ASTD - 2002 Performance Conference

10:30 – 12:15pm
	Topic	Presenter
People Schedule	EMPLOYEE RETENTION MAKES GOOD CENTS What is the cost of employee turnover? It's larger than than you think. Have you included the cost of lost customers, decreases in your product quality, lost productivity and the decreases in your knowledge resources? These are just a few of the hidden costs. Do you know why your employees stay or leave? Most organizations think they know the answer, but they don't. What are the two questions most managers don't ask, and should? How can you increase your retention of quality employees and attract a higher quality of new employees? What is the impact of a new employee's first 30 days with your organization and how can you improve that environment? Take proactive steps today to retain the “stars” of your organization and make your average employee a better one by applying the strategies that are the best fit for your organization. Learn how you can reduce your costs and increase your quality by focusing on creating an environment that increases your ability to attract, support and retain a superior workforce.	DAN WHITLEY KTD Unlimited Dan Whitley has over fifteen years of management experience ranging from front line supervision to managing employee development programs. In each of his management positions, training has been an integral part. Certified as a management instructor in 1988, he has designed and presented topics at regional, national, and international conferences. As Employee Development Manager, he was responsible for developing an in-house management-training program for a national teleservices company. He coordinated the curriculum development with all the department heads to create training schedules for new supervisors and existing managers including class scheduling, material preparation, classroom presentation, follow-up meetings with attendees, tracking employee progress, testing, and certification. KTD Unlimited specializes in training new and experienced managers and supervisors in the skills necessary to be effective leaders by providing customized management training, designed to give new supervisors and managers the skills they need to be successful right away, instead of the painful "learn as you go" process.
Processes Schedule	ADAPT OR DIE Business processes are a continuous cycle of action and reaction to changes in competitive, technological, employee, client and resource environments. Each turn of the cycle brings changes that challenge your ability to survive. Each change is an opportunity to increase your adaptability, capability and productivity. How can your organization learn to change and adapt to different environments, to conquer the constant challenges of change? How can you intensify your evolutionary cycle to achieve better results - quicker, faster and with less pain? How can you support essential rapid learning strategies necessary to sustain your survival? Your ability to adapt and grow is dependant on the wealth of your web of knowledge. Knowledge about every aspect of your environment - employees, clients, prospects, products, processes, competitors, vendors, and more. Knowledge that's available on demand when you need it, how you need it, and where you need it. Experience how you can build a flexible framework that supports the free flow of knowledge through all levels of your organizational sphere. Learn the processes and politics required to transform information into action and expand your ability to continuously adapt to your changing environment.	CHRISTIE MASON Managers Forum Christie is a Performance Leader with Managers Forum. She has over 20 years of achievements earned by helping individuals and organizations increase their performance and productivity. Her current projects include the development of eLearning and Knowledge Management processes to support distributed information sharing and learning processes. Previous projects include on-site and online strategic skills training for sales, team, technology, management, learning/training, and leadership functions. She is President of American Society of Training and Development - Rock Valley, active member of numerous professional associations, writer and national speaker on performance development topics. Managers Forum focuses on defining, designing and refining strategic interactions of people, processes and technology to support communication, collaboration and cooperation.
Performance Schedule	INSPIRING INNOVATION Is your role as a manager putting a damper on your creativity? Would you like to bring more new ideas to the table, and help others do the same? This high-energy workshop will flip the power switch in your life and work, and give you PROVEN tools for innovative idea generation and creative communication. Bring back your brilliance (and learn to inspire others) through activities such as: ~ The 3-Minute Wonder (collaboration game) ~ Playpenning (furnish your mind and your environment) ~ MindMapping (use this incredible tool to solve a real problem) ~ The magic of “Yes, and. . .” (open up all the possibilities) ~ Brainstorming (finally! How to do it effectively) ~ License to Create (attend this session and you’ll have one at last!) BRING A BUSINESS PROBLEM OR CHALLENGE and we’ll use our collective brilliance (plus lots of tools and resources) to solve it!	JOYCE SMITH Joyce Smith has been helping organizations reap the benefits of improved performance, productivity and loyalty by developing the unique strengths and talents of employees and members. Her background as a creative director in marketing taught her how to inspire excellence and nurture talent while meeting corporate objectives. She formed her own company so that she could help people in a variety of industries to embrace their true talents and make their greatest contributions. She has been in the idea business for 25 years. As a Vice President, Group Creative Director for one of the country’s largest marketing services agencies, she found her creativity getting buried under her title, her management responsibility, and her role in developing young talent. For the past six years she has been helping professionals who don’t see their jobs as “creative” to bring the power of ideas, problem solving, and collaboration to their work -- for improved performance, productivity and satisfaction.

1:00 – 2:45pm
	Topic	Presenter
People Schedule	CRUCIAL CONVERSATIONS How can you tell which are the most productive organizations? The most effective teams? The most influential individuals? How about the organizations that are the most effective in navigating large-scale change? What conversations do you think would be the most crucial to achieving these kinds of results? Crucial conversations are characterized by high stakes, strong emotions and varied options. People who are skilled at mastering crucial conversations are able to help individuals, teams and organizations improve performance in the areas of: Productivity, Teamwork, Accountability, Individual Influence and Diversity. Join us in this lively and interactive session where you will learn about the seven steps in Dialogue Smarts and the Six-Minute Solution: ~ Start with Heart ~ Learn to Look ~ Make it Safe ~ Master "My" Stories ~ STATE My Path ~ Explore Other's Paths ~ Move to Action	LAURIE SHAKUR Listen and Learn Known as the "Queen of Self Promotion" this trainer, coach and consultant is dedicated to empowering individuals and enhancing performance. Her approach to development stimulates thinking and contributes to the creation of high performance organizations. Laurie is cutting-edge in her method of providing informative, motivational and interactive workshops. With nearly 20 years experience in Sales, Human Resources and Organizational Development she provides innovative solutions with real world relevancy. Previously a Director in Organizational Development for an insurance company this graduate of Loyola University is currently working on her M.A. from DePaul University concentrating in Organization Effectiveness and Leadership. Laurie is a contributing writer to Umoja Magazine and has a weekly radio vignette titled "Positive Perspectives".Member of the National African American Speakers Association, International Coaching Federation, American Society for Training and Development, Society for Human Resource Management and Coachville.
Processes Schedule	(E3) ENHANCING EFFECTIVE EXECUTION Many times it seems that your employees, clients, vendors and distributors are not only operating off of different pages - they're using different books! How can your organization discover the needs and expectations of your internal and external clients? What are the most effective strategies to meet and exceed those needs? How can you align every action to successfully achieve your goals? Getting everyone to operate from the same page requires that you.. 1. Understand the needs of all stakeholders in your organization - staff, clients, vendors, distributors and suppliers. 2. Create a scorecard that clearly and concisely communicates your key objectives, planned priorities, and tracks the progress of your efforts. Explore some powerful tools that you can start to use today to enhance your organizational performance using real world examples and hands-on interactions.	THOMAS RAINWATER Praxis Solutions Thomas M. Rainwater is the founder, President and CEO of Praxis Solutions, Inc. Praxis helps business owners and executives develop and implement practical solutions to their challenges in the areas of: strategic planning, managing, mergers - acquisitions - alliances, selling a business, and crisis management; as well as helping owners and leaders improve their personal leadership effectiveness. Before founding Praxis, Tom was an executive with a Fortune 500 energy services firm with operations in over a dozen cities in the Central and Western United States. Tom helped grow and transform the company from a regional provider of wholesale energy into a national provider of energy and information services to wholesale and retail companies. Rainwater also developed a second business unit in the Central US from startup stage in 1996 to nearly $100 million in annual sales by 1999. He and his management team achieved this rapid growth by executing an aggressive business plan, including making several acquisitions and forming key strategic alliances. He has additional experience in engineering and project management, and in automotive technologies.
Performance Schedule	PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT AND COACHING Most performance appraisals fail to result in an improvement in employee performance. Why? Appraisals do well at evaluating the past but fail at supporting plans to improve the employee's value to the organization. Most managers lack the skills to coach their employees towards achieving success. First, you need to identify the skills necessary for performance improvement and then understand the process and skills involved in coaching for high performance. Content includes: ~ Learn about the Stage Review System of Performance Management ~ Identify tips to increase the effectiveness of the review process ~ Examine appraiser bias and learn your bias tendencies ~ Focus on SMART goals and the 8 step process of goal setting ~ Discuss the differences between coaching and counseling ~ Identify the two types of coaching ~ Learn the three stages of the coaching process Practice using a coaching feedback tool as we enhance your expertise in the coaching and employee support process.	ELIZABETH POLLACK Employers Association Elizabeth is a results focused, conceptual thinker with a commitment to getting things done. She has the ability to build teams and leaders, experienced in coordinating, developing staff and project management and has strong systems analysis skills as well as problem solving ability. Her experiences include psychotherapy, consulting and training in a wide variety of environments focused on ~ Management and Employee Relations Training ~ Cultural Change in the Workplace ~ Team Training & Development ~ Quality Management Philosophy ~ Customer Satisfaction in a Quality System She is a member of the Heart of Illinois Chapter of the American Society for Training & Development, Local chapter of the American Society for Quality, Member of American Counseling Association and Member of the Association for Specialists in Group Work, American Counseling Association

3:00 – 4:45pm

Topic

Presenter

People

Schedule

CREATING EXTRAORDINARY WORK AND WORKPLACES

Why am I doing what I'm doing? What really matters? What kind of world am I helping to create?" Leaders who want to make a positive difference and create organizations where others fully use their gifts will be rewarded with employee commitment and extraordinary business results. Leaders who participate will:
   ~ Experience the difference between ordinary and extraordinary work
   ~ Understand the benefits to individuals, organizations (talent retention, profitability), and society
  ~ Learn from case studies of pioneering organizations
  ~ Plan some actions they can take to make work more extraordinary
  ~ Take away a detailed resource list

The session is interactive! You will be involved in fun demonstrations using volunteers, group discussion, action planning, two songs that illustrate the points and more.

LAURA DEROCHER
Laura Derocher

Laura offers original songs, speeches, and seminars that motivate and equip people to create extraordinary work experiences and societal impacts. She helps people unleash their potential, build community, embrace conscious business practices, forge healthy relationships, authentically express themselves in service, and make a positive contribution.

She designed and presented a program for managers at a growing, high-tech company that was exported to Europe and Asia with outstanding results.

She has consulted with dozens of Fortune 500 clients such as Baxter, Chrysler, General Dynamics and Sears, designed campaigns to cascade the communication of clients' performance management and benefits programs to their managers and employees, and created communication pieces in multiple media.

Laura holds an M.S. in Organization Development and writes a regular column,
"Working to Awaken" for the periodical, "Spirit at Work."

KEITH LAVINE
Morale Factory

Keith Lavine is the principal and founder of Morale Factory, a Chicago-based human resource coaching and consulting firm that helps organizations develop and implement strategies for building employee morale and creating extraordinary places to work.

He has served as a project manager in Aon Corporation's human resource consulting group and has over ten years of experience working with a diverse client base that has included United Airlines, Chicago Public Schools, Capital One, Pfizer, Advocate Health Care, Sprint, and American Bottling Company.

Keith has taught graduate and undergraduate courses and holds a master's degree in Industrial Organizational Psychology with an emphasis in employee motivation. He is a member of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP), the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).

Processes

Schedule

POWER TOOLS FOR CREATIVE COLLABORATION

The fuel of any organization is ideas. In difficult economic times it’s the one resource that can be turned up full blast without spending scarce financial resources. What are the tools that you can use to support the creation, capture and application of effective ideas?

How can you creatively resolve the problems your organization faces every day to create a competitive advantage? What cost-effective strategies and tools can you use to support collaborative brainstorming with clients, vendors, distributors and staff? Structured brainstroming and ideation is the answer to these questions. Discover how most approaches are ineffective and how you can implement effective practices that produce ideas that pay.

Uncover and capitalize “hidden” possibilities and never-before-seen opportunities using low tech tips like post-it note brainstorming or “brainwriting”. Explore high tech methods that use online tools to allow employees or outside experts to contribute to organizational ideation sessions no matter where they are, or what time zone.

GREGG FRALEY
Gregg Fraley

Gregg Fraley is a public speaker that talks on the topics of creativity, innovation, technology, and humor. He does speaking, training, and research projects as part of D.S. Fraley Associates, a qualitative market research firm. D.S. His customers include many Fortune 500 companies.

A pioneer in the development of interactive television, Gregg worked with Warner Cable's QUBE project in the early 80s, where he won an Emmy award and a cable ACE award for Innovation. He has also founded a firm to develop the first wireless prescription writing system for physicians. Plus, he's designed and implemented software applications in healthcare, manufacturing, finance, and mobile field service.

His experience includes senior management positions in marketing, sales, technology, and customer research. He is presently involved with the annual Creative Problem Solving Institute (CPSI) where he teaches the CPS (Creative Problem Solving) methodology to an international audience. He is a member of the National Speakers Association, and does Improv with Players Workshop of Second City in Chicago.

Performance

Schedule

LOOKING FOR LEADERSHIP

Do you consider yourself a leader? Do you know what leadership roles are best for you? Are you good at getting people to follow? When faced with leadership problems, what do you consider when solving them? The answers to these and other leadership questions can be found in the Looking for Leadership model.

Participants will explore some of the five key elements of leadership:
   ~ Look Within: The Personal Element
   ~ Look Around: The Social Element
   ~ Look Among: The Systemic Element
   ~ Look Beyond: The Visionary Element
   ~ Look Back: The Reflective Element

Strong leadership skills are necessary for anyone who wants to be effective in their organization, community group, or family. Using the five-part Looking for Leadership model, participants will gain a multidimensional perspective of leadership by learning about themselves, their followers, and their organizations.

Come take an introspective and reflective look at leadership that will help you lead in any situation. Participants should be prepared to get involved and create their learning, not sit back and consume it!

MARK BOROWSKI

Mark Borowski is President of The Learning Interface, a training and consulting business specializing in leadership development and customer service. The Learning Interface helps improve people, processes and organizations by providing the link or interface to their learning.

For 20 years in profit, nonprofit and military organizations, Mark has worked with and led people at all organizational levels. He has held leadership positions such as department manager, supervisor, team leader, board member, president, and business owner.

He is also the 2002 President of the Southeastern Wisconsin Chapter of ASTD. Mark recently presented his chapter's experience with strategic planning titled "Strategic Planning: From Process to Progress" at ASTD's 2001 National Leadership Conference.

Mark's educational background compliments his business experience. He earned a Master of Science in Administrative Leadership and Adult Education from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and a Bachelor of Science in Management with a focus in Total Quality Management from Cardinal Stritch College.

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8:30 – 10:15am
	Topic	Presenter
People Schedule	SKILLS OF POWER What are the fundamental tools managers need in order to strengthen themselves as leaders in their professional and personal lives? They need a strong personal foundation to augment, and maximize, their performance. The six skills of power to help accomplish this are… ~ Vision ~ Attitude and Perspective ~ Effective Listening ~ Empowering Questions ~ Negotiation ~ Decision Making This will be a dynamic and interactive session focused on helping you learn how to apply the skills you already have…plus identify and develop the skills you need to enhance the power of your performance.	FREIDA CURRY Center for Urban Business (CUB), University of Illinois at Chicago Freida is presently the Director of the Center for Urban Businss at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has over 15 years experience as a trainer, consultant and coach. Currently she coaches individuals on becoming effective business consultants and business owners on strategic and small business development by identifying blocks that are limiting their abilities to perform at peak performance in their professional, personal and business environments. She then assists them in designing a strategy to implement change in their lives so that they can achieve their goals. Her professional background includes Business Development Director at Women's Self-Employment Project and Vice President at Burrell Advertising. She is also the owner of Freida Curry and Associates, a 9-year old firm which provides consulting, training, and business development expertise.
Processes Schedule	THE LANGUAGE OF BUSINESS In an environment of tight budgets, greater competition and increased demand for maximum performance, it's very important that you can communicate information about strategic resources accurately and with financial fluency. Yes, numbers talk and you can easily learn how to understand the story they're telling you about the success, or failure, of your performance objectives at all levels of your organization. Discover how to speak the language of business and communicate with credibility and authority. Participate in hands-on, interactive software simulations that are fun and focused on helping you learn how to become financially fluent and to improve communication and productivity at all levels of your organization.	JOHN KERRIGAN Finance Courses John Kerrigan FCA, MSc is a business and management consultant/trainer with a specialist knowledge of financial management based on his background as an Accountant and Financial Director working in the UK and overseas. He has been a trainer on Management Development courses for Ford Motor Company, United Technology Corporation, Glaxo SmithKline and many others. He was a professor at London Guildhall University and the University of Greenwich. He has worked in the US, the UK, France, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong and Malaysia. He is the author of many articles on finance, two textbooks and excels in transmitting his enthusiasm for demystifying and applying financial information.
Performance Schedule	BUILDING A TURBO ORGANIZATION Your organization must be fast and flexible, lean and logical to successfully respond to changing market dynamics. All events must be enacted swiftly, accurately, and effectively. Information and decisions must quickly flow through an organization in response to customer needs. Time has become the competition. Agility and flexibility are the keys to winning your race against your competition. You need to increase the velocity of your business processes and develop the momentum to maneuver quickly and accelerate past all challengers. Learn organizational strategies that streamline processes, reduce costs, increase information flow, quicken decision making, and support cohesive, focused teams.	RICHARD G. LIGUS Rockford Consulting Group, Ltd. Richard G. Ligus is President of Rockford Consulting Group, Ltd., located in Rockford, IL., with over 26 years experience in manufacturing, procurement, transportation and distribution. He specializes in developing and implementing supply chain strategies. Rich is an author and a speaker, and has developed seminars with the American Management Association. He is certified by both the Institute of Management Consultants and the The National Bureau of Certified Consultants. Rich has a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and a master of business administration degree from Rutgers University. He is a member of CASA/SME, and has been listed in Jane's Who's Who in Aviation and Aerospace, Who's Who in Computer Executives, and Who's Who in U.S. Executives. He has been a speaker at IMTS, USCTI, APFA, NEPMA, MCAA, Hand Tools Institute, CASA/SME, and others. He has appeared several times on WREX-TV, Mid-Morning Magazine.