplicate content, which resulted in the retraining of students on the same content when they are reassigned.  The design and development of UTC eliminated the redundancy in training, while providing multiple levels of support for each duty location through high fidelity, port-specific examples for officers and/or agents throughout the variety of environments in which they work.

Past Targeting courses were lacking in depth examples/scenarios and live system experience. This course focuses on all targeting environments and serves all officers, agents, and civilian employees regardless of assignments/bid and rotation or within port transfers in a hands-on, scenario-based classroom environment. UTC serves as an advanced level course for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) employees involved in targeting high risk travelers and/or cargo. Using CBP policy and the National Targeting Center (NTC) Targeting Continuum students participate in high level overviews of each targeting system, regardless of their current port/station responsibilities, using a vetted scenario. Throughout the course, students use this scenario to research targets, complete a detailed summary of their research and present a plan of action using the Office of Training and Development Information Action Report. UTC teaches and familiarizes students with each targeting task, to include collecting data and exploiting a targeted threat, using all targeting systems in the air/land/seas passenger or cargo environment and agriculture/bio in a hands on, scenario based classroom environment.

Project Members:

Toni King, Assistant Director, Intelligence & Targeting Branch

Joan Rackley, Course Developer/Instructor, Intelligence & Targeting Branch

Russell Abbess, Course Developer/Instructor, Intelligence & Targeting Branch

Roman Udin , Course Developer/Instructor, Intelligence & Targeting Branch

Sara Dunlap, PAU

Kimberly Allen, PAU

Richard Dulaney, ATU

Kristen Williams, Agriculture/Bio-Terror Countermeasures

Reed Stephenson, Director, Instructional Design Center

Maria Dahms, Supervisory Instructional Systems Specialist, Instructional Design Center

Elyse Deogracias, Instructional Systems Specialist, Instructional Design Center

Sandy Robell, Instructional Systems Specialist, Instructional Design Center

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Organization: China Telecom College

Title: China Telecom Zhongshan Branch's Performance Improvement Project on Development of Mobile Phone Users

Description:
From November 2016 to November 2017, via invitation by China Telecom Zhongshan Branch (CTZB), China Telecom College (CTC) designed and implemented the project to improve the performance of CTZB on the development of mobile phone users.

This project, from target design, performance gap analysis, cause analysis to design and implementation of solutions, helped CTZB increase by 270,000 mobile phone users and grow its share of mobile phone users by 1.99% from the previous year (the growth rate of other similar companies during the same period was 0.9%) to 17.69%, which contributed to a revenue increase of ¥136 million, and drove total business revenue to grow by 5.6% (the growth rate of other similar companies during the same period was 3.8%). As a result, CTZB achieved its annual revenue target of ¥2.371 billion, one month prior to the end of 2017.

As of June 30, 2018, the average quarterly growth rate of mobile phone users of CTZB was 1.02%, indicating the ongoing and even larger influence of this project.

Project Members:

Zheng Yuan, China Telecom College - Project Director

Li Lidan, China Telecom College - Project Manager

Wang Xiangjiang, China Telecom Zhongshan Branch - General Manager

Peng Xi, China Telecom Zhongshan Branch - Marketing Director

Tian Wendong, Lin Jing, Yang Fang, Pan Chinong, Gou Ronghui, Zhou Xufeng, Xiao Liunan, DuanJie - Internal Trainers/Business Experts from China Telecom College

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Organization: Sanofia China

Title: Shenzhen Revela Sales Promotion Project

Description:
Shenzhen Renvela Sales Promotion Project helps Sanofi Business gains a growth from 2,363 boxes in Q1,to 3,834 boxes in Q2, with n-1 increased by 243% and RQ by 63%.

Project Members:

Lu Shuangxia, Regional Manager, Sanofi CV Cardiorenal;

Zhao Yali, Training Manager,Sanofi University;

Lu Xiejun, District Manager, Sanofi CV Cardiorenal Shenzhen, South Region;

Yang Jing, District Manager, Sanofi CV Cardiorenal Shenzhen;

Feng Xin, Representative, Sanofi CV Cardiorenal Shenzhen;

Zeng Duhua, Representative, Sanofi CV Cardiorenal Shenzhen;

Xian Junwei, Representative, Sanofi CV Cardiorenal Shenzhen;

Liu Renju, Sanofi BU Training Team leader, Sanofi University;

Lv Yanping, National Training Director, Sanofi University

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Organization: Allegiant

Title: Increasing Efficiency and Effectiveness in Maintenance Control by Establishing Robust Training Program

Description:
This six-month project closed a myriad of gaps for a department lacking baseline competency requirements. A robust training program was created to target knowledge and skills needed to perform job functions. The goal of the intervention was to decrease error and aircraft delays that were the result of a lack of standard procedure and training.

Project Members:

Pamela Pollara, Director of  Curriculum and Instruction, Allegiant

Jill Lopez, Instructional Designer, Allegiant

Jamie Drury, Instructional Design Manager, Allegiant

John Bade, Maintenance Control Supervisor, China Critic Credit Card Center

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Organization: CITIC Credit Card Center

Title: Territorial Asset Management Posts of Pilot Sub-Centers

Description:
2018 is the first year of the "new three-year strategy" of CITIC Credit Card Center (the "Center"). Confronted with increasingly serious macro-economic conditions and the environment pressure from "enhanced regulation", the Center has introduced "performance improvement" technology, seeking to improve its core business indicators by technological control approaches. Territorial channel is a link for non-performing asset (NPA) collection of the Center. Exploring ways to improve the production capacity of average repayment is highly significant for the sub-center in managing its repayment collection teams and cooperative institutions.

Project Members:

Li Dandan, Principal of the Asset Management and Security Department Project guidance and resource allocation

Zhang Wei, General manager Assistant of the Asset Management and Security Department Project director, responsible for overseeing project execution

Zhang Jun, Principal of the Training and Development Center Project guidance and resource allocation

Li Xiaoyuan, Manager of the Training and Development Center Specialist in project performance improvement

Yao Dunjun, Project manager of the Training and Development Center Project resource allocator, see to the specialists from external consultancies

Xiong Jie, SinoTrac Consulting Co., Ltd. Performance improvement specialist

Shi Bingqian, Employee at the business management office of the sub-center of the Assets Management and Security Department Project team leader

Guo Na, Employee at the business management office of the sub-center of the Assets Management and Security Department A member of the project team

Tao Wei, Employee at the business management office of the sub-center of the Assets Management and Security Department A member of the project team

Liu Qianying, Employee at the business management office of the sub-center of the Assets Management and Security Department A member of the project team

Zhang Pingqiang, Employee at the business management office of the sub-center of the Assets Management and Security Department      A members of the project team

Xiang Lin, Head at the business management office of the sub-center of the Assets Management and Security Department Project business specialist

Feng Tonghui, Principal of the Risk Management Office of Nanjing sub-center Project business specialist

Wang Shibin, Principal of the Risk Management Office of Jinan sub-center Project business specialist

Jiang Ketao, Principal of the Risk Management Office of Chongqing sub-center Project business specialist

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Organization: U.S. Coast Guard

Title: U.S. Coast Guard Assessment, Inspection, and Audit (AIA) Validation Process

Description:
The U.S. Coast Guard Assessment, Inspection, and Audit (AIA) governance system was established to minimize the burden on units from internal U.S. Coast Guard AIA activities without creating unacceptable organizational risk. The AIA Governance Office (AIA GO) developed and implemented a process to validate requirements, identify redundancy, and evaluate risk. This submission examines the effectiveness of the AIA validation process in meeting these objectives.

Project Members:

CDR James Cullen, Project Manager (2017-Present), U.S. Coast Guard, Force Readiness Command, Assessment Division, AIA Governance Office

LCDR Piero Pecora, Project Manager (2016-2017), U.S. Coast Guard, District 1, Boston

LT Daniel Jones, Facilitator/Integrator, U.S. Coast Guard, Force Readiness Command, Assessment Division, AIA Governance Office

LTJG Douglas Schneider, Facilitator/Integrator, U.S. Coast Guard, Force Readiness Command, Assessment Division, AIA Governance Office

ENS Steven Sarkees, Facilitator/Integrator, U.S. Coast Guard, Force Readiness Command, Assessment Division, AIA Governance Office

SKCS Randall Lawrence, Facilitator/Integrator, U.S. Coast Guard, Force Readiness Command, Assessment Division, AIA Governance Office

YNC Trisha Ortiz-Frazier, Facilitator/Integrator, U.S. Coast Guard, Force Readiness Command, Assessment Division, AIA Governance Office

BMC Rachael Michael, Facilitator/Integrator, U.S. Coast Guard, Force Readiness Command, Assessment Division, AIA Governance Office

YNC Valerie Kahikina, Facilitator/Integrator, U.S. Coast Guard, Force Readiness Command, Special Missions Training Center

SKC Nick Ford, U.S. Coast Guard, Force Readiness Command, Assessment Division, AIA Governance Office

MK1 Jason Ronin, U.S. Coast Guard, Force Readiness Command, Assessment Division, AIA Governance Office

Mr. George Brooks, U.S. Coast Guard, Force Readiness Command,  Assessment Division, Fleet Training and Readiness Branch (FC-Aftr)

Mr. Kelly Cross, Contract Performance Analyst, U.S. Coast Guard, Force Readiness Command, Assessment Division, AIA Governance Office

Ms. Ashleigh Fischer, Contract System Analyst, U.S. Coast Guard, Force Readiness Command, Assessment Division, AIA Governance Office

Mr. Dave Garza, Contract System Analyst, U.S. Coast Guard, Force Readiness Command, Assessment Division, AIA Governance Office

Ms. Debra Berrios, Contract Project Manager, U.S. Coast Guard, Force Readiness Command, Training Division, Performance Technology Center, TTP Section

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Organization: CITIC Credit Card Center

Title: Offline Verification Risk Control Efficiency

Description:
In recent years, the credit card business of CITIC Bank has entered into a rapid growth stage. In order to control risks effectively and improve the system construction, the Department has set up an "Offline Verification Risk Control Efficiency Improvement" project team which studies the performance improvement techniques, finds out the performance improvement opportunities through systematic analysis and formulates a series of intervention measures such as "establish unified issuing rules". After three months of implementation, the offline verification risk control efficiency (before issuing the credit card) has improved remarkably (from 57% to 68%). The monthly average net increase of loss control has reached 3.08 million yuan.

Project Members:

Zhang Xisheng   General Manager/Project Director of Credit Approval Department, CITIC Credit Card Center

Tian mingzhong General Manager/Security Department  Project, CITIC Credit Card Center

Zhang Jun, General manager of the training and development center, CITIC Credit Card Center

Xiong Jie, External consultant expert, SinoTrac Consulting Management Co., Ltd.

Ge Shengnan, External consultant expert, SinoTrac Consulting Management Co., Ltd.

Wei Ya Manager/ Project Manager of Credit Approval Department, CITIC Credit Card Center

Feng Yan, Project team leader, CITIC Credit Card Center

Wang Mingli, Project Member, CITIC Credit Card Center

Li Congcong, Project Member, CITIC Credit Card Center

Fan Sheng, Project Member, CITIC Credit Card Center

Hu Wei Project Member, CITIC Credit Card Center

Bai Yang, Project Member, CITIC Credit Card Center

Liu Xiaoke, Project Member, CITIC Credit Card Center

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Organization: China Telecom College

Title: Big Data Talent Training Improvement

Description:
This project is dedicated to solving the problem that data operation of the enterprise fails to match the needs of business development. Based on the training of big data talents in the past two years, the Big Data Precision Marketing Training Camp was launched in the fourth quarter of 2017 to integrate big data talents scattered in various departments and establish a big data precision marketing team, jointly realizing precision, systematicness and synergy of marketing work in the form of team learning. Through strengthening modeling ability and marketing planning ability of big data talents, business conversion rate of precision marketing was increased in a certain period. The return on investment (ROI) is 131.68%.

Project Members:

Tan Xiongying, Chairman, Innovative and Transformational Talent Education and Research Center, China Telecom College; CPT

Wu Weibo, Big Data Talent Training Project Director, Innovative and Transformational Talent Education and Research Center, China Telecom College

Chen Zhiwei, Big Data Talent Training and Development Manager, Innovative and Transformational Talent Education and Research Center, China Telecom College

Cheng Ran, Research Manager, Innovative and Transformational Talent Education and Research Center, China Telecom College

Xu Yong, Talent Development Consultant, Innovative and Transformational Talent Education and Research Center, China Telecom College

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Organization: CITIC Credit Card Center

Title: Increasing intermediate Business Income by Customer Service Team

Description:
In 2018, Customer Service Department of CITIC Credit Card Center is facing tremendous pressure of indicators, and based on personnel scale basically remaining unchanged, intermediate business income indicator is expected to rise by 98.79% on a year-on-year basis.In order to promote the achievement of department performance indicators, a special project team led by Department Training Management Office was set up to carry out the performance improvement project aiming to "increase the intermediate business income by 30% on a year-on-year basis". Since April 2018 and with 4 months' efforts, the project team has performed thorough analysis of business flow based on the learned and introduced performance improvement technique and by applying the philosophy of "skill control", found key points for "skill control", formed effective intervention measures and carried out the implementation experiment in the pilot team. During the implementation period of the project, the pilot team has increased their year-on-year performance by 57.8% compared with the year of 2017 and the control group has increased 43%. The total increased amount of the pilot group during the test period reached RMB2.0496 million, and it is expected to reach RMB5.77 million up to the end of this year.

Project Members:

Guo Congna, Department Head

Zhang Jun, Department Head

Zhu Junting, Deputy Department Head

Liu Wei, Department Manager

Ge Shengnan, External Consultant

Xiong Jie, External Consultant

Li Yaxin, Customer Service Training Post

Liu Caifeng, Customer Service Supervisor

Zhao Xiaojuan, Customer Service Supervisor

Fang Fang, Customer Service Supervisor

Zhang Chunlan, Customer Service Supervisor

Zheng Xiaoshan, Customer Service Supervisor

Lu Hengna, Customer Service Supervisor

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Organization: U.S. Coast Guard

Title: U.S. Coast Guard e-RESMOB Version 2.0

Description:
The U.S. Coast Guard provides emergency response services in times of natural disaster or man-made crisis situations. Members are on-call and must be ready to "mobilize" - relocate to the emergency location - at a moment's notice. Certain administrative requirements and personal affairs must be satisfied before a member qualifies to mobilize. Particularly during hurricane season, there is a high demand for large numbers of mobilization-ready personnel to ensure the public safety.

To mitigate shortfalls in deployment-ready personnel and better equip its force, the Coast Guard developed the Reserve Mobilization/Demobilization (e-RESMOB v2.0) online course. The purpose of this intervention is to teach and Select Reserve Forces (SELRES) members about emergency response preparedness requirements. Kirkpatrick Level 1 and Level 3 data provides evidence that e-RESMOB v2.0 and its performance support resources have enabled increased compliance, contributed to increases in personnel readiness, and contributed to decreases in administrative failure rates.

The e-RESMOB v2.0 course has contributed to improved readiness metrics, indicating the desired behavior - members completing pre-deployment requirements - is measurably improving. Ten readiness measures tracked by business intelligence software show consistent upward trends in responders' compliance percentages, showing an average of 20.71% increase in compliance for mobilized responders over a ten year period. Non-compliance has been reduced to a level that is not nearly as significant a factor in mobilization readiness as it was before. This is a concrete, respectable improvement in mobilization readiness metrics translating to organizational performance improvement.

Project Members:

CAPT Paul Flynn, Commanding Officer, TRACEN Petaluma

CDR Vanessa Blackmore, Training Officer, TRACEN Petaluma

CDR Randall Brown, Program Manager, CG-1311

LCDR Jennifer Wescott, Training Manager, FC-Tms

LCDR Richard Gunagan, PSD Branch Chief, TRACEN Petaluma

LCDR Hannah Kawamoto, PSD Branch Chief, TRACEN Petaluma

LCDR Tom Przybyla, IST Supervisor, TRACEN Petaluma

LCDR Raphael Sadowitz, IST Supervisor, TRACEN Petaluma

LCDR John Bannon, IST Supervisor, TRACEN Petaluma

LCDR Andy Campbell, IT Administrator, FC-Tadl

LCDR Richard Lavigne, Officer of Reserve Affairs, CG-1311

LCDR Patrick O'Donnell, Reserve Policy and Planning Administrator, CG-1311

LT Macy Peck, Reserve Policy and Planning Administrator, CG-1311

CWO Rhonda Lumbag, Reserve Policy and Planning Administrator, CG-1311

BMC Chris Bearden, Evaluations Officer, TRACEN Petaluma

Judee Brandt, CGBI Support and Outreach Manager, DCMS-55

Phil Edwards, LMS Support Team, FC-Tptc

Joseph Volk, Instructional Designer, CPO Academy

Shyla Volk, CPT, Digital Solutions Consultant, IST, TRACEN Petaluma

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Organization: CITIC Credit Card Center

Title: 50% Increase in Application of Credit Cards on We Media

Description:
Under the guidance of the strategic objective of "building a hundred million level card center" of the Card Center, the scale client acquisition via mobile Internet has become the most important channel of the  Card Center, and given so many factors including external traffic market and horizontal competition, it is required, via "performance improvement" method of the card center, to further develop the base of self-owned channels for We Media and  improve the contribution of self-owned channels in Internet-based client acquisition.

Project Members:

Wang Wei, General Manager of Internet Bank Department Project guidance and resource allocation

Cao Yan, Deputy General Manager of Internet Bank Department, Project Director, responsible for project supervision and execution

Zhang Jun, General Manager of Training and Development Center Project guidance and resource allocation

Li Xiaoyuan, Office Manager of Training and Development Center Specialist in the improvement of project performance

Yao Dunjuan, Project Manager of Training and Development Center Assigner of project resource, specialist in the coordination of external consulting companies

Xiong Jie SINO TRAC Management Consulting Co., Ltd. Specialist in the performance improvement

Qin Tianjun Manager of We Media Platform Office, Internet Bank Department Project team leader

Zhang Jiayu Employee of We Media Platform Office, Internet Bank Department Member of the project team

Zheng Shaohong Employee of We Media Platform Office, Internet Bank Department Member of the project team

Leng Yunxia Employee of Internet Platform Office, Internet Bank Department Member of the project team

Chen Xiutian Employee of Marketing Office, Internet Bank Department Member of the project team

Wan Qi Employee of Marketing Office, Internet Bank Department Member of the project team

Yang Longfeng   Employee of UED Office, Internet Bank Department Member of the project team

Wang Jun Employee of Basic R&D Office, Information Technology Department Specialist in project technology

Shui Shiwei Manager of We Internet Platform Office, Internet Bank Department Project business specialist

Wei Na Manager of Marketing Office, Internet Bank Department Project business specialist

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Organization: China Telecom Co., Ltd. Zhongshan Branch

Title: The Telecom Mobile Market

Description:

China Telecom Zhongshan Branch has only a 10% share of the telecom mobile phone market of enterprise employees in 2017, while the number of employees in Zhongshan was as high as 2.13 million, with a huge market space. To this end, we held three seminars and invited the enterprise management department, market line and other departments to discuss the business value of the mobile phone market of the employees, and determined that the target of the project is: in the first half of 2018, the share of the telecom mobile phone market in the enterprises with TOP-500 employees in Zhongshan would increase to 20%. The project team focused on the target of the project and applied the concept of performance technology. After half a year of improvement, the share of the telecom mobile phone market in the enterprises with TOP-500 employees in Zhongshan increased by 15.19%. As of June 30, the cumulative share reached 25.19%, with remarkable effect. This project has increased the market share of telecom mobile phones in Zhongshan Branch, boosted business income and trained internal performance improvement consultants.

Project Members:

Wang Xiangjiang; General Manager; China Telecom Zhongshan Branch 

Hu Songyang; Deputy General Manager; China Telecom Zhongshan Branch     

Zhang Xiumei; Deputy General Manager; China Telecom Zhongshan Branch     

Mai Xiansen; General Manager; Commercial Clients Department of China Telecom Zhongshan Branch               

Liu Xiaotong; Director of Commercial Clients Department; China Telecom Zhongshan Branch             

Liu Wei; Director of Organizational Performance Management of Enterprise Management Department, China Telecom Zhongshan Branch  

Gu Yuanxiang; Director of Organizational Performance Management of Enterprise Management Department, China Telecom Zhongshan Branch  

Zhou Dashuai; Marketing Planning Salesman of Marketing Department, China Telecom Zhongshan Branch  

Lin Jianchao; Marketing Planning Salesman of Commercial Clients Department, China Telecom Zhongshan Branch    

Zhou Shan; Marketing Planning Salesman of Commercial Clients Department, China Telecom Zhongshan Branch

Huang Manjing; Marketing Planning Salesman of Government and Enterprises Clients Department, China Telecom Zhongshan Branch

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Chapters of Excellence

Potomac Chapter – Programming

Chapters of Merit

• Atlanta


• Bay Area/Boise State


• Boeing


• Hampton Roads


• Tennessee

Distinguished Dissertation Award

First Place: Sudhakar Ravada

Human Performance Gap Analysis to Improve Self-Service Technology Adoption in an Organization
University of Southern California (USC)

In a global enterprise, an IT Support team introduced a Self-Service to enable employees to reduce time and effort in contacting IT Support. Despite favourable user reviews on the quality and utility of the Self-Service, user adoption remained low for more than a year. As development and maintenance of the Self-Service requires continued investment, failure to demonstrate improved user adoption before end of the organization’s fiscal year, October 30, 2018 would have resulted in loss of sponsorship – A known challenge with Self-Service investments (Lee and Allaway, 2002). As dissertation, Human Performance Gap Analysis is pursued to identify and determine solutions to address the Knowledge, Motivation, and Organization (KMO) causes affecting IT Support in improving user adoption of their Self-Service. As dissertation, these solutions are further implemented and led to a 2000% increase in user adoption and an associated 36% reduction in Customer Support Call Volume as of October 30, 2018. The dissertation serves as a model of high-quality Human Performance Gap Analysis of using Clark and Estes’ (2008) model for gap analysis and New World Kirkpatrick Model (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016) for implementation. It also makes a case for exploring Human Performance Technology (HPT) as a critical competence to improve organizational outcomes in areas of Technochange (technology-driven organizational change), Customer Support Management, and Innovation Project Management.

Second Place: Tyrone D. Smith, Jr

Perceptions of Human Resource Professionals on Using Data Analytics for Talent Management
Saint Thomas University

The use of data analytics has impacted how leaders within a variety of organizations make decisions, including decisions regarding company culture and talent management. This study focused on exploring the benefits, challenges, training, and support needed to effectively and appropriately use data analytics within the organizational decision-making process. More specifically, this study explored human resource leaders’ perceptions of the benefits, challenges, training, and support needed when using data-driven analytics in making talent management decisions. Results showed that human resource practitioners who use data analytics require advanced training and understanding, as well as organizational support, before they can successfully use data analytics as a strategic tool to inform business decisions.

Third Place: Christopher Policastro

Visual Meetings: The Development of Team Mental Models & Team Knowledge
Capella University

Visual practitioners claim that during visual meetings, teams utilize visual techniques to share information in a manner that enables the team to collaboratively establish team mental models and construct team knowledge. The suggested outcomes of visual meetings are improved team communication, team collaboration, and ultimately team performance. While the growing popularity of visual practitioners and visual meetings is apparent, and visual meetings have the potential to become a performance improvement intervention, a better understanding of this contemporary approach to team meetings was needed, especially if visual meetings are to be adopted by the performance improvement community. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to advance the understanding of the central phenomenon (visual meetings) by exploring the experiences of the participants (a team) during visual meetings. The larger population from which the study sample was drawn was a multiple-site manufacturing organization. Purposeful sampling was used to establish a new, self-managed team representing each manufacturing site, which inherently reflected the larger population. Triangulating data from participant interviews and researcher observations and utilizing a multi-phase thematic analysis led to the establishment of ten themes that successfully answered the research questions, and confirmed that visual meetings do have the potential to improve team communication, team collaboration, and ultimately team performance. The findings of this study have implications for both research and practice. Ultimately, this study may lead to further research on visual meetings, and the design and utilization of a new type of performance improvement intervention based on visual meetings.

Distinguished Service Award

Matt Donovan, VP, Digital Learning Strategies & Solutions

Early in life, I found that I had a natural curiosity that not only led to a passion for learning and sharing with others, but it also got me into trouble. Although not a bad kid, I often found overly structured classrooms a challenge. I could be a bit disruptive, as I would explore the content and activities in a manner that made sense to me. I found that classes and teachers that nurtured a personalized approach really resonated with me, while those that did not were demotivating and affected my relationship with the content. Too often, the conversation would come to a head where the teacher would ask, “Why can’t you learn it this way?” I would push back with, “Why can’t you teach it in a variety of ways?” The only path for success was when I would deconstruct and reconstruct the lessons in a meaningful way for myself.

I would say that this early experience has shaped my career. I have been blessed with a range of opportunities to work with innovative organizations that advocate for the learner, endeavor to deliver relevance, and look to bend technology to further these goals. For example, while working at Unext.com, I had the opportunity to experience over 3,000 hours of “learnability” testing on my blended learning designs. I could see for my own eyes how learners would react to my designs and how they made meaning of it. Learners asked two common questions: Is it relevant to me? Is it authentic? Through observations of and conversations with learners, I began to sharpen my skills and designed for inclusion and relevance rather than control. This lesson has served me well. Matt is the Vice President of GP Strategies’ Global Digital Learning Strategies and Solutions division and has more than 22 years’ experience crafting training and development solutions with a focus on performance-driven learning. Matt has led the production of more than 300 custom online courses for Fortune 500 companies. His teams have developed courseware for sales, marketing, manufacturing, clinical research, compliance, leadership, and ethics. Many of his courses employ a modern learning, learner journey approach focusing on relevance in the workplace. Solutions developed have been frequently recognized for industry awards, including Brandon Hall and Training Industry. Matt has presented at several national/international conferences including ISPI, ATD, e-Learning Guild, and SPBT.

Personally, Matt has been recognized as one of the Top Ten International Trainers under 40 by Training Magazine. He also received a presidential citation from ISPI for his work in establishing the ISPI Annual HPT Case Competition.

Matt has an M.S. in instructional systems technology from Indiana University.

Gilbert Distinguished Professional Achievement Award

Dr. Lucy Surhyel Newman, CPT

Dr. Lucy Surhyel Newman, CPT has comprehensive experience in Conceptualization, Deployment and Evaluation of Strategy, Policy Design and Advocacy, Institutional Capacity Optimization, Organizational Design as well as Assessment of, Design and Deployment of Governance Systems. She has a reputation of being a results-focused person with proven success in aligning strategy, structure, people, policies and systems to optimize individual, organizational and systemic performance. She has exceptionally high emotional intelligence, demonstrated by sensitivity to cultural differences and ability to work effectively in a multicultural/multinational environment, in face to face and remote access situations.

Her work experiences include a State-owned Development Finance Institution, 4 Nigerian Commercial Banks, a Global Big Firm and FITC, a non-profit limited by guarantee professional services organization. Lucy has consulted for Financial Institutions, an International Pharmaceutical, Conglomerates, Regulators in Aviation, Financial Services and Health Sectors, Professional Networks & Associations, a Major State Government in Nigeria, a National Fertilizer Company, Private Sector Oil & Gas Companies, Sub Regional Institutions, and Nigerian Electricity Distribution Companies.

She became the MD/CEO of FITC in May 2009, from the Business Advisory and Performance Improvement Practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Nigeria. She is affiliated with many professional networks within Nigeria and internationally and is on the Board of many professional Networks in Nigeria, including a Sub regional and continental network. She was recently invited to the Advisory Board of the African Centre for Development Finance [ACDF] of the University of Stallenbosch Business School, in Cape Town, South Africa, as a member.

Lucy became an ISPI International Member in 2000 and a CPT eight years after, in 2008. She was invited to join the 10-person International Task Force, created by ISPI Board in 2008 as led by Monique Mueller, to plan ISPI’s global expansion. Lucy became an ISPI Life Member, in 2009 and the elected International Director on the Global Board of ISPI, from 2012 – 2014, representing members in 48 countries outside the USA at that time. In this role and by her personal decision, she attended ISPI EMEA Conferences in Prague ad Tiblisi, as International Director and made presentations. She was ISPI Board Liaison on the; Awards of Excellence Committee, the T. F. Gilbert Distinguished Professional Achievement Committee, the Honorary Life Member Committee and the Emerging Professionals Committee. During this time, she got two advocates for ISPI – The Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation. Lucy’s mantra in all her works since joining ISPI 19 years ago, is the 10 Standards of Performance Improvement and Human Performance Technology, for her clients and employers.

She has a Doctoral in Business Administration [University of Phoenix Arizona, USA]; a Master’s in Business Administration and Bachelor’s in Business Administration [both from the Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria]. Lucy has facilitated at several premium conferences at home and abroad, published books and book chapters in her professional area. She is a single parent to three interesting male personalities aged between 30 and 16 years, as well as executive coach to several professionals in her area. She is also affiliated with many Christian and social charities locally & internationally.

Honorary Life Member

Ruth Colvin Clark

Ruth Clark has focused her career on helping workforce learning practitioners apply evidence-based training guidelines to design and development of classroom and e-learning instruction.  Ruth has written 7 books that translate important research programs into practical training guidance including Scenario-based e-Learning, e-Learning and the Science of Instruction, and Graphics for Learning.  Her most recent book, Evidence-based Training Methods summarizes experimental evidence on best practices regarding use of graphics, text, audio, examples and learner engagement.

A science undergraduate, Ruth completed her doctorate in Instructional Psychology/ Educational Technology in 1988 at the University of Southern California.  Ruth is a Past President of the International Society of Performance Improvement and was honored with the 2006 Thomas F. Gilbert Distinguished Professional Achievement Award.