The Culture Ambassadors Retreat
Featuring Foremost Experts
OMAHA, NEBRASKA
Because of the COVID resurgence the Culture Ambassadors Retreat is being postponed until October 3-5, 2022. Same Omaha location. Same great speakers plus more during 3 full days.
You might have been thinking to attend on October 4, 2021 but were waiting to see about the COVID situation. If you wish, you can pay the October, 2021 fee of $149 by October 4, 2021 and be paid for October 3-5, 2022.The May early bird registration fee will be $549 for 3 days.
Click for advance Registration
We ask that you not register check back in January, 2022 attend if you won’t have full COVID vaccinations before the event. The COVID situation is not good. We may need to ask participants to wear masks. In the event of postponement, participants will be fully paid for the new date.
For:
The retreat is for business leaders in any functional area and any type of business. Every employee is a leader and is responsible for their workplace culture.
Speakers:
Jay Wilkinson, CEO, Firespring
The Do More Good Movement
Jay always gets rave reviews for his presentation content and for being an exceptionally nice person. You will know why when you hear and see him in Omaha.
Jay Wilkinson is the Founder of Do More Good Movement and CEO of Firespring. As an entrepreneur and angel investor he founded the Do More Good Movement in 2019 with a mission to educate, empower and amplify companies and business leaders doing more good. Do More Good has a goal to aid in the creation of 250,000 U.S. Do More Good companies. Jay's marketing firm, Firespring serves thousands of clients on 6 continents and in all 50 states. In 2014, Firespring became Nebraska’s first Certified B-Corporation. In 2016, Firespring was featured in Inc. as one of America’s “50 Best Workplaces.” Jay has appeared on CNN and other cable networks discussing the role of purpose in business. His TEDx talk on company culture has more than 1 million views.
We are standing at the precipice of the biggest shift in capitalism since the industrial age. Business leaders who don’t understand that they need to evolve their business model to serve all stakeholders may not survive the next decade. Jay will share his perspective on the future of culture, community and connection based on extensive research conducted with leaders of top-performing workplaces all over North America.
David Sturt EVP, O.C. Tanner Institute & Marketing
Post-pandemic Culture: What happens next?
David Sturt is a New York Times bestselling author of two books, Great Work and Appreciate. He is an Executive Vice President of the O.C. Tanner Company, a $500+ million global recognition and workplace culture company.
David will share intriguing findings and insights from a 2021 global culture study to be released later this year of over 38,000 employees across 20 countries. Here are some of the questions he will be exploring: What effect has the pandemic had on employee experience and workplace culture? What are the culture implications of ongoing remote and hybrid work? What role does personality play in engagement and culture formation? What is fueling the post-pandemic surge in job resignations? What are the core mechanisms of building connection in thriving cultures? Come and be part of the discussion!
Doug Kirkpatrick, D’Artagnan Advisors
Futurework: Managing Complexity with Simplicity
Doug will explore the lessons learned from the journey of vanguard companies as they unleash the power of organizational self-management. Is it possible to adopt an organizational model linking mission-critical processes to individual stewardship without the need for traditional management and formal hierarchy? Is it possible to slash the direct and indirect costs of bureaucracy to achieve strategic competitive advantage? Is it possible to manage great complexity with simple principles? The answer to all of these questions appears to be yes.
What you'll take away:
- Learn How to Create a Highly Scalable Enterprise Without Bosses and Titles.
- Learn How Self-Management Creates Organizational Agility and Resilience.
- Learn How to Manage Great Complexity with Great Simplicity.
Casey Putney, Director of Education and Leadership Development, Business Ethics Alliance.
Communicate Like a Leader – Ethical Leadership
Communication is at the heart of all success. As leaders, our ability to influence and gain buy-in rests largely on our ability to communicate effectively and connect with others. In this engaging and thought-provoking presentation, participants will be guided into an examination of the art and science of communication. Takeaways include these:
- Learn the theories of brain science that impact our ability to communicate.
- Identify why you struggle to connect with certain people in your life and on your team.
- Gain the self-awareness and increased emotional intelligence required of leaders that communicate at the highest level.
- Walk away with quick, and easy to understand and implement steps to immediately increase your communication skills.
Casey is a certified John Maxell leadership coach, speaker, and trainer. He has more than 20 years of experience leading teams in the military, state government, for-profit and non-profit sectors. Casey understands that success as a leader boils down to conversations and relationships. He holds a Master’s degree in Organizational Leadership, and certifications in Diversity, Lean Six Sigma, and Safety.
Ryan Picarella, Executive Vice President, Growth and Partnerships, LifeGuides.
Building a Culture of Care using Peer Support
Ryan Picarella has worked with communities and organizations around the world to ignite social movements while improving the lives of all people. Widely known for his thought leadership, Ryan has worked with Fortune 500 companies, been a keynote speaker at global conferences and currently serves as executive vice president, growth and partnerships at LifeGuides and as a senior fellow with WE in the Nation focusing on well-being and equity around the world. Ryan has a Master of Science in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Northern Arizona University.
Life Challenges can take a tremendous toll on our emotional and physical health. These symptoms have a ripple effect across our entire life, from personal relationships and family life to performance at work. Now more than ever, finding ways to support our employees with a strong focus on mental well-being is critical. What’s the answer – Peer to Peer support. Peer-to-peer (P2P) as a support model has a long history fueled by empathy and compassion. When addressing the question, “How can we boost employee productivity while attracting and retaining top talent,” P2P support reveals itself as a no-brainer. Learn how to build peer support models in your organization and build a true culture of care.
Key Takeaways
- 1. Know the business case for building a culture of caring.
- 2. Learn how to leverage the power of love and empathy in your organization.
- 3. Explore ways to successfully implement a peer support system.
John Jeanetta, President and CEO, Heartland Family Services
Creating a Culture that Contributes to Organizational Mission and Goals
John Jeanetta, president & CEO of Heartland Family Service, will share how his organization is creating a culture focused on providing a safe space for clients to heal using values, and specific behaviors rooted in these values, to interrupt or prevent the intergenerational transfer of childhood trauma. Heartland serves 60,000 people annually from 19 locations in east central Nebraska and southwest Iowa.
Key Takeaways
- Learn about the Adverse Childhood Experiences study, how early childhood trauma disrupts neurobiological development, and is handed down generation after generation in an unvirtuous cycle that fuels the health and social problems organizations like Heartland Family Service seek to address.
- Learn what it means to have a trauma-informed culture and how such a culture is being created at Heartland Family Service.
- Understand why it is critical a trauma-informed culture, designed to ensure the psychological and physical safety of clients, must also ensure the same safety for employees.
- Understand how client motivation, brand intention, culture and leadership style must align to achieve organizational success.
Bonus Workshops:
These workshops are open to the public for no fee but we need to know if you are attending. If attending workshops but not the retreat, let Jerry Wagner know at cultureambassadorsinc@gmail.com.
Sonia Keffer, Director Learning and Development, Heartland Family Services.
From 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, October 3, Sonia will present Gallup’s Wellbeing elements. She gives a bird’s eye view of the Gallup’s books main points and then offers several challenging yet doable activities for each of us to do in order to increase each of the five elements of wellbeing in our own lives.
Nathan Knisley, Agile Coach, WP Engine
From 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, October 3, 2121, Nathan Knisley will give his workshop on Scrum. Scrum is an empirical process that emphasizes self-organization and cross functional teams. He thinks of Scrum as "Culture with a Voice".
Nathan enjoys tying Scrum principles back to creating a positive, collaborative, workplace culture. He teaches that, by relying on the whole team, we can gain expertise on achieving goals with maximized results.
Gerald R. Wagner, PhD., Academy of Culture Ambassadors
From 5:00 – 6:00 p.m. on Sunday the 3rd, Jerry Wagner will present "Move Over Company Core Values".
Companies in the future will display their Wellbeing Pledges alongside their Core Values on lobby walls and websites.
Wellbeing Pledges are clearly defined, implemented, and measured. They are specific actions versus non-actionable words typical of Company Core Values.Click here for more details.
ASK
Ask us anything and we promise a response the same day. We will promise not to bug you afterwards with emails and phone calls. All communication is kept private.
Meeting Place and Lodging
We’ll be at the trendy high tech Aksarben Village in Omaha, Nebraska. Aksarben is Nebraska spelled backwards. Starting in 1895 the area was the place to be for horse races, rodeos, sporting events and county fairs. Then, only about 15 years ago that all changed with an all-new high-tech village next to the University of Nebraska at Omaha. It quickly became Omaha’s premier entertainment and shopping community, a walk-able place of unique shops, restaurants, bars, bike trails, concerts, and green spaces.
The Hilton Garden Inn at the Aksarben is where we’ll be for sleeping rooms and meeting space. The sleeping room rate is a low at $109.
Travel
No hassle, rushing, or crowds at Omaha’s airport. A simple, but very adequate place right in the middle of the US. If you are from a big city airport you will love Omaha’s easy-going airport. There are no trains or shuttle buses or moving sidewalks. The Hilton is an easy distance from airport.
Registration
There are no refunds but paid registrations can be transferred to a friend. If the retreat is postponed, those who have paid will have paid for the new date.
Check back in January, 2022
Event Sponsor
The Academy of Culture Ambassadors is a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation for education, training, consulting, and outreach projects all related to decision support and organizational culture.
ACADEMY FOUNDER
Gerald R. Wagner, PhD., is the Founder and President of the Academy of Culture Ambassadors. He was a co-founder of the fields Decision Support Systems (DSS) and Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS). He started four entrepreneurial ventures in these areas. Jerry has been on the faculty at the University of Texas, Austin, Texas A&M, the University of Nebraska, Omaha, and Bellevue University. During a period of his time at the University of Nebraska, he was a Gallup Senior Scientist. During that time, he was also a Nebraska Technology Professor of the year. While at the Peter Kiewit Institute, College of Information Science and Technology, University of Nebraska, Omaha he started the BSc. Degree in IT Innovation.
