Edward Defraine

What is the most important position in your organization? More often than not, the answer is your frontline leaders. A high performing frontline leader will find a way for their team to succeed in the face of poorly planned initiatives, changing priorities and chaos. A low performing frontline leader will find a way to sink even your best initiatives and will lead their team to middling or low results, independent of the strength of their senior leadership. How do you raise the overall performance of an entire layer of your organization--dozens, perhaps even hundreds of people--all at once? For practical answers that can be applied to systems both large and small, join Ed DeFraine as he presents a case study from the Coca-Cola Company. A group discussion will follow Ed’s explanation and analysis of the case and key takeaways include:
• Focus on the needs of the organization as well as the needs of individual employees
• Utilize learning journeys of actual events and customer success stories instead of programmed classroom training
• Encourage senior leaders to serve as role models to junior employees

Companies that give back to their communities receive good PR, but there’s another, perhaps even more important reason, to be philanthropic. Studies have shown that employees who participate in nonprofit and community-based activities on behalf of their employer are more engaged and more loyal. In this interactive discussion, our experts from Cisco, Gerber Scientific and Roche will show the benefits of giving back, such as:

• Increasing employee satisfaction by providing time off to be used for community-based projects
• Fostering team-building skills among a remote workforce
• Highlighting your company’s status in the local community which may assist with recruitment efforts