CUNA Experience Learning Live!
Topics & Objectives

Please note that the Topics/Objectives listed below are subject to change.

General Sessions

Improv Comedy Games Anyone Can Play

Barry Callen & Nell Weatherwax
A sampler for terrified first-timers and cynical vets — If you can walk and talk, you can play these improv games immediately. Wear comfortable clothing, and be prepared to move around, make noises, and tell stories. Sure, you’ll have fun. But more importantly, you will learn stuff you can use back at the office about meeting facilitation, creativity, teamwork, power, and thinking on your feet. You do not have to be funny, you will not be put on the spot, and you do not have to be good at the games to learn the lessons they contain. All you have to do is play, which is precisely how your young self learned most of what you already know.

Joy, Pain & Arachnophobia: Redefining Your Success as a CU Training Professional

Andy Janning
Your life as a credit union training professional can be filled with incredible highs, lows, and moments of mind-numbing fear. For every manager telling you how well their staff is doing because of your training, you have to quickly adapt to organizational changes, perform emergency updates of class content, stay one step ahead of turnover, make a measurable difference, and never let ‘em see you sweat. At the end of it all, how do you know you’re successful — that you’re making a difference in the lives of the employees and members you serve? This session will challenge your views of what "good" training really is, help you see what your success looks like through eyes of the clients you serve, and develop the eight skills that promote lasting success as a credit union training professional.

Speak To Be Heard!

Stacey Hanke
Influencing Others To Take Action — Communicating effectively is one of the most powerful tools you have to positively impact the learning process. Without effectively communicating a message, you inhibit your maximum potential to: increase learner retention, motivate, influence and prevent misunderstandings in the classroom. How you communicate determines the amount of influence you have and the results you and your trainees achieve. You will walk away with a heightened awareness of how your listeners perceive you when you communicate. You will receive practical skills and techniques to enhance your training processes, communication behavior, boost your credibility, and get people to act on what you have to say.

The Innovation Mindset: Keys to Personal & Professional Creativity

Adam Shames
One’s mindset—the belief system that guides how you embrace change and tackle new challenges — is key to creating an innovative culture. Innovation and creativity require a flexibility and openness to ideas that are not always easy to foster in a business environment. This session explores the mindset needed for innovation, both personally and organizationally. We will explore key principles of creativity, practice techniques for boosting individual creativity, and gain insights into more effectively facilitating innovation throughout your organization.

Breakout Sessions

90/90 Vision: 90 Ideas in 90 Minutes to Enrich your Future Focus

Amy Nelson
Participate in a fast-paced round-robin of brainstorming activities to provide 90 training and development ideas you can implement immediately. Share program tools, behavior-embedding techniques and "AHA! moments" to expand your view of effective best practices from around the country. Experience three distinct brainstorming techniques to create 90/90 Vision. Take home ideas for your credit union and brainstorming skills for yourself! All ideas will be compiled and provided to you.

Borrowing the CFO's Brain: Thinking Critically About Training Results

Andy Janning
Can it be done? Can you meld a CFO’s knowledge of financial performance with a training professional’s knowledge of human performance to create a reliable and valid method of reporting training results? One credit union is tackling this seemingly-impossible challenge. Be prepared to examine the specifics of the approach, learn how to adapt it to your credit union, and drive your credit union toward the destination of results-based training.

Engaging Learners Through Multiple Intelligences

Adam Shames
We are all smart in different ways, and the best training appeals to diverse learning styles of participants. In this highly interactive session, you will explore Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences as a framework to increase engagement for learners. You will have a chance to review and assess your own multiple intelligences, experience learning in different modes — visual, physical, auditory, interpersonal, intrapersonal and more — and fill your toolkit with innovative methods for bringing new energy to meetings and trainings.

Formal & Informal Learning: Using Technology to Allow Learning to Happen in Unsuspecting Locations

Doug Williams & Marlo Foltz
Still think learning means school? Expand your definition of learning. Surveys and studies continue to show that about 80%; of learning on the job occurs informally. Join us in this thought-provoking session to learn how you can maximize your training by blending formal and informal ways of learning. Learn new tricks to make learning happen in unsuspecting locations. Become familiar with new tools and techniques to leverage the talent and brain power in your credit union, freeing up more of your development time to focus on new training initiatives. See how you can design spontaneous learning opportunities in offbeat places and how utilizing new technology can induce learners to naturally engage and share information.

Get On Board With Onboarding

Amy Nelson
Engaging a new employee from day one can set the stage for their learning and professional development. You will be guided through the process of understanding how to effectively manage expectations as part of integrating new employees into the corporate culture as well as how to assess and design a process that will resonate within the corporate culture. You will create a blueprint for onboarding success, including developing an effective onboarding strategy to accelerate the acculturation process and track engagement.

Group Creativity Live & Unchained!

Barry Callen & Nell Weatherwax
Our culture's model of creativity is an individual genius who comes down from the mountain to hand a perfect new idea to the rest of us. Today’s business organization needs the equivalent of a whole improv comedy group, not just an individual stand-up comic. These games will show you group creativity skills like how to reframe any problem, think creatively under fire, build on the ideas of others, and have the confidence to speak up. Above all, you'll have fun, which is the key to creative productivity. You'll experience new games and repeat a few games, but with a creative spin.

Keeping Training Alive & Growing

Michelle Britt
Planning your next refresher session? Maybe this just happened to you... you train them, you motivate them, you pour your encouragement into them, then they go back to the real world and forget everything? Well maybe not everything. If you smiled and nodded when you read that, this session is for YOU! Your credit union has made an investment in the material and information you are responsible for training. Sustaining the learned information is crucial. You will discover the "what" to keep your team focused on that gets the biggest results, the "how" to keep them focused and excited about it, and the "why" it's important to them personally, the credit union and their members. You'll explore how to develop your emerging leaders in a "peer to peer" coaching program that takes the load off you and stimulates a team environment.

Now That's Clever! 2007 ELLy Winners Showcase

Tuesday morning session
2007 WOW Award Winner
2007 Chi Pi Delta Award Winner
2007 eLearning Award Winner

Tuesday afternoon sesson
2007 Coach Award
2007 Training Champion Award
2007Training Professional of the Year Award

Power Games for Leaders, Followers & Wise Fools

Barry Callen & Nell Weatherwax
Learn how to drain the negative energy from the room, teach a group how to help each other be more creative, and develop your ability to lead or follow or both with no words exchanged. Unconscious power games invisibly destroy productivity, creativity, and morale in meetings, departments, and businesses. You'll experience new games plus some of the same games as the sampler. The topics are serious, but the games are not.

The Psychology of Learning

Lee Alderman
Learn about the psychology of learning in this interactive and informative session. You will explore five key areas to help you design and deliver effective training and ensure successful transfer of learning. These areas of focus include how to avoid cognitive overload, how to structure each lesson effectively, how to tailor information delivery, how to create "use" level practices, and the role of the trainer in assisting with training transfer.

Solid Employee Training Implementation Leads to Lasting Results

Jayne Hitman
Do you ever feel like you work at an ice cream shop - promoting "Flavor of the Month" training programs? Why do so many programs come and go? Training experts agree that a sound implementation plan is the key. In this informative and fun session you will learn that it's not all up to you. You'll uncover the truth about the other roles within the credit union that influence your training outcomes. This session is all about the training implementation planning process, and you will leave with the ability to construct a sound training implementation plan that generates long-term success. You'll explore a step-by-step 3-part process to ensure your efforts in the training room impact your credit union's bottom-line.

Trainer as Facilitator of Learning: Mastering the Art of Feedback

Angela Prestil
Assumptions are made every day about our learners which are drawn from what we see in the classroom. And you know what can happen when you assume! In this session, you’ll learn how to test our assumptions and provide effective feedback to be more successful in our communications both in the classroom and throughout the credit union.

Training Effectiveness: Demonstrating Value

Gerry Singleton
In this interactive and informative session, learn the keys to successfully demonstrating the value and effectiveness of your training programs. You will learn how to turn "fuzzy" training expectations into measurable results, how to link your credit union’s goals to training and performance, and how to showcase convincing evidence of training’s real impact on your credit union. In addition, you will learn how to evaluate the return on expectations, build and communicate your case, and share the credit for success!

WOW Them With Your Message: Getting Connected and Making Connections

Stacey Hanke
Learn how to get to the point and communicate less with more impact. How many times have you heard individuals begin their message with the phrase; "I am here today to talk about"" You will walk away with a powerful organizational tool that is a fast and easy way to organize your message and grab your listeners’ attention. You will be able to immediately use your new organizational tool for training sessions, face-to-face conversations, meetings, and networking.

For more program content information or to request a brochure call 800-356-9655, ext. 4249, or email elearning@cuna.coop. For registration questions, call 800-356-9655, ext.4400 or e-mail reginfo@cuna.coop.