All times listed in Central Daylight Time Zone
This keynote will transform how you show up, communicate, and drive culture within your organization. Through a blend of laughter, learning, and actionable takeaways, you will experience the profound impact of a “Yes, and” culture on team performance, mindset, and engagement. You will walk away with practical tools to enhance your strategic communication, emotional intelligence, and relationship-building skills. This session will empower you to influence others more effectively and create a workplace culture that thrives on collaboration, innovation, and positive change.
In this session, you’ll learn how to:
- Apply the “Yes, And” technique to enhance communication and influence team dynamics effectively.
- Cultivate a collaborative team environment that drives higher engagement, performance, and discretionary effort.
- Strengthen emotional intelligence and self-awareness to improve strategic communication and relationship management.
Speaker: Galen Emanuele, Shift Yes
Growth You Can See: Measuring & Reporting Leadership Development
Is the story of your leadership development program a well-researched documentary or a creative fantasy? In this session, you will look at measuring and reporting and how it can improve your credibility, influence, and leadership learning outcomes. You’ll explore the role of metrics and measurements in leadership development and then consider what you might measure, and how to measure it. From there, you will gain an understanding of the data you’ve gathered, determine what it does and does not tell you, and then shape that into a story that is honest, credible, and influential for your stakeholders.
In this session, you’ll learn how to:
- Identify existing sources of measurement for leadership development programs.
- Analyze additional measurement options for feasibility and assess return on effort or investment.
- Present program assessment results fairly, honestly, and in line with organizational expectations.
Topic: Leadership and Employee Development
Speaker: Jonathan Yeo, Founder, The Potential Space
Hire to Retire: How Mentoring Drives Connection at Every Step
Discover how mentoring can foster meaningful connections across the entire employee life cycle. From onboarding new hires to developing emerging leaders and supporting seasoned professionals, this session explores how mentoring serves as a bridge for knowledge sharing, skill development, and relationship building. Learn practical strategies to implement mentoring programs that align with organizational goals, boost employee engagement, and create a culture of continuous growth. Join this session to uncover actionable insights on leveraging mentorship to enhance employee experiences at every stage of their career journey.
In this session, you’ll learn how to:
- Discover how mentoring at all career stages and ages is vital to the growth, engagement, and retention of talent.
- Apply techniques and programming ideas to integrate mentoring into existing talent management initiatives.
- Explore effective strategies for implementing mentoring programs that support employees and align with organizational goals throughout their career journey.
Topic: Talent Strategy and Management
Speakers: Stevanna Daniel, Associate Leadership Practitioner, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center; Janice Simon, Senior Leadership Practitioner, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center
Humanizing AI Transformation: A Culture-Centered Change Framework for OD Leaders
Is your organization struggling to maintain a human-centered culture while implementing AI? As OD professionals shaping culture, you face the challenge of humanizing technological transformation. This session shows how organizational development leaders can adapt proven change models for the AI era. You’ll discover why technology-first approaches fail and how to center human experience in your AI strategy. Learn practical strategies for redesigning organizational structures, addressing cultural resistance, and measuring both human and technological impact of AI implementation. You’ll leave with a framework for guiding cultural adaptation to AI, positioning OD professionals as strategic partners. This session offers the roadmap for building a culture where humans and AI thrive together.
In this session, you’ll learn how to:
- Position organizational development as a strategic partner in AI transformation by articulating the critical role of culture and human experience.
- Apply modified versions of Kotter’s and ADKAR models to address the unique cultural challenges of AI adoption.
- Implement a new culture transformation framework that maintains core organizational values while enabling AI-driven innovation.
Topic: Leveraging AI and Emerging Technologies
Speakers: Michelle Lentz, Principal Strategist, AI and Change Management, Innovate + Elevate Strategies
Leadership is one of the most powerful drivers of business performance, culture, and growth. Yet, studies show that only 25 percent of companies believe their leadership development programs deliver value. The issue isn’t a lack of effort; it’s the fractured approach to development that so many organizations take. To unlock the full potential of your leaders, development must be connected—clearly and consistently—to business outcomes, leadership culture, and long-term growth.
Larry Clark, a veteran learning, development, and talent executive with a resume that includes Microsoft, Comcast, and Harvard Business Publishing, will facilitate this focused, practical conversation.
In this session, you’ll learn how to:
- Build a leadership development solution that delivers real value—now and into the future.
- Move beyond disconnected programs toward a cohesive, purpose-driven system.
- Align with business needs, drives measurable outcomes, and strengthen your leadership pipeline.
Speaker: Larry Clark, Senior Executive Leadership Development Consultant, AIIR Consulting
Make Succession Planning Part of Your Workforce Development Strategy
Do you remember the days when CEOs hand-picked and then groomed their successor? Or when managers assigned each member of their team a label as part of a nine-box exercise to determine who had potential and who didn’t? Is your organization or are your clients still relying on these outdated practices as the only tools for succession planning? If so, join this session to learn a new way of thinking about succession planning as part of an overall workforce development strategy.
In this session, you’ll learn how to:
- Discuss a new definition of succession planning, which is inclusive, authentic, and meaningful for every employee in the organization.
- Practice succession planning 2.0 using a toolkit developed and used by leaders at the top public learning institution in the world.
- Leave with an action plan for implementing developmental succession planning into the organization.
Topic: Talent Strategy and Management
Speaker: Angela Stopper, CLO and Director, People & Organization Development, UC Berkeley
The Strategic Power of Curiosity: Unlocking Innovation, Influence, and Impact
Talent development professionals, coaches, and leaders are often expected to provide immediate solutions. But what if the most powerful approach wasn’t having the answer—but instead, embracing curiosity as a strategic tool? This session challenges you to shift from problem-solver to problem-seeker—uncovering deeper insights that lead to meaningful, lasting impact. You’ll gain practical tools to reframe requests, challenge assumptions, and influence decisions with confidence. Walk away with a curiosity-driven framework to elevate your strategic presence and become a trusted business partner.
In this session, you’ll learn how to:
- Utilize a curiosity-driven framework to uncover root causes behind common organizational challenges and move beyond surface-level problem solving.
- Discover how curiosity can deepen leadership impact, improve talent solutions, and strengthen credibility as a strategic partner.
- Integrate curiosity into coaching conversations, talent development strategies, and organizational initiatives to create more human-centered, adaptive outcomes.
Topic: Strategic Business Partner
Speaker: Laura Renaud, Executive and Organizational Team Coach, One Question Coaching and Consulting, LLC
The Way We Work: Intentionally Creating Team Norms for High Performance
Every team has norms—often unspoken—that shape how work gets done. But when these expectations are unclear or misaligned, collaboration suffers and performance stalls. In this interactive session, you’ll learn how to move from tacit expectations to shared agreements that foster trust, focus, and accountability. You’ll explore what makes team norms different from rules, why they matter for high-performing teams, and how to co-create norms that reflect your team’s unique working style. Walk away with practical tools to help your team work better—together.
In this session, you’ll learn how to:
- Define the informal, flexible, and collaborative nature of norms and their role in shaping team culture.
- Describe how intentional team norms support high performance, trust, and collaboration.
- Outline the steps to support a team to collaboratively identify and draft team norms that reflect current needs and promote accountability.
Topic: Culture and People
Speaker: Beth Messich, Principal and Founder, Beth Messich Coaching and Consulting
Beyond Performance Reviews: Designing a Data-Driven Employee Experience
Outdated performance reviews hinder talent and engagement. This session provides HR, talent leaders, and business partners with a practical toolkit for modernizing performance management. Discover how to leverage people analytics, design thinking, and continuous feedback to build a people-centric model that drives business success and employee satisfaction. Leave with actionable strategies for a truly engaging, data-driven system.
In this session, you’ll learn how to:
- Apply a data-driven framework to optimize performance management and create measurable improvements to employee engagement, talent management and talent development.
- Develop a continuous feedback system that empowers managers to enhance employee growth, engagement, and retention.
- Implement a cross-functional talent strategy that aligns HR, DEI, employee engagement, and talent acquisition for long-term success in partnership with the business.
Topic: Talent Strategy and Management
Speaker: Tonya Tucker Collins, Founder, Creative Enterprise
Overcoming Leadership Pains: Leader Maturity Model for Organizational Strength
Leadership development programs don’t always hit the mark, leaving organizations struggling with gaps in growth and effectiveness. In this session, you will use the Leader Maturity Model to assess your organization’s leadership development initiatives, identify key pain points, and design actionable strategies for improvement. Through guided activities, discussion, and reflection, you will better understand how leader maturity impacts organizational success. You will explore real-world challenges, uncover blind spots in your current programs, and collaborate on solutions that align with long-term development goals. By the end of the session, you will have an action plan to strengthen your organization’s leader development program and drive sustainable growth. Whether refining an existing program or building one from the ground up, this session will provide valuable insights to elevate leader maturity within your organization.
In this session, you’ll learn how to:
- Apply the Leader Maturity Model to evaluate your current leader development programs.
- Examine existing pains and challenges that hinder leadership growth and effectiveness within your organization.
- Design a tailored action plan to enhance leader maturity and drive organizational success.
Topic: Leadership and Employee Development
Speaker: Dr. Sarah Skidmore, DSL, CEO and Leadership Doctor, The Leadership Hospital
Uncovering the Missing Link to Demonstrate OD’s Business Impact
Companies are rethinking their workforce plans to handle ongoing disruptions. Now more than ever, organizational development teams can help their companies flourish—but only if they can show the value of their work to busy executives! This session will unveil the missing link that connects OD initiatives to business results: operational processes. You’ll learn practical techniques to evaluate the impact of OD interventions by defining work outputs, and you’ll construct operational definitions to measure talent intangibles like collaboration. By the end of the session, you will be able to create an evaluation plan that shows concrete business impacts and measures progress rapidly enough to iterate and improve on OD initiatives.
In this session, you’ll learn how to:
- Use the OD performance loop model to connect OD initiatives and business results through work processes.
- Create operational definitions to measure intangible organizational capabilities.
- Design an evaluation plan that demonstrates immediate impact on business results.
Topic: Strategic Business Partner
Speaker: Colin Hahn, Key Accounts Client Success Manager, FranklinCovey
Join us as we celebrate a successful first day of learning! Enjoy light apps and libations while networking with speakers and fellow attendees.
In this session, you’ll learn how to:
- Assess team emotional safety.
- Create presence and accessibility while turning conflict into bonding conversations.
- Build habits that promote safety in leadership transitions.
Moderator: Beth Messich, Principal and Founder, Beth Messich Coaching and Consulting
Panelists: Lola Gershfeld and Polina Marian, EmC Leaders; Jack Gershfeld, CEO and Founder, Altinex, Inc.; Matt Gjersten, Better Every Day Studios
High Impact Leadership: Unleashing the Power of Your Top Talent
Discover how to create high-impact leadership development programs that drive business success. Learn how to overcome common challenges, such as identifying and developing high potential leaders, creating a culture of innovation and inclusivity, and measuring program effectiveness. Take away practical components to successful leadership development programs. Join this session to understand how to overcome the challenges of leadership development and create a pipeline of high potential leaders who can drive business success.
In this session, you’ll learn how to:
- Explore the key components of a comprehensive leadership development program that drives business success and identifies high-potential leaders
- Utilize practical strategies and best practices to create a culture of innovation and inclusivity that fosters leadership growth and development.
- Apply effective metrics and evaluation methods to measure the impact and effectiveness of leadership development programs.
- Develop a plan to overcome common challenges in leadership development, such as identifying and developing high potential leaders and driving business outcomes.
Topic: Leadership and Employee Development
Speaker: Kristine Ellis, Enterprise Director, Talent Development, GuideWell ~ Florida Blue
Boundaryless Performance: Preparing Your Culture for the AI-Driven Workplace
AI is reshaping workplaces. Are you ready? Join this session to explore a strategic approach that integrates AI seamlessly into daily workflows and talent development. You’ll examine real-world successes and key pitfalls, gain practical methods to build AI literacy and fluency, and discover effective governance practices for managing ethical risks. Leave prepared to strategically guide your organization into a productive, AI-driven future.
In this session, you’ll learn how to:
- Apply a clear, phased approach to strategically integrate AI literacy and fluency into your organization’s existing talent development programs.
- Evaluate and strengthen existing AI governance practices to ensure responsible, ethical, and risk-managed adoption of AI across your organization.
- Implement proven methods to embed AI seamlessly within organizational workflows, dissolving traditional barriers between learning, support, and daily performance.
Topic: Leveraging AI and Emerging Technologies
Speaker: Markus Bernhardt, Leading AI Strategist, Endeavor Intelligence
Strategic Storytelling: Normalizing Mental Health and Enhancing Leadership Effectiveness
How can storytelling transform workplace culture? In this session, you will explore the power of storytelling to normalize mental health and enhance psychological safety in the workplace. You will gain insights into formal and informal storytelling methods, hear real-world examples, draft, and (if comfortable) share your own stories. You will walk away with a practical toolkit to implement and train leaders and managers in using storytelling to foster trust, connection, and open communication on your team.
In this session, you’ll learn how to:
- Design and apply practical storytelling techniques that you can implement in your organization to normalize mental health and create cultures of psychological safety and belonging in the workplace.
- Craft authentic personal stories that normalize mental health conversations while maintaining appropriate professional boundaries.
- Apply the knowledge gained in the session to train leaders and managers in building supportive workplace cultures.
Topic: Culture and People
Speaker: Mike Davis, Lead Principal, Sales, Mind Share Partners and Carrie Grogan, Lead Principal, Client Services, Mind Share Partners
Practical Strategies for Cultural Transformation
The PA Education Association (PAEA) is the only national organization representing PA educational programs in the United States. In spring 2023, a new people and culture team was formed to serve as business partners within the Association and dedicate resources to work toward our strategic goal of sustaining and strengthening a positive, healthy organizational culture and operational backbone. In this session, the speakers will share their approach and best practices implemented in their remote-first work environment. You will walk away with new ideas and practical strategies to foster connections and build upon their existing culture.
In this session, you’ll learn how to:
- Explore and identify best practices implemented by the PA Education Association to enhance organizational culture.
- Develop a personalized action plan to apply new ideas and practical strategies within your own organization to strengthen culture and community.
Topic: Culture and People
Speaker: Christine Vucinich, Instructional Specialist, PA Education Association and Kendall Williams, Chief People Officer, PA Education Association
The Four Mistakes Holding You Back From Strategic Business Partnership
You’re doing all the right things—being helpful, responsive, and delivering great work—yet you’re still not seen as a strategic partner. Why? In this session, we’ll explore four common mistakes OD and L&D professionals make that unintentionally keep them stuck in a transactional role. You’ll uncover the hidden habits holding you back and learn practical strategies to shift from reactive to strategic. Walk away with tools to better diagnose needs, align with business goals, and reframe conversations to boost your credibility and impact. Ready to stop spinning your wheels? This session is your turning point.
In this session, you’ll learn how to:
- Diagnose four common, well-intentioned behaviors that limit OD and L&D professionals’ ability to operate as strategic business partners.
- Apply practical strategies to shift from reactive support to proactive, business-aligned partnership across stakeholder interactions, development planning, and needs assessment.
- Use simple diagnostic and conversation tools to uncover root causes, challenge assumptions, and better align talent solutions to organizational strategy.
Topic: Strategic Business Partner
Speaker: Jess Almlie, Learning & Performance Strategist, Almlie Consulting
Precision Over Perfection: Integrating Talent Strategy for a Future-Ready Workforce
Imagine a workplace where dozens of specialists must coordinate flawlessly under extreme pressure to achieve a shared goal. One misstep, miscommunication, or individual priority over team success can derail the entire effort. This is the world of Formula 1 racing, a team sport disguised as an individual competition. The same principle applies to organizational talent management. Inspired by the high-performance world of Formula 1 racing, this session explores how organizations can move from siloed talent functions to integrated execution. A panel of talent leaders will share insights into how integrated talent functions—spanning workforce planning, leadership development, learning, mobility, and performance—unlock greater alignment, agility, and results. Senior leaders often see gaps between strategy and execution due to misaligned or fragmented talent efforts that challenge agility, employee experience, and workforce readiness. Integration is the linchpin of a future-ready talent strategy.
In this session, you’ll learn how to:
- Distinguish precision from perfection, clarifying how focus, timing, and trust fuel performance under pressure.
- Gain insight from a panel of talent leaders on how precision in each talent area drives impact and why integration across functions is essential.
- Use the Integration Map to create stronger alignment and translate your insights—along with themes from other conference sessions—into powerful “precision moves.”
Moderator and Speaker: Tonya Wilson, Founder, AFC Consulting Group
Panelists: Sayeed Islam, Talent Metrics; Carol Jennings, CJ Consulting; Laura Renaud, One Question Coaching and Consulting
Navigating Difficult Conversations
Difficult conversations are inevitable—but they don’t have to be destructive. This interactive training session equips you with a clear roadmap to navigate emotionally charged discussions with confidence, clarity, and compassion. Using the steps of the EmC Process, you will learn how to shift from defensiveness and disconnection to emotional safety and connection.
Grounded in the science of attachment and emotional intelligence, this session will help you build the skills needed to create productive, trust-based dialogues that strengthen relationships and improve outcomes.
Key Takeaways:
- A step-by-step approach to turn tension into teamwork
- Practical tools to de-escalate defensiveness and increase collaboration
- Greater confidence in addressing challenges while preserving emotional connection
This training empowers participants to lead with heart and skill—creating lasting impact across teams and organizations.
In this session, you’ll learn how to:
- Understand the emotional dynamics behind difficult conversations and why they often go off track.
- Learn and apply the EmC Process to guide conversations toward resolution and connection.
- Develop the ability to stay grounded, responsive, and attuned even when emotions run high.
Speakers: Lola Gershfeld and Polina Marian, EmC Leaders
Workday Warrior: A Proven Path to Reclaiming Your Time and Energy
In today’s fast-paced work environment, it’s easy to feel like there’s never enough time to accomplish everything we aim to do. Extending our workday isn’t a sustainable solution—what’s needed is a strategic approach that enables us to prioritize what truly matters, both professionally and personally—for ourselves and others.
This session combines the latest research with actionable, proven strategies that have been developed while working with the world’s busiest people, for more than 20 years. Discover how you can maximize your impact and remain responsive, without sacrificing your well-being. Identify your energy rhythms and design a personalized time budget that creates space for strategic work, your team, meetings, well-being, and more. By strategically protecting your time, you’ll be empowered to do the right work, at the right time, with the right mindset.
In this session, you’ll learn how to:
- Overcome the impact of multitasking on performance.
- Carve out uninterrupted time for high-priority work.
- Allocate time and energy using a powerful planning tool.
Speaker: Kelly Peace, Clear Concept
The Readiness Algorithm™—Measuring What Matters During Organizational Development
What if you could measure the human side of change as clearly as financial performance? In this session, Dr. Keera Godfrey, CEO of DecisionLoop, introduces The Readiness Algorithm™—a pioneering framework that blends behavioral science and AI to decode how people experience transformation. You will learn how this methodology produces the Net Readiness Score™, a new KPI for organization development that quantifies attitudes, commitment, engagement, and bias. Together, these tools give leaders the clarity to accelerate adoption, reduce resistance, and maximize ROI. You will learn how to interpret and apply the Net Readiness Score as a leading indicator, and leave with practical techniques to predict risks, tailor interventions, and accelerate transformation success.
Learning Objectives
- Learn how to apply The Readiness Algorithm to capture and interpret stakeholder insights.
- Practice using a sample Net Readiness Score to measure adoption potential.
- Identify practical techniques for communications, training, and engagement strategies using readiness data.
Speaker: Dr. Keera Cleare-Godfrey, Founder and CEO, DecisionLoop
OD Roundtable Discussions
Roundtable discussions provide a forum for a quick exchange of ideas, strategies, and insights. During this session, you will join other attendees in three small-group, round-table discussions, each within 15-minute time blocks. You will choose your discussion focus from a menu of OD-related topics displayed at each table. After 15 minutes, you will move to another circle and begin again with a new topic and a new peer group. Join this circle of conversation to share tips and tools with your peers, expand your network, and generate creative ideas to apply on the job.
In this session, you’ll learn how to:
- Exchange ideas within a circle of conversation.
- Jump-start collaborative knowledge-sharing.
- Build community and connection with your peers.
Topic: Networking
Speaker: Holly Burkett, Principal, hb Consulting | Evaluation Works
Transforming Coaching Into a Strategic Driver for Organizational Success
The world needs more coaches. Not just a few, but a lot more. As technology advances, the need for human-centered leadership has never been greater. However, there is a critical shortage of coaches equipped with industry specific strategies to create meaningful impact within organizations. While coaching is often viewed as a saturated market, the demand for skilled internal coaches and coach-based leadership is rising. This session explores how coaching can be reimagined as an organizational development strategy, shifting from a tactical intervention to a strategic driver of leadership and business outcomes. The speaker will uncover a new blueprint for internal coaching strategies anchored in an industry-specialized certification program. Learn how to position leaders and internal coaches as catalysts for transformation, driving measurable improvements in employee engagement, leadership effectiveness, and organizational culture.
In this session, you’ll learn how to:
- Understand the role of coaching as a strategic organizational development tool and how it can be leveraged to address industry-specific leadership challenges.
- Gain insight into a novel industry-specific coach certification program core to internal coaching that enhances leadership effectiveness and business performance.
- Learn actionable emerging strategies for implementing coaching programs that drive measurable outcomes, including increased employee engagement and cost savings.
Topic: Leadership and Employee Development
Speaker: Marguerite C. Samms, VP and Chief Learning Officer, Intermountain Health and Michael Hudson, CEO, Hudson Institute of Coaching
Reinventing Teams: Next-Gen Teamwork for the Age of Uncertainty
In today’s volatile world, even the smartest companies struggle – not for lack of strategy or talent, but because they’re mired in the messy realities of modern teamwork. In this engaging panel, Karina Mangu-Ward will deliver a radically practical guide to better teaming, bolstered by real-world insights shared by powerhouse leaders who’ve scaled these practices at giants like Estee Lauder Companies, Colgate, and Autodesk. Rejecting outdated ‘best practices’ and quick-fix myths, this dynamic conversation will paint a detailed picture of next-gen teamwork that’s driven by empowered decisions, fierce prioritization, active learning, and deep trust. OrgDev leaders will leave with a proven toolkit for driving beautiful teamwork across their organizations.
In this session, you’ll learn how to:
- Accelerate and sharpen their own teamwork using 4 powerful next-gen team practices.
- Design sticky language and micro-adjustments to existing teamwork for maximum impact.
- Coach future-ready teams for emergent organizational priorities.
Topic: Culture and People
Moderator: Karina Mangu-Ward, Partner, August Public
Speakers: Natasha DaSilva, CHRO, Hill’s Pet Nutrition; Gabriel Glasscock, Vice President, The Estée Lauder Companies; Maxim Williams, Vice President of Global Culture and Belonging, Autodesk
Accomplishment-Based Talent Development: A Focus on Valuable Contributions
Accomplishment-based talent development identifies the accomplishments that a given job role is intended to contribute to an organization, and analyzes the skills and knowledge, expectations and feedback, tools and resources, and selection criteria for that role. This approach provides a faster and simpler way to drive skills-based development, but also provides a framework for bridging the chasm from onboarding and training to on-the-job performance. Learn the essentials of this approach, with its simple, plain English models and roots in the fields of behavior science and performance engineering, and how it applies to every stage of talent development and talent management.
In this session, you’ll learn how to:
- Apply, at a beginner’s level, individual performance maps to identify expected accomplishments of a given role or individual.
- Apply the Six Boxes Model to design training and non-training interventions to onboard, train, and continuously improve performance.
- Discuss the advantages and benefits of an accomplishment-based approach to talent development.
Topic: Talent Strategy and Management
Speaker: Carl Binder, CEO, The Performance Thinking Network
The Blueprint for AI-Powered, Skills-Based Talent Management
Struggling to align talent with evolving business needs? Ready to move beyond outdated role-based models? Explore how AI and skills-based talent management can transform your workforce strategy. The speaker will share a successful blueprint for using AI to map critical skills, personalize learning, and engage the workforce, while fostering a human-centered, future-ready culture. Walk away with practical steps, real-world insights, and a framework you can apply to close skills gaps, boost agility, and build a more resilient organization.
In this session, you’ll learn how to:
- Discover key elements of an AI-powered, skills-based talent management framework to personalize learning and enhance workforce engagement.
- Explore practical methods for using AI to identify, map, and develop critical skills aligned with business strategy.
- Apply a practical framework for implementing AI-powered, skills-based talent management strategies within your organization.
Topic: Leveraging AI and Emerging Technologies
Speaker: Iuliia Algasova, Director, Talent Development, EPAM Systems
Think Like a Consultant: Elevate Your Impact to Strategic Partner
If you’re an OD or HR professional ready to move beyond order-taker or functional area expert status and start influencing strategic decisions, this session is for you. You’ll learn three powerful consulting skills to help you uncover real business needs, reframe requests into strategic challenges, and communicate recommendations with clarity and impact. Whether you’re navigating vague requests or trying to get leadership buy-in, you’ll leave with tools to elevate your influence and make a bigger impact. Without needing a new title or years of consulting experience you will become a real strategic business partner.
In this session, you’ll learn how to:
- Apply a targeted questioning technique to uncover the true business needs behind stakeholder requests.
- Use the SCQ framework to reframe tactical requests into strategic challenges aligned with organizational goals.
- Increase your influence and credibility by adopting a consultative mindset in everyday conversations with stakeholders.
Topic: Strategic Business Partner
Speaker: Tish Baldez, Partner and Founder, P31 Consulting and Maria Escobar, Global Partner, P31 Consulting
3 Transformational Strategies in Creating Safe Environments for Neurodivergent Talent
Research shows that, one in every four adults in the world struggle with neurodiversity, both known and unknown, and the processing of information in our learning events. In this session, you will hear stories from neurodivergent learners and their experiences with these strategies, discover research and statistics about neurodiversity and other intellectual disabilities, and experience a new, four-step framework for facilitating activities promoting engagement and creating inclusive learning environments. At the conclusion of this session, you will walk away with a toolbox full of tools and resources to implement your new action plan for inclusive learning environments!
In this session, you’ll learn how to:
- Differentiate strategies for engagement for neurodivergent and neurotypical learners in various delivery modalities of your learning events.
- Create transformational facilitator-learner connections and safe learning environments using the Transformative Connection Framework for Facilitators.
- Develop a plan for creating inclusive learning environments using experiential learning activities based on learner needs.
Topic: Culture and People
Speaker: Rusty Shields, Owner/CEO, Develefy Consulting
From Vitamin to Cure: Communicating the Value of Your Work
You’re doing great work—but are you getting the buy-in you need to make an impact? Whether you’re advocating for resources, rolling out a new initiative, or making the case for how your work contributes to the bottom line, the ability to tell a compelling story is essential. In this session, you will sharpen your storytelling skills to influence your key stakeholders. You’ll identify a real-world story you need to tell, build it using a simple and memorable framework, and prepare to share it in a way that truly resonates with your audience. If you’ve ever struggled to make your case effectively, or might need to soon, this session will give you the tools to communicate the value and impact of your work with confidence.
In this session, you’ll learn how to:
- Confidently communicate the value and impact of your work (for example, a project, program, initiative, or change).
- Gain buy-in from stakeholders using the story you drafted in the workshop.
- Apply a repeatable storytelling process to create persuasive stories for future presentations, strategic conversations, and initiatives.
Topic: Strategic Business Partner
Speaker: Sara Loncka, CEO, Experience Institute and Erin Murphy, Director of Partnerships, Experience Institute
Future-Ready Onboarding: A Case Study in Live Simulations
Discover how to accelerate your employees’ journey from onboarding to making meaningful contributions! This session will present a case study on incorporating experiential and social learning through a guided live simulation. This approach helps new hires quickly get up to speed with current practices while exploring opportunities for future transformation. You will discover best practices for fostering collaboration and aligning with organizational standards, ensuring employees are well-prepared to contribute effectively and efficiently.
In this session, you’ll learn how to:
- Analyze opportunities for live simulation within your organization’s training programs.
Topic: Talent Strategy and Management
Speaker: Scarlett Krumrey, Director of Learning and Development, ALSAC/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Fran Pickles, Advisor of Learning and Development, ALSAC/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Join us as we bring OrgDev to a powerful close. This 30-minute session is designed to capture the momentum of the conference and channel it into lasting impact. Together, we’ll:
- Elevate your top insights by highlighting the themes that resonated most across
sessions. - Integrate collective wisdom through collaborative reflection and shared tools.
- Accelerate your next steps with practical strategies you can immediately take back
to your teams.
You’ll leave Houston not just with inspiration, but with clear direction—ready to translate ideas into action and strengthen the everyday work that makes organizations thrive.
Speaker: Tonya Wilson, Founder, AFC Consulting Group;
