ATD Forum Spring 2023 Lab
The Perfect Fit: Partnering for Success | Saturday, May 20th | San Diego

 

The Perfect Fit: Partnering for Success

One of the most critical questions learning development professionals need to answer to close an identified performance gap is whether to build or buy the expertise needed to design, develop, and deliver the most effective learning experience. This is not just an either-or decision. There are many options: Will you completely outsource or internally build? Will you partner with external and internal players for the whole project or for just some of the components? What are criteria for building a business case? How do you ensure it is a good fit? These decisions not only affect the solution being built, but also the budget, personnel, support, time involved and the success of the effort.

This Forum Lab will focus on working more effectively and efficiently with business partners, especially external suppliers, to create the perfect fit for enable results for closing performance gaps in a manner that fits an organization’s needs, budget, time constraints, and culture.

During this lab, Forum members will:

  • Explore techniques for understanding more thoroughly the ramifications of building or buying expertise in L&D.
  • Practice using tools to clarify expectations when addressing the needs of a targeted audience
  • Use collectively developed questions to influence success when talking with industry suppliers at the ATD23 EXPO Hall and in the future.
Past Forum Events
  • american airlines logo
    American Airlines
    Spring Lab 2019
    Propelling Culture by Leading Change

    Hosted By: American Airlines

    Description:
    During the ATD Forum 2019 Spring Lab, we explored some foundational aspects needed to make the most difficult change—transforming the culture—from members representing a variety of industries. For example, the talent team at the new American Airlines is taking an active role in shaping a culture that focuses on creating a differentiated customer experience in their industry through a differentiated employee experience . . . a customer experience that is caring, easy, connected, and safe.

    Lab Objectives:
    • Learn how to use aspects of culture to increase employee engagement
    • Learn how to incorporate technologies for a more realistic learner experience
    • Learn how to use a variety of consultative tools and techniques

    Unique Features of the Lab:
    There are several features that make an ATD Forum Lab a unique experience, regardless of the time of year, the location, the theme, or the host. These features include:
    • Benchmarking Members On-Site: Labs allow members to benchmark another member company in an immersive way. Labs are hosted by members who select the topic, contribute to the design and delivery, share numerous resources (including their leaders), and provide the physical space for the experience. This benchmarking process allows participants to go inside the organization to view the space, practices, data, technologies, and people.
    • Experiential in Nature: Forum Labs are co-designed with the hosts to investigate a topic of interest by exploring a variety of ideas, approaches, and techniques and spark the curiosity of members. One of the goals is introducing new concepts, tools, and approach processes and testing them. For example, in this Lab the participants will explore the essential characteristics of serving as a business learning adviser—and from that perspective, practice serving as trusted partners to gather data, synthesize the data, and collectively provide feedback to the host.
    • Peer-Led Activities: Individual sessions are led by peers, senior leaders, and practitioners who are dedicated to improving their respective organizations and the talent development profession as a whole. For the practices shared by the host, the facilitators are generally the inhouse leaders for the practice. While facilitating an exercise, they not only lead through instruction, but also add their personality and experiences to a method or tool. All instructions and job aids are posted on the member-only website. This peer-led environment supports our motto, “Everyone is a teacher and everyone is a learner.”
    • A Focus on Doing: Through the expressed goals related to experiencing the space, culture, organizational system, and practices of the host and learning how other members have addressed similar challenges, participants gain new understanding and insights. This allows them to add examples of practices for facing challenges to their current portfolio inventory. Another motto we borrowed from Michael Leimbach of Wilson Learning is, It’s not about the 2 learning; it’s about the doing. So, while the Lab is designed for learning through connecting, collaborating, and sharing, the ultimate goal is building a larger kit of both tools and techniques, as well as challenge-solution ideas for future use. With the connections, the experiences, and all documentation available, participants can easily take back ideas into their own organizations.
    • Supplier-Free: The Forum is a vendor-free community, and all members sign a nondisclosure agreement. With this setting, we can create an environment for open and friendly exchange without pressure.
  • booz-allen-hamilton-logo.png
    Booz | Allen | Hamilton
    Spring Lab 2018
    Untapped: Innovation Forward

    Hosted By: Booz | Allen | Hamilton

    Description:
    The overarching aim of the Lab is to create an engaging and interactive environment for Forum members and guests to easily connect, collaborate, and share learning around emerging innovative practices. During this Forum Lab, we will explore how Booz Allen Hamilton is reimagining learning today, and every day moving that vision forward as a corporate strategy. They have built an Innovation Blueprint that is inclusive of all business lines. Collectively, the organization paves the way to innovation—not one team, or one person, but an entire organization of more than 22,000 employees. We will also hear from other ATD Forum members who have reimagined the next-generation learning function to explore what is achievable.

    Lab Objectives:
    • Benchmark the practices and environmental space of a Forum company to gain a deeper understanding, and gather new insights about how to “untap” innovation that drives organizational results.
    • Personally experience tools, techniques, methods, and technologies that engage collaborative problem-solving and innovation.
    • Engage intentionally with others around a common topic to expand professional networking.

    Unique Features of the Lab:
    There are several features that make an ATD Forum Lab a unique experience, regardless of the time of year, the location, the theme, or the host. These features include:
    • Benchmarking Members On-Site: A major distinction of an ATD Forum Lab that differentiates it from other learning events is the ability for members to benchmark another member company in an immersive way. Labs are hosted by members who select the topic, contribute to the design and delivery, share numerous resources (including their leaders), and provide the physical space for the experience.
    • Experiential in Nature: Forum Labs are co-designed with the hosts to investigate a topic of interest by exploring a variety of ideas, approaches, and techniques. One of the goals is introducing new concepts and tools, and testing them. For example, in a recent Lab on change, participants were able to experience change by moving from one physical location to another. For every Lab, feedback is collected to use in future designs.
    • Peer-Led Activities: Individual sessions are led by peers, senior leaders, and practitioners who are dedicated to improving their respective organizations and the talent development profession as a whole. While facilitating an exercise, they not only lead through instruction, but also add their personality and experiences to a method or tool. This peer-led environment supports our motto, “Everyone is a teacher and everyone is a learner.”
    • Supplier-Free: The Forum is a vendor-free community, and all members sign a nondisclosure agreement. With this setting, we can create an environment for open and friendly exchange without pressure.
  • deloitte logo.png
    Deloitte
    Spring Lab 2017
    Meet the Modern Learner

    Hosted By: Deloitte

    Description:
    As training moves to more digital formats, it’s colliding with new realities in learners’ jobs, behaviors, habits, and preferences. Today’s employees are overwhelmed, distracted, and impatient. Flexibility in where and how they learn is increasingly important. They want to learn from their peers and managers as much as from experts. And they’re taking more control over their own development.

    Resources:
    Unique Features of the Lab:
    There are several features that make an ATD Forum Lab a unique experience, regardless of the time of year, the location, the theme, or the host. These features include:
    • Benchmarking Members On-Site: A major distinction of an ATD Forum Lab that differentiates it from other learning events is the ability for members to benchmark another member company in an immersive way. Labs are hosted by members who select the topic, contribute to the design and delivery, share numerous resources (including their leaders), and provide the physical space for the experience.
    • Experiential in Nature: Forum Labs are co-designed with the hosts to investigate a topic of interest by exploring a variety of ideas, approaches, and techniques. One of the goals is introducing new concepts and tools, and testing them. For example, in a recent Lab on change, participants were able to experience change by moving from one physical location to another. For every Lab, feedback is collected to use in future designs.
    • Peer-Led Activities: Individual sessions are led by peers, senior leaders, and practitioners who are dedicated to improving their respective organizations and the talent development profession as a whole. While facilitating an exercise, they not only lead through instruction, but also add their personality and experiences to a method or tool. This peer-led environment supports our motto, “Everyone is a teacher and everyone is a learner.”
    • Supplier-Free: The Forum is a vendor-free community, and all members sign a nondisclosure agreement. With this setting, we can create an environment for open and friendly exchange without pressure.
  • consumers energy logo.PNG
    Consumers Energy
    Fall Lab 2019
    Flexing Our Business Muscles: Being Strategic With High-Impact Tools and Techniques

    Hosted By: Consumers Energy

    Description:
    Forum Labs are designed for learning through connecting, collaborating, and sharing around a specific theme. Fall Lab 2019 explores ways to look at the organizational system using various assessments to inform making decisions for improvements. Content and context are provided to level the playing field. Members share related tools and techniques. Small group activities allow participants to take action on the new insights, with the ultimate goal of building a larger kit. With the connections, experiences, and documentation available, participants can easily add to their practice.

    Lab Objectives:
    • To understand the larger organizational system and investing in the long-term success of the organization (not just solving ad hoc “training” problems).
    • To serve as a trusted business learning adviser, including having ongoing power conversations with stakeholders.
    • To use various high-impact tools and techniques to assess and address opportunities for improvement at the enterprise level.

    Unique Features of the Lab:
    There are several features that make an ATD Forum Lab a unique experience, regardless of the time of year, the location, the theme, or the host. These features include:
    • Benchmarking Members On-Site: Labs allow members to benchmark another member company in an immersive way. Participants go inside an organization to experience their space, practices, technologies, and people.
    • Experiential in Nature: Labs are co-designed with the hosts to investigate a topic of interest by exploring a variety of ideas, approaches, and techniques and spark members’ curiosity to expand their point of view (PoV). One of the goals is to introduce new concepts, tools, and approach processes and to test them.
    • Peer-Led Activities: Individual sessions are led by peers, senior leaders, and practitioners who are dedicated to improving their respective organizations and the talent development profession. This peer-led environment supports our motto, “Everyone is a teacher and everyone is a learner.” All instructions, job aids, and templates are posted on the member-only website to promote further use and sharing.
    • A Focus on Doing: Participants gain awareness, new understanding, and insights on the theme through multiple activities. These connect in a capstone activity where choices and decisions must be made to create an action plan. A motto borrowed from Michael Leimbach of Wilson Learning applies: It’s not just about the learning; it’s about the doing.
    • Supplier-Free: The Forum is a vendor-free community, and all members sign a nondisclosure agreement. With this setting, we can create an environment for open and friendly exchange without pressure.
  • bank of montreal logo.PNG
    Bank of Montreal
    Fall Lab 2018
    Advancing Employee Performance

    Hosted By: Bank of Montreal

    Description:
    Recent ATD research reported that seven in 10 leaders experienced at least one major organizational change in the past two years. Of that group, 60 percent saw three or more transformations, and 25 percent reported six or more. For most organizations, the new normal is constant change. This shift demands leaders take a more holistic approach to performance advancement.

    How do talent development leaders keep up with ever-changing business environments in ways that support evolving employee performance needs? The best leaders put in place an organization-wide, performance-based ecosystem that includes wide-ranging solutions from formal and informal content strategies. This might include assets ranging from personalized learning paths to just-in-time support for frontline managers, and all are generally supported by technology systems.

    Lab Objectives:
    • Develop a deeper understanding of the strategic performance ecosystem approaches necessary for employees to be successful in their ever-changing roles and within the context of rapidly changing work.
    • Identify the critical elements talent development professions can use or influence for a strategic performance ecosystem to flourish in a world of modern learning, looking at examples of these elements from a variety of industries.
    • Experience a process of sequenced activities (break it down; search and discover) focused on learning from others and discover options for creating innovative approaches to advancing employee performance.

    Unique Features of the Lab:
    There are several features that make an ATD Forum Lab a unique experience, regardless of the time of year, the location, the theme, or the host. These features include:
    • Benchmarking Members On-Site: Labs allow members to benchmark another member company in an immersive way. Labs are hosted by members who select the topic, contribute to the design and delivery, share numerous resources (including access to their leaders), and provide the physical space for the experience.
    • Experiential in Nature: Forum Labs are codesigned with the hosts to investigate a topic of interest by exploring a variety of ideas, approaches, and techniques and sparking the curiosity of members. One of the goals is introducing new concepts, tools, and approach processes and testing them. For example, in this Lab the participants will crowdsource the essential components needed for talent development to advance employee performance—and from that perspective, conduct research scans via a treasure hunt on what is already working within member companies. For every Lab, feedback is collected to use in future designs; this supports another motto: “Continually getting better at getting better.”
    • Peer-Led Activities: Individual sessions are led by peers, senior leaders, and practitioners who are dedicated to improving their respective organizations and the talent development profession as a whole. While facilitating an exercise, they not only lead through instruction, but also add their personality and experiences to a method or tool. This peer-led environment supports our motto, “Everyone is a teacher and everyone is a learner.”
    • A Focus on Doing: The Lab is designed for learning through connecting, collaborating, and sharing; and while the expressed goals are related to experiencing the space, culture, and challenges of another member in a way that all participants gain new skills and understanding of the theme, the ultimate goal is not the learning per se, but taking the ideas, experience, and deliverables back into one’s organization and doing something with them in one’s personal practice. Thus, another motto we borrowed from Michael Leimbach of Wilson Learning: “It not about the learning; it’s about the doing.”
    • Supplier-Free: The Forum is a vendor-free community, and all members sign a nondisclosure agreement. With this setting, we can create an environment for open and friendly exchange without pressure. An example of this is the Tech Road Show in Toronto. Users will share the pros and cons of various technologies.
  • ingersoll_rand_logo.5ebafbbfdd569.png
    Ingersoll Rand
    Fall Lab 2017
    Making Data Dance

    Hosted By: Ingersoll Rand

    Description:
    The overarching aim of the Lab is to create an engaging and interactive environment for Forum members and guests to easily connect, collaborate, and share learning practices around the concept of making data dance (MDD) in a way that drives business results. Making data dance is a metaphor for talent development professionals enhancing their ability to understand, use, and adapt data to effectively influence business results in all forms of messaging, including presentations, stories, and conversations. While the group will be given a model to start the conversation, the group’s collective work at the Lab will produce a prototype that all attendees will be able to use back in their respective organizations.

    Lab Objectives:
    • Using critical thinking and inquiry skills to gain a deeper understanding and gather new insights about how to use data to drive business results and performance capability
    • Experiencing tools, techniques, methods, and models to display data in messages in ways that are easy for a variety of audiences to understand
    • Expanding their professional network

    Unique Features of the Lab:
    There are several features that make an ATD Forum Lab a unique experience, regardless of the time of year, the location, the theme, or the host. These features include:
    • Benchmarking Members On-Site: A major distinction of an ATD Forum Lab that differentiates it from other learning events is the ability for members to benchmark another member company in an immersive way. Labs are hosted by members who select the topic, contribute to the design and delivery, share numerous resources including their leaders, and provide the physical space for the experience.
    • Experiential in Nature: Forum Labs are co-designed with the hosts to investigate a topic of interest by exploring a variety of ideas, approaches, and techniques. One of the goals is introducing new concepts and tools, and testing them. For example, in a recent Lab on change, the participants were able to experience change by moving from one physical location to another. For every Lab, feedback is collected to use in future designs.
    • Peer-Led Activities: Individual sessions are led by peers, senior leaders and practitioners who are dedicated to improving their respective organizations and the talent development profession as a whole. While facilitating an exercise, they not only lead through instruction, but also add their personality and experiences to a method or tool. This peer-led environment supports our motto, “Everyone is a teacher and everyone is a learner.”
    • Supplier-Free: The Forum is a supplier-free entity and all members sign a nondisclosure agreement. With this scenario, we can create an environment for open and friendly exchange without pressure.
  • Launching for Success: Collaborative Problem-Solving for Maximum Results
    Session 1: Game Rules: Knowing All the Players

    Marie Wehrung from Rice University shared ideas for identifying and knowing your stakeholders as well as suggestions for communicating and collaborating with them in ways that speed up the execution and increase success options for the project.


    Session 2: Focusing on Alignment and Integration: Practicing What We Teach

    Suzanne Frawley from Plains All American Pipeline discussed strategies, processes, tools, and techniques for efficiently and effectively bringing the business units along with you.
  • ATD21 keynote speakers
    ATD 2021
    ATD Forum Sessions 2021
    Session: Opportunity Assessment: Reframing Post-Pandemic Challenges

    Description:
    Attendees learned to use affinity clustering for a more robust brainstorming experience -- allowing them to leave with insights for taking action rather than a laundry list.

    Application on the Job:
    • Use a collaborative decision tool to see common themes and patterns in large amounts of data.
    • Experience using affinity clustering to go from ideas that are scattered to structured and focused – saving time and resources.
    • Gain perspectives on common challenges from peers in other industries.

    Session Focus Question:
    • What are the known or anticipated challenges your learning function will face in the next 12 months?

    Presented By:
    Siemens, PAEA, Plains All American Pipeline, and North Highland Consulting


    Session: Playing to Win: The Future of Learning

    Description:
    Attendees learned to use a cover story tool to more accurately envision and/or share successes with others.

    Application on the Job:
    • Use a design thinking tool to more clearly describe or envision a project
    • Experience using the cover story tool to document your learning experience story
    • Gain perspectives on workable practices from peers in other industries.

    Session Focus Question:
    • What is a new learning experience, practice, and/or process that your team will take forward into the new post pandemic future?

    Presented By:
    Sandy Spring Bank, Intermountain Healthcare Inc., North Highland Consulting, and Cochlear Americas


    Session: How Do I Show Up? Leading for Organizational Impact

    Description:
    Attendees learned the day-to-day practices top performing leaders use to show up and create an environment where others can excel, deliver impact, and continue to develop.

    Application on the Job:
    • Learn day-to-day leadership techniques that enable others to succeed and produce positive results.
    • Transform your list of leadership competencies into actionable behaviors.
    • Delve into your personal strengths and what they look like in practice.

    Presented By:
    Cochlear Americas, Plains All American Pipeline, Accenture, ATD, Hitachi Ventara, and Intermountain Healthcare
  • ATD Forum Minilab Session 2021
    Description:

    The last year saw most companies pivot from primarily on-site work to predominantly remote work. During this time, there were many innovations and changes made to get work done. Some of these will die on the vine because they did not work, and others were silver linings that will move forward with whatever the future turns out to be. Still, there are opportunities for further innovations.

    How might you take these trigger opportunities to the next level? What can you do to enable the ideas to morph into prototypes? Serial entrepreneur Steve Blank is known to say, “There are no answers in the building,” and recommends employees get out and get ideas and inspiration for others.

    In line with this guidance, the ATD Forum worked with member Intermountain Healthcare (IMHC) to cohost a minilab on Saturday, August 28, in their innovation facility, the Intermountain Kem C. Gardner Transformation Center on the Intermountain Medical Center campus in Murray, Utah. Not only did Forum members experience the facility and learn how they use it to promote innovation, but they also heard about innovative practices from other members. While it was a minilab rather than a regular 2.5-day event, it was extremely exciting for members to gather in person after almost two years apart.

    Like all Forum labs, there was connecting and networking, collaborating using tools and techniques, and sharing from various members. Attendees became motivated to take their innovation triggers from the edge to a business case for performance improvement.

    The minilab provided the following takeaways:

    • Visiting and touring the Intermountain Healthcare innovation space
    • Hearing about the innovative practices at Intermountain Healthcare
    • Collaboratively designing how to move innovation from the edge to center stage
    • Networking with other Forum members
  • Launching for Success: Collaborative Problem-Solving With Tools
    Background: The Launching for Success series was designed for authors of the Forum's book, Leading the Learning Function, to be able to share their stories, tools, techniques, lessons learned, and next-steps with members. It has been very successful and has led to a new product for the Forum: a toolkit. This uses the topic of a book chapter and provides more tools for implementation.

    Session 1: Focusing on People: Human-Centered Design and Stakeholder Engagement

    Graham Johnston of Deloitte shared a four-step phased tool to identify, research, and define a problem, ideate options for improvement, prototype solutions, and test prior to implementation. Attendees were given a use case and discussed with others in the live session how to use it to create innovative, end-user focused, and impactful learning experiences for their learners.

    Session 2: Focusing on Alignment and Integration: Practicing What We Teach

    Lisa Gary of Trane Technologies shared a use case and provided tips and lessons learned. Participants gained understanding of the model, how it aligns with the business objectives, received help to determine learning priorities, and saw an example of how the model was used. Participants also received resources to use in their own practice.
  • ATD Forum Fall Hackathon 2020
    How can you tell if your personal learning system is working?

    Due to COVID-19, many employees leaned solely on digital platforms to communicate and work from home. They relied on word-of-mouth tools from colleagues or their own internet searches to find learning opportunities to boost their performance and efficiency while away from the office. With so many available resources and the need to constantly upskill and reskill, what does your personal learning system look like? How is it currently working? How do you even know it's working?

    Session 1: See. Do. Teach: Using Science to Advance Learning

    Forum members with supported smart watches measured their neural responses live, then used their own neural data to diagnose how and why the session was effective.

    Session 2: Staying Ahead of the Challenge Curve: Using the ATD Capability Model

    Forum members reviewed the ATD Capability Model and learned upskilling ideas to be more strategic and future-ready to adjust to the ever-changing needs of the workplace.

    Session 3: The Capacity Matrix: A Systems Approach to Upskilling

    Forum members used the Capacity Matrix to be a champion at understanding, documenting, and articulating their strengths and limitations to understand what they need to learn.

    Session 4: Charting a Journey: An Action Plan for Expanding Career Options for Talent Leaders

    Forum members learned how to identify a destination goal, plan an itinerary, and navigate their journey with clarity and confidence using the specific KSAs required to upskill in a focused area. The process included ways to monitor progress to ensure the destination goal is reached in a timely manner.

    ---

    In addition to the sprint sessions, the Fall Hackathon included four informal working sessions to network with Forum colleagues with opportunities to ask questions, share experiences, and receive feedback on learning journeys. From these sessions, attendees receive curated content, a list of resources, and templates for learning tools and techniques.
  • ATD Forum Discovery Hub 2020
    The ATD Forum’s Discovery Hub is a space where talent development leaders can virtually continue to connect, collaborate, and share in an experimental way. It was most important for us to learn from this pandemic experience – and we knew we could learn more when we connect, collaborate, and share with each other. How might we gain from all the changes we have had to make so that when we are hit with the next big surprise disruption, we have more ideas and greater confidence to pursue them?

    Sessions:

    Pausing the Pivoting to Assess Silver Linings
    During this session, participants crowd-sourced the many actions from all the pivoting required to enable workers to be successful in a remote environment.

    Silver Linings: Moving From an Aha Insight to a Concept
    This hands-on session focused on silver lining actions learned and creating a viable business case for converting face-to-face training to virtual.

    Member Case Study: Finding a Silver Lining in the Agile Approach
    Attendees learned how Forum member IBM was able to pivot successfully during the fully remote period primarily because of its Agile mindset.
  • ATD Forum Spring Hackathon 2020
    Advancing Digital Literacy

    To be effective in these ever-changing times, L&D professionals constantly obtain new knowledge to sharpen their skills. Attendees joined webcasts and tackled topics from APIs and artificial intelligence to engaging the modern learner through microlearning.

    Session 1: AN INTRODUCTION TO XAPI

    This session was the foundational, practical, non-technical introduction to xAPI that helped many conference participants get engaged in the sessions ahead.

    In this session attendees learned how to:
    • Describe the effect that xAPI can have on your organization's learning and performance strategies.
    • Identify data needs and likely sources within the organization.
    • Identify new challenges in your work as an instructional designer.
    • Choose one or more first projects that leverage xAPI's capabilities beyond what's available in SCORM today.

    Session 2: GETTING STARTED WITH AI IN L&D

    Marketing. Logistics. Safety. Human resources. Artificial intelligence is changing the way work is done. But what about L&D? While we will not be the first team to introduce AI in our organizations, we cannot risk falling behind when it comes to the impact AI is having on our workplaces. So, how should L&D teams prepare for adoption of AI-enabled technologies? How can L&D professionals apply AI to improve the effect of learning on employee performance? And, most importantly, what should the L&D function look like in an organization where AI and automation have fundamentally changed the way people approach their work?

    Session 3: MICROLEARNING: BUILDING CAPABILITY AT THE POINT OF NEED

    As learning professionals, we must evolve and adapt to ensure that we’re addressing employee learning needs. Using microlearning to accommodate the modern learner means we’re enhancing their employee experience and empowering them in their roles.

    In this session, attendees learned:
    • How focusing on the employee experience is a competitive differentiator for organizations
    • How using microlearning improves the employee experience
    • The importance of using solid instructional design concepts to build microlearning.
  • 149338-ICE-Oprah-Ads_UPDATE-210x120.jpg
    ATD 2019
    ATD Forum Sessions 2019
    Session:
    Business Learning Advisors: Impactful Upskilling

    Description:
    Are you being challenged to be more of a consultant and less of a trainer? Are your internal clients seeking more advice on solving their challenges and problems, and are you finding your responses more difficult? As disruptions change the way work is accomplished, the role of the talent professional is evolving. In this environment, there is an increasing demand to fit training to the way the business operates. This session incorporated the persona design-thinking method that originated in work associated with the user-centered experience. The persona provides an opportunity for a diverse group to quickly share ideas and research on a particular role. In this session, small groups combined ideas to develop a persona for this new role of talent professionals. The collaborative process helped with understanding how to upskill talent development professionals for their new role.

    Application on the job:
    • Experience using a persona to enable groups to develop empathy and understanding for various roles.
    • Focus on the unique characteristics needed to serve as a business learning advisor

    Presented By:
    Learning leaders from Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Rice University, Cochlear and Grainger



    Session:
    Leadership: Developing Impactful Learning Experiences Using Metaphors

    Description:
    A picture is worth a thousand words. However, using visual metaphors might compound the effect and be worth thousands of words. During this session, small groups selected visual metaphor cards that represent current leadership reality for senior talent executives and visual metaphor cards to represent the desired leadership needed to advance employee performance in a world of constant change, disruption, and demands. The visual metaphors were used to generate conversations about the characteristics and habits enabling a clear and concise description. Using these visual metaphors, the small groups worked collaboratively to determine the skills needed to close the gap between the current state and the future state. They used their combined expertise to design a personalized learning path that included proven learning experiences as examples.

    Application on the job:
    • Experience using metaphors that enable groups to visualize concepts more easily.
    • Focus on collectively designing a learning path is has been successfully used in the past.

    Presented By:
    Learning leaders from CIGIE, Asurion, Ingersoll Rand and Rush Enterprises



    Session:
    Be the Hero: Benchmarking Learning in the Future

    Description:
    As a learning professional, your job is to apply the best thinking to workplace learning, but the everchanging landscape probably drives you crazy. What if you could get ahead of the curve? Well, you would be a hero. To understand what learning will be like in two to five years, we interviewed over 40 experts (including neuroscientists, game designers, business leaders, academics, filmmakers, and learning futurists). In addition, we worked with research partners and read hundreds of articles. We found that learning in the future will be amazing! We’re using this research to shape our learning strategy and allocate resources. In this session, an ATD Forum member company shared a research-based view of the future of learning. This format of sharing practices and learning from others is representative of the ATD Forum benchmarking consortium.Participants of this session contributed their perspectives to collectively create the future of our industry!

    Application on the job:
    • Benchmark ways other organizations are using innovative learning practices to advance business practices.
    • Gain insights on processes companies are using to maintain excellence while simultaneously moving forward to be future-ready now.

    Presented By:
    Dana Koch, Accenture
  • ICE18-Digital Ad Creatives-47893_1200x675.png
    ATD 2018
    ATD Forum Sessions 2018
    Session:
    Building a Culture of Continuous Innovation: The Concept Poster

    Description:
    Disruption has become the norm for organizations characterized by an environment of volatility, uncertainty, change, and ambiguity (VUCA). In this environment, the only way to stay competitive is to embrace change and innovation. But how do we do this? In this session, attendees used a collaborative method to visualize and design a concept for an innovative-oriented culture. A concept poster can serve as part of a business case to move an organization from its current state to one that is more innovative. In this session, participants learned about the components most relevant for visualizing and building an innovative culture. Using a structured concept-mapping process, they designed a concept for an innovative culture.

    Application on the job:
    • Use a collaborative method for designing and depicting a culture of innovation.
    • Experience a tool that enables small groups to collectively contribute to a desired state.

    Presented By:
    Learning leaders from Diversey and Tableau



    Session:
    Experiential Learning: Building a Culture of Innovation

    Description:
    Experiential learning is an umbrella term encompassing learning that occurs through action learning, on the job, via simulations and serious games, and as part of escape rooms. However, it is more than just a hands-on-doing activity. It is any means that provides tangible experiences from which participants intentionally derive insights on their skills and actions based on reflection and discussion. Moreover, it includes a call to action for constantly getting better at getting better. While many trainers think of experiential learning as time consuming, difficult, and complicated, there are techniques that demonstrate the power of this approach that are simple and can be incorporated in a variety of situations. In this session, led by senior talent development practitioners from award-winning organizations and supported by ATD Forum member small group coaches, participants received the opportunity to “learn by doing” as they participated in experiential learning and the many ways it can be used.

    Application on the job:
    • Experience an impromptu team-building activity.
    • Apply and gain insights from personal problem-solving skills.
    • Use an activity to develop reflection skills that lead to deeper insights on innovative practices.

    Presented By:
    Learning leaders from Kohler, Cochlear and Consumers Energy



    Session:
    Will the Real Talent Development Innovator Stand Up?

    Description:
    The persona is part of the design thinking methods toolkit and originated in the work associated with the user-centered experience. The persona provides an opportunity for a diverse group to quickly share ideas and research on a realistic description of a person. This type of tool enables talent development professionals to gain a deeper understanding of their customers; from that perspective, they can provide more personalized design and support, thus being more innovative themselves. In this session, attendees developed a persona for talent development professionals who are responsible for contributing to a culture of innovation. They gained experience in small group problem solving, and took home insights for applying personas within their context to make their practice more innovative.

    Application on the job:
    • Experience a collaborative method for gaining a deeper understanding of people.
    • Use a tool that enables talent development professionals to learn more about skills needed to be more innovative themselves.

    Presented By:
    Learning leaders from American Airlines and Grainger



    Session:
    Building a Culture of Innovation With Emerging Technologies

    Description:
    In this session, two ATD Forum member organizations, Booz Allen Hamilton and Hewlett Packard Enterprises, shared practices for building a culture of innovation using emerging technologies. These practices included a variety of actions to integrate emerging technologies, such as virtual reality. These were real practices shared by senior practitioners in a rapid, whip-around method referred to as “zing rounds.” In addition to the lessons and learnings from the companies, the session provided resources and references from research to enable attendees to take a variety of ideas back to their organizations to up the ante on building a culture of innovation in a continuously changing work-learn environment.

    Application on the job:
    • Explore ways other organizations are using emerging technologies to innovate in the learning space.
    • Benchmark unique practices from senior practitioners.

    Presented By:
    Learning leaders from Eli Lilly, Intermountain Healthcare, Booz Allen Hamilton and HPE
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    ATD 2017
    ATD Forum Sessions 2017
    Session:
    Designing Performance Improvement Experiences—Stakeholder Mapping

    Description:
    To improve overall corporate performance, talent development professionals are taking the role of business partner and modernizing learning. They are focusing on aligning a variety of continuous opportunities to meet the ever-changing needs of their employees. The starting position is to focus on the people within the system. One of the first steps sounds simple: Identify all the people in the system, such as the stakeholders. To many, this means just jotting down a list. However, to design experiences that truly enable employees to improve performance requires understanding stakeholders on a deeper level. In this session, attendees used a collaborative method to move beyond stakeholder identification. Using a structured stakeholder mapping process adapted from the LUMA Institute, they built a network of people who have a stake in creating this dynamic and modern learning ecosystem. The diagram visually showed who is involved, how they are linked to others, what they care about, how much influence they may have, and how they might affect the overall learning strategy.

    Application on the job:
    • Use a collaborative method for uncovering stakeholders’ needs to design learning experiences more effectively.
    • Discover new options for aligning learning to business strategies.

    Presented By:
    Learning leaders from Grainger and Phillips 66



    Session:
    Experiential Learning—Building Teamwork for Problem Solving

    Description:
    Experiential learning is an umbrella term encompassing learning that occurs through action learning, on the job, and through simulations and serious games. However, it is more than just a hands-on activity. It is any method that provides tangible experiences from which participants derive insights based on intentional reflection and discussion. As we modernize the organizational learning ecosystem and discover ways to personalize learning and create more workflow opportunities, experiential learning is an ideal tool for enabling people to “learn how to learn” on their own. While many trainers think of experiential learning as time-consuming, difficult, and complicated, there are simple techniques you can use to incorporate the approach in a variety of situations. These techniques help you create an experiential learning cycle: doing, processing and reviewing, making generalizations and drawing conclusions, and generating changed behaviors based on new insights. During this session, led by senior talent development practitioners from award-winning organizations and supported by ATD Forum member table facilitators, participants received the opportunity to “learn by doing” as they participated in experiential learning and the many ways it can be used.

    Application on the job:
    • Experience an impromptu team-building activity.
    • Apply personal problem-solving skills.
    • Use an activity to develop reflection skills that lead to deeper insights.

    Presented By:
    Learning leaders from Kohler and Rice University



    Session:
    It’s Not Just the Journey—It’s the Entire Experience!

    Description:
    When designing a more holistic and modern approach to learning, one of the largest hurdles is not just what delivery method to choose, but how to plan and design for the entire experience—the journey. How might a more systematic approach that includes looking at the complete learner experience and not just the intentional formal learning part enhance learning transfer? During this session, led by senior talent development practitioners from award-winning organizations and supported by ATD Forum member table facilitators, attendees had the opportunity to work through an experience map, collaboratively assessing ideas for attracting, engaging, and sustaining individuals in the learning journey experience.

    Application on the job:
    • Experience a collaborative design thinking method.
    • Use a structured process to look at the complete learner journey experience.

    Presented By:
    Learning leaders from Hilti and Intermountain Healthcare



    Session:
    Modernizing Learning to Build Performance Capability

    Description:
    In this session, three ATD Forum member organizations shared innovative practices they used to modernize their learning ecosystem to make it more learner-centric. These practices included a variety of actions to personalize learning, focus on learning in the work flow, and create collaborative social learning. These practices were shared in a rapid, whip-around method referred to as “zing rounds.” In addition, the session provided resources and references that attendees could take back to their organizations. Attendees learned how to modernize their learning strategy in a continuously changing work-learn environment.

    Application on the job:
    • Explore ways other organizations are modernizing their learning portfolios.
    • Benchmark unique practices from senior practitioners

    Presented By:
    Learning leaders from Intermountain Healthcare and Pfizer
What Is the ATD Forum?
The ATD Forum is a consortium for senior training and learning practitioners and their organizations to connect and collaborate in a vendor-free, confidential environment. Member organizations share evidence-based and proven ideas to rapidly improve organizational capability in an experiential environment. There is an approval process to join and its members include many notable Fortune 500 companies.