This session will examine theoretical and practical ways of integrating training into a company’s business strategy. Gary views himself as a business manager working in a training assignment. He will describe practical methods used to help the Platt organization achieve long-term business success. The purpose of Platt University is to align all training programs to meet the strategic business goals of the company. Harvey Platt, company CEO, will join the discussion to share his role in helping Platt people make significant contributions to the bottom-line.

Gary Ewer has been with Platt Electric Supply for 21 years. As the Director of Education, he is responsible for the training and development of 800 people at 77 branch locations in six western states. Platt University delivers training programs that meet diverse adult-learning styles through a blended approach to learning that includes on-the-Job, classroom, and Web-based training. Gary has a passion for teaching and finds great satisfaction and fulfillment in helping adult-learners build their self-esteem, self-worth, and confidence. Gary received his MS in Education from Portland State University. He is an adjunct faculty member at Clackamas Community College.

Harvey Platt has been with Platt Electric Supply for 32 years. He served as President from 1986 through 1997 and currently is the company’s Chair and Chief Executive Officer. Prior to 1986, he served in various sales and administrative capacities with the company. As CEO, he is responsible for the overall Mission and Vision of the company. Additionally, Harvey oversees Human Resources, Communications and Community Involvement for Platt Electric. He serves on numerous boards including The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Portland Community College Foundation, Broadway Rose Theatre Company, Citizens Crime Commission and Beaverton Education Foundation. Harvey is a graduate of UCLA.

Beyond fads, trends, and the latest craze, this will focus on leadership development that really works, based on solid research. You'll get specific take-aways that you can use in your organization or with your clients. Why assessing traits is critical to leadership development. Which development methods work best, for what areas of leadership? Inexpensive measures of success. How to engage the support system around the developing leader.

Darrell Beck, Ph.D., CMC, has over twenty-six years of organizational consulting experience spanning a diverse base of client organizations. Dr. Beck's experience base includes over twenty Fortune 500 firms as well as numerous mid-sized and family businesses, and over fifty city, county, state and federal government agencies. He is the principle of Darrell Beck and Associates in Portland.

The presentation explores a highly effective and proven methodology for making significant whole system change in small and medium-sized organizations, independent of an organization's type, products, or technology. It seems fair to say that most who presume to know what OD is would say that change is slow and that it is difficult to achieve in organizations. This presentation defines conditions for making change rapid, significant, and permanent. It also defines the tools, techniques, and assumptions that the consultant needs to apply to accomplish fantastic results. It shows how OD consultants can greatly increase their effectiveness. This presentation includes no exotic tools or technologies, because success to be described does not depend on any new tools. Instead, success depends on the proper set of conditions and a different way for consultants to go about the change process. Participants in the presentation will leave with an understanding of how they can employ the techniques and tools, and what they must learn and change about themselves if they are to do so.

Michael Mitchell is a long-time practitioner and organization consultant, a writer and a restless explorer of new ideas and activities. He has been both an internal and external consultant, has a Ph.D. in Industrial Psychology from Purdue University, and has consulted with numerous Fortune 500 companies. Early in his career, he was the founder and corporate manager of organization development for Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation, working with diverse manufacturing and chemical process plants in many locations around the world.

Michael is the author of a number of professional articles that appear in such publications as the Harvard Business Review. A film highlighting his work on leadership transitions has also been made. He has been a long-time adjunct faculty member of the Pepperdine University MSOD program, and was a member of the first Organization Development Network Executive Board. He has several books in process: Straw Into Gold, a book about making rapid, major performance change in organizations, and The Four Houses, a book about the development and characteristics of individual and organizational styles.

Resilient organizations and resilient individuals have a competitive advantage in today's rapidly changing world. The era of stress reduction is over. We have entered the age of resiliency. In this program, Dr. Siebert shows how to become highly resilient and develop workforce resiliency. Participants will take Siebert's popular quiz "How Resilient Are You?" and discuss how to be resilient in circumstances that overwhelm others. 

Dr. Al Siebert is Director of The Resiliency Center and author of The Survivor Personality: Why Some People are Stronger, Smarter, and More Skillful at Handling Life's Difficulties and How You Can Be, Too. He is an ex-paratrooper with a Ph.D. in psychology, is internationally recognized for his research into the inner nature of highly resilient survivors, is frequently quoted in books and articles, and has been interviewed on National Public Radio and OPRAH. He is recipient of the Oregon governor's "External Trainer of the Year" award. In May, 2004, he keynoted the international conference of the Employee Assistance Society of North America. He specializes in keynotes and workshops for both private and public sector groups on how to be highly resilient in a world that is changing too fast.

They say the "angels are in the architecture" but many of us have learned that "the devil is in the details." If you'd like to learn more about the role of project management and the training function, please plan on attending this workshop. During this interactive session we will:

• Review basic project terminology
• Apply project management methodologies to our own training projects
• Discover tools and resources for project management

Linda Bergquist is a past-President and former board member of the ASTD Cascadia Chapter. She has been a trainer for over 15 years with a wide breadth of experience in human resources, high-tech, insurance and finance. Linda is currently a Senior Trainer at Nationwide Insurance in Portland. Linda recently began adjunct work at Warner Pacific College. She holds a Master’s degree in Education Foundations, Policy and Administration from Portland State University. As a veteran of numerous projects and corporate-wide initiatives, she has experienced the power of the well-executed project.

Parking information will be sent to registrants in their confirmation email.

Our thanks to Regence for hosting this program at their facility.

For directions, use www.mapquest.com.

To receive credit, you must attend at least 4 of the 5 sessions including the last session (mandatory) and be prepared to do a paper as determined by the lead instructor. Students taking the course for graduate credit must take the course for a letter grade and must achieve at least a "B" grade in order to the credit to be transferable into the graduate program.

This course is an elective for the PSU Training Certification program.

Registration is limited to the first 25 who sign up for the entire series. Individual session registrations will be made available if space allows.