The Road to ASTD 2014

Getting the approval to attend ASTD 2014 may be challenging for some in this time of budget constraints. For many members of the government sector, sequestration and generally tight budgets at the state, local, and federal level has put a squeeze on training and travel budgets. Tim Shroyer, a participant at last year’s conference prevailed for this year by outlining the value for actionable, best-in-class practices that he received at the ASTD International Conference & Exposition in past years.  When asked what he hoped to learn and take back to share with his team, Tim replied, “Leadership development programs and basic supervisory training.” Tim described the challenges of working with new managers, who are often promoted because of superior performance, but who are frequently lacking in basic managerial skills. He shared that these managers, “know the job, but don’t always know how to manage people.” 

Reflecting on past ASTD Experiences 

One of our featured sessions last year was entitled Three Strategies for Effective Government Leadership Programs hosted by Larry Felix, the director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and by Sardek Love, president and founder of Infinity Consulting and Training Solutions, Inc. 

Sardek P. Love and Larry R. Felix led an engaging and energetic discussion on the key components of an effective leadership development model, which could be adopted to create exceptional leaders in your own agency. This session provided an overview of ASTD’s Creating Leadership Development Programs Certificate course. Tailored to meet the needs of government agencies, Love and Felix shared strategies that allow you to align your leadership development process with agency priorities, determine the skills gaps in your leadership ranks, and provide a methodology for addressing those skills gaps. Participants received a variety of tips, tools, and strategies in a hands-on, interactive session with the goal of enabling participants to immediately apply concepts presented back on the job. The speakers also shared stories and answered questions about their extensive experience helping government agencies effectively develop their current and future leaders. 

Varlerie Stark was very pleased with the framing that she learned at ASTD 2013. She described how Sardek “encapsulated the problems” faced at her agency. She also appreciated the discussion of the differences in motivating and developing Millennials versus older employees. 

Angela Simpson also benefited from this ASTD 2013 session. One of her key takeaways involved the need for the L&D function to communicate more effectively with organizational leadership by crafting a formal action plan using return on investment (ROI) language. In Angela’s words, “When engagement goes up, productivity goes up and impacts the bottom line.”  Angela walked away from the session with the understanding that to gain credibility with senior management, she would have to establish trust by tracking her objectives to those that senior leadership cares about most.

Join more than 9,000 of your learning colleagues from around the globe in Washington, D.C., May 4-7, 2014, to share best practices and insights at the ASTD 2014 International Conference & Exposition.