The HR and Learning Symposium was a Great Success
One of the premier events of the Boomer Consulting, Inc. year was held on February 21 and 22 in Kansas City: The Human Capital and Learning Symposium 2006. This event drew over 80 people representing over 50 firms and businesses. As the name implies, it was a dual discipline conference focusing on both Human Capital issues and Learning and Training issues.
Special presentations
The event began with a welcome from L. Gary Boomer. Gary challenged the group to lead their firms forward as change agents for the accounting profession. Next, as is common to most Boomer Consulting, Inc. programs, the group engaged in an Accountability Review™. This exercise provides the opportunity to network with peers and learn first-hand what successes they have achieved in their firms.
Lisa Downs from Clark Nuber PS spoke to the group about "Creating a Strategic Partnership between HR and Learning." At Clark Nuber, the Learning function is a component of the HR Department. Lisa talked about how the HR team used the firm’s Strategic Map to develop an internal Strategic Plan which addressed the key responsibilities of the department, including Learning and Training. She also shared a graphic display which illustrated the mission and function of the CN Learning Institute. It was a great presentation from a very forward looking organization!
Christine Dunahoo from Kiesling Associates spoke about "Employee Motivation and Performance." After outlining some concepts about motivation and how it works, Christine gave many valuable illustrations of how people are motivated differently; one size definitely does not fit all. She offered several concrete suggestions about how to be more effective in motivating people, and cautioned not to let “rewards” become “expectations.” There was much to learn from her remarks!
HR and Learning “Tracks"
After lunch the group divided into HR and Learning “tracks” and followed parallel agendas. The first event for both groups was a Mad Lab discussion. In the learning track, the group took an on-the-spot survey and discussed the results, focusing on the components of training programs actually in use, and the various roles performed by the learning professionals in attendance. There was a spirited discussion of Learning Management Systems, including the key components of a good system and the primary products in use by group members. The group also discussed the role of learning assessments and how to use them in a comprehensive learning program.
A few doors down, the HR track was engaged in a lively discussion focused on issues that firms are grappling with today including performance management, coaching and mentoring, and sabbatical programs. The most interesting aspects of the discussion focused on the people and the processes involved in all aspects of the systems that the HR professionals are involved in. It was decided that the easy part of the job we hold in HR is picking the actual technology solution – the hard part is making sure you have the processes in place and the culture built within the firm to support using the systems.
Roundtable Discussions
Following the Mad Lab the HR and Learning groups further subdivided into three sections each for a series of Roundtable Discussions. The Learning Roundtable topics were: Training Higher End Staff, moderated by Lisa Downs; How to Coach the Subject Matter Expert, moderated by Dana Schmidt of O’Sullivan Creel LLP CPA’s; and The Role of the Learning Professional in Strategic Planning, led by Ken McCall. The group rotated from one Roundtable to the next, spending about 30 minutes in each discussion session. The conversation in each group was engaged and enlightening, with many valuable lessons exchanged. In order to allow each attendee to get the flavor of all three sessions (since they could only be in any one at a time!), group leaders were charged with preparing a recap of key points which was distributed to all attendees after the end of the conference.
The HR Roundtable topics were: Legal Issues, moderated by Christine Dunahoo; Mentoring Relationships, moderated by Coral Rice of The Growth Partnership; and Assessment Tools including the Balanced Scorecard moderated by Sandra Wiley. Just like the learning group, this band of professionals rotated from one Roundtable to the next, spending about 30 minutes in each discussion session. The only negative comment heard ringing in the hallways as we changed from one group to the next was “we need more time!”
An important, if informal, part of the program was a late afternoon social hour followed by the opportunity to break up into small groups and share dinner at any of the great restaurants on the Country Club Plaza. These informal gatherings reinforced the networking connections among the group and provided the opportunity for even more sharing of best practices and lessons learned.
The second morning resumed with a second round of Roundtable discussions. Again these were done in separate “tracks” for HR and Learning professionals, and each group was divided in thirds to attend the three morning Roundtables. Learning topics in this session included: Training Tools and Techniques, led by Christine Hall, of CPE Consulting LLC; Calculating ROI in the Learning Area, led by Ken McCall; and Evolving Requirements of Professional Development, led by Barbie Kolb from Dunton & Associates LLC. As before, group leaders were asked to provide recaps so everyone would get the benefit of each Roundtable’s multiple sessions.
The HR roundtables consisted of Mapping Core Competencies, moderated by Coral Rice; Partner Expectations, moderated by Pat Reese of Wall Einhorn & Chernitzer; and Succession Planning moderated by Sandra Wiley.
Following through
Following the Roundtables, the group reconvened in general session to hear a presentation from Sandra Wiley of Boomer Consulting, Inc. entitled "Life and Work Integration Strategies for the Professional." In addition to some very compelling content, Sandra used an interactive electronic polling tool called TurningPoint (www.turningtechnologies.com) to poll the group on various topics, displaying their votes in “real time” as bar, line, and pie charts in her visual graphics presentation. The combination of thought provoking material and “cool toys” made this session the hit of the program and left many of the Learning Professionals pondering how to incorporate both the message and the technology into their own programs.
The event concluded, as Boomer Consulting, Inc. programs typically do, with the preparation of individual 90 Day Game Plans. If you leave a program with a PLAN, instead of just thoughts and ideas, your chance of achieving success in those ideas is much improved. Accordingly, each participant created their own 90 Day action plan, and then shared those plans in small group discussions. Typically, people added ideas to their own plans after hearing something compelling from other discussion group members.
Building connections
This group of professionals felt so “connected” at the end of their 2 days together that they decided to continue their networking experience by holding quarterly conference calls beginning in May of 2006. The calls will be facilitated by one of the professionals in the group and will be open to anyone that is interested in continuing to build their knowledge base by networking with other professionals that have responsibilities in the Learning and Training area of the firm. For more information on these ongoing calls, please contact Sue Thiemann at Boomer sue@boomer.com.
This symposium was the latest in a long-running series of annual programs presented by Boomer Consulting, Inc. focusing on Learning and Training in the CPA firm. Judging from early comments, it was a great success. If you would like to be a part of this cutting edge team of Human Resources and Learning professionals, watch for announcements for similar programs coming in the future.