2024 Northwest Leadership Seminar Agenda
WEDNESDAY
March 6, 2024
7:00 AM
Registration Opens & Continental Breakfast
8:15 AM
Opening Ceremonies
8:30 AM
Speaker: Gordon Graham | Creating and Maintaining the High Reliability Organization
Join us for an exclusive opportunity to witness Gordon Graham live! In this dynamic three-hour presentation, Mr. Graham will unlock the secrets to “Creating and Maintaining the High-Reliability Organization.”
After a brief primer on the meaning of “risk” in your organization, this dynamic presentation delves into Admiral Hyman Rickover, the “Father of the Nuclear Navy.” The Nuclear Navy has a reputation for excellence as well as a phenomenal safety and reliability record. Admiral Rickover developed some “rules for success” in dealing with the risks he faced in working with nuclear power. Mr. Graham will show how these rules also apply to you in your organization. You will not be sorry you spent the morning with Gordon Graham!
12:00 PM
Lunch (included)
1:30 PM
Speaker: Meagan Johnson | ZAP THE GENERATIONAL GAP! Transforming, Recruiting, Retaining and Engaging Multi-Generational Teams
Having a generational misunderstanding is nothing new. Many of us have walked away from multi-generational interactions with less than stellar results. We are left scratching our heads, thinking, “Is this a generational issue or a personality problem?” Combined with conflicting generational information and blatant generational stereotypes, it can be a challenge to forge a new path with the multi-generational people in our lives.
Now, following a global pandemic, it has become increasingly necessary to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to debunking generational myths and truths.
The truth is, the workforce, and possibly your household, spans across five generations. Each generation has experienced the pandemic through a different generational lens. On one end of the spectrum, the younger generations in the workforce are beginning their careers during one of the largest global upheavals the world has experienced. On the other end, an entire generation, on the precipice of retirement, is learning how to conduct business in an increasingly digital environment. It can be a struggle to find the right balance between the sometimes-conflicting needs of each generation.
Meagan Johnson is a nationally recognized multi-generational expert and generational studies enthusiast who has worked with over a thousand clients, including Boeing, Women in Cable Telecommunication, Ingram Micro, CIT Bank, Intel Corporation, American Architectural Manufacturers Association, TransUnion, MERCK Pharmaceuticals, Grainger, Women in Trucking, Pepsi, Procter & Gamble, and Sodexo. She is the co-author of the best-selling book “Generations Inc: From Boomers to Linksters – Managing the Friction between Generations at Work.”
5:00 PM
Seminar Concludes
5:00 PM to 7:00 PM
Ask an Expert Event
Come join us after the first day of the seminar for:
Who:
We will have tables hosted by various industry organizations, associations, and other businesses to network and socialize with seminar attendees.
What:
“Ask An Expert.” This is a post-seminar event taking place on the evening of the first day. All seminar attendees who attend will receive one drink ticket upon entering and light appetizers will be available.
Where:
Mt. St. Helens Ballroom (downstairs from main seminar ballroom).
When:
Wednesday, March 6, 2024
5:00 PM to 7:00 PM
THURSDAY
March 7, 2024
7:00 AM
Registration Opens & Continental Breakfast
8:30 AM
Speaker: Paul LeSage | Risk Intelligence, Rules, and High Reliability – A Leader’s Guide to Changing Culture in the Dynamic Workplace.
In high-risk domains, people regularly use highly technical skills they have learned through formal training, work experience, and collaboration with peers. In these environments, we train hard so employees can operate relatively autonomously, without having to continually refer to a policy manual. Front line operators and teams are commonly trading decision accuracy for speed.
During these events, our employees and our teams will make choices – both good and bad – that can lead to undesired outcomes. In order to improve safety, these decisions must be evaluated in the proper context. For example, when are employees justified in not following a policy? Under what conditions do we expect teams to operate autonomously, and when should they follow prescriptive rules? What type of training are we giving our teams to assist them in evaluating the decisions that they make? Do minimum “KSA’s” equal “Proficiency?”
More importantly, there are attributes to high reliability and teamwork that are regularly expressed in print, but few know how to actually “operationalize” the concepts. The term “High Reliability Organization” has become ubiquitous, and few really know what it means. For example, in high fidelity teams, we are supposed to speak up when we see something that we believe presents a risk – this is a foundational aspect of CRM. However, no one tells us how to manage the inevitable “negative warnings” that will occur – when team members speak up, operations are halted, and it turns out there is no risk. If you do that two or three times within your team, what happens to the culture? How to other team members respond?
This course will introduce the concepts of Risk Tolerance, Risk Intelligence, and Situational Awareness at both personal and team levels. You will also learn how to carefully tend your culture to ensure it is able to support good teamwork.
Using actual case examples, the presentation will cover:
- The concept of Seeing and Understanding Risk, and how this is different for everyone.
- Discussion around Effective and Resilient Systems – there’s a difference, and how to look at the System First when analyzing risk.
- Strategies for managing Human Risk – in particular, Human Performance and Human Behavioral Choice, which should be managed differently.
- Key strategies on leadership, teams, and followership.
12:00 PM
Lunch (included)
1:30 PM
Speakers: Charlie Plumb and Josh Goldberg | Leadership When the Heat’s On
It seems we live in a culture where mental health professionals have a diagnosis for every ailment, and those who are struggling often believe that they are destined to live diminished lives. What if there was another way?
Captain Charlie Plumb knows from first-hand experience that “struggle is a terrible thing to waste.” Captain Plumb spent 2,103 days as a Prisoner of War in the Hanoi Hilton, enduring deprivation, and torture. He, like many of his comrades in captivity, returned home having transformed their struggle into strength and Posttraumatic Growth (PTG). He will share his remarkable story of how he turned pain into purpose, and trauma into triumph.
For more than seven years, Captain Plumb has served as an ambassador and Honorary Board member for the Boulder Crest Foundation, a national nonprofit that is the home of Posttraumatic Growth. Boulder Crest develops, delivers, studies, and scales PTG-based programs focused on the military, veteran, and first responder communities. Their mission is to use struggle as a catalyst to personal growth.
Captain Plumb’s partner in this seminar is Josh Goldberg, the CEO of the Boulder Crest Foundation, and co-author of Struggle Well. Captain Plumb and Josh will ensure you leave this discussion understanding the practices and principles of PTG and know how you can transform your struggle into strength and lifelong growth.
5:00 PM
Seminar Concludes
FRIDAY
March 8, 2024
7:00 AM
Registration Opens & Continental Breakfast
8:30 AM
Speaker:
Sara Jahnke, PhD | The Good, The Bad & The Things We Don’t Want to Discuss: Update on Health Research in Public Safety
Research on the health of public safety personnel has enjoyed a renaissance over the past two decades, with increasing attention being paid to the health challenges that being in the public safety sector poses. Research is increasingly pointing to key topics such as challenges with shift work, obesity, fitness, nutrition, reproductive health, and mental health. With the identification of challenges also comes opportunities for improvement and innovations in health promotion for this key population. This presentation will provide an overview of current evidence base for public safety health and wellness.
Sara Jahnke, PhD, is the Director and a Senior Scientist with the Center for Fire, Rescue & EMS Health Research at the National Development & Research Institutes – USA. With over a decade of research experience on firefighter health, Dr. Jahnke has been the principal investigator on 10 national studies as well as dozens of studies as a co-investigator. Her work has focused on a range of health concerns, including the health of female firefighters, behavioral health, risk of injury, cancer, cardiovascular risk factors, and substance use, with funding from the Assistance to Firefighters Grant R&D Program, the National Institutes of Health and other foundations. Jahnke has more than 100 publications in the peer-reviewed medical literature.
12:00 PM
Seminar Concludes