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Think Tank to Stimulate New Ideas About Human Capital

The Forum for People Performance Management and Measurement announced its annual Think Tank. Here  is the press release on the event:

Think Tank to Stimulate New Ideas about Human Capital

FORUM’s Oct. 14 ‘Who’s In Charge Now?’ event features

author, CEO Michael Lee Stallard

August 18, 2009 NAPERVILLE, Ill. – Today’s economy requires businesses to pay ever-closer attention to the value that people bring to their organizations and their role in the human value connection that bonds companies to their employees and customers. The Forum for People Performance Management and Measurement offers business leaders an opportunity to explore these issues and find solutions at its second Think Tank symposium titled, Who’s in Charge Now? Thriving in an Employee Led Economy, on Wed., Oct. 14, 2009 at the Union League Club of Chicago.

“The 2009 Think Tank is designed to provide education and insight on how people performance strategies can have a positive impact on their organization, and to create a networking opportunity for individuals who have a shared commitment to strategies that support people in the workplace,” said FORUM President Michelle M. Smith, CPIM, CRP. The target audience for this year’s event includes both high-level corporate executives and a broad panel of academic researchers specializing in people performance issues.

Smith noted that the FORUM has signed a dynamic expert in management-employee relations, Michael Lee Stallard, as its “Think Tank” keynote speaker. Stallard is co-founder, president and CEO of E Pluribus Partners, a consulting firm that specializes in helping leaders create “Connection Cultures” to form strong bonds among the management, employees, and customers of an organization. Clients have included Wachovia, Lockheed Martin, and UBS.

In addition, Stallard is the primary author of the book Fired Up or Burned Out, and contributing author of the book What Managers Say, What Employees Hear. Stallard is former chief marketing officer for businesses at Morgan Stanley and Charles Schwab.  For more on Stallard, visit his web site at http://www.michaelleestallard.com

A key feature of the conference is that participants will have ample opportunity to discuss the topics most important to them with peers, as well as with academic and people performance experts.

The event includes a reception on the evening of Oct. 13. Registration fees are $250 for corporate participants and $150 for academic/student participants. For more information on the FORUM Think Tank, call (630) 369-7780 or visit http://performanceforum.org/Think-Tank.97.0.html

The Forum for People Performance Management and Measurement (www.performanceforum.org) is a research center within the Medill Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) graduate program at Northwestern University. A central objective of the Forum is to develop and disseminate knowledge about communications, motivation and management so that businesses can better design, implement and manage people-based initiatives for inside and outside an organization.

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Forum for People Performance Management and Measurement

1601 N. Bond Street, Suite 303

Naperville, IL 60563

630.369.7780

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Leadership Speaker for ASTD and Linkage

I’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be speaking for two of the world’s leading organizations in the training and development field. On July 23rd I’ll be speaking about how Connection Cultures relate to leadership, employee engagement, productivity and innovation in an hour long presentation via Webex to members of ASTD (the American Society for Training and Development).  ASTD is the world’s largest association dedicated to workplace learning and performance professionals with 80,000 members from more than 100 countries. 

On December 10, I will be at the headquarters of Linkage Corporation near Boston to record an 90 minute presentation on Connection Cultures that will be made available on demand to Linkage clients.  Linkage is a global organizational development company that specializes in leadership development.   More than 200,000 leaders and managers have attended Linkage programs since 1998.

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Culture Change = Compelling Values + Portfolio of Stories

Mario Sundar at Marketing Nirvana just wrote about changing corporate culture with corporate storytelling. I agree that leaders should have a portfolio of stories they tell that bring corporate values to life.  In addition, I recommend that leaders clearly articulate their values in writing. The corporate mission, strategy and objectives express what has to be done.  Clearly articulated values in writing help make it clear how work is to be done and how it is not to be done.  

Here is one of the best expressions of values by a leader that I’ve seen.  It comes from the commander of the U.S.S. Montpelier, a nuclear submarine.    

The USS Montpelier Command Philosophy

Montpelier is a warship, designed to steam into harm’s way and win.  Our flesh and blood bring this ship to life.  We are stewards of one of the most capable warships in the history of mankind.   These thoughts provide a framework for executing that stewardship and for building the teamwork that will enable us to fight and win in war.

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Guy Kawasaki: “Connection Culture” a “must read”

Guy Kawasaki, Founding Partner of Garage Technology Ventures, best-selling author and Entrepreneur magazine columnist, just wrote on his Twitter that “The Connection Culture: A New Source of Competitive Advantage” is a “must read.” I hope you’ll agree! Guy also posted about it on his Open Forum blog.

You can download it for free by clicking here.

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Podcast Interview with IBM, Expert on Insightory.com

 






I recently completed a podcast interview with Scott Laningham, host of IBM’s developerWorks podcast interviews.  You can listen to the interview and download it on iTunes by clicking on employee engagement.











Insightory.com recently added me to its list of experts.  This website has a treasure trove of content.  Here is a link to my page on the website.

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The Mutual Promises of Servant Leaders and Servant Citizens

In outstanding businesses, people serve one another. Leaders serve employees and employees, in turn, serve customers. Customers respond by being loyal to the business and the employees they know. One way to reflect this servant mindset is to codify it in mutual promises. I learned from Admiral Vern Clark, who was the head of the US Navy from 2000-2005, that he told his leaders the sailors under their command promised to support and defend the US Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic, and they, as leaders, needed to make promises to sailors in return. Promises such as giving the sailors the training and resources needed to do their jobs. That make me think, what promises do we want from employees we lead and what promises should we make in return. I spoke this morning on Jim Blasingame’s radio program about his and you can hear it at this link.

Here are some promises to consider:

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Connections at the World Innovation Forum

The sun is shining here in New York City where I’m attending HSM’s World Innovation Forum as a designated blogger.

As readers of my blog know, I focus on the importance of human connection among management, employees and customers. Connection stimulates innovation.  And connection is omnipresent at this event.