Dr. Esther Jackson

Keynote: Times are Uncertain but your Steps to Resilience and Innovation Shouldn't Be

We are currently facing changes requiring us to stretch beyond just merely creating ways for your organization to adjust to a virtual world. In this session, you will find out what it really means to be a resilient and innovative leader through adaptability. Gain key takeaways with the greatest cheat sheet that shares steps and resources to maximize your leadership in these areas. Build your resilience while getting a handle on what’s in your control and what’s not in these uncertain times that call for leaders who are certain about future readiness. Practice ways to level up your innovation and ability to connect when you unleash your true potential using a plan of action.
 
Key Takeaways:

• Adaptability Model
• Greatest Cheat Sheet for Resilience and Innovation
• Action Plan
• Resource List

JD Dillon

Learning Disrupted – Lessons from the Frontline

80% of the global workforce are frontline employees. They have always been an important part of your business. They’re the face of your brand, and they work directly with your customers and products. The pandemic has reminded us of just how essential these workers are to your organizations and communities. Healthcare workers. Grocery associates. Bank employees. Delivery drivers. They continue to clock in every day so others can stay home and avoid infection. We'll show you how L&D teams around the world have shifted their mindset and reimagined their approach to workplace training so they can focus on what matters most to their employees, customers and communities in the face of unprecedented disruption.

Tatyana Fertelmeyster

Staying Centered While the World Is Spinning

Sometimes it feels like the whole world just got out of order. That definitely has been
our reality lately. A military concept of VUCA environment (Volatility, Uncertainty,
Complexity, Ambiguity) is a term that comes to mind. How do you navigate it in your
own life? What does it mean for your work? What does it take to stay centered in the
midst of the pandemic, civil unrest, and high stakes election season? How do you
support your ability to be focused on doing your best when so many things are
changing all at once?
This interactive online session based on a Personal Leadership model is about being a
captain of your ship in the middle of the storm. Expect to have an honest conversation and an opportunity for self-exploration. You will leave with a set of practices, which, when followed, indeed support your ability to stay centered while the world is spinning.

Participants will:

• Learn about six practices of Personal Leadership
• Gain insights into their ways of handling uncertainty
• Receive practical tools for staying centered while the world is spinning

Eddie Turner

Keynote: How to Emerge as a Leader

Leadership is a word often used but not always understood. History is replete with examples of both good and bad leadership. Perhaps now, more than ever, there is a need for many to answer the urgent call for effective leadership—but how? This keynote explains what it means to be a leader and emerge as one—even if you already are a leader in one way. It then dissects the process needed to build leadership in oneself and in others through leadership development tools for all to benefit. The world needs leaders at all levels to emerge as a leader in new ways.

Attendees will be able to:

• Define effective leadership and explain why so many people in positions of authority fail to exercise leadership.
• Recognize opportunities to emerge as a leader.
• Recommend effective methods for leadership development.

Dan Johnson

Building Resilience Within a Remote Workforce

Resilience is the ability to bounce back after personal or professional trials or setbacks and gain strength in the process. When we are resilient, we . . .

• Know how to cope in spite of setbacks, barriers or limited resources
• Are willing and able to overcome obstacles to get what we want
• Are flexible and adaptable
• Maintain a healthy energy level
• See setbacks as temporary and failures as isolated and short term

How can we persevere, maintain our sense of balance, and optimize our performance in the face of uncertain times and difficult challenges? How do we help our remote workforces navigate constant change without losing all of their energy or positivity? Join us in this interactive session to learn valuable tools and specific actions for building and maintaining resilience.

After participating in this interactive session, you will be able to:

• Differentiate between the truths and myths regarding resiliency
• Describe the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that hinder resilience within yourself and your remote workforce
• Identify the key characteristics of resilient people
• Utilize 11 Resiliency Builders to strengthen resilience within yourself and your employees

Erich Kurschat

Convening a Mastermind: The Power of Collaboration

Although mastermind groups are certainly nothing new, many HR pros are only now discovering this powerful format for linking arms and tackling challenges. Concepts formalized by Napoleon Hill in the 1930s are inspiring today's business leaders to expand networks, empower teams, and break down traditional workplace silos. This session will educate attendees on basic mastermind concepts, as well as provide them with a basic blueprint for joining or creating a mastermind of their own!

Attendees will:

• Learn the defining factors of a traditional mastermind group
• Identify the immediate applicability of mastermind groups in today's professional environment
• Divide up into small groups to experience mastermind-style conversation first-hand with their ATDChi peers

Anita Countryman

Barbara Trautlein

Case Study: Talent Development’s Strategic Role in Building Capacity to Lead through Change and Crisis

As our gut-wrenching experience with recent crises demonstrates, the capability to lead through crisis and change is mission critical. In the Talent Development field, we have many programs to help people "deal with change" (including building their resilience, coping with stress, etc.) as well as to "manage change" (such as various change/project management models and toolkits) - but we have a dearth of actionable approaches to help people learn to "lead" change. Rock Valley Credit Union closed that gap by building change leadership capabilities from the frontline tellers to the executive team, and the Board of Directors as well. This journey began when the new CEO embarked on a radical new strategic agenda, which was initially met with resistance. The senior Talent executive strategically partnered with the new CEO to design a learning journey, coaching and developing all key stakeholders over an 18-month period to own and execute the strategic plan. When COVID-19 hit, this enabling foundation equipped RVCU to seamlessly serve members and emerge stronger culturally and financially than before – with L&D at the forefront playing a visible and invaluable role. Join us to learn how!

Holly Burkett

Building Organizational Resilience: There's A Gap for That!

Crisis and disruption test the resiliency of leaders and employees across all organizational levels. CEO’s around the world have cited resiliency as either extremely important, or very important, to their organization’s ability to adapt and, not only survive, but thrive during disruptive events & unique stressors like the current COVID-19 pandemic. Resilient leaders are more effective in responding and recovering from disruption and are better able to create the kind of positive disruption that drives innovation and growth. Individuals and teams with high resiliency levels are more positive and more open to organizational change. Organizations with high resiliency levels are more agile, innovative, engaging, and productive as well as more responsive to customers. Learning leaders play a vital role in building resilient, adaptive capabilities across all organizational levels.
 
Join this interactive session to explore best practices for equipping leaders, teams, and employees with the resilient skill-sets and mind-sets needed to thrive in an age of disruption. Case studies, self-assessments, and practical guidelines will be provided for participants' immediate use.
 
Objectives:

• Identify key indicators of organizational resiliency
• Assess your organizational and team resiliency levels
  
• Discover best practices for leadership during times of crisis or disruption
  
• Increase your value as a strategic change agent
  

Krista Skidmore

Adrienne D. Sims

From Uncertainty to Opportunity: Transforming to a Virtual Leadership Summit on the Fly

An annual 8-year tradition of connecting our 360 people leaders through our Leadership Summit was in jeopardy. Although the pandemic required us to rethink how we could safely deliver this important development opportunity, the question was never whether we would continue, but rather how. Given our core value of growing people, we weren’t going to let this opportunity be squandered. We rallied and refocused through the uncertainty and ambiguity to create a first ever virtual Leadership Summit. Our leaders were hungering for connection and we didn’t let them down—we envisioned and delivered a 4-week virtual experience that more deeply embedded our leadership expectations and provided unique connection opportunities through peer coaching circles, networking cafés, targeted all-leader and small group learning sessions, and much more! We’ll share with you, how we adapted to the changing circumstances to shift from in-person to a completely virtual yet incredibly meaningful learning experience.

Learning Objectives:

• Discuss how we structurally created an engaging series of events intended to more deeply connect leaders in the virtual environment and adapt to challenging times.
• Learn how to design virtual participant experiences, connected to a core leadership model, with multi-faceted learning opportunities that bring to life the objectives.
• Visualize how our organization executed a large-scale virtual leadership conference that adapted from an in-person to virtual setting and the lessons learned as part of that process.