Agenda

UPDATE: New Sessions Added. Read More.

The aim of the industry’s first Global Leadership Congress (GLC) is to bring together academic and corporate leaders to analyze new complexities in business that are demanding innovation in leadership and corporate learning.

Corporate University Xchange and the University of Pennsylvania are working together to create a game-changing conference that will feature top faculty from The University of Pennsylvania, working alongside 150 invited practitioners and experts to define a way forward.

The Congress will feature 5 half-day sessions where world-renowned faculty will share current trends in talent management, globalization, business strategy, organization change and learning theory. After each faculty presentation, groups will work in breakout sessions to propose solutions and identify questions that must be answered if organizations are to respond effectively. Thought leaders from Shell, Raytheon, Qualcomm, Wipro, Farmers Insurance, John Deere and other leading companies will help shape the discussion and will lead teams from theory to proposed practices.

Participants at the GLC will gain new insights into the major challenges confronting senior executives in every industry, and will work together to define leadership and learning practices that will sustain companies through times of change and uncertainty.

This unique conference will feature face-to-face collaboration, connecting many bright minds in a single learning and leadership practice. In addition to receiving certificates from Penn for attending the Congress, participants can stay connected after the event to follow progress on future research, and implementation strategies and plans developed by GLC working groups.

Congress Opening:

Doug Lynch, Vice Dean, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, and Sue Todd, President & CEO, Corporate University Xchange will discuss objectives for the 3-day conference.

Congress Objectives:

Examination of complexities that will demand new paradigms in corporate leadership and achieving work force readiness
Earnest and discerning discourse among industry leaders to identify implications
Group-defined proposals for adjustments and needed overhauls of current practices and theories
Summary of expert-inspired responses and suggestions for further inquiry

The Format: Each of 5 sessions will follow a common approach to deriving innovative solutions to the challenges faced by business today.

Wharton and Penn faculty, who teach and consult with executives around the world, will distill the most important trends impacting business.
Practitioners, with proven track records, will frame the challenges organizations will face as they adjust to future sea changes
Bright minds – you and your peers - will debate the issues and conceptualize models and frameworks that will brace them for dynamic future conditions
Enlightened participants will debrief and share their solutions and ideas on implementation

SESSION 1: Talent Strategies

Successful companies will find and retain people who can understand macroeconomic trends, navigate the complexities of global competition, and attune themselves to emerging business models. History reveals that methods for finding and developing corporate talent shift with evolving market structures. What do we already know, or can project about the future to design flexibility and adaptability into talent management structures and processes? What models will help practitioners ensure there is a steady flow of the right talent moving into their organizations, and staying?

SESSION LEADER: PETER CAPPELLI, George W. Taylor Professor of Management; Director, Center for Human Resources; The Wharton School, The University of Pennsylvania

BREAKOUT SESSION DISCUSSION AREAS:

Designing an effective talent marketplace
Technologies to increase talent transparency
Building data-driven models to forecast talent requirements

BRIGHT-MIND FACILITATORS:

Tamar Elkeles, VP of Learning and Organizational Development, Qualcomm; Author, Chief Learning Officer. Currently working to define the role of work force potential in talent strategies.
Diane Holman, CLO, Raytheon Creating new processes to identify and develop high potential talent at Raytheon.

SESSION 2: Globalization

A global marketplace might seem like a tough environment in which to build close relationships with customers. A global supply chain can mean we are separated from our partners by a dozen time zones. Our new global partners might help us move quickly into tangential markets. Industry consolidations often mean companies merging with others with vastly differing cultures. What issues of globalization will impact how we prepare the current workforce?

SESSION LEADER: STEPHEN KOBRIN, William H. Wurster Professor of Multinational Management; Editor, Wharton School Publishing, The Wharton School, The University of Pennsylvania

BREAKOUT SESSION DISCUSSION AREAS:

Distilling global trends that will impact the workforce
Identifying accelerators to transition through market perturbations
The role of workforce diversity as a reflection of global markets

BRIGHT-MIND FACILITATORS:

Scott Beaty, Human Resources VP, Shell Exploration and Production, The Americas. Scott’s recent work includes identifying key integration points between HR and corporate learning.
Channa Basavaraja, Practice Head, Learning Solutions, Wipro. Helping customers understand industry and organization change.

SESSION 3: Role of Leadership in Change

Change, and the speed at which organizations can adapt to new business conditions will be the primary reason companies remain viable. Organizations can be slow to change when leaders are risk averse and when infrastructures like organizational silos put a drag on company response. What types of organizational structures will provide greater flexibility; what tools can leaders use to speed change; and what are the most important ideas for creating change that lasts?

SESSION LEADER: CHARLES DWYER, Associate Professor Graduate School of Education, Academic Director for the Aresty Institute's Leading and Managing People Program, The Wharton School, The University of Pennsylvania

BREAKOUT SESSION DISCUSSION AREAS:

Learning as a change strategy
Leadership listening posts for early signs of change
Monitoring speed and effectiveness of change initiatives

BRIGHT-MIND FACILITATORS:

Jim Gillece, Allied Barton. Implemented programs designed to facilitate a leadership culture that embraces change.
Cedric Coco, VP Learning & Organizational Effectiveness, Lowes. Demonstrating the impact of change on workforce performance.

SESSION 4: Strategy Implementation

Organizations have no shortage of strategies they could pursue. The tough question they regularly face is “what are the best strategies; the ones most likely to succeed under current economic conditions? Learning leaders must create flexible programs that can be easily adapted to follow a change in strategic direction, with effective checks and balances in place to test the strength of the alignment along the way. How will leaders turn the organization, as needed, to effectively execute evolving strategies?

SESSION LEADER: JOSEPH RYAN, Adjunct Professor and Founder and President of TrueNorth Advisory Group. The Wharton School, The University of Pennsylvania

BREAKOUT SESSION DISCUSSION AREAS:

Managing the tension between strategy as "exploring" and strategy as "exploiting" assets and capabilities
Improving the strength of leadership alignment
Translating and cascading strategy adjustments to the front line

BRIGHT-MIND FACILITATORS:

Randy Abbott, President, Schwan University. Uses academic partnerships to drive innovation culture.
Mary Uhl-Bien, University of Nebraska, Chair of the Academy of Management’s Leadership Scholars. Conducted research on leadership as a complex adaptive system.

SESSION 5: Learning Theory

Adult learning is a relatively new area of study. Learning programs must account for people’s world experience, the tangible factors that motivate adults to transfer knowledge to practice, and socialization activities and facilitation styles that can create an atmosphere where professionals explore, learn and adapt together. This session will enlighten participants on new pedagogy, and didactic constructs within the workplace to translate learning to performance.

SESSION LEADER: STANTON WORTHAM, Judy & Howard Berkowitz Professor, Graduate School of Education, The University of Pennsylvania

BREAKOUT SESSION DISCUSSION AREAS:

Transformational learning using work experiences
Attributes of culture that inspire and support self-directed learning
Pushing learning into the design of work

BRIGHT-MIND FACILITATORS:

Mike Barger, CLO, Jet Blue. The effect and impact of putting experts at the forefront in the learning environment.
Diane Hinton, Plastipak Academy Governing Board Leader. Learning as a catalyst for real-time performance improvements