Advice to the President-Elect

In May 2004 The Thiagi Group ran a "Best of the Best" RAME to gather advice for Thiagi as the new ISPI President-Elect. Here are all 45 pieces of advice that were received over the course of the game.

Talk to the members. They are the best source of valid information. Talking to chapter leaders, ISPI staff members, and other leaders my provide you only with a distorted picture of the members' realities.
Inspire excellence, involvement, and action through inclusion and grand vision.
Be mindful of the perception of the ISPI "in crowd" - the same clique of people we see and hear from at every conference. Be an advocate for sharing more learning and experiences from regular folk.
Increase ISPI's visibility and influence with corporate decision-makers. We need to promote performance improvement approach, and our own expertise. [This won second place with 109 points.]
Be accessible. Don't allow the office to separate you from your fellow practitioners.
Create and monitor a discussion forum ("Ask the President-Elect") for ISPI members.
Listen with the goal to understand; and, speak with the goal to develop understanding.
Remain (as you have demonstrated here) reachable and approachable by all members of the organization. This will help create a wider circle of influence for you as well as the organization.
He gets credit from me if he can and only can " Demonstrate how Performance Management ( and ISPI ) as an organisation can incorporate and amalgamate performance ( as a philosophy/ art / science / management thought ) at an individual level which impacts his daily life ; the success of which and moreover the control of which is completely with the individual at all stages of the process ? " If the expectation above is not clear , feel free to get in touch :), All the best sir , Best Personal Regards, Kinshuk Poddar
Collect HPT benchmarking all over the world (use your popullarity!) and spread it back.
Schedule visits to Chapters and listen to members. Have the Chapter members arrange meetings with business/industry/government managers/executives in the local area.
Describe ISPI and HPT in terms a grandmother could understand.
Conduct an aggressive campaign to enlarge the membership and bring more awareness to what ISPI stands for. Also, make the website a bit more usable.
Rember e.e. cummings one-liner: "A politician is an arse upon which everyone has sat except a man." So, be a man and bring Thiagi's vision forth; it is why we elected you.
Make sure that "improvement efforts" done by ISPI actually follow our technology, for example, have a measurable purpose or outcome and measure whether that outcome is being achieved.
Tell it like it is. Share your experiences, including the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Select one or two truly great activities that you can support or promote to make a difference in ISPI. Your contribution should have lasting value to the society and promote increased membership.
The ISPI President-Elect should create a "buzz" in the national media that will attract business people to the HPT bandwagon.
Help to make sure that ISPI provides easily accessible, practical and easy to implement training ideas to members.
Have a weekly online chat to take inputs from ISPI members.
Remain curious. Request help. Ask questions. Listen. Observe. Communicate much & often. Set realistic goals. Develop steps to get us from where we are to where you want us to be. Continuously improve. Measure progress. Give thanks and credit. Be inclusive. Recognize efforts. Celebrate successes. [This won third place with 100 points.]
make sure that your performance is visible, meaning - when you do things that are exemplary, make sure people know about them - do them publicly, or if not able, then COMMUNICATE them!
Hold yourself to the rigid standard of moving fluidly between the phases of the HPI model as conditions change.
Try to visit as many of the (at least major) chapters as you can to be face to face with the membership - advertise and market in advance to help the chapters make it an 'event' and attract membership.
A chicken in every P.O.T. (Performance Opportunity for Technology) Not that you are in any way a coward... but you need to use video conferencing technology to reach out to each and every chapter!
Try to include some of the members that aren't usually involved in ISPI functions. I have volunteered several times to be ignored. It seems that new ideas can come from members outside of the core of ruling class.
To stay focused on the performance issues facing us...and not have ISPI become another arm of ASTD! I would also speak to the non-statistics part of our practices once in a while.
Regularly seek to identify issues, generate solutions and obtain feedback from his constituency
Be open to hearing from all your constituents and look for the commonality - then act!
Ensure membership - including international membership - get value for money from their membership dues
Summarize 1-2 key things that happened within ISPI for each year since the first time he was president and then project the next 20-30 years.
Actively engaging the new students of the field in the operation of the organization and creating a mentoring and internship system for students to learn first hand from the top individuals in IPT.
Align ISPI members with operations. We partner with operations on performance, not training. Make ISPI the preferred society of Training/OD professionals, replacing ASTD.
As the President-Elect: Find or assist in the development of someone (to be elected as the next President-Elect) who is cabable and willing to do everything (as unobtrusively as possible) that needs to be done to make sure the President is (and is perceived as) doing an exemplary job. Set the example for that person to follow.
1. Start a thorough reform of current governance mechanisms, with participation of ISPI membership. 2. Show real leadership by questioning the "legacy" of past administrations and disrupting manipulation by cliques and special interest groups. 3. Resume with the current Board the role of policy making starting by establishing own agenda, priorities and criteria. Membership elects officials to do that, not to continue legacy agendas and handpicked task forces' unfinished work. 3. If 1 and 2 are not possible, quit and make public the reasons to stimulate real debate about the mission and purpose of ISPI.
Communicate to the members continuously about what is going on with ISPI leadership of the Society and Committees and Task Forces
Listen to the needs of the constituents and work to provide the best solutions possible.
Motivate members to excel in their chosen improvement applications, and raise awareness in non-members of the potential improvements to be gained by applying HPT to any endeavor.
Consider identifying articles, books, etc., published by ISPI according to the 7 HPT Professional Communities that they most apply to. (This may or may not be a good idea!)
ISPI should create a National Performance Lab, drawing on grant and sponsor money, to demonstrate how HPT can deliver a superior result.
Put into action new ways to realize ISPI's Mission and Vision of developing and recognizing the proficiency of its members in improving human performance.
Sell HPI as an exciting and valuable profession to encourage new members.
Always ask "What is not happening that should be happening?"
Make sure to include your stakeholders in getting feedback for major decisions and or new initiatives early on.
Try to involve as many members -- from Board to chapters to individuals -- in the activities and processes of ISPI. Involvement will help strengthen the association and grow the next generation of leaders. Good luck!! [This won first place with 120 points.]