Over two days, engage in eight unique best practice sessions with 11 process improvement and thought leaders at S.O.A.R. 2022, OpusWorks’ annual virtual conference.

Designed to present highly actionable information and game-changing strategies from highly experienced and inspiring human beings, S.O.A.R. will enable you to better lead your organization-wide transformation by showing you how to:

• Systematize processes
• Operationalize excellence
• Accelerate scaling
• Resolve to innovate

Day One Agenda, Wednesday, September 28, 2022

10:00: Rapid Scaling with OpusWorks in 2022

Rob Stewart, OpusWorks CEO
Dan Rice, OpusWorks COO
Vickie Kamataris, Chief Content and Delivery, MBB,  OpusWorks Institute (OWI)

After Rob kicks off S.O.A.R. 22, Dan and Vickie will provide their perspectives about the OpusWorks solution set in the context of today’s challenges. They will also update attendees on what’s new from OpusWorks since S.O.A.R. 2021:

• Custom portals to reduce the variability of deployment processes
• Content that is streamlined, more expansive, expanding, and additional languages now available
• Blended learning models designed for the post pandemic world
• A new way to supercharge project work while protecting confidentiality
• MBB course that develops resilient professionals for an ever-changing world
• Simulations and gaming to enhance knowledge integration and assimilation
• OpusWorks Institute resources that help you get to where you want to go

11:00: Rapid Scaling and the Quest to Eliminate Deployment Variation

Joe LaCount, Global Plant Operations Continuous Improvement Leader, Cargill

Over the past year, Cargill has expanded accessibility, increased usage, and standardized on OpusWorks throughout its global enterprise. Capability-building offerings today range from White Belt to Master Black Belt with blended learning classes leveraging OpusWorks e-learning modules supporting Mandarin, Portuguese, and Spanish.

The focus now shifts to implementing a closed-loop system that reduces end-to-end deployment variation, from defining an initial project and completing training to enabling and sustaining a population of problem solvers and a global team of enduring practitioners.

In this session, you will learn to:

• Define your deployment process and identify its stakeholders
• Discover the variation in and between deployment subprocesses
• Use data and listening posts to reveal what’s working and what’s not
• Rely on governance to guide cycles of refinement and improvement

12:00: Rapid Scaling Made Simple (Part I)—Mobilization

John D. Baranzelli, P.E.
Shelia Montney, Win Together

The goal is to drive transformational change. The pull of experience is alluring, yet so also are limitations. Incremental improvement of known approaches and DIY methods with existing resources are insufficient.

An ideal state is clear, but how to get there remains in question. Who can help, where do you start and how does one decide?

In this session, we’ll address solution definition, vendor evaluation, and early-stage rollout efforts. Discover unique OWI system capabilities that are helping customers better mobilize for rapid scaling:

• Knowledge check design so learners are well trained
• Class activity structure so learners focus on knowledge application
• Integrated project system so learners quickly do
• Intuitive, complete one-stop interface so learners don’t waste time
• At-a-glance reporting so stakeholders use process measures to improve real-time

1:00: Rapid Scaling by Sustaining Black Belt Practitioners

Vickie Kamataris, Chief Content and Delivery, MBB, OWI
Beth Morrison, MBB, OWI

Because Black Belt project ROI is so significant, organizations invest heavily in developing new, emerging Black Belt practitioners. Unfortunately, too many certified Black Belts fall far short of meeting longer-term ROI expectations because skills quickly atrophy, motivation wanes, or will erodes when the luster of initial success fades.

In this session, OWI Master Black Belts tell why some Black Belts:

• Deliver effective results long after they complete their training, while others do not
• Are motivated toward the next level while others simply check the box and move on
• Have the “right stuff” for endurance, whereas others do one project and disappear

Also consider how your organization might better:

• Select Black Belt candidates
• Motivate them to advance to the next level
• Measure, reward, and sustain their accomplishment
• Leverage their skills beyond PI project leadership

Day Two Agenda, Thursday, September 29, 2022

Joe Crady, Chief Improvement and Innovation Training, United States Air Force

For U.S. Air Force warfighters, effective problem-solving skills are the ultimate enabler of victory.

The overall goal is 30,000 trained airmen per year. But the broader purpose is complete transformation so all activity is focused on strategic objectives, with waste and nonvalue activity eliminated from every process.

By standardizing on OpusWorks, the USAF is asserting a systems and data-driven approach to learning, project execution, and strategic communications. In this session, you will learn to:

• Align a large, complex, globally dispersed organization onto a single system
• Instill discipline into process improvement processes
• Automate, facilitate, and improve communications with students and all other stakeholders

11:00: Rapid Scaling of a Customized Deployment

Chris McGill, Deployment Leader, Cintas

With almost 20 years deploying a customized version of Six Sigma, nearly eight years gaining traction with blended learning from OpusWorks, a year of intense planning, and months of preparing the organization for a transformed Lean and Six Sigma training process, Cintas confidently embarks on a rapid scaling mission so hundreds of team members can be trained consistently and simultaneously at their own pace.

In this session, participants will:

• Listen in on how one organization decided what to change and what not to change
• Discover a unique five-pillar problem-solving model taught at every belt level
• See how OpusWorks can be adapted to fit an organization’s unique culture and objectives
• Hear reflections on how organizations can achieve long-term success

12:00: Rapid Scaling Your Transformation, Made Simple (Part II)—Execution

Gene Cornelius ,CSL, Process Improvement Analyst

Your change initiative is taking root. Survey and test score data are confirming. Pull, ROI, and stakeholder involvement are all increasing. Management likes the quality, productivity, accessibility, reduced variability, automation, and lower cost of your emerging model. Most important, culture is indeed transforming, and all are becoming competent problem solvers.

In this session, we’ll discuss transition plans and describe how several unique OpusWorks system capabilities are helping customers better execute rollout acceleration with:

• Automated communications
• Integration of company IP into the class agendas
• Leveraging performance data to reinforce the importance of the program to the stakeholders

1:00: Rapid Scaling of Excellence and Innovation

Jose Pires, Global Excellence and Innovation Leader
S.O.A.R. 22 Speaker Panel

In a disrupted world, how do you build a culture and practices where extraordinary innovation becomes ordinary? An organization that consistently develops exponential leaders, growth and value creation?

Enduring organizations know what it really takes to create and—most importantly—scale innovation during market disruptions. After 10 minutes of introductory remarks, a panel of S.O.A.R. 22 speakers and Jose will discuss “excellence and innovation” principles that apply to their organization.

Don’t miss this session as it translates many of the S.O.A.R. 22 themes into concrete, actionable, and practical ways that excellence and innovation can become the DNA of your organization.

S.O.A.R. Event Agenda

S.O.A.R. Registration Link