Mike Prokopeak

So often in our organizations and communities, we fall into a cycle of reaction. A problem happens, and we respond. We fight fires. We contend with emergencies. Researchers call this "tunneling": We don't see the big picture, and we don't think about the future, we just keep pushing forward from one crisis to the next. What if instead we could shift our energies upstream -- uncovering and addressing the source of those problems?

In this talk, Heath will reveal how some leaders have learned to spot problems in advance: There's a school district that can predict which students will drop out -- 4 years before graduation. There's an internet service company that can predict which customers are likely to cancel their subscriptions -- as early as two weeks after they sign up! When we shift from downstream response to upstream planning, it can cause miracles: One company eliminated 25 million customer support calls by asking, "How can we make sure our customers never need to call us?" And one nation in Europe has almost eliminated teenage substance abuse by asking, "How can we create a teenage culture that offers such compelling sober activities that teens simply don't feel like drinking or doing drugs?"

Heath will share the three forces that push us downstream, as well as the powerful levers we can use to start preventing problems before they happen.

The pandemic forced many into uncharted territory and fast adaptions. Darwin had nothing on the evolution organizations underwent, and the field of employee experience was no exception. While we lost normalcy, the experience created a greater need than ever to truly listen to employees and understand their needs in order to thrive in this uncertain environment. And this need created an opportunity to elevate the significance of employee listening to inform business decisions.

In her closing keynote address, Shawnté Holland shares the story of how her organization adapted its approach to employee listening and successfully accelerated its evolution toward an even higher value-add capability integral to workplace success.

Why do good teams kill great ideas? Safi Bahcall reveals a surprising new way of thinking about group behavior that challenges everything we thought we knew about nurturing radical breakthroughs. Drawing on the science of phase transitions, and using stories that range from James Bond to Steve Jobs, Safi shows why teams, companies, or any group with a mission will suddenly change from embracing wild new ideas to rigidly rejecting them.

Meticulously researched and undoubtedly fascinating, this talk offers fresh insights from a new kind of science—showing the three techniques that creatives, leaders, and visionaries can use to liberate the ideas trapped inside small and large companies everywhere.

How can we make complex ecosystems seem simple for teams in this next phase of work? 

In this panel discussion, we will share real-world examples of finding the tools that best fit your teams, options to address platform limitations and silo challenges, and employee-centric approaches to technology modernization to garner stronger outcomes in employee productivity and engagement.

In this closing keynote address, Susan Cummings, SVP of Northern Trust, will offer a framework to achieve collective innovation across digital teams, and discuss lessons learned in evolving the digital workplace of one of the largest banking institutions in the United States, and one of the oldest banks in continuous operation.

Northern Trust’s digital workplace is a complex ecosystem of business needs and opportunities coupled with geographic nuances that span culture, risk, compliance, privacy and security.  

Prior to 2020, the institution knew that 5-year roadmaps and end-state visions and projects were being replaced by agility and the need to keep pace with an evolving, re-imagined way of living and working.  The remote work experience in 2020 re-emphasized “persistent change” and required Northern Trust digital workplace leadership to enable an efficient and productive employee experience with speed, flexibility and innovation.

In this keynote address, Susan will share the levers to:

1. Create visibility and collective innovation across your digital teams

2. Leverage industry knowledge, best practices and experience to inform and grow your teams’ and organizations’ thinking

3. Enable governance aligned to business needs and priorities

With hiring projected to increase, and employees looking for career growth within their organizations, the significance of onboarding and career mobility has never been higher. In this discussion, panelists will share how their companies have built solid foundations for both new, and newly mobile, team members to succeed.  We’ll hear insights into managing onboarding remotely through today’s HR platforms, key methods to successfully engage employees in new roles, and how their organizations measure success. This panel will provide insights into a people-focused and effective approach to help create — and sustain — the momentum of an engaged workforce.

It’s not enough to simply have an L&D program in place. The best learning and development programs are invisible, adjusting seamlessly to the evolving wants of the learner, while meeting business needs in real time. Learning happens in an integrated fashion, as part of the way work gets done.

With the growing skills gap at work, many organizations have turned to high profile upskilling and reskilling initiatives to close it. Done right, they benefit both organizations and employees. Companies develop a more productive, more skilled and adaptable workforce. Employees get the skills they need to succeed in new and higher level roles. It’s win-win.

In this fireside chat, GE Healthcare executive Christopher Lind will share:

• The theory and practice of learning in the flow of work
• How adaptive learning is a game changer for skill development
• What needs to happen to make reskilling and upskilling a reality

Dan talks with Reworked editor Mike Prokopeak about how the pandemic reshaped our priorities at work and home and what we can do to rise above the day-to-day and make meaningful upstream changes that improve our results.

For more conversations like this, be sure to subscribe to our Get Reworked podcast here.