The CEO’s Journey: People and Culture

Friday, March 26, 2021 7:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. PDT

Event Overview

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It’s a new world. Get informed and empowered to be the leader your people need.

Hiring is the #1 decision Vistage CEO members are making. But hiring is the tip of the iceberg in leading a thriving organization.

Today, we’ll break the mold. Refuting the “norms” of workplace ideology, we’ll dive deep into how CEOs can think more creatively about how their teams operate.

Join fellow Vistage CEOs and business leaders for a virtual event experience that will turn the status quo on its head. Register now for:


Content: Keynotes from New York Times best-selling author Marcus Buckingham (head of People + Performance research at ADP Research Institute), and Juliet Funt (Founder and CEO, WhiteSpace At Work). Break the people management mold to lead in the new reality.


Conversation: Guided Discussion Sessions and informal social networking to build relationships with Vistage members nationwide. Share your unique perspective and consider that of peers. Broaden your understanding of the day’s learnings. Find new partners in climb.


Connection: Targeted Learning Breakouts on employee development, goal-setting and more. Access proven tools and insights from need-to-know business resources. Start a dialogue to support your path forward.

Why Attend

Check out a sneak peek from the day's keynotes, Juliet Funt and Marcus Buckingham — you'll find detailed presentation descriptions below!

Event Speakers

Marcus Buckingham

NYT Best-Selling Author, Researcher, Founder of the Strengths Revolution, Head of ADP Research Institute | People + Performance

Nine Lies About Work
People care which company they work for. Well-rounded people are superior. Leadership is a thing. These may sound like basic truths of our work lives today. But actually, they're lies. There are nine lies, to be exact. They cause dysfunction and frustration, resulting in workplaces that are a pale shadow of what they could be. But there are those who can get past the lies and discover what's real. These freethinking leaders recognize the power and beauty of our individual uniqueness. They know emergent patterns are more valuable than received wisdom and evidence is more powerful than dogma. With engaging stories and incisive analysis, Marcus Buckingham will explore the essential truths of freethinking leaders:

  • It is the strength and cohesiveness of your team, not your company's culture, that matters most.
  • We should focus less on top-down planning and more on giving our people reliable, real-time intelligence.
  • Rather than trying to align people's goals we should strive to align people's sense of purpose and meaning.
  • People don't want constant feedback, they want helpful attention.
Leave empowered with core truths to show just how good you are to those who truly rely on you.

Juliet Funt

CEO, WhiteSpace at Work

Liberate your team from busywork and complexity
Employees drive themselves hard in the Age of Overload. They seem more productive than ever. But are they? Overloaded individuals often habituate to their discomfort, while their companies suffer from a combination of QQS deficits — downfalls in quantity, quality or sustainability — with bottom line impacted accordingly.

From bandwidth, to work level slipping, to employees surviving but collectively asking, “how long can we keep this up,” Juliet Funt will present tools and insights to help CEOs consider a different path, applying a reductive lens to pare back busyness.

Key takeaways:

  • Get motivated to make room to reclaim and effectively use mental capacity.
  • Learn how to combat “The Tools that Turn on You,” support systems and devices that promise to improve work style, but in reality, defy boundaries and hijack time and resources. (Think email, meetings, etc.)
  • Explore the relevance of WhiteSpace (a strategic pause between activities) on your leadership legacy — the story about you that is yet to be written.

Agenda

Virtual event
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7:30 a.m.
Welcome remarks
7:45 a.m.
Marcus Buckingham, Nine Lies About Work
8:50 a.m.
Guided Discussion Groups
9:50 a.m.
Break
10:00 a.m.
Targeted Learning Breakouts

**Vistage members only**

  • How the OKR goal-setting framework impacts people and culture
  • Making inclusion a part of your organization’s culture
  • The new way we work - 3 key trends for 2021
  • CEO's guide to employee development for sustainable scalability
  • The Impact of ESOPs: A look at employee engagement & corporate culture
    • 10:00 a.m.
    Experience Vistage

    **For guests of Vistage only**

    11:00 a.m.
    Break
    11:30 a.m.
    Juliet Funt, Liberate your team from busywork and complexity
    12:35 p.m.
    Guided Discussion Groups
    12:35 p.m.
    Exclusive Keynote Conversation with Juliet Funt

    **By invitation only for 2020 Member Excellence Award winners**

    1:35 p.m.
    Closing comments
    1:40 p.m.
    Break
    1:50 p.m.
    Networking

    *agenda subject to change

    Breakout sessions

    10:00 - 11:00 a.m.

    Targeted Learning Breakout | How the OKR goal-setting framework impacts people and culture

    Presenter: Alex P. Bartholomaus, President & CEO, People Stretch Solutions

    The purpose of this presentation is to analyze the positive impacts an OKR framework has on an organization’s people and culture. OKR (Objectives and Key Results) is a strategic goal-setting framework that empowers individuals at all levels of the organization to attain better business outcomes. The quarterly process of setting top-level objectives and departments, teams, and individuals committing and aligning their own objectives to them. In a series of dedicated workshops individuals are getting excited about their work, becoming aware of how they contribute to organizational strategy, and increasing cross-departmental collaboration.

    10:00 - 11:00 a.m.

    Targeted Learning Breakout | Making inclusion a part of your organization’s culture

    Presenter: Rodney Satterwhite, Senior Strategic Consultant, Insperity

    Join us for a discussion about the tactical methods leadership can employ to help infuse inclusion into their company culture — with a focus on the intangible actions that are critical to achieve an inclusive organization. This session will challenge participants to begin to self-assess and focus on the empathy, humility and vulnerability needed to create and sustain an inclusive environment. Participants will also have the opportunity to reflect on topics such as inequity and privilege and how they are counterproductive to creating an inclusive environment. One of the many takeaways for participants will be the understanding that infusing inclusion into an organization rests at the feet of all employees, not just leaders and HR practitioners..

    10:00 - 11:00 a.m.

    Targeted Learning Breakout | The new way we work - 3 key trends for 2021

    Presenter: Kathleen Quinn Votaw, Founder & CEO, TalenTrust

    The world will never go back to normal; we are forever changed. 2021 will set the stage for a new reality. It will be a year defined by resilience and reinvention. For organizations, this is a mandate to either put on your hiking boots for the steep climb or die. Equip yourself with expert advice to make sure you are prepared and able to reach the peak. Join Kathleen Quinn Votaw to explore the new way we work, and you will be ready to climb to the top of whatever 2021 has to throw at you!

    10:00 - 11:00 a.m.

    Targeted Learning Breakout | CEO's guide to employee development for sustainable scalability

    Presenter: Jason Williford, Executive Advisor, Culture Index

    Join the Culture Index Team in this interactive session to reveal how to sustainably develop your employees while growing your top and bottom line. Do you have an objective data based method to develop your employees that directly ties to your profit and loss statement? Are you tired of trying to develop employees that just won't be developed? Have you lost A Players because they were not being developed properly resulting in huge financial losses? In this session you will be prepped with fact based objective data to drive your employee development forward. Walk away with new insights, tips and practices to implement into your business and better align your people along the way.

    10:00 - 11:00 a.m.

    The impact of ESOPs: A look at employee engagement & corporate culture

    Presenter: Keith Apton, Managing Director and Nick Francia, Managing Director, Wealth Management

    In this session, you will learn that an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) is more than just a tax-efficient exit strategy for a business owner – it can also act as a way to enhance corporate culture, foster an atmosphere of engagement, and reward hard-working employees. They can also be a powerful tool for recruiting and retaining talent. ESOPs can provide a solution to one of the most difficult challenges faced by all kinds of businesses: aligning the goals of the employees with those of the company and management.

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