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CorpU Global Leadership Congress 2011
Curriculum
Sunday May 8th 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM Welcome Reception
Inn at Penn, Living Room
Monday May 9th 7:30 AM - 4:00 PM - Houston Hall
“Learning through Storytelling and Video"
Given both the advent of technology and the globalization of work, culture and technology are becoming increasingly important facets of effective organizations. That said, most of the learning function is stuck in a 20th Century paradigm that pays lip service to technology but doesn’t embrace it fully as a learning tool. At Penn we believe that the key to understanding appropriate use of technology is through design and that the key component to design is storytelling.
We therefore have put together an eclectic blend of three workshops that all are centered around storytelling. We posit that taken together they may help you fundamentally revise how you think about instilling culture and using technology to help your organization improve.
Modelled after the erudite and eclectic nature of Penn’s worldclass CLO doctoral program, we have divided the day into three workshops. Every executive will get each of the components and the curriculum is designed so that regardless of which component comes first, at the end the day all participants will have the same overall set of workshops. That said, we also predict some variance in experience depending on the scope and sequence of the workshops. This will create enormous potential for both for the faculty and the executives; the common themes and the differences should elicit wonderful dialogues.
Detailed Agenda
7:30 AM – 8:15 AM Breakfast
8:15 AM – 8:50 AM Welcome, agenda review structure, etc.
9:00 AM – 10:45 AM Workshop session (see below for details)
11:00 AM – 12:45 PM Workshop session (see below for details)
12:45 PM – 1:45 PM Lunch
1:45 PM – 3:30 PM Workshop session (see below for details)
3:40 PM – 4:00 PM Daily review and reflections
5 PM - 10 PM – CorpU 12th Annual Awards Gala
University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
Workshop A - The Importance of Story - Lawrence Sipe
Narrative or "story" is what scholars from a variety of fields (cognitive psychology, psychotherapy, children's literature, history) call a "primary act of mind." In other words, it is basic to our experience and learning as human beings. If I ask you what you did for the weekend, you will tell me a story, with a beginning, middle and end. Indeed, there is a reason that in every major religion, all the lessons are given through stories. This module will explore story telling through that which we ALL have experienced — children's literature. We will use children’s literature, particularly picture books (with their combination of word and visual image) to provide a foundational example of story. Given the pervasiveness of multimedia in organizations today we suggest that framing learning through stories and particularly words and images, will give the executive a new framework in which to approach design.
This workshop is being conducted by Professor Lawrence Sipe. Professor Sipe evolved from being a teacher in a one room school house in Newfoundland to becoming the world’s leading expert in children’s literature. He has written extensively on the topic of children’s literature, particularly picture books and is the editor-in-chief of the journal Children's Literature in Education. He has won a slew of awards including Salzburg Seminar Presidential Fellowship, the Edward B. Fry Book Award for Outstanding Contributions to Literacy Research, Promising Researcher Award, National Council of Teachers of English, and the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching.
Workshop B - New Dogs Old Tricks- Learning Video Production In the Workplace, Amit Das
In 2010, net analysis firm Cisco VNI Forecast predicted that by 2014, 90% of all web traffic will be video. Even if one presumes a little self-interest on Cisco’s part, only the most ardent of naysayers would claim that the such a future would be inconceivable. What kind of communication environment would that be? Another prediction not beyond our ken is one in which the lion's share of this video content is mind-numbingly boring, tedious, poorly constructed and unwatchable! Sound familiar?
What about you? Are you ready for this new world of all-pervasive video? Do you know how to make videos that folks would actually watch? Can you communicate effectively, engagingly and creatively with video? Do you know how get and hold attention long enough to communicate, to teach, to motivate and perhaps to inspire? So, what are you going to do about it? Technology alone will not be enough! Everyone will have to become a filmmaker, storytellers with moving images and sound! In this short workshop, you will be given a primer and introduction to crafting a story through the medium of movies. By uniquely combining new technology with ancient storytelling techniques, you will become more adept at communicating messages through video at work, at home, for life.
Amit Das is Director of GSE Films at UPenn’s Graduate School of Education. He joined PennGSE after 15 years at NYU as a member of the NYU-Film faculty and Director of NYU’s Department of Film, Video and Broadcasting. Recent filmmaking credits include Freedom School for WHYYY PBS Philadelphia and A Safe Place To Play also for WHYY. The Prophecy, a short film on the Pennsylvania Lenape Native American community has been on continuous display at Philadelphia’s Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology since 2008.
Amit has taught at the American Museum of the Moving Image in New York and is a Research Fellow at UPenn’s Center for Native American Studies. Recently he also developed and successfully taught one of the earliest “online” filmmaking courses in which CLO’s (Chief Learning Officers) both in and out of United States were taught to write, film, edit and upload short movies to the Internet.
His career as a media educator and filmmaker originates in India when satellite television was first introduced. His film Building With Mud won the Best Film award at University Grants Commission of India’s Countrywide Classroom. He co-produced for India’s ever first Pre-school Television Project and taught for the Jamia Millia Islamia Mass Communication Research Centre and the Centre for the Development of Instructional Technology (CENDIT). A Producer/Director with Times of India Television, he produced and directed the Economy Series for Indian National Television “Doordarshan”.
Workshop C - Experience is the Best Teacher – Using Branching Narratives to Deploy Experience, Ken Spero
Experience is the best teacher. This age-old adage is universally accepted. Unfortunately, organizations have neither the time nor the budget to allow their people to learn through the school of hard knocks. Computer Based Simulations (Branching Narratives) offers a solution to this problem in that it provides organizations with an opportunity to capture the necessary experience their employees need in a very deployable format, and it allows participants to gain experience in a safe environment, without the bruising. The combination of content, context and time provides an opportunity for participants to engage with the issues both intellectually and also emotionally allowing for greater depth in the processing.
What makes this approach so compelling is that the simulations are driven by the power of the underlying Narrative. The strength of the story is what grabs the student and motivates them to go through the application and gain experience with the targeted issues. The more nuanced and engaging the narrative the more likely students will use their imagination to see themselves in the experience as it unfolds — in that way making new contributions to their Experience Portfolios. The traditional challenge with this approach has been that simulations are too costly and time consuming to produce, let alone too complicated. This workshop will introduce the participants to a framework for Experience Design which combines one’s work experience and expertise with the power of storytelling. Simulation is not a science, it is just a way of organizing your thinking; this workshop will help participants to organize for Experience.
Ken Spero has been designing, developing and delivering simulations both on-line and in the classroom for over 20 years. Currently, he is the Managing Director of the new Immersive Learning University at NexLearn, LLC. In this role, he is able to continue Simulation Evangelizing activities by making the creation and use of Immersive Learning Simulations more available to the masses. Ken recently merged Humentum, a simulation company which co-founded, into NexLearn to combine and leverage the strengths of both companies to be the world leader in Immersive Learning Simulations. Throughout his career, Ken has focused his efforts on helping organizations do a better job of critical thinking and decision-making. Encouraging mindful behavior with his clients, through the use of branching simulations, has enabled him to produce measurable improvements in productivity inside many of his clients’ strategic initiatives. Ken recently joined the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania’s Work-Based Learning Leadership Graduate program offered by the Graduate School of Education. He has also presented at numerous Learning conferences on topics such as Simulations, Experience Design, Working with Subject Matter Experts and Blended Learning. His most recent article is going to be published this summer by Pfeiffer Publishing in their eLearning Journal on Experience Design – A Practical Methodology for Capturing, Delivering and Deploying Experience.
Tuesday May 10th, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM - Houston Hall
Making an Impact on the World
For the second day of the congress we will be combining practitioner presentations along with insightful keynote speakers with the intention of having the you think beyound yourself, your department, your organization to the world at large. You will hear about the history of computers and the people who you usually don't hear about that were behind what we take for granted today. You will hear about, discuss and engage in what corporate social responsibility is, why is it important, and why learning executives should care.
Detailed Agenda
8:00 AM – 8:30 AM Breakfast
8:30 AM – 9:00 AM “The Computer Boys Take Over” - Nathan Ensmenger, Ph.D.
9:00 AM – Noon Practitioner presentation sessions
Noon – 1:00 PM Lunch
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM Learning and Corporate Social Responsibility - Nien-hê Hsieh, Ph. D.
2:15 PM – 4:00 PM Group workshops on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the learning organization
4:15 PM – 5:00 PM Group presentations
Includes students from University of Pennsylvania Social Entrepreneurship Program
5:00 – 7:00 PM – Film Festival Cocktail Party - Houston Hall
Keynote: “The Computer Boys Take Over” - Nathan Ensmenger
One of the big goals of The Computer Boys book was to help shift the focus of center of gravity of the history of computing from hardware to software, from machines to people — and not just the usual people, the “great man” inventors that dominate most popular histories of computing, but the thousands of largely anonymous men and women who worked to construct the computerized systems that form the basic infrastructure of our modern, information-centric society. Nathan Ensmenger will provide the key insights from this very interesting book.
Nathan Ensmenger an Assistant Professor and Undergraduate Chair at Penn teaches courses in the history of technology in the History and Sociology of Science department. He also teaches courses on engineering ethics and professionalism in the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
His current research interests are aimed at reintegrating the history of the "information revolution" — very broadly defined to encompass a wide range of 19th and 20th century scientific, technological and social developments ‐ into mainstream American social and cultural history.
In addition to his work on the social and cultural history of software and software workers, he has studied the disciplinary history of artificial intelligence and artificial life; the formation of a distinctive computing subculture and programming "aesthetic"; and the crucial and often misunderstood role of women in computing. He has also developed and taught courses on the computer and internet "revolutions," and on the relationship between technological innovation and social change.
Learning and Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility is getting a lot more attention by people inside and outside the modern corporation. Research suggests that “doing the right thing” has both an impact on stock price as well as employee recruitment, engagement and retention. Most often CSR is housed with either a public affairs, marketing, or corporate foundation. Does this mean that learning doesn’t play a role? Can companies leverage CLOs to maximize their social impact? And can CLOs use their company’s CSR strategy to further their mission to develop employees and make the more productive?
Penn, as a leading “social impact” university, will work with learning congress attendees to explore this issue. We will divide the afternoon into two parts. During the first part, we will break attendees up into teams and assign them Wharton MBA “WSI” students to facilitate the development of strategies to mutually leverage learning and social impact. This provides an opportunity for Wharton students interested in social impact to learn from learning executives.
Then the groups will report out and get feedback from a leading scholar in these issues. The day will culiminate with the same scholar interviewing a panel of CLOs whose organizations are doing interesting CSR Work.
Featured Scholar - Nien-he Hsieh
Nien-hê Hsieh is an associate professor in the legal studies and business ethics department at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania with a secondary appointment in the department of philosophy. He also serves as director of the Wharton Ethics Program.
Hsieh's research focuses on ethical issues that arise in the context of economic activity and ways to structure economic institutions to meet the demands of justice. Current research topics include the responsibilities of multinational enterprises, the moral dimensions of work, incommensurable values, and how the number of people affected should be taken into consideration by decision-makers.
Hsieh teaches courses on ethics and responsibility in the undergraduate, MBA, doctoral, and executive education programs at Wharton. His work appears in Business Ethics Quarterly, Economics and Philosophy, The Journal of Political Philosophy, Philosophy and Public Affairs, Social Theory and Practice, and Utilitas.
Hsieh holds a B.A. in economics from Swarthmore College, an M.Phil. in politics from Oxford University, and a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Business School, and has held visiting fellowships at Harvard University, Oxford University, and the Research School for Social Sciences at the Australian National University.
Wharton Social Impact (WSI) is a community of over 275 Wharton MBA students committed to using their business skills and expertise to promote the common good across the public, private and non-profit sectors.
Wednesday May 11th 8:00 AM – 1:00 PM - Houston Hall
“Working together to Move the Industry Forward”
We know that our jobs have never been more important and we also know that the profession has never been more challenged. A congress is a meeting of people to consider and determine matters of common interest. We purposefully call this a congress because we need to set an agenda as a community. So this is our collective chance to raise issue and determine courses of action as a professional community.
8:00 AM – 8:30 AM Breakfast
8:30 AM – 9:00 AM Keynote
9:00 AM – 9:30 AM Congress overview (Doug Lynch and Alan Todd)
9:45 AM – 11:15 AM Congress breakouts
11:30 AM – 1:00 PM Congress report backs
1:00 PM Adjourn general session with box lunch
2:00 PM - 5:00 PM CorpU Social Learning Executive Council meeting (optional, open to all)