Learn from the best in business

Business Ethics: Its Role in Organizational Leadership
If ethics are poor at the top, that behavior is copied down through the organization. This presentation focuses on the connection between leadership, effective decision-making, social responsibility, and long-term strategic planning. It also discusses the importance of following a decision and making models to improve performance.

Effective and Non-Effective Leadership Styles
This presentation addresses the range of leadership styles and their related strengths and weaknesses. It also discusses the optimal leadership competencies needed by today's leaders.

Keys to Productive Problem-solving Discussions
Nearly half of the employees in a recent survey reported that most business meetings are a waste of time. which often leads them to multitask rather than to own a part of the conversation. When this happens during meetings that are designed to solve problems, productivity, and morale suffer. This session offers practical tips to get the best thinking from everyone during discussions. Learn how to set expectations and engage employees in collaborative problem-solving meetings. 

Leadership and Ethics
Your leadership ethics and values should be visible because you live them in your actions every single day. This topic focuses on how ethics form the foundation for successful personal and professional leadership.

Leadership Style and its Effect on Organizational Culture and Performance
This presentation shows how the style of a leader is both mediated by and impacts an organization's culture - and ultimately, its performance.

Leading (and following) Organizational Change: The How and How Not To….
In today’s 21st century organization organizational change is more the norm than the exception. Therefore, the ability to effectively lead change with followers and all stakeholders is essential for success. This presentation addresses the key steps and practices every organizational leader and follower needs to embrace for realizing highly effective change management.

Leveraging Tensions to Create Strategic Agility
The language of business is increasingly in opposition with itself (Strategy vs. Agility, Stability vs. Flexibility). Simultaneously, our role as leaders is changing rapidly. The long-held view of the leadership role as the One Great Leader who makes decisions, breaks the ties, and resolves differences is in conflict with our changing culture. Recent research suggests that by leveraging those tensions, leaders can create an environment for innovation. This session offers a practical model for how leaders and followers can (a) foster a culture that seeks and embraces innovation through contradictory tensions, and (b) create a mindset for innovation and growth. 

Management and Leading: The Franklin University Program for Today’s Managers and Leaders
Franklin University's redesigned Management major synthesizes the areas of managing people, making effective decisions, understanding human behavior, implementing change initiatives, and learning core transformational leadership competencies. This presentation will demonstrate the impact the major will have on preparing individuals to lead organizations.

Organizational Culture: Embracing the Most Powerful Yet Hidden Force
The culture or values and assumptions of an organization are actually one of the most powerful forces within a company that every leader and follower needs to focus on for success. Organizational culture embodies the very deep-seated beliefs and practices that form the collective focus of all employees and stakeholders. Actions contrary to an organization’s culture will almost always be met with resistance. This presentation focuses on the importance of leaders and managers to recognize and cultivate the culture of an organization so actions, decision and communications work in harmony with individuals and groups.

Recognizing and Using Your Personal Style in Organizational Leadership
Whether you are new to leadership or an old hand at it, anyone can improve their leadership by using their own personal style in leading. This presentation discusses the components of leading and draws the distinction between leading and managing. Participants will take a short survey to determine their own leadership style, with the option of allowing direct reports back in the organization to anonymously submit surveys to allow the leader to see themselves from the followers’ perspective.

The Art of Leadership: Transformational, Servant and Authentic
Leadership exists and grows in every individual in an organization. However, the ability to lead and follow effectively is truly an art that one can and should embrace for success. This presentation walks participants through the three most highly effective forms of leadership theories and practices in order to cultivate success in leading and following others.

Transformational Leadership: Changing Self, Others, and the Organization
This presentation discusses the four key components of transformational leadership and how they can develop both the leader and the follower.

Use the Army's "Command Philosophy" to Develop Your Personal "Leader Philosophy"
By giving their soldiers a "Command Philosophy," U.S. Army commanders explain how they lead, and what they expect of their Soldiers. Learn how to take the same idea and tell your team how you lead, your priorities, even your pet-peeves. This highly interactive session will help you develop your own communication and leadership philosophy while getting input from a retired Army commander and combat veteran.

What Coaching Can Do for Your Organization
In this session you will learn about the differences between coaching, mentoring, and counseling, as well as how coaching situations, processes, and goal-setting can be used to strengthen your organization.

Artificial Intelligence or Artificial Idiocy: A Call for Critical Thinking
To know that you are NOT knowledgeable in certain areas was seen by Plato as being a marker of wisdom and understanding.  Socrates revealed that people who thought they were intelligent— who thought they knew what certain concepts meant— had never actually thought about them and, as such, didn’t really know anything about them.  AI has a similar sort of problem— primarily because machines are taught by humans.  But this engages us in CIRCULAR REASONING— where intelligence examines intelligence (or reasoning undermines reasoning).  Specifically, the problem is that what makes us human has to do with human intelligence, but human intelligence has shaped artificial intelligence (this is akin to a dog chasing its own tail).  In practice this means that our educators and their students will continue to be expected to behave like machines—reducing thinking, reasoning, teaching, and learning to the mechanical sums of physical processes of “stochastic parrots,” similar to the “artificial idiocy” of the way robots, automata, androids, and other forms of artificial intelligence “think.”  To know that one is NOT knowledgeable in certain areas requires critical thinking.  Accordingly, critical thinking (asking HOW (an analysis) and WHY (an evaluation)) is an aspect of human intelligence that is missed by artificial intelligence.  The question to ask, then, is whether an emphasis on artificial intelligence promotes or impedes the development of CRITICAL THINKING, or at least whether an emphasis on artificial intelligence has a negative effect on the development of CRITICAL THINKING.  

Be Pro-Growth and Embrace Creativity
Are you positioned for growth? You should always be thinking about new strategies, products and services. Learn how your organization can foster creativity and how to reduce the obstacles to innovation to become "pro-growth."

Building and Maintaining Your Personal Brand
Selling yourself and your ideas is key to your success as a leader, a manager, an entrepreneur, and even in your personal relationships. You or others in your organization can benefit from these tips on how to enhance your personal brand and your measurable effectiveness.

Burnout and Grit
This unique presentation discusses the important topic of burnout and grit, tailored to the needs of the group requesting the presentation.

Changing Habits
This presentation is the opportunity to identify habits getting in the way of your success, learning how to change the habits, and take the first steps towards transformation. 

CRE_TIV_TY - Unlocking Insights, Ideas, and Innovations without AI
An un-webinar. Be a participant, not a viewer. You'll start with a printed (on paper!) PLAYbook. Then you'll try your hand at some creativity-boosting exercises. You'll leave with a few (mostly) easy techniques you can use whenever your creative thinking needs an extra spark. Paper and pen/pencil required. No AI allowed. 

Cultivating An Interdisciplinary Mindset
Rapid changes in technology and industry require more than the mastery of select skill sets and deep domain knowledge.  An interdisciplinary mindset, drawing from multiple fields and disciplines, helps us to evolve and address a future constantly in flux.  Learn how to cultivate your own interdisciplinary approach and foster interdisciplinary thinking within your organization so that you'll always be prepared for what's next.

Developing an Organizational Culture that Inspires and Supports the Mission
An organization’s climate and culture either inspires followers to excel or can also unfortunately deter individuals from performing at their best. This presentation will inform leaders and followers alike on how their actions, beliefs and values contribute to shaping a culture that inspires and engages everyone at a high level of performance. This session will engage participants in identifying the artifacts, beliefs, values and assumptions they hold as central to the organization’s mission.

Doctoral Education: Similarities and Differences in Academic Levels
Have you considered returning to school for a doctoral degree but you have questions and concerns about making that step? This presentation relates how doctoral education takes a step beyond the master's level. It discusses the greater depths the doctoral learner will take in improving their research, writing, analysis, and presentation skills. These skills are useful in environments beyond academics to improve the processes used in any organization. It will also discuss the practical application of Professional Practice Doctorates as well as the theoretical nature of the Ph.D.

Don't Forget the U in Customer!  Customer Service Starts with YOU!
Today's competitive environment, where everything and everyone is "rated," requires top-notch customer service.  Having a good relationship with your customers not only means knowing your business, products, services, etc, but it also requires knowing yourself and being able to communicate effectively so that your customers are properly served, will be loyal, and will rate you honestly and highly.  Learn tips and techniques to truly serve all of your customers.  

Leading and Managing Organizational Change: The Art of Wrestling with the Challenge
Many, if not most, organizational change plans are never fully successful, if at all effective. This presentation will address state-of-the-art change management practices that can allow today’s leaders and followers to realize desired outcomes in organizational development and change initiatives. Participants will be asked to reflect on their experiences with change projects and apply new approaches to these for best practices in leading change efforts in today’s organization.

Motivation
It is easy to feel energized, hopeful, and positive about your future when things are going well. What about when you are sick, exhausted, you have a work deadline you must meet, and the babysitter just called to cancel? This presentation will discuss easy things you can do to stay motivated and on pace with your goals that work for most people, based on research and consulting experience. 

Networking for Success - A Work in Progress!
"Networking" isn't just for getting a new job…it's a long-term method to create success for you, your school, your company, your industry, and whatever endeavor in which you are currently, or may someday, be involved. Learn the "ins and outs" from someone who recently had to step up their networking "game!"

Research Reimagined: A Call for Critical Thinking
Educational programs and Business enterprises often promote the notion that research should be based solely on empirical findings, usually expressed as “best practices.”   This presentation, however, will show that this is a one-sided and logically unjustified approach that is fraught with problems relying on the self-defeating Epistemology of Empiricism: the problems of [1] Induction (e.g., All Swans are White?), [2] Uncertainty (Begs the Question), [3] Selection Bias/Confirmation Bias, and [4] Facts being Theory Laden.  Accordingly, by introducing and explicating the two opposing “schools” of research called empiricism and rationalism, this presentation will highlight a call for critical thinking that reveals the connection between the empirical and conceptual methods that help to flesh out more fully what really constitutes scientific research.

Small Marketing Budget, Big Marketing Return
You're an entrepreneur. A non-profit executive.  A small business owner.  You can't afford to market your organization.  You can't afford NOT to market your organization. Learn ways to maximize your marketing returns from your minimal time and dollar investments.

Strategic Planning: Its Importance - Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
This presentation focuses on the key steps of crafting a sound strategic plan, underscoring that any plan is living and evolving, which results in continual planning.

The Importance of Cultural Storytelling
Building an organization's culture - and driving business outcomes that align with that culture - isn't always intuitive or simple.  But one of the best ways to build a lasting culture is to engage in cultural storytelling.  Learn how to identify and understand the stories that already exist in your organization, and to create and implement new ones that align with your organizational spirit and support its flourishing.

The Philosophical Foundation of Business Ethics and The Problem of its Role in Organizational Leadership: A Call for Critical Thinking
The mistake of conflating morality with ethics highlights how moral relativism and moral absolutism negatively affect leadership, effective decision-making, social responsibility, and long-term strategic planning.  Moreover, if ethics is confused with morality at the top, then that misunderstanding is usually copied down through the organization to hinder inclusion and performance.  Accordingly, this presentation will highlight the importance of incorporating critical thinking to present a more robust understanding of business ethics and the problem of its role in organizational leadership to improve inclusion and performance.

The Problem of Moral Entanglement and Its Detrimental Effect at Work: A Call for Culture Building and Inclusion

Moral codes are meant to guide a person’s or group’s decision-making, establish standards for good moral behavior, and promote what is valued.  Unfortunately, the consequences of many moral codes to which moral agents and institutions aspire, and by which their actions can be judged, are detrimental to the well-being of marginalized communities or minorities, undercutting their ability to function at work and to entertain positive social relationships.  This, however, is NOT just because the moral agent (or work culture) does not align with stated beliefs, values, attitudes, and ideals or commitments.  For it may sometimes be the direct result of logical inconsistencies with the moral agent’s (and/or work culture’s) moral code itself.  Accordingly, this presentation will highlight the problem of moral entanglement, which has to do with the concrete logical inconsistencies that inevitably result when moral principles or practices at work produce detrimental effects that escalate work culture vulnerabilities at the expense of the well-being of marginalized communities or minorities.

The Problem of Teaching the Science of Climate Change: A Call for Critical Thinking
This presentation will highlighted a call for critical thinking in science that engages in a form of methodological skepticism that systematically and continuously asks Critical Questions to help the educator to analyze and evaluate arguments to (1) help students actively compare their initial conceptions (and publicly popular misconceptions) with more fully scientific conceptions; and (2) help science faculty that have often avoided (or are usually reluctant to) teaching controversial issues in their science classes (e.g., the Science of Climate Change) to help students distinguish science from pseudoscience.

The Rule of 4
Great leaders need to continually enhance their attributes in order to be most effective. Whether it is adding new attributes or enhancing those you have, this presentation will show you how to incorporate this into your weekly routine. The Rule of 4 makes it easy to ensure that you are always improving, personally and professionally.

Training That Works
How can you increase the effectiveness of your training programs? What are the most important principles and methods for teaching knowledge and skills? This presentation provides research-based methods and tools for improving training and instruction in your organization.

Transformational and Servant Leadership: The Keys to Organizational Excellence
Followers and stakeholders look to leaders for inspiration and direction. This presentation focuses on several key leadership theories and practices that facilitate excellence in engaging all stakeholders in advancing individual and organizational success. This session will inform participants on the theories, concepts and principles from leadership concepts that can and will advance today’s individuals to a higher level of performance and excellence. 

Why Employee Performance is Down, and What to Do About it
One of the constant issues in the workplace is inconsistent or poor work performance. Many strategies are used to improve employee output, but these strategies often fall short. This can be frustrating for managers and debilitating to the organization. In this interactive presentation, you will learn a simple tool and process for clarifying the performance problem and identifying its underlying causes. You will also learn simple strategies for addressing the cause of the problems so that performance can improve. Participants will leave the presentation with a set of simple tools for analyzing and improving performance in their organizations.

Best Practices for Collaborative Creativity: Using Neuro-Communication Insights to Foster Innovation In Project Teams
The 21st century has been touted as the age of the brain, with ground-breaking research on how the brain works shedding new light on how we learn, process information and communicate. Findings from recent research can offer insights for persistent business issues, like how to balance creativity and constraint to achieve project goals. The tensions associated with creative work can be further complicated by group dynamics, making innovative project teamwork challenging. This presentation focuses on notable findings from innovation research and the role of humor and other means of navigating stressful interactions. Participants will learn to use what we know about how the brain works to achieve optimal outcomes through collaborative creativity.

Attend to learn:
- How “radical innovators” and “adaptors” approach problems
- Group dynamics that enable creativity and innovation
- Strategies for harnessing conflict for positive results
* Note: Basic information on current project methods, prior training, or issues/ questions identified by the organization/group are requested in advance for appropriate customization of content.

Communication Workshop
How you can improve internal or external communication by following a few simple but vital steps.

Cost-Cutting Ways to Develop Communication Training That Rocks
This presentation highlights how professional standards, learning outcomes and job-specific tasks undergird a course design that incorporates synchronous and asynchronous e-learning methods, simulation, and gamification. The exemplar of a communication course is shared to clarify the process of developing a training that connects practice to application in a way that is engaging and reflective of real-world situations.

Attend to learn:
- Sequencing learning activities so they build on prior experience
- Strategies to identify competencies linked to situations
- Challenges and Points - Primary “motivational affordances” in gamification
- Using current tools to enhance self-efficacy and transfer of skills
* Note: basic information on current training offerings and identified training needs of the organization/group are requested in advance for appropriate customization of content.

Crisis Communication Workshop
Find out how your organization can avoid a media crisis and what to do if one happens.

Improving Business Communication
This presentation explores the dos and don'ts of business communication, using examples of good and bad communication to demonstrate the best ways and what kinds of information to communicate.

Public Relations Workshop
This presentation explores the fundamentals of public relations, including good speechwriting, how to prepare for a press conference, and creating a strong strategic PR plan.

Public Relations: Why It Matters To Your Organization
Good public relations is all about relationships. It's part of the name! This session explains how any organization, big or small, needs to identify its publics and develop solid relationships with them through a quality PR strategy. Participants in this session will get 10 top tips on identifying, developing, and maintaining healthy and productive public relationships for their organization or group.

SNAFU: How Slang Impacts Work Communication
This presentation is about abbreviations and various types of slang (BTW, ttly, LOLZ) that creep into professional communications. The focus of this light-hearted look at social media and other forms of text-based communication is how generational and professional differences can affect messaging. We will address how to approach these trends with professionalism and humor.

Attend to learn:
- Quality “normal” communication based on channels and audiences
- Strategies to discuss expectations with new hires or interns

Social Media: Preserve Your Authentic Self
Social media networks, especially Twitter and Linked In, are touted as great ways to "sell" your business and yourself and can be very effective in reaching audiences and building your brand. But your messages need to be consistent with who you are and what you do. Learn how to get your message across and create a dialogue with customers or prospective employers while preserving what makes you special.

Using Current Events to Improve the Classroom
“All I know is what I read in the papers.” - Will Rogers. With the rapid pace of increasing technology, now more than ever it's important to understand what's happening in the world. Learn how using current events fills gaps in textbooks, explains theory, and makes lessons relatable to today. Current events (in most, if not all subjects) can not only engage students thru discussion of topics they live every day (Amazon) but also keep curriculum current, reinforce theory, allow for the discovery of 2nd and 3rd order effects, distribute lessons over multiple class periods, and build structure.
- Tips for using abbreviations without being a #poser or #totes clueless

* Note: Basic information on current technology use, social media policy, or issues/ questions identified by the organization/group are requested in advance for appropriate customization of content.

​​​​​​​What To Do Before You Are The Headline: Crisis PR Planning
Today's fast-paced and connected world means that it is easier more than ever to become the headline. No organization is exempt from this as there are so many things that can happen today that can instantly put you in crisis mode. This session will highlight 10 high-level top tips to plan for, deal with, and hopefully survive a crisis when you become the headline.

Agile, not just a practice for Techies
This session will introduce applying Agile processes in your organization. Some perceive Agile to be a software development approach. It is much more than that. It is the way businesses operate. Hospital triage, emergencies and projects merge utilizing Agile process.  Manufacturing organizations focus on Agile - think Toyota. Small organizations have practiced Agile before Agile was 'cool'. Large organization have adopted it to assist in environments where strategic, tactical, operational and project activities must occur simultaneously. This session will cover the definition and tenets of Agile, Scrum and Kanban. We will demonstrate how they are applied and how they can help your organization to operate in an efficient manner. The roles, events and artifacts will be introduced allowing you to begin effective Agile practices, including prioritization. Readings, exercises and continuing education sources will be provided.

Cyber Culture/Pop Culture and Technology
This presentation demonstrates how new directions in technology are bringing us together, not driving us apart, while also highlighting new challenges to how we communicate.

Training That Works in a Post-COVID World
The world has been turned upside down by the COVID 19 Pandemic. In the workplace, new norms for remote and hybrid work are being established. These changes are exacerbated by the ever-present competition and change brought on by ever-changing technology and our global society. Given this state, how can organizations provide training and eLearning that meets the needs of remote and hybrid workers? 

Anxiety in the Age of Uncertainty: Coping with Change and Stress
Addressing post-pandemic stress, economic uncertainty, and global events.

Digital Wellness: Managing Mental Health in a Hyperconnected World
Exploring the impact of social media, screen time, and digital overload.

Mental Health 101: Understanding the Basics
A foundational talk on what mental health is, common myths, and how to support yourself and others with a focus on reducing stigma.

Mental Wellness: Tools for Success
Coping strategies, time management, and self-care that builds a foundation for resiliency.

Substance Use Disorders: Understanding, Compassion, and Recovery
Explore the causes, impact, and recovery pathways of substance use disorders, aiming to reduce stigma and promote understanding and support within the community.

Cybersecurity for Law Enforcement

Teaching in College After Retirement

Problem-Based Learning and Job Performance