2020 Fall Conference Proceedings

FA20-01 General Membership Meeting
This video is only available to members; join GBA today to watch it.

GBA President Kenneth R. Johnston provides his 6-month report and shares his thoughts on GBA’s role in helping members manage risk and optimize performance as we continue to navigate through these unprecedented times. Hear how your firm and region are performing relative to the rest of the country from the most recent Business Snapshot Survey. In addition, GBA’s Board of Directors recognizes the dedicated individuals and firms who provided significant contributions to the profession and our association during the past 18 months. (38 minutes)

FA20-02 Turning Barriers into Bridges: How to Accelerate Results through Inclusive Actions
This video is only available to members; join GBA today to watch it.

Dramatic recent events highlight the necessity for deliberate discussions related to perceptions and realities as it relates to supporting an inclusive and diverse workforce.

Culture is much more than race/ethnicity and gender. It is all the ways we are similar and different. As the dramatic shift to a highly diverse workforce continues, leaders know they must help their teams at all levels understand, appreciate, and capitalize on differences as well as similarities. They know the cultural backgrounds and experiences of diverse teams and clients can enrich the organization, making it more innovative and competitive, yet the firm’s ability to manage diversity can strengthen or impede results. Enhancing inclusion practices helps organizations incorporate behaviors that improve the work environment and culture and attract, develop, and retain the best talent.

This highly interactive, non-judgmental, and fun session presented by Lenora Billings-Harris, CSP, CPAE provides an opportunity for participants to discover how and why unconscious bias impacts decisions and then how to implement behaviors that strengthen trust leading to positive bottom-line results.

What You Can Expect to Learn:

• Recognize that biased behaviors often occur unintentionally
• Sharpen your awareness of the impact of micro-behaviors on others
• Understand the neuroscience of bias and decision making
• Explore the influence of bias on talent decisions
• Utilize actions that demonstrate an ability to be a “safe” ally for all employees/team members
• Develop a personal action plan using the Four Cornerstones of Multi-Cultural Competence that accelerates inclusion strategies
• Apply B-BASIC, a technique to disrupt biased thinking

(75 minutes)

FA20-03 Looking Beyond Crisis: GBA Leaders Forum
This video is only available to members; join GBA today to watch it.

In support of our Conference theme, “Recovery, Revitalization, & Resurgence Beyond Crisis,” we convene a panel of GBA leaders to help you start looking beyond the COVID-19 crisis. This forum focuses on leadership behaviors, business strategies, and proven tactics critical to leading corporate performance beyond crisis. This helps you take advantage of the emerging new business environment.

What You Can Expect to Learn:

• Technology adaption
• Employee engagement and labor strategies
• Business development
• Client management
• Emerging markets for geoprofessionals

Watch this session to learn what other GBA Member Firms are doing to elevate performance, innovate delivery processes, diversify their businesses, and thrive in a new economy post COVID-19. (73 minutes)

FA20-04 Great Leaders Pivot, Not Panic: 6 Keys to Help Your Team Buy into Change, Adapt Quickly & Innovate for Future Success
This video is only available to members; join GBA today to watch it.

With change comes many challenges. Team members start operating out of fear, which turns into loss of focus, lower productivity, conflict, and disengagement; which eventually results in profits taking a hit. Leaders need to be equipped with the #1 skill required to help their teams navigate through changes effectively…the ability to “pivot”. During this presentation, Betsy Allen-Manning shares her research, as well as experience managing change for billion-dollar corporations. Discover why some leaders fail through change, and others succeed; and walk away with a 6-step strategy to communicate your change effectively, generate higher levels of innovation and buy-in, reduce the conflict that comes with change, and reshape your culture for a positive and successful team moving forward.

What You Can Expect to Learn:

• Betsy’s “Communicate Change Technique” for conveying new changes, addressing fears, and setting behavioral and performance expectations
• The “6 Keys of Leading Through Change” and utilize strategies to prep your team for success in the “new normal”
• The psychology of change and discover how different personalities will react, what causes people to lose emotional control, and how to keep them focused on future results
• How to anticipate potential conflict that change can bring and learn a method for resolving issues immediately
• Collaboration opportunities that increase innovation, engagement & morale during downtimes

(79 minutes)

FA20-05 Get Big Things Done: The Power of Connectional Intelligence
This video is only available to members; join GBA today to watch it.

During this unprecedented time of change and uncertainty, we are collaborating faster and more often than ever before. We feel like we’re connected – but are we really? Erica Dhawan teaches you the art and science of working better together using Connectional Intelligence, the key to productivity and collaboration for geoprofessionals in the “new normal”. This virtual experience helps you replace the challenges of inefficient meeting and email overload, cross-team duplication or delays, and build a culture of maniacal clarity that fosters the highest performing teams and business relationships.

What You Can Expect to Learn:

• Discover new ways to lead, inspire, and communicate with diverse teams through uncertainty.
• Learn how to keep cross team collaborations aligned, build trust, and foster motivation.
• Gain specific actions to inspire teamwork, innovation, resilience, revitalization, and results-driven progress.
• Behaviors to understand and build trust and connection, no matter the distance.

This virtual session offers conference attendees an “interactive experience” with the use of the chat tool for engagement and polling. The session will lead with inspirational stories and then move to practical 21st century collaboration strategies for every geoprofessional. (74 minutes)

FA20-06 Pivot, Don’t Panic: The Four Investments Smart Teams Rely on During Uncertainty
This video is only available to members; join GBA today to watch it.

Six months ago, “change” was something we all knew we’d need to deal with someday. It was just over the horizon. It was around the corner. We knew it would come, we just didn’t know when, and we didn’t know how. Then the world got flipped upside down.

Change is no longer a topic of conversation for your team, it’s the norm. The new vocabulary. The new reality. The elephant isn’t hiding in the corner of the room now. The elephant is the entire room.

Every team will face a choice. Pivot or panic? The smart ones will lean into four different investments. They’ll double down on Skills, Character, Relationships, and Hustle in intentional ways that bring clarity to chaos. They’ll refocus, rebuild, and relaunch to better serve their community. They’ll emerge with new tools and a new direction. Why? Because a crisis is a classroom. It’s an invitation to innovation you might not have planned for but definitely need.

Join New York Times bestselling author Jon Acuff as he shares practical steps and inspiring insights to help your team navigate this brave new world.

We all get to make a choice. Every day our team members and our communities are counting on us to make the right one.

Pivot, don’t panic. (79 minutes)