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Dana Washington is a Managing Consultant and Team Leader on DDI’s North American Consulting team. He leads a team of consulting professionals that provide thought leadership and feedback/facilitation expertise across DDI solutions, and he manages a portfolio of client engagements across industries. Driven by a passion for behavior change, Dana challenges organizations and leaders to focus their development efforts and celebrate progress over time. 

Dana Washington 

When HR takes a strategic role to guide critical talent decisions, what is the payoff? They report 33 percent more high-quality leaders and are twice as likely to achieve top-tier financial performance. Yet most organizations still rely on gut instinct or general perceptions when making high-stakes decisions like promotions, succession planning, and identifying high-potential talent. Every leader believes they “know their people.” But the data says otherwise. If your pipeline depends on instinct or perceptions alone, you’re taking unnecessary risks. Here’s why your talent decisions need less gut instinct and more data starting now. The “I Know My People” Delusion Most of us walk every day, yet we’re surprisingly bad at estimating our daily steps. The same over- or under-confidence plagues talent decisions. Leaders are experts in their field but often struggle to evaluate their teams objectively.Consider the quiet contributor who rarely speaks up in meetings but has hidden strategic skills. Who’s more likely to get development opportunities and a promotion: the one with hidden strategic skills, or the charismatic underperformer who commands the room?Three common biases often disguise themselves as experience:Halo effect: Like being an eloquent speaker, one trait colors everything.Similarity bias: Leaders favor and promote employees who act like themselves.First impression bias: Early perceptions can overshadow actual performance.The cost of falling prey to these biases is steep. The Department of Labor estimates that bad hires can cost anywhere from 30 to 200 percent of their first-year salary.The Talent Strategy Trap Most Organizations Fall Into Picture this: After the latest talent review cycle, the same employees are still marked “ready in one to two years”—for the third year in a row. These high potentials are frozen in place.Why? Because potential and readiness were assumed, not objectively measured. Without objective data, the 9-box grid becomes a holding pattern.This lack of data also leads to generic development programs that target what leaders think people need, rather than actual skills gaps.Because of the disconnect between ratings and performance, executives lose trust in talent data, and the leadership pipeline stalls.Organizations with strategic HR teams use assessments to break this cycle.The Assessment Advantage: Insight That Drives DecisionsAssessment reveals what instinct misses: which directors are ready for VP, which high potentials will succeed if promoted tomorrow, and which managers need support to make the next career step.Assessment data transforms promotion decisions from popularity contests into objective evaluations. You know exactly who’s ready and who needs more time. And for those who aren’t ready yet, assessment pinpoints precisely what to develop, turning vague feedback like “lacks executive presence” into clear, actionable steps.These personalized insights are magnetic. When leaders see their blind spots, development feels urgent, focused, and personal. For talent development professionals, they replace generic training with targeted growth. If assessment shows a high-potential lacks strategic thinking, you know exactly where to focus. The benefits extend to hiring, too. Assessments uncover external candidates’ true capabilities and development needs from day one, helping hiring teams make smarter decisions and lead effective onboarding.The real ROI comes when assessment and development work together. Organizations that pair them are nearly two times more likely to be top financial performers—because assessment makes every talent investment smarter, faster, and more effective.Conclusion Will you remain the HR partner who enables expensive gut decisions, or will you equip leaders with the objective insights they need? Your best talent is planning their exit, your high potentials are stalled, and your succession plan could collapse with one surprise departure. Without assessment data, every decision is just a guess. Stop being the talent professional who reacts. Start being the strategic enabler who transforms how leaders see, select, and develop their teams.

Don’t Let Gut Instinct Sabotage Your Leadership Pipeline

Dan Sanker is the founder, CEO,and president of CaseStack, a company that has been recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in the United States by Inc. Magazine, Entre-preneur, and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Under his leadership, CaseStack has been chosen as "One of the Best Places to Work," and is noteworthy for its innovative technology and collaborative relationships. Sanker has held leadership positions at Procter & Gamble, Nabisco, Deloitte, and KPMG.He has been published, quoted, orprofiled in numerous publicationsincluding the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. He has been named a finalist for Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards multiple times. He received his MBA from the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA and attended Kansai University in Japan, University of London, and Institute for European Studies in Austria. Sanker was recognized as a "Green Supply Chain Professional to Know," and he was a founder of the Green Valley Initiative, an economic development organization promoting sustainability technology.

Dan Sanker

(Alexandria, VA), October 4, 2019 – The Association for Talent Development (ATD) honored 59 organizations from Australia, Canada, China, India, Korea, Russia, Singapore, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States as winners of the 2019 BEST Awards. Rosendin, headquartered in San Jose, California, won the first-place ranking. IBM, Tata Consultancy Services, TELUS, and Wipro Limited received ATD’s Best of the BEST Award, which goes to organizations that have won the BEST Award 10 or more times. Companies were recognized during a ceremony held at MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on October 3, 2019.“These 59 organizations are driving impact and solving business challenges through talent development practices, and they are doing it in innovative ways,” said Tony Bingham, ATD president and CEO. “Senior leaders in these organizations understand the critical strategic role learning has, and they are committed to investing in the growth and development of their people.”ATD’s BEST Award is the talent development industry’s most rigorous and coveted recognition. The global program acknowledges organizations that demonstrate enterprise-wide success through talent development.The 2019 BEST Award winners shared their winning strategies at the Learn From the BEST conference preceding the ceremony and are profiled in a special section of the October issue of TD, ATD’s flagship magazine.ATD received entries for the BEST Award from 142 organizations. These organizations submitted quantitative and qualitative information about their talent development practices and programs. Applications were assessed in a rigorous blind review by members of the BEST Awards advisory committee comprised of experts in the field.The 2019 BEST Award WinnersBest of the BEST:14-Year Winner: TELUS—Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada13-Year Winner: Wipro Limited—Bangalore, India10-Year Winner: IBM—Armonk, New York10-Year Winner: Tata Consultancy Services—Mumbai, India2019 Rankings1. Rosendin—San Jose, California2. BMO Financial Group—Toronto, Canada3. Consumers Energy—Jackson, Michigan4. Valvoline Instant Oil Change—Lexington, Kentucky5. Tan Tock Seng Hospital—Singapore6. Samsung Electronics—Suwon, South Korea7. Optum Global Solutions India—Gurugram, India8. Persistent Systems—Pune, India9. Florida Blue—Jacksonville, Florida10. Black Knight—Jacksonville, Florida11. Verizon—New York, New York12. Aditya Birla Capital—Mumbai, India13. DISH Network—Englewood, Colorado14. Tata Consultancy Services—Mumbai, India15. Haier Group—Qingdao, China16. AARP—Washington, D.C.17. First Hawaiian Bank—Honolulu, Hawaii18. NTPC Limited—New Delhi, India19. Hilton—McLean, Virginia20. Paycor—Cincinnati, Ohio21. Asurion—Nashville, Tennessee22. NTT (formerly Dimension Data) —London, United Kingdom23. Busey—Champaign, Illinois24. Danone Academy Turkey—Istanbul, Turkey25. Gilbane Building Company—Providence, Rhode Island26. Ryan—Dallas, Texas27. Memorial Health System—Springfield, Illinois28. Procore—Carpinteria, California29. C&A Industries—Omaha, Nebraska30. Sberbank—Moscow, Russia31. UST Global—Aliso Viejo, California32. Infosys BPM—Bengaluru, India33. Cochlear—Sydney, Australia34. Deltek—Herndon, Virginia35. Fisher Investments—Camas, Washington36. Jindal Power—Gurgaon, India37. Papa Murphy’s International—Vancouver, Washington38. Signature Consultants—Fort Lauderdale, Florida39. Navy Federal Credit Union—Vienna, Virginia40. iCIMS—Holmdel, New Jersey41. Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company—Columbia, South Carolina42. Rapid7—Boston, Massachusetts43. UL—Northbrook, Illinois44. IBM—Armonk, New York45. Lupin Limited—Mumbai, India46. Booz Allen Hamilton—McLean, Virginia47. ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company—Mumbai, India48. Hitachi Vantara—Santa Clara, California49. North Highland—Atlanta, Georgia50. Aimco—Denver, Colorado51. Medidata Solutions—New York, New York52. Krystal—Atlanta, Georgia53. Western & Southern Financial Group—Cincinnati, Ohio54. Walmart—Bentonville, Arkansas55. Plante Moran—Southfield, Michigan56. University Health System—San Antonio, Texas57. Gap—San Francisco, CaliforniaTwenty-two companies on this list have been BEST Award winners for three or more years:BMO Financial Group, Booz Allen Hamilton, Busey, Consumers Energy, Florida Blue, Haier Group, Hilton, Hitachi Vantara, IBM, ICICI, Infosys, Lupin Limited, NTPC Limited, Persistent Systems, Ryan, Samsung Electronics, Tata, TELUS, University Health System, Valvoline Instant Oil Change, Verizon, and Wipro.More information about the 2019 BEST Award winners may be found in the October 2019 issue of TD magazine. Details about the 2020 program will be available in January 2020.ATD thanks program sponsors GP Strategies and Artisan E-Learning for supporting excellence in talent development.About ATDThe Association for Talent Development (ATD) is the world’s largest professional membership organization supporting those who develop the knowledge and skills of employees, improve performance, and help to achieve results for the organizations they serve. Originally established in 1943, the association was previously known as the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD). ATD’s members come from more than 120 countries and work in public and private organizations in every industry sector. ATD supports talent development professionals who gather locally in volunteer-led U.S. chapters and international member networks and with international strategic partners. For more information, visit TD.org.###

59 Organizations Win Prestigious ATD BEST Award

The Public Manager, ATD’s premier publication for federal managers and professionals wrapped up its third successful Government Workforce: Learning Innovations conference in Washington, D.C., last week. Keynoted by three agency directors—Carolyn Colvin, Acting Commissioner of the Social Security Administration; John Koskinen, IRS Commissioner; and Beth Cobert, Acting Director of the Office of Personnel Management—the event attracted nearly 300 federal employees, 25 private-sector sponsors, and 45 panelists representing more than 50 different federal agencies or government working groups. “We’re very proud of this year’s event,” said Ron Sanders, Booz Allen vice president and board chair of The Public Manager. “There was so much enthusiasm on display. It was a real testament to the passion and commitment that government workers bring to their jobs every day.” Government managers and professionals are facing unprecedented challenges, said Sanders, adding that cultivating their knowledge, skills, and capabilities is essential in an environment where engagement levels can be notoriously difficult to quantify. What’s more, building a fully engaged, innovative, and productive workforce in the midst of austere budgets and ever-increasing workload can seem like nothing short of an impossibility for many agencies. Yet every day, dedicated government managers and professionals and their staff come to work, sit down, and do just that, said Sanders. The 2015 Government Workforce: Learning Innovations event put the spotlight on those leaders, with 16 concurrent sessions that examined state-of-the-art human capital and learning practices in the public and private sectors, and covered everything from using workforce data analytics to deliver on agency missions to managing volatility and change to get results. Meanwhile, the release of the new, digital format of The Public Manager magazine was timed to coincide with the event, featuring a cover interview with the conference’s keynote, Acting Social Security Commissioner Carolyn Colvin. “This community of dedicated managers and professionals from federal, state, and local agencies is working to address the public sector’s talent needs,” said Sanders, “and we want this conference and the newly released digital TPM magazine to become two of the essential tools in their toolkits as they tackle government’s many challenges.” (Check out Ron's video detailing the relaunch of the all new The Public Manager.) You can subscribe to The Public Manager magazine today! Click here****, and then click on the September cover image to access the free September issue.

ATD's Government Workforce: Learning Innovations Conference Highlights Best Practices

 The Association for Talent Development, formerly ASTD, and The Public Manager announce that leaders from four federal agencies will give keynote addresses at the 2015 Government Workforce: Learning Innovations conference. Carol Colvin, Acting Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, John Koskinen, IRS Commissioner, Carol Pope, Chair of the Federal Labor Relations Authority, and Beth Cobert, Acting Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) will anchor the event. The conference will be held on September 10, 2015, in Washington, D.C.The keynote speakers will each share relevant stories about engagement, culture building, and the power of collaboration in each of their agencies.•    Commissioner Colvin will talk about workplace challenges like staying agile, planning for attrition, and increasing engagement.•    Commissioner Koskinen will address the reality of life at the intersection of increasing workloads and decreasing funding.•    Chairman Pope will be interviewed live about the “zero to hero” turnaround in employee engagement at the Federal Labor Relations Authority.•    Acting Director Cobert will speak about her plans for OPM and broader workforce challenges faced by government agencies today.The Government Workforce: Learning Innovations conference is designed to share human capital and workforce learning ‘best practices,’ with an emphasis on real-world application and implementation across government agencies. The innovative “un-conference” model will showcase the power collaboration and innovation have in the learning environment to help agencies meet their strategic mission outcomes.Program tracks for the conference are:•    Data Analytics - using data analytics to deliver agency missions•    Performance Management - managing performance of programs and people•    Everything Learning – best practices for informal learning and nontraditional training•    Getting Results - managing volatility and change to get resultsFor more information about the 2015 Government Workforce: Learning Innovations conference, visit www.governmentworkforce.org and watch this video. Follow the conference on Twitter with #GovWorkforce. Members of the media can request press credentials on www.td.org.

Federal Agency Leaders Colvin, Koskinen, Pope, and Cobert to Keynote Government Workforce: Learning Innovations Conference

Between the daily borage of controversial headlines around misappropriated spending, workforce reorganization, and federal pay cuts, we often miss hearing the good news about innovation and progress occurring within the government workforce. Well, the 2012 Next Generation of Government Summit in Washington D.C., which brought together more than 600 Generation X and Y public sector workers, didn’t miss a beat sharing information about how many federal workers are taking steps to move government work forward. The summit was chock full of sessions on everything government employees are doing right. It’s time to share these stories.For two days, attendees learned how their peers were driving change, creating innovation, and leveraging social media tools to improve government.Carmen Medina, former CIA Director of Intelligence and author of the series “Corporate Rebel,” gave attendees a “pep talk” about how to be a “good” corporate rebel. “Optimism is the greatest act of rebellion,” she told the audience. “Nobody likes a pessimistic change agent.” Medina gave the young government leaders several key tips to drive change: start small, don’t avoid conflict, and when opportunity opens up, run through the hole as quickly as possible.Todd Park, the chief technology officer of the United States, discussed lessons learned about “innovation in government.” To create innovation in government, public sector employees must “embrace we-gov (open innovation)” and remember “that most of the smartest people in the world work for someone else.” Park is part of the recently announced series of Open Data Initiatives in energy, health care, public safety, and education to spark new private-sector consumer-facing and business-oriented tools, products, and services—such as mobile apps and websites—all while rigorously protecting personal, proprietary, and national security information.During the keynote on “How to Drive Big Change in Government,” Lena Trudeau—associate commissioner  in the Office of Strategic Innovations for the General Services Administration—challenged the audience to take a risk. “With crisis comes opportunity,” says Trudeau. “Sometimes you need to show the risk inherent with maintaining the status quo.”In other exciting news, I’d like to introduce you to Paula Ketter, the new Editor of The Public Manager, ASTD’s journal dedicated to supporting government managers. While Paula is new to the role of Editor for the The Public Manager, she is certainly no-newbie. Paula is the Editor of ASTD periodicals, and has overseen the publication of ASTD’s flagship monthly magazine T+D (Training + Development) for five years. She has also served as the Managing Editor of The Public Manager for three years. Paula is a veteran journalist with more than 30 years of experience writing and editing for newspapers and magazines. Carrie BlustinDirector, Government SectorPublisher, The Public Manager

Government Newsletter: August 2012

Nirav Desai is a chief technologist in Booz Allen Hamilton’s Strategic Innovation Group, leading the firm’s innovation in immersive technology strategy. In this role he connects government, corporate, and academic research with client needs and the start-up ecosystem (startups, venture capital, and accelerators) to support technology planning and adoption. Additionally, Nirav serves as the firm’s innovation lead for the Pacific Northwest, developing strategy and building a culture of innovation to foster entrepreneurship across a diverse staff and client base. Over the past three years, he helped establish the firm’s immersive practice with a focus on next-generation augmented reality, virtual reality, haptics, and brain-computer interfaces.Nirav has contributed to and led multimillion-dollar projects as an individual performer (system architect, data scientist, software developer) and as a technical manager. Through his career, he has worked on projects in the defense, national security, global health, technology, civil, and financial sectors. Beyond his work with the federal government, Nirav contributes to his community through being a Civic Council member for the University of Washington Masters of Arts in Applied International Studies, a start-up mentor for TechStars Seattle and CoMotion Labs, and the Innovation Working Group co-chair for the Pacific Northwest Economic Region. He regularly speaks at industry conferences and trade shows. Nirav received a bachelor of science in computer science and a bachelor of arts in philosophy and mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin. Additionally, he has an affiliate assistant professor appointment in the University of Washington’s Department of Electrical Engineering.

Nirav Desai

Maria Ho is the manager of ATD research services. She serves as ATD's senior research program strategist and designer and provides oversight and direction for all of ATD's internal and external, industry specific, and market research services. Prior to joining ATD, Maria was a public policy researcher, data analyst, and writer at the Pew Charitable Trusts in Washington, D.C.

Maria Ho

Lisa Nabors is a partner with Strategic Performance Group and is recognized by the International Coach Federation as a Professional Certified Coach (PCC). Ms. Nabors is a talented speaker and often makes presentations on the topic of coaching to industry and professional groups. She began coaching during her 16 years of experience as a successful, senior-level HR and training and development professional in private industry. Her passion is in optimizing individual, team, and organization performance, and her coaching clients include managers, executives, and teams in organizations such as AOL, AARP, U.S. Department of Education, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Ms. Nabors' coaching expertise includes gathering and feeding back data, helping clients to generate alternatives, identifying key metrics and creating action plans designed to achieve specific, measurable results.Ms. Nabors is a certified user of all Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) 360-degree feedback instruments, the EQi-2.0 and EQ 360, LEI, APT 360 Instruments, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment, and many customized instruments. She is an adjunct faculty member for Marymount University and the George Washington University, and she is the co-author of The Dialogue Deck, Leading From the Inside Out: A Coaching Model (Sage, 2002), and Organizational Coaching (ATD Press, 2008).

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