San Antonio ISPI

ISPI President's Brief, April 2008

Greetings! As we celebrate the success of our recent Performance Improvement Conference in New York City, I want to provide a quick update from your Board...
 
First and foremost, we were exceptionally pleased with our 2008 conference. Many thanks to our 2008 Conference Committee Chair Ireta Ekstrom, and her team, for putting together a fantastic program focused on learning, contributing, and making connections. We had more than 150 educational sessions from Society pioneers, professionals, academics, student, and newcomers. Nancy Lewis, and our own Brenda Sugrue, provided an engaging keynote focused on IBM's perspective on the future of learning, and six great master speakers (including Karen Preston/Deb Russell from Walgreens, Darryl Sink, and Piers Steel) provided a wide variety of scintillating perspectives. We were pleased to recognize Jim Pershing as our Honorary Life Member, Diane Gayeski as our Thomas F. Gilbert Distinguished Professional Achievement Award recipient, and Jean Strosinski with the Distinguished Service Award. Our annual ISPI Award of Excellence recipients were just as distinguished--a veritable Who's Who in the industry. Finally, Roger Chevalier closed the conference with a humorous ensemble of "right brain" teasers along with a challenge to the Society to engage more directly with managers and supervisors in the business world.

I would like to congratulate last year's Board for their fantastic work! This is a great time in our Society. We have embraced "Where Knowledge Becomes Know-How" as our core theme, and standardized our approach to hosting the one and only "The Performance Improvement Conference." And, as Roger Addison and Judy Hale highlighted during the conference, we have over 800 CPTs and 10,000 practitioners (20,000+ receive PerformanceXpress) in more than 50 countries.

Perhaps more importantly, last year's Board of Directors was exceptionally dedicated in its pursuit to optimally position ISPI for continued success. It contracted an external marketing firm (BrandTaxi) and conducted an appreciative inquiry survey of our members (thanks Jennifer Rosenzweig!) to assess our current status. Those efforts validated that ISPI is recognized as the champion and leading resource for HPT; that our practitioners and members are highly valued, respected, and proficient; that the 10 Standards of Performance Technology have been lauded as a recognized standard; and that the CPT certification has become our "brand workhorse." The surveys also confirmed our most important asset remains ISPI's reputation as the professional home for serious professionals interested in job and career.

However, BrandTaxi and the appreciative inquiry survey also affirmed that we needed to restructure parts of our Society to better align with our current environment. Recognizing the challenges associated with those changes, the Board decided to take an HPT approach by (a) determining what ISPI should look like in 2013; (b) deciding how we should achieve those goals; and finally (3) implementing the revised organizational structures and processes to achieve the desired end-state. We completed the first two phases before the conference and are now prepared to begin the last phase focused on Implementation. Many thanks to Jeanne Farrington, Darlene Van Tiem, Brian Desautels, Judy Hale, Roger Addison, April Davis, and others who contributed to this very important effort. An executive level summary of the work to date is highlighted below:

Phase 1: ISPI Goals*

• Increase total membership
• Increase non-North American membership
• Increase revenues and cash reserves
• Integrate Chapters/Regions
• Increase CPTs
• Increase Student membership
• Increase Organization members (Advocates, etc.)
• Increase In-house educational programming

*Note: Specific quantitative targets were established for each measure.

Phase 2: Functional Structure

• Executive Leadership
• Research and Development
• Business Development and Marketing
• Certification (CPT)
• Member Products and Services
• Administration and Technology

As we look forward to the upcoming year, we can't help but be pleased by the great team we have in place, and the wide range of programs and initiatives already underway. As we say goodbye to Clare Carey, Miki Lane, and James Fuller from the 2007-2008 Board, and welcome new President-elect Darlene Van Tiem and Dave Hartt, Paul Cook, and Steven Kelly as our new Directors (joining Timm Esque and Mary Norris Thomas), our challenge is to maintain that same clarity of purpose and momentum. We have also welcomed a new slate of Committee and Taskforce Chairs:

We were gratified that our conference session with the Past Presidents in NYC challenged us to go even faster, with Guy Wallace encouraging closer collaboration with the Chapters; Marc Rosenberg wishing the ability to leverage the "tremendous movement of performance improvement in the workplace"; Seth Leiber wanting to accelerate ISPI's growth; and finally a challenge from Geary Rummler: "We can pull back and continue to do the same things, or we can consider what is of value in today's environment and do things differently."

I am very pleased we have another strong, collegial Board this next year to "carry the banner." While the Board will be dedicated to continuing these transformational efforts, the overall effort must remain a Society-wide imperative. There are plenty of opportunities for everyone to participate! Please communicate your ideas to our taskforce or committee chairs or any Board member. Email addresses and phone numbers for our members can be found on www.ISPI.org in the member directory. Fresh and important ideas are always encouraged!

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .