immediate impact - endless possibilities
August, 2016
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What a difference a month can make!  Over the past few weeks we've had some exciting changes in the shape and scope of our upcoming Connecting Customers Conference.  
At Insights, we are evolving as an organization - incrementally developing our brand, our proposition and our impact on the world. Our conference has evolved too - from a live one-day event into an on-line virtual session we'll record.  If you're unable to join us October 5th, you'll still be able to tune into all the various sessions and access the Cracker Barrel materials. 

We've got more details about the Evolve conference in this month's update, along with news of a visitor to Canada, upcoming events and links to some very interesting reads. 

So we invite you to take five and catch up on the latest news from Insights Learning and Development Canada West.  


Wednesday, October 5th

At Insights, we are evolving as an organization - incrementally developing our brand, our proposition and our impact on the world.  We invite you to evolve along with us.  Join us for an exciting opportunity where we support you in your evolution as a practitioner and as an advocate for Insights.

This year we move our Annual Customer Conference 'on-line' for a lot of good reasons.

First, everyone can attend No matter where you may be located it's still incredibly simple to attend our virtual conference. Join practitioners from Ottawa, Gatineau, Victoria, Calgary, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Regina, Prince George and more and become a part of this event. We want all our Client Practitioners to feel more connected to our offices. Even your assistants and colleagues may choose to attend.

Second, there's no cost for this event. We know o nly so many people can afford to travel to an in-person event, particularly in the era of cost controls and travel budget restrictions. Our goal is to reach as many of our practitioners as possible, so why would we want to limit that? Unlike live conferences there is a no cost to attend, no cost for hotel rooms, no parking fees, and no lost time from work. With this online event, you (and your bosses) don't have to worry about the costs, so many more will be able to join us.

All attendees can attend and receive everything!   One of the biggest challenges at past conferences was selecting cracker-barrel sessions.  In our virtual conference, every attendee has access to every pre-recorded cracker barrel, and you won't miss out on any of the valuable tips and tools designed to help you in your job just because you sat in on a different session.  This way, you get to attend everything, and you'll receive all the exercises and materials from every session.

This is a much more efficient use of your time.   This session is virtual, so you won't have to book an entire day off in order to attend, and with every session being recorded and made available later, even if you have to leave the conference session to take care of something at work, you can re-join and never miss out.  No travel time - no sitting in traffic - no transit schedules or ferry connections to worry about.

Finally, it's environmentally friendly.   A virtual conference does not involve travel. Additionally, all collateral (brochures, data-sheets, cracker-barrel exercises and give- aways) are virtual, hence avoiding all those printed material in conferences that usually get trashed later on.

"We're really excited about this new opportunity to connect with Client Practitioners and share some important new ideas", said Cathy Anderson, Senior Consultant, Learning Solutions. 

Our E-Conference brings together our Client Practitioners for an invaluable opportunity to deepen your practical knowledge alongside other practitioners facing the same business challenges. Our theme this year is Evolve -  the idea that no matter how long you've been an Insights Practitioner, you're likely to evolve and change based on your experiences delivering our learning solutions and your own personal preferences. Join us for an exciting opportunity where we support you in your evolution as a practitioner and as an advocate for Insights.   
 
Is it right for you?
Whether you are a newly-accredited CP or someone who has worked with us for years, we welcome you to attend. There is something new for everyone to discover.
What can you expect from the day?

The purpose of Evolve is to provide you relevant information, hands-on experiences and networking opportunities so you can take your work as a Client Practitioner to the next level.  You will learn new tips for deepening your facilitation practice, peek into the future of how Insights is evolving and gain perspective on how you can grow in partnership with Insights.
 
For more details and to register, follow this link.
Upcoming Events 

Discoverylogowithglobe Insights Discovery Accreditation
Calgary - September 27-30 (Tue-Fri)
Vancouver - November 1-4 (Tue-Fri)

There are now over 30 public and internal Accreditations every year across North America, which demonstrates how many organizations are choosing to bring Insights Discovery 'in house'.  In Western Canada, we always end up with a waiting list for IDA sessions, so if you're considering attending an IDA in a city near you, don't hesitate.
  
Full details and registration information is located here.

CP Renewals 
A one-day interactive session for Insights Discovery Client Practitioners committed to keeping their learning alive. Renewals extend your Insights Discovery certification for another two years.  While each program is adjusted to meet the needs of the registered participants, a typical day addresses questions such as:
  • What exercises can I use to reinforce key messages in a personal effectiveness workshop?
  • What do I need to remember when debriefing an individual's Insights Discovery Profile?
  • How can I apply other chapters in the Insights Discovery Profile?
  • What is common, and different, as you transition from an introductory workshop to Discovering Team Effectiveness or Discovering Leadership Effectiveness?
  • What's the difference between an integrated Insights learning strategy and single event workshops?
  • What new resources might fit with the needs in my organization?
Vancouver - Tuesday, October 4th
Toronto- Thursday, October 13th

More details and registration links are located here.
Cross-Canada Collaboration Tour

Victoria O'Dea, Client Relationship Director at Insights Global, visited Insights offices across Canada to speak about global collaboration and to share learning, best practices, and help develop an informed global client strategy.

Victoria O'Dea
Victoria and her family arrived in Vancouver in late July and she spent a few days in the Vancouver office meeting with Consultants and Learning Services folks.  They were joined by Leslie Cole and Yvonne Bridges from the Calgary office.  While her family took in the sights around Vancouver, Victoria shared a number of ideas including proposals, marketing collateral and even her "BOP" process form (you really need to ask her about this!)

"Having the opportunity to see first-hand some of the exciting innovations and strategies being used at the Global level has been very rewarding for us all", said Leslie Cole, Managing Director, Insights Canada West. "We've seen some great new ideas, some one-pagers, and a lot of solid research that's gone into proposal writing" she added. 

Her 42-day working vacation continues with a stop in the Calgary office (after a brief visit to Vancouver Island, the BC Interior, and the Banff-Jasper area) where she'll share ideas with the Calgary team.  From there, she and her family are off to Toronto for more sharing (and some more sight seeing) before finally heading back to the UK.

 "This meeting is so timely", said Victoria "thinking in terms of our global strategy. Sharing is so important.  It's critical we are all able to partner with our clients on a business journey by tapping into their language.  How do we help them with the problems that keep them awake at night?  We use the wealth of experience in every region of our business in a client centric way to provide a customer excellence that is truly valued in an end to end process from first contact to delivery of business solutions."

This opportunity, like last month's visit by European and Canadian Regional Manager Wilco Vlaar, demonstrate the on-going focus and collaboration of our truly global company in our quest to become irresistibly attractive to our chosen customers.  


Trust.  It's not a 'nice -to-have' from your employees.  It's a 'must-have'.  And there's a strong connection between employee trust and financial performance.  Read the full HRB article here. 

Busy-ness vs. productivity - the benefits of boredom.  It's important to be productive - but what about that down-time?  Read the full article here.
Let's Be Social 
Join us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.  We'll be using these links to provide updates in-between our monthly newsletters and we'll also be re-posting or re-tweeting stories and articles we find interesting. 

If you have comments or suggestions for articles in upcoming newsletters, please   contact me directly. 

Dale Nelson, 
Insights Learning and Development