Hello, again. Wow! We had a great meeting in March. Lowes sent four of their senior leaders; Greg Nell (VP Learning & Development), Donald Kirkey (Director Learning Strategy & Operations), Anne Schlosser (Director Leadership Development), and John McKeever (Director Workforce Readiness). Thank you to each of them for spending an evening with us discussing Lowes' progress, some of the stumbles they had along the way, and for being transparent enough to let us know that there are still hurdles they will get over.

Well... last month was March. In my opinion, March is the best month of the year because it hosts the greatest sporting event on the planet - the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament, or March Madness. What makes March Madness so great? Every team has a chance to win. Every team controls their own destiny. Some may have a tougher road than others, but they all have the same opportunity. Win 6 games, and you are the National Champion…that’s it. It’s simple. Yes, there is some luck involved. However, being prepared is extremely important. Guess what? The same factors can be applied to our jobs in Human Performance Technology (HPT).

Luck

In February, we learned from Lowes that having Senior Management support makes the path to impacting and adding value to our organizations much easier. There seem to be many more organizations with Senior Management that do not understand and support HPT and those that do. For those of us that are “lucky” enough to work in an environment where we have Senior Management buy-in and support, make the most of it. For those of us that are not that “lucky”, it is an extra hurdle to overcome, and being prepared can help overcome this obstacle.

Preparation

In February, Greg Nell said that getting prepared for his role at Lowes started with two events; attending the ISPI Conference and reading a book by Rick Rummler. From these two actions, Greg has helped transform Lowes into a performance- based,research-based performance organization. The great news for your job preparation is that you have the opportunity to take these same actions over the next 6 weeks. There is still time to sign up for the ISPI Conference in Toronto from April 20-23. You can also go to Amazon and buy a book by Rick Rummler, or you could join us in May to hear Rick present at our Chapter meeting and in our first 1-day workshop of 2012. This is an opportunity you will not want to miss.

Thursday night, May 10, Rick will share with us a 90-minute presentation titled “Rediscovering Value: Leading the 3-D Enterprise to Sustainable Success”. Then, on Friday, he will lead an 8-hour workshop on “Performance Thinking”. Members can attend both of these for $75 ($15 for the Chapter meeting and $60 for the workshop). That is a small price to pay for this level of knowledge and job preparedness.

I look forward to seeing you in May.

Thanks,

Marc Donelson, President