The Millennial generation - some 81 million people born between the early 1980s-early 2000s- is a source of intense frustration, yet great potential for today's managers and bosses in the workplace. In this session, we will discuss the dynamics of the generation gap in 21st century organizations-where these differences stem from, and how they impact employees' attitudes, behaviors and expectations at work. You're invited to share your experiences, and we will discuss how to navigate the challenges as well as how to harness the potential benefits of this new form of employee diversity. Led by Megan Gerhardt.

This workshop focuses on gender's role in leadership in the 21st century. Do women define success and ambition the same way men do? Are such differences at the root of the gender gap in upper levels of leadership? Why are success and likeability positively correlated for men, but negatively correlated for women? How can organizations better support men who want to have more work-life balance? Do women have a responsibility to lean in to leadership positions if they are offered? This workshop will utilize both academic research and practical experiences of participants to explore these thought-provoking questions. Led by Megan Gerhardt.

People are at their best when they are able to use their talents and abilities - the traits and behaviors at which they naturally excel. Empowering your people to discover and develop their strengths will position them to do what they do best every day. Research shows that people who use their strengths every day are six times more likely to be engaged on the job. Teams that focus on strengths every day have 12.5% greater productivity. Teams that receive strengths feedback have 8.9% greater profitability1. Why? This workshop explores what's behind the powerful Strengths-Based approach to leadership. We will analyze your own Strengthsfinder 2.0 results, and discuss how these talents can be understood and leveraged for leadership effectiveness and career success. Dr. Gerhardt is a Gallup-trained coach for their world-renowned Strengths Finder program, and this workshop will show you how to benefit from an approach that is transforming the way individuals view their potential for leadership and high performance. Led by Megan Gerhardt.

"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he [or she] wants to do it," as Dwight Eisenhower said. How can that happen without communication? In today's dynamic environment leaders need to continually build their skills in order to remain effective and communication is arguably the most important of all those skills. Good communication is necessary to set and change expectations, to motivate performance, and to manage conflict, just to name a few of the day-to-day responsibilities of mangers. In this workshop participants will share their experiences and practice several skills considered best practices in managerial communication, including reflective listening, giving and receiving feedback, and getting buy-in for decisions. Led by Rebecca Luzadis.

As most of us realize, the world is changing at an increasingly fast pace. What implications does this have for your organization? This workshop offers a variety of approaches to managing change, all of which have been culled from expert sources reflecting years and years of experience. Successful managing and leading change results from a combination of planning, problem-solving, and learning to be more comfortable with ambiguity. Research shows that most change initiatives fail when insufficient attention is given to the "human aspects" of change. In this workshop participants will share their experiences with and learn how to get people (including themselves!) to create capabilities for change, drive the change that needs to occur, and sustain those changes over time. Led by Rebecca Luzadis.

This experience is a huge hit with our Professional MBA Program students. This six hour change management simulation covers all aspects of managing a large scale organizational change initiative. Participants work in teams to conduct an organizational analyses, create a change plan, and then implement the plan. It includes an introduction to one of the more popular change management models used by practicing consultants as well as access to associated documents and tools that can be modified for use in real world settings. Led by Joe Rode

Leading individuals and teams: Research indicates that one of the keys to leading individuals and teams is to utilize one's informal power to create a climate of "safety", whereby subordinates feel they can speak freely and trust the intentions of their leader. This class focuses on one on one interactions between leaders and subordinates as well as small group leadership and dynamics, with an emphasis on how leaders can facilitate a climate of safety while still driving for success. Specific topics addressed include task vs. relationship oriented leadership, managing tension and informal power, and facilitating creativity, information sharing, and productive group decision making in group settings. Led by Joe Rode

Motivation, productivity and human resource practices. Research indicates that human resource practices can have dramatic effects on organizational performance and employee engagement. This class utilizes a sophisticated simulation to examine the impacts of various human resource policy decisions on organizational productivity, costs, and employee morale within the context of a a dynamic industry (i.e., the other participants in the seminar). Participants will gain a greater understanding of how various human resource practices compliment one another as well as how human resource practices can be used as a source of competitive advantage to attract, develop and retain talent in a manner that has direct impacts on the organization's bottom line. Led by Joe Rode

This Workshop explains the basics of crafting a business plan by the various sections that compose a plan. It also assists the participant in crafting the company's sales pitch by explaining how to design PowerPoints to clearly communicate the plan and the resources the company is attempting to recruit. The Workshop ends by assisting participants in the design and delivery of their elevator speech, which is a 30 second overview of the company. Led by John Hogan

This workshop is an overview of the process and tools that will be used to craft a company's strategic plan. For Workshop participants that desire to go further and actually craft a company's strategic plan, this Workshop will act as the orientation and overview of the pre-work required to be completed for crafting a strategic plan. A follow-up meeting by the workshop presenter is suggested with the workshop participant at the company's location, if the participant desires to craft a strategic plan for their company using this approach. Led by John Hogan

This Workshop assists potential investors in understanding the various stages of investing, what they might expect to receive by investing in specific stages of a company's growth, and what they need to accomplish to be successful in investing at the various stages of company growth. It delves into an investor's psychological and philosophical perspectives as experienced by the Workshop presenter during his many years of investing experience in seed, start-up, and early stage companies. Led by John Hogan

Top management is increasing demanding metrics and evidence from their HR Departments before funding initiatives. This session demonstrates how data can be collected and analyzed to prove the return on investment (ROI) for HR initiatives. Organizational challenges like recruiting, training, performance management, absenteeism, turnover, employee engagement, workplace health initiatives, and safety just to name a few are excellent topics for data gathering and analysis. Led by Joshua Schwarz

Modern companies live and die by the success of their supply chains. The ability to obtain needed resources, to transform those resources into products and services a customer wants, and to deliver to customers in a timely manner are key components of competitive success. This workshop focuses on the basics of supply chain mapping, internal and external success factors, and broad supply chain strategies and risks. Led by Bryan Ashenbaum

This workshop utilizes the legendary "Beer Game" to explore supply chain management fundamentals and misconceptions. Why are supply chains so hard to manage? Why do supply chain partners struggle to execute well with one another to serve their common customers? This workshop involves an interactive- team-based exercise to explore key issues in supply chain strategies and communication. Led by Bryan Ashenbaum

This workshop combines our two introductory workshops into a full-day interactive session. Starting with a team-based exercise, this workshop explores supply chain mapping, internal and external success factors, and supply chain communication, risk and strategic issues. Led by Bryan Ashenbaum

"Outsourcing" surely ranks as one of the hottest topics in modern business. This workshop explores the dynamics of the outsourcing decision from a strategic and tactical perspective. When should you consider outcourcing? When should you not? How will I know the difference (before it's too late)? What are the key financial, strategic and tactical issues to consider? Led by Bryan Ashenbaum

Efficiently managing a company's spend can bring millions to the bottom line. This workshop cover the basics of developing a sourcing strategy for company spend. We consider preliminary spend analysis, supply market assessment and the strategic sourcing portfolio in helping you build a strategy to leverage the money you spend in the market. Pairs well with Supplier Selection, Evaluation and Performance Tracking for a full-day workshop. Led by Bryan Ashenbaum

Picking the right supplier(s) can mean the difference between victory and catastrophe in today's competitive marketplace. This workshop focuses on strategies for selecting which supplier(s) to consider, how to best award the business and how to track and evaluate on-going supplier performance. Pairs well with Sourcing Strategy Development for a full-day workshop. Led by Bryan Ashenbaum

For managers who have read Eli Goldratt's book "The Goal," what's next in applying constraint management to process improvement? This all-day hands-on workshop begins with a manual simulation to better understand how process variability affects output. Then we go to the original Goldratt Simulators and run plants minute-by-minute, making product mix, purchasing, scheduling, changeover, buffer, and batching decisions in intense plant simulations. We examine several different manufacturing environments from the constraint management perspective. PC computers or laptops required. There's so much going on in this workshop we need to leaders. Led by Byron Finch and Xiaowen Huang.

Monitoring processes is a vital aspect of continuous improvement initiatives. This workshop explores the various control charts available (traditional Shewhart charts, Cumulative Sum, Exponentially Weight Moving Average, Short Run, etc.) and the decisions needed to implement or improve your process control activities. Which processes should I chart? How do I select the right chart? What is the optimal sampling scheme? What out-of-control rules should I use? How often should I recalibrate control limits? Led by Tim Krehbiel.

This workshop explores the various methods available to report the capability of processes. There currently exists a multitude of appropriate metrics available such as Cp Cpk Cpm, PPM, DPMO, and Process Sigma Levels. Confusion within organizations and between vendors and suppliers often exist because of the subtle nuances and interpretability of the various metrics. This workshop pairs well with Statistical Process Control for a full-day workshop. Led by Tim Krehbiel.

The success of any business derives from the performance of its processes. With a systematic approach to process improvement, Six Sigma has become a popular method of improving quality, reducing lead times, and achieving efficiencies. This workshop introduces not only the Six Sigma DMAIC methodology and related tools, but also emphasizes the key considerations that will help ensure a successful implementation. Led by Peter Salzarulo.

This seminar provides an overview of Lean Management fundamentals. An emphasis is placed on waste reduction, defect elimination, and improvements to process flow. During the presentation of Lean's components, the various lean tools (Kanban, 5S, SMED, visual management, etc.) will be introduced. Throughout the seminar, the relationship between the various lean elements and how they integrate to yield improvements will be highlighted. Led by Peter Salzarulo .

By combining Lean Management's focus on waste reduction with Six Sigma's improvement methodology, a potent system for process improvement is generated. This full day seminar presents a unified approach to process improvement which combines the popular methodologies of Lean and Six Sigma. Emphasis will be placed on the DMAIC methodology and its use with Lean tools and techniques. Led by Peter Salzarulo.

This workshop utilizes the Supply Chain Council / APICS's Supply Chain Operational Reference Model (or SCOR) to help companies understand the supply chain processes that affect their role in the supply chain (e.g. suppliers and customers) and make up their firm (Plan, Source, Make, Deliver and sometimes Return). The use of a common reference model (or language) helps firms not only model their own processes but also how to assess and benchmark their performance and link their processes to proven, repeatable, effective, but also relevant best practices both within their own industry and others as well. Led by Rocky Newman.

Not every company competes the same way within their supply chain. Not everyone in the company knows how they themselves compete with their supply chain. Understanding the value proposition by which your firm competes and assuring a consistent and integrated understanding of a strategy that will get you there can be essential to success. This workshop focuses on the basics of identifying a supply chain strategy consistent with a well-defined value proposition and maintaining a well-integrated implementation of that strategy. Led by Rocky Newman .