PDD 2019 Speakers

Rob Shallenberger

Rob is one of the world’s leading authorities on leadership and execution.  

He’s trained and coached hundreds of companies around the world, to include many Fortune 500 organizations.

After spending two years of service in Bolivia, he attended Utah State University where he graduated in 2000. He went on to earn an MBA from Colorado State University. He served as an F-16 and T-38 Pilot in the United States Air Force for 11 years. He was also an Advance Agent for Air Force One and traveled the world working with foreign embassies and the Secret Service. 

He's the CEO of Becoming Your Best Global Leadership. Becoming Your Best partners with organizations to design and deliver programs to meet their needs through interactive webinars, keynotes, workshops, and seminars.  

His company released a national bestselling book titled Becoming Your Best: The 12 Principles of Highly Successful Leaders. In addition, Rob just released another book 
titled The Transformation Challenge: The Six-Steps to Planning and Execution. 

He considers his greatest accomplishment to be that he's been married for 20 years and has four beautiful children.

Kai Kight

Biography 

As a classical violinist turned innovative composer, Kai Kight uses music as a metaphor to inspire individuals and organizations across the world to compose paths of imagination and fulfillment. Inspired by his own mother who, when diagnosed with cancer, revealed regrets of not bringing her ideas to the world, Kai is on a mission to spark a global mindset shift in which ingenuity is the norm, not the exception. In his emotionally powerful presentations, Kai performs mesmerizing original music and vulnerably shares stories from his own transformation as an artist. Kai translates these insights into takeaways that audiences can easily infuse into their own lives and work environments. 

A product of Stanford University’s design and engineering program, the d. School, Kai remains fascinated by the leaders, artists, and companies who dare to be different. As both a Mayfield Fellow and Kleiner Perkins Design Fellow, Kai has proven himself as a leader of the next generation of innovative and entrepreneurial talent. As a musician, Kai has performed his original music for thousands in venues across the world, from the White House to the Great Wall of China. As a speaker, he has created impactful experiences for audiences at conferences, companies, and universities internationally. Some of his clients include The Walt Disney Company, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and the Super-bowl winning Seattle Seahawks. His mesmerizing and original violin performance beautifully becomes a sonic metaphor for the core of his message: to inspire people to compose unique ideas in a world that celebrates conformity.  
 
Introduction 

Kai Kight is an innovative violinist, composer, and speaker who has inspired thousands to reach their own creative potential. He brings his message to conferences, companies, and organizations across the world. With a diverse background, Kai holds an engineering degree from Stanford University’s design school and as a violinist has performed in venues including the White House and the Great Wall of China.

Kai brilliantly uses music as a metaphor to empower people at many of the world’s leading organizations, from The Walt Disney Company, to PricewaterhouseCoopers, to the Super-bowl winning Seattle Seahawks of the NFL. 

Listen closely as Kai shares his story and le

Kim Buckley

Director, ERP Reporting and Analytics HDR 

Topic: Data Driven Analytics 

Data and Business: Reporting, Data Analytics, Augmented Analytics … - What’s the Difference and Why Does it Matter  

In this presentation I discuss the 3 major types of data use in business (Reporting, Analytics and Automated or Augmented Analytics) their definitions, use by PMs and business leaders, as well as the benefits and hurdles faced when using them. I also discuss the how each fits into a Data Maturity (or Trust) Model. 

The presentation objectives:

• Define the various segments of business data specifically how it is consumed by PMs and other business leaders 
• Identify the Use, Primary Tools, Benefits and Hurdles for each segment 
• Provide a maturity model for business data consumption 

Rod Hill

Director, ERP Reporting and Analytics HDR 

Topic: Time Management and Prioritization

With time being a limited resource, in high demand, required for change and varied in value, managing its use can be difficult. Time is also required for making decisions about what to do and when. Decision making readiness and the use of prioritization tools to assist with time management. 
 
OBJECTIVES:

• Tips and best practices to manage your use of time 
• Importance of decision making and practicing it 
• Overview of prioritization and demonstration of three prioritization tools 

​Rob Shallenberger  

Topic: 6 Steps of Planning & Execution 

Many people wonder how to navigate change or problem solve, both in their personal life and with their organization. It doesn’t have to be that way any longer. The Transformation Challenge will help an individual or team transform their biggest problems into a powerful solution by using our proprietary Six-Steps to Planning and Execution. The Six-Step process brings organizations together with a common language and process to address any issue, saving them countless hours and a significant amount of money while fostering imagination and collaboration! 

OBJECTIVES: 

• Learn a powerful process you can use to solve any problem, personal or professional!  
• Acquire a new process that will save you time, money, energy, and help you sleep well at night! 
• Use the Six-Step Process to lead a meeting in a productive and exciting format. 
• Adopt a process you can use again and again throughout your entire organization to create 

Johnny Bokin, CSM,CPO,CPM 

Manager ITS – Werner Enterprises 

Topic: Lateral Thinking 

Have you ever been told you were left-brained because you are analytical and methodical in your thinking?  Or maybe you have been told that you are right-brained because your reasoning is more creative or artistic?  Don’t you think using your whole brain in problem-solving would be better?  Well, you're right!  Welcome to a wonderful approach to problem-solving that uses your whole brain called Lateral Thinking! 

OBJECTIVES: 

• Challenge and break the rules  
• Check Your Assumptions 
• Ready, Fire, Aim!  Embrace Failure  

Kara Bownes, Project Manager – Nebraska Medicine 

Carnelia Vremes, COO – Kuglar Vision 

Topic: Redefining Project Success: Benefit Realization in Project Management 

According to PMI’s Pulse of the Profession report, organizations spend millions of dollars on projects that never meet expectations to deliver intended benefits to the business. Projects are often times considered a success when they are completed on time, on budget, and within scope.  

Project success has been researched at length with articles published in the International Journal of Project Management and the Project Management Journal. However, the research has not yielded a consistent definition of project success. Furthermore, research has found that between 60% and 80% of all organizations surveyed failed to execute on their strategies. Thus, it is crucial to define clear criteria by which to evaluate the success of a project. 

There are two approaches to define project success. The traditional approach defines project success through the triple constraint of budget, timeline, and requirements or scope. Even though projects have been evaluated this way by organizations for years, the triple constraint approach does not take into consideration organizational strategic objectives or outcomes-based metrics. 

The second, more modern approach looks at project success by evaluating how well projects deliver the benefits towards achieving business strategies. While the traditional key performance indicators of projects are financial or schedule based, current research suggests an alternative that emphasizes projects creating value for the organization. Thus, the project success would be evaluated based on the overall value delivered to stakeholders by measuring the benefits and outcomes which are aligned with organizational strategies. 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:  

• Explore the concept of outcomes-based benefit realization in project management. 
• Examine benefit realization management (BRM) methodologies and practices. 
• Discuss the challenges to implementing BRM practices in organizations. 
• Explore the role of the project manager in BRM. 

Andrew Sherwood 

Midlands University 

Topic: SAFe vs. Scrum, a “Scaled Comparison” 

There are many agile frameworks; by far the most popular is Scrum.  Scrum is focused on increasing value delivery and agility as related to software development.  Since the Scrum Guide was first released in 1995, this framework has served teams and organizations very well.  Over the past 5-10 years, larger companies are increasingly turning to Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) as a way to help multiple agile teams work together on shared systems.  

Proponents each framework are quick to point out the flaws and limitations of the other framework.  This talk takes a different approach, a more light-hearted and neutral comparison of each framework, category by category, on a scale of...

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:  

• Basic understanding of Scum and SAFe  
• Category based comparison for understanding of frameworks' strengths and weaknesses  
• Input information for which framework may be best for your organization.

Michael Perdunn 

University of Nebraska - Omaha 

Topic: Leading Change Without Power 

How can we create change within an organization when we don’t have power? We have to understand the social and organizational forces working for and against us as we become change agents. Through this presentation and active dialogue, we will learn some simple models for change, strategies that can overcome resistance, and examine how to become effective agents for change. 

OBJECTIVES:  

• Understand 3 types of power 
• Apply those to the steps of leading change