Index AR Solutions and Des Moines Area Community College Announce Technology Partnership to Speed Utility Workforce Development

We are excited to hear about the new partnership between MidAmerican Energy, the Des Moines Area Community College, and Index AR Solutions, supporting a new program designed to train the next generation of utility workers. 

From Des Moines Area Community College:
Lead Instructor Don Finn

From Index AR:
Dan Arczynski
Karlyn Chen
Sam Elkins
Scott Sommers


For more information before the meeting, please see this press release

HPAC Conference Recap and Planning

Thank you so much to everyone who attended the Human Performance in Action Conference (HPAC) earlier this month! It was so wonderful to be together as an extended family. 

James and Mike will lead a review today of the conference for those who weren't able to attend, and we'll have a group discussion for future topics for the Human Performance Community of Practice, and share ideas for future conference planning.  You can review most of the presentation here  

HPAC Presentation Files

Effective Communication

Our world is more blended and interconnected now than it has ever been. Miscommunication can have serious consequences. LaRhonda Julien will help you understand generational and cultural differences and the benefits of effective communication. She will provide a strategy that can be implemented immediately across all ages and ways of life. This is definitely one you won't want to miss.

"Internal PPE": Hydration, Fatigue, Recovery

Why hasn’t the science of mainstream sports nutrition been applied to the specific needs of the outdoor/industrial worker/athlete? Mark Paulsen, of Working Athlete, will be presenting on the Internal PPE for the employee, including:

  • What are the effects of dehydration on the job site?

  • How is mental and physical fatigue being addressed?

  • What latent issues are we missing when we look at Recovery, Fatigue, Dehydration, and baseline health?

  • What systems are in place to ensure employee physical health and safety?

Changing Operations in COVID-19

As the world is changing in response to changing COVID-19 numbers, we'd like to have an opportunity to talk through how the changes are affecting us. We're excited to have a panel to talk through some of these changes:

  • David Bowman, KnowledgeVine

  • LaRhonda Julien, Georgia Transmission Corporation

  • Sam Reno, MidAmerican Energy

  • Krystall Valencia, WAPA

  • And feedback/discussion from Community of Practice members

The Evolving Strategies and Outlooks of Human and Organizational Performance

Riz Shah, of the Department of Energy, present this afternoon: The Evolving Strategies and Outlooks of Human and Organizational Performance.

Human and Organizational Performance methodology builds a learning organization. Challenging assumptions in the regulatory landscape takes vigor and gumption. Compliance alone is not conducive to continuous improvement. Approaching outcomes with a performance and reliability lens builds a culture where organizational excellence, optimized performance, and reliable operations are encouraged, supported, and implemented by every individual at every level.

Clean Language: A New Approach to Increasing Clarity and Understanding

We tend to think about other people's influence on us. How their behaviors, actions, words affect our lives. In doing this we often fail to pay attention to the level of influence we have on others.

There are many ways influence happens. It can be as complex as the interplay of cultural and social norms or as simple as changing one or two words.

Recently there has been a lot of attention on ’nudging’. Nudging is a nice way of saying to coax or gently encourage (someone) to do, think, say, or agree to something.

As a Human Performance professional, the information received from personnel is important. There is a need to protect the authentic expression of the speaker in support of quality corrective or legal action.

Join Sharon in learning four ways we inadvertently ’nudge’ or lead our conversations and how the addition of a few simple questions can help you reduce inadvertent influence, increase rapport, and gain higher quality responses to your questions.

Critical Steps: Managing What Must Go Right in High-Risk Operations

Tony Muschara, Ron Farris and Jim Marinus will be talking about their book "Critical Steps: Managing What Must Go Right in High-Risk Operations" We're honored Tony spoke to the community several months ago to give us a preview of the book, and this presentation will continue diving into this work. 

  • If you haven't had the chance to see Tony's original presentation, please check it out here!

  • The book is here.