Conference Schedule: Thursday, April 4, 2024​

Working in HR can feel like an African safari, an ongoing experience of excitement mixed with stress. When we approach life like an epic adventure we become more engaged, less burnt out, and happier in work and our personal lives. Steve Fredlund is known as “The Safari Dude” and he uses compelling stories from the savannah to invite us into The Safari Way by choosing our experience, getting the right peeps in our Jeeps, doing the unright thing, taking in the view and embracing the adventure.  Learn how to find, attract, and onboard the right team members to become part of your epic organizational team. Unlock the power of employee behavior and discover the surprising root drivers of productivity, engagement, and retention.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand how external pressures impact our decisions
2. Five practical ways to become happier in every area of our life
3. Be equipped to take tangible next steps to build a more productive team
4. Discover the research that proved cultural alignment and connection are more powerful than skills, knowledge and abilities in driving productivity, engagement, and retention

Develop a strategic organizational strategy for selecting and onboarding the “right peeps for their jeeps” that will lead to success, happiness, and longevity

Intended Audience: Private Sector/Public Sector

Steve Fredlund (He/Him/His)
Founder
The Safari Way

The National Labor Relations Board has begun implementing its aggressive agenda to makeover the non-unionized workplace. Recent NLRB decisions have negatively impacted the continued validity of many standard employee handbook policies, standard confidentiality and non-disparagement terms in severance agreements, and when an employer may be deemed a “joint employer” with a temporary worker provider or franchisee. Learn about these developments and how to effectively address them.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn about the recent NLRB decisions invalidating many standard employee handbook policies and severance agreement terms
2. Learn about recent NLRB decisions impacting who is a joint employer
3. Learn strategies for effectively addressing these decisions and keeping your organization legally compliant

Intended Audience: Private Sector / Public Sector

Thomas Cunningham (He/Him/His)
Attorney / Shareholder
Nyemaster Goode, PC

This session unveils the architecture behind YOUR next wildly successful yet unique leadership learning journeys. Learn to influence your stakeholders’ expectations about what works in leadership learning journeys and how to win their support for trying things a bit differently. Developing key talent, especially up-and-coming senior leaders, has been shown to directly correlate to retention. Explore the strategic integration of various design elements and learn the evidence behind why they work so well.

A short list of design elements may include in-person sessions, live online sessions, action planning, peer support, manager engagement, extended learning, executive faculty, action learning projects, exposure to executive level functions, volunteer activities, professional coaching, CEUs, developmental assessments, book clubs, and more. 

You’ll leave armed with a list of strong design options and evidence to win the support of your program sponsors and participants. 

Great content is very important and great design is even more important to achieve the business impact your sponsors require.   The winning formula is intentional design of content-rich learning experiences for meaningful leadership performance back on the job. I’ll provide you with tools and tips for designing a learning journey that bridges theory with practical, real-world applications. It’s not just about WHAT participants learn, but HOW they learn in ways to achieve tangible leadership growth and performance improvement. 

Learning Objectives:

1. Assess several design elements of a leadership learning journey for adoption or adaptation to your programs
2. Explore the evidence behind high impact learning design elements in a leadership learning journey             
3. Consider design elements, tools, tactics, experiences, and more that you may not have considered to inject some innovation and creativity into your programs

Intended Audience: Private Sector

Dan Topf (He/Him/His)
Owner
Topf Business Learning

Why do so many individuals grapple with the challenges of high-stakes communications? Have you ever found yourself extremely nervous or even avoiding crucial conversations? This one-hour talk is designed to address these common concerns in a professional context, exploring the underlying science of public speaking with an emphasis on high-pressure situations like pivotal business meetings, crucial presentations, and impactful dialogues. It aims to demystify the physiological and neurological reactions our bodies and minds undergo during public speaking, especially under significant stress. Participants will gain scientific insights and practical tools to manage and excel in these critical moments. Targeted at a diverse audience, including business professionals, leaders, educators, and students, this session offers invaluable skills and confidence-building strategies for anyone looking to enhance their competence in high-stakes public speaking and crucial conversations.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the Neurological and Physiological Responses: Participants will gain a comprehensive understanding of the neurological and physiological mechanisms that are triggered during high-stakes public speaking. This includes learning about the brain’s response to stress, the release of stress hormones, and how these reactions impact speech and overall performance.
2. Identify and Develop Strategies to Manage Anxiety: Attendees will learn to identify common fears and anxieties associated with high-stakes communications and develop practical strategies to manage these feelings. This objective covers techniques like mindfulness, breathing exercises, visualization, and positive affirmations, enabling participants to effectively prepare for and navigate high-pressure speaking scenarios.
3. Enhance Skills for High-Stakes Conversations: The talk aims to equip participants with actionable tips and methods to improve their public speaking skills, particularly in high-stakes situations. This includes learning how to prepare and practice for crucial conversations, as well as techniques for maintaining poise and clarity under pressure, thereby enhancing their overall effectiveness as communicators in critical settings.

Intended Audience: Private Sector/Public Sector

Erik Dominguez (He/Him/His)
Speaker and Facilitator
Speak Up Stories

Carol Burnett, one of the funniest people to walk the earth, once said, “I’m really not that funny in real life. But I am the best audience one could find. I love to laugh.” This attitude toward laughter led Burnett to great success on her self-titled comedy variety show, where she taught us how laughter can enrich and enliven the workplace.

What roles do comedy, humor, and laughter play in your organization? In your department? On your team? How can more fun lead to more productivity, team cohesion, and better results?

In this session, we’ll discuss the benefits of humor at work and introduce you to different types of humor. We’ll give you strategies to effectively use different types of humor to uplift colleagues and improve culture, teamwork, and creativity. Most importantly, we’ll share some laughs!

Learning Objectives:

1. Discuss the benefits of humor at work
2. Identify types of humor and when to use/not use each type
3. Use humor more effectively to improve workplace culture, teamwork, and creativity

 Intended Audience: Private Sector/Public Sector

Libby Roberts (She/Her/Hers)
Training Manager
ATW Training Solutions

What do you do when something doesn’t go your way at work? What if you could remain calm and find your footing in short order? What if you were more resilient after setbacks?  “Unleash Your Brilliance” is a dynamic, hands-on program that gives you simple-to-use tools to unlock your EQ to be more present and think better on your feet. Borrowing from the latest scientific research as well as insights from improv performers, you’ll be equipped to stay cool under pressure when the stakes are high. Whether you’re dealing with a skeptical customer, presenting a bold idea, or frustrated trying to do your job in a hybrid environment, you can improve your ability to be more resilient.

Learning Objectives:

1. Turn unexpected challenges into opportunities for connection and growth.
2. Think better on your feet.
3. Respond more effectively and positively when things go awry.

Intended Audience: Private Sector/Public Sector

Steve Hughes
President
Hit Your Stride, LLC

​Numerous factors influence our health and overall wellbeing. Using tools like the well-researched NavigateYOU provides valuable insights that can shape work-life balance. While these traits are not our destiny, they can be important anchor points for our self-awareness and relationships with others. By utilizing these practical and applicable insights, we can manage our own wellbeing and positively impact those around us including co-workers.

As leaders you will learn to utilize the tools shared to ensure that your employees and your organization build and maintain a culture that promotes health and wellbeing at all levels in the organization.

Learning Objectives:

1. Get into the Personality Mindset by exploring the fundamentals of what makes us…us!
2. Connecting our personality to our overall wellbeing.
3. Identify the guideposts of our cognitive, interpersonal, and motivational personality
   make-up.
4. Gather the tools necessary to develop and maintain a culture of well-being for your employees and leaders.

Intended Audience: Private Sector / Public Sector

Amy Boyce
Director of People & Culture
Navigate Wellbeing

Many organizations believe if they do not have a union, the “labor laws” do not apply. This session will cover a variety of rules and regulations, using real-life examples. The presenter will also provide an overview of major lessons learned from 2023, often described as the “Year of Labor.”

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand which statutes and rules apply to non-union workplaces
2. How to recognize a union campaign
3. Lessons from 2023 – to apply in real life immediately/by end of FY 2024

Intended Audience: Private Sector/Public Sector

Kay Oskvig (She/Her/Hers)
Attorney
Whitfield & Eddy Law Firm

A new wave of technical disruption is upon us with the advent of Generative AI. This presentation will articulate two challenges we must solve – a societal problem with a large portion of the workforce being placed at risk and an opportunity to expand business growth through revising existing operating models.

We will explore past disruptions and learn from them to describe solutions to these challenges. Firstly, a data-driven approach to designing the jobs of the future and the development path towards them to enable our community to adapt to the coming change. Secondly, a profitability and growth opportunity represented by leveraging this new technology to change the fundamentals of firms operating models so that unprofitable customers become an engine of growth.

We will also cover precise and actionable next steps for attendees to put in place at their organizations.

Learning Objectives:

1. How to leverage skills inventories and future-casting of jobs so that our workforce can be deliberately managed through this disruption.
2. How to assess profitability in a way that identifies new opportunities with existing clients to drive growth.
3. An understanding of key features of disruption and how they can be leveraged to inform action, today.

Intended Audience: Private Sector/Public Sector

Wade Britt (He/Him/His)
Partner & Managing Director
Bâton Global

We’ve likely all heard team members leave bad leaders. That hasn’t changed.

Our team members are our greatest asset. We work hard to get them in the door, and we should work hard to keep them there. So, what needs to change? Your leaders.

No doubt you have great leaders in place! What often happens is team members are promoted into leadership positions based on their technical skill as an individual contributor however they don’t know what they need to do when they move into a leadership position. Or they know what they should do, but they don’t know how.

Coaching your leaders to CARE is critical for their success and for the retention of your team members. In this session, we’ll talk about why it’s important to invest time coaching our leaders and break down how you can pass on CARE for them, and they can in turn model to their team members.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify the impact if time is not invested in coaching leaders.
2. Understand why it’s important to invest in coaching leaders through C.A.R.E.
3. Provide questions they can use to start coaching leaders and share with leaders to coach team members.

Intended Audience: Private Sector/Public Sector

Erin Lego
Leadership Coach
Erin Lego Coaching & Consulting, LLC

An originally created concept turned blog post, turned e-book, turned presentation, turned the KEY to increased retention. The First 15 Minutes of a new hire’s time with an organization are the most crucial moments to create a lasting first impression, leading to higher retention, reduced turnover, increased engagement, and saved training and development costs. We will break down what The First 15 Minutes should look like for new hires, what they should experience, who they should meet, and what they should receive in order to ensure they want to remain a part of your organization. Participants from this session will have access to a free version of The First 15 Minutes guidebook to take with them back to their organization as well as time for free advice and Q&A with an expert in the hiring and workforce industry.

Learning Objectives:

1. To objectively look internally at the shortcomings of their organization’s welcome practices for new hires and ways to improve those practices.

2. To implement best practices to retain talent beyond The First 15 Minutes including employees’ training schedules, touchpoints and meetings with the organization’s leaders, development plans, and more.

3. To learn and apply how a great First 15 Minutes and onboarding plan will impact their organization’s talent acquisition and utilize their employees to be recruiting brand ambassadors.

Intended Audience: Private Sector/Public Sector

Determining the best assessments to meet business needs is a crucial task for Human Resource professionals. Assessments play a critical role in evaluating the skills, abilities, and attributes of potential candidates or existing employees. By selecting the most suitable assessments, HR professionals can gather valuable data to support effective hiring decisions, employee development, and overall business success. To determine the best assessments, HR professionals should consider assessment validity and reliability, ease of administration and scoring, and the availability of comprehensive reports. Taking these factors into account will ensure that the chosen assessments align with the organization’s goals and accurately measure the qualities needed for job performance.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understanding the organization’s business needs: HR professionals should be able to identify the specific business needs that assessments will address.
2. Evaluating the validity and reliability of assessments: HR professionals need to develop the skills to assess the validity and reliability of different assessment methods.
3. Considering the practicality and usability of assessments: HR professionals should be able to assess the practicality and usability of different assessment methods.

Intended Audience: Private Sector/Public Sector

Stephanie Smith (She/Her/Hers)
Training Consultant
ATW Training Solutions

Based on the feedback from the IEC in the fall of 2023, HR professionals are hungry to learn more about how to beef up their benefit package. A top-of-the-line benefit package will improve culture, decrease turnover and attract quality talent. It will also promote mental wellness in the workplace- something all companies strive to do.

Ramona Wink is a licensed mental health counselor, motivational speaker, and business consultant. She will be joined by leaders and employees of Storey Kenworthy and Workspace. Ramona partnered with Storey Kenworthy and Workspace for the entirety of 2023 as a business consultant. She started out providing on-site coaching to the seven members of the Senior Leadership Team. That benefit was expanded to include all employees.  During this session, you’ll hear from Ramona on the work that she does, plus you’ll hear first-hand from the leaders and employees of Storey Kenworthy and Workspace about their experience.

This session will be interactive and audience members will benefit by having the ability to ask questions of all the panelists.  If you’re looking for a way to set your company apart from others, don’t miss this session.

Learning Objectives:

1. Attendees will understand the mental health crisis in Iowa.
2. Attendees will learn the difference between mental health counseling and coaching.
3. Attendees will be inspired by the stories that the panelists share about their experience and how they value this benefit.

Intended Audience: Private Sector/Public Sector

Ramona Wink (She/Her/Hers)
LMHC, Motivational Speaker, Business Consultant
515 Therapy and Consulting

Christin Murphy
Strategic Design Specialist
Workspace

Drea Piper
Design Supervisor
Workspace

This presentation will cover Iowa’s Private Sector Drug-Free Workplaces statute, Iowa Code Chapter 730.5, including under what circumstances private employers are permitted to conduct drug testing, requirements and procedures private employers must follow, actions permitted and required upon receipt of a positive drug test, and civil liability for violation of the statute.  The presentation will include an in-dept review of recent Iowa Supreme Court case law interpreting Iowa Code Chapter 730.5.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the circumstances under which private employers are permitted to conduct drug testing
2. Understand the private employers must follow when drug testing employees or prospective employees.
3. Understand the consequences of failing to follow the statutory requirements.

Intended Audience: Private Sector

Lindsay Vaught
Attorney
Ahlers & Cooney, P.C.

This discussion explores the fundamental elements contributing to the formation and sustenance of high-performing teams. With a focus on effective leadership, common goals, established rules, actionable plans, a culture that encourages risk-taking, and inclusive participation, it serves as a comprehensive topic to building and nurturing dynamic teams.

1. Identifying and Harnessing Effective Leadership: Understand the pivotal role of strong leadership in driving team performance and learn strategies to elevate leadership skills within the team.
2. Creating a Collaborative Environment with Common Goals and Rules: Discover the significance of fostering a shared vision and clear rules to ensure alignment and promote a cohesive, highly productive team.
3. Promoting Risk-Taking and Inclusive Participation: Evaluate the importance of nurturing a culture that supports risk-taking and holistic participation, leading to innovative solutions and a deeply engaged team.

Intended Audience: Private Sector/Public Sector

Monte Wyatt (He/Him/His)
Executive Development Facilitator
AddingZEROS Executive Development

A look at the missteps many companies unknowingly employ that drive away new employees, then discussing steps and strategies to retain top talent.

Learning Objectives: 

1. Identify new hire mistakes
2. Identify onboarding objectives
3. Leveraging leadership as a retention strategy

 Intended Audience: Private Sector/Public Sector

Todd Saffell
HR Director
Basepoint Building Automations

Many organizations today desire to create cultures of psychological safety, defined as cultures where individuals feel included, safe, and willing to speak out and challenge status quo.

If your organization is struggling to effectively implement these concepts, you’re not alone. It’s difficult to implement safety and inclusion without first identifying and addressing common patterns of drama that will sabotage (intentionally or unintentionally) environments of trust, accountability, and respect.

This session will identify common patterns of drama in the workplace, reasons these patterns persist, and strategies to consistently reduce workplace drama as part of a larger strategy to increase psychological safety in the workplace.

Learning Objectives: 

1. Drama and Trauma – What Are They? What’s The Link?
2. Understanding Common Drama Archetypes and Triggers
3. The Role of Compassion as a Drama Antidote
4. Strategies to Consistently Reduce Workplace Drama

Intended Audience: Private Sector/Public Sector

Barb Ranck (She/Her/Hers)
Owner, Coach, Facilitator
CI Coaching & Development

​The labor market has shifted dramatically in the last few years. Labor shortages, remote work, and changing employee priorities has made employee engagement and retention a challenge for organizations. When it comes to long-term organizational success, employee engagement and retention is a key strategy. However, employee engagement is at an all-time low, leaving us with two key questions: how do we boost employee engagement and retention and why aren’t our current leadership models helping us do this?

Join us for “From Transactional to Transformational,” as we explore how the transformational leadership model can build a culture of engagement, retain the best employees, connect daily task and department goals to organizational strategies, and give you the clarity and confidence to know how to best lead your team.

Learning Objectives:

1. Build an understanding of why transactional leadership is detrimental to employee engagement and retention
2. Introduce the transformational leadership model to all levels of organizational leadership
3. Share why transformational leadership builds employee engagement and retention
4. Explore ways to ensure that leadership goals are linked to organizational strategies.

Intended Audience: Private Sector/Public Sector

Steve Ott
Owner
Ott Leadership

Beth will discuss the various implications of separating an executive employee from employment. She will cover the current status of the law relating to the composition of separation agreements and discuss strategies to mitigate business risk.

Learning Objectives: 

1. Identify legal and reputational risks associated with separating executives
2. Learn strategies for compliance and risk mitigation
3. Determine what documentation is necessary and enforceable

Intended Audience: Private Sector

Elizabeth Coonan (She/Her/Hers)
Shareholder
Dentons Davis Brown, PC

​By examining the science behind negativity, this presentation provides a two-step solution to an age-old problem. The first is better detecting when negative thinking creeps into our own psyche and how we can manually override those thoughts. And the second step is better navigating the negativity of the Debbie and Donnie Downers that we interact with in our personal and professional lives. Negativity is creeping into our workplaces at an alarming rate and as leaders we need to have the tools to teach our employees and upper management to recognize negativity both in themselves and in the organization.

Ultimately, this program will give you a template for taking action now. Because as the GI Joe Fallacy (yes, that GI Joe) demonstrates, simply seeing the silver lining is not enough. It’s the doers who find the upside. Because in a world with so much downside, you can always find a way to… up yours.

Learning Objectives:

1. Examine the science behind Hans Rosling’s Negativity Theory. You will get a better understanding of why some people are more negative than others, and how to navigate those workplace fun killers.
2. Develop the “yes and” state of mind that drives productivity by taking the word “no” out of your vocabulary to create more productive conversations.
3. Hone your consistency by going streaking. Don’t worry, all clothes will be staying on as we dive into the art of going on winning streaks.
4. Learn the takeaways that will keep negative thinking from overrunning your workplace.

Intended Audience: Private Sector/Public Sector

Jack Stahlmann
Owner/Speaker
Don’t Flinch, LLC