Horizon Point Consulting

Category: Next Generation Workforce and Workplace

We help individuals, organizations, and communities think innovatively about the next generation workforce and workplace. Read these forward-thinking stories and best practices from our work and lives.

Be Creative Anyway: How ATD24 Made Me Feel Better About AI

Attending the ATD24 International Conference made me feel so energized and prepared for another year around the sun in talent development. The obvious buzzword: Artificial Intelligence (AI). I walked away with pages and pages of notes on AI in training and development. Mary Ila kicked off our series on AI last week, so now I’m sharing a rundown (written in part using ChatGPT) of my key AI takeaways from ATD24.

Generative AI: The Game-Changer in Scenario-Based Learning

One of the sessions that really stood out to me was “Use Generative AI to Create Scenario-Based Learning” by Kevin Alster and Elly Henriksen from Synthesia. They showed us how generative AI can take the heavy lifting out of creating scenario-based learning (SBL). Imagine being able to quickly craft engaging, real-world scenarios that captivate your learners and improve retention.

The tools and frameworks they demonstrated were incredibly user-friendly, making it feasible for anyone to enhance their courses without needing a PhD in AI. This session made it clear that SBL, powered by AI, is not just a future concept but a present-day reality that can significantly elevate our training programs.

Navigating the Inclusion Maze with AI

Then there was the eye-opening session by Mychal Patterson of The Rainbow Disruption, titled “AI Doesn’t Mean ‘Always Inclusive.’” This was a deep dive into the potential pitfalls of AI when it comes to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Mychal highlighted some serious risks, like biased data leading to exclusionary outcomes and the lack of diversity in AI development teams. These are real challenges that can undermine your DEI efforts if not addressed properly.

This session was a reminder that while AI offers huge benefits, we need to implement it thoughtfully and inclusively to avoid reinforcing existing biases. We’ve written about inclusive training before, and now we are reminded to be more intentional with avoiding language and representation bias, with or without the use of AI.

Demystifying AI for Leadership Development

DDI also showed up strong with Patrick Connell’s session, “Demystify AI for Development: What’s Hype, What’s Real, and What to Do,” which struck a perfect balance between optimism and practicality. He debunked some common myths about AI (i.e. we’re not all losing our jobs) and showcased how it can be a real asset in leadership development.

From using AI-driven assistants for data analysis to generating personalized content, Connell provided a roadmap for integrating AI into our strategies in a way that enhances, rather than overwhelms. This session made AI seem less daunting and more achievable. Since the conference, HPC has practiced using AI to write first drafts of program learning objectives, training outlines, and more.

Redesigning Training Programs to Stay Relevant

Another session that hit home for me was actually during the Chapter Leaders Conference that some of us from ATD Birmingham attended prior to the International Conference. The session was “Making it Competitive: Redesigning Your Chapter Programming to Offer Relevant Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities” by Miko Nino. Miko stressed the importance of continuously updating and evaluating our training programs to keep pace with the changing demands of employers and learners. Using technology to assess and enhance curriculum effectiveness was a major highlight.

The session also covered developing marketing and financial plans to ensure these programs are not only impactful but also sustainable. It was a comprehensive guide to making our training offerings more competitive and relevant.

Tackling AI Integration Challenges

Of course, the conference didn’t shy away from discussing the challenges of integrating AI in training and development. But the consensus was clear: with careful planning and a commitment to ethical considerations, we can mitigate the risks.

For us, an example might be clearly identifying when something we deliver is made with AI, even in small part. If we use AI to create graphics or images that we share in marketing or in training programs, we need to clearly label those as made with AI. We’re all still learning how to use AI ethically, and it starts with a good faith effort on the front end.

So…What’s Next?

ATD24 gave me so many insights on AI in training and development. The sessions highlighted how AI can help make learning more personalized, efficient, and inclusive. But they also underscored the need for thoughtful implementation; the future of T&D is not just about adopting new technologies, but about doing so in a human way that truly enhances learning for everyone.

For now, my AI journey is all about “do it anyway”. Feel intimidated by AI and use it anyway. Don’t feel very creative? Create anyway. Using AI in my work helps me be creative anyway, and that’s a positive in my book.

Image made with AI to illustrate the idea of “create anyway”

June 25, 2024
AI and HR- A Series

How would your grandmother state your organizational values? Well, ChatGTP might give you some insights.

As I sat down with a client to help them form their values statements after the values mapping session I facilitated, we decided there were a few words that just weren’t right. They were close, but we needed a better word or two, so we stuck what we had into ChatGTP. After various takes on the language, including how your southern grandmother would say it-with of course, several “bless your hearts” thrown in from ChatGTP and some laughter from us- we landed on descriptors that resonated with the behaviors we were trying to articulate through shared language.

There is a lot of talk about what AI- Artificial Intelligence-is going to do to this world, or has already done. Jillian highlighted how it was a focus at the Annual ATD conference in her recent blog post. As she said, we are all relatively new to it and not very good at it, but think it deserves some attention.

Whereas many people want to make AI out to be the next major moral dilemma or our times, the way everyone is going to “cheat” in school and on the job, or what is going to take all our jobs away, I think taking more of a practical approach to what AI is and can do for business, specifically HR deserves some focus. So we are going to spend some time learning and then sharing that learning with you in a series of blog posts.

Over the next few weeks, we will be writing about how we and others are using AI to impact HR practices that will hopefully provide insights into how you might use it at work as well. We will talk about the tools being used, give you some thoughts on how it might make you a better practitioner and leader, and provide insights on what we see may be coming next.

AI may not be right for your organization just yet, but it may help you get a good laugh in or channel the language of your inner grandmother when you are trying to find just the right words for your next job description, proposal, or values statements. Or, you could try CanvaAI and let it illustrate your next blog post…. Which illustration do you like better?

June 18, 2024
How To Toss Around Ideas

Today I saw a giant raccoon throw light bulbs to people at Space Camp. That’s a real sentence.

Sprocket, loveable mascot of the Rocket City Trash Pandas, threw Horizon Point stress balls – made to look like light bulbs – to attendees of the 2024 Launch Tank Competition. It was a wild and wonderful moment. But let’s back up.

John Kvach and his Singing River Trail team partner with LAUNCH and Innovate Alabama to host a business pitch competition for entrepreneurs in North Alabama, known as Launch Tank. “Our vision goes beyond the competition,” Kvach says. “We want to connect as many entrepreneurs to the Singing River Trail as possible, making North Alabama a better place to live, work, and play.”

This year, Horizon Point supported Launch Tank as a Seed Sponsor. If you know Horizon Point, then you may know that Give Back is one of our operating values, and each year we intentionally earmark a portion of the budget to financially support an initiative or two that we believe in. So, this week’s blog is all about celebrating the innovation happening in our own backyard.

Horizon Point is a Woman-Owned Small Business (WOSB), and we proudly support entrepreneurship and small business initiatives in our state. Mary Ila is an Advisor for EDPA’s Alabama Launchpad. I get to serve on the selection committee for Decatur Morgan CEO for high school students interested in entrepreneurship. We partner with The Catalyst, The E-Center, and the Alabama Network of Entrepreneurial Women. We believe in equal opportunity, and it’s a joy to support opportunity networks.

When Launch Tank Co-Chair Lisa Mays said she might throw our Horizon Point light bulbs to people, we didn’t know John Kvach and Sprocket would start throwing them on stage. We also didn’t realize how symbolic it would be to throw light bulbs at an event built on innovation until Lisa said, “They’re like ideas! We’re just tossing around ideas!” We could not have said it better ourselves.

We are so grateful for programs like these in our backyard, and it’s an easy decision to Give Back to Singing River Trail Launch Tank. After all, who doesn’t want to catch a light bulb from a raccoon?

Want more? Check out the featured clip below or this article from WHNT. See the full list of finalists from Quad Cities Daily.

April 30, 2024
Why Appreciation in the Workplace Matters
Remember Mary Ila’s take on “How to Be Authentic with Your Appreciation at Work”? We reference Chapman & White all the time in training and coaching with our clients. To celebrate Valentine’s Day with full hearts in the workplace, we’re bringing you an early look at the new updated version of The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace.

We subscribe to the newsletter from Appreciation at Work^TM and got one of the first announcements of the new, post-COVID research on professional appreciation. Right away, I asked the team if we could do a blog about it. New research!? Yes! Here’s the blurb we got:
Appreciation at Work has done peer-reviewed research and polling through and post-COVID. The result of this research is a completely new chapter on how to effectively show appreciation to remote and hybrid employees including topics such as:
- the variety of remote work relationships
- trust in remote work relationships
- creating and maintaining a workplace culture
- the employer/supervisor perspective
- the employee perspective
- the key to keeping remote employees
- what neuroscience is showing
This edition also includes updated research (50+ citations) of data shared about the importance of appreciation and its positive impact on the functioning of businesses & organizations (including increased productivity and higher profitability when your employees feel appreciated.

Source: Appreciation at Work
I read it, loved it, laughed, cringed, and mostly just appreciated for the millionth time that Gary Chapman & Paul White adapted the Love Languages for professional relationships. They present their research on appreciation at work in a relatable, real life way. Here are some of my favorite quotes, classic and new:
- “During the Great Resignation of 2022, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that employees were three times more likely to resign due to a lack of appreciation in comparison to financial compensation issues.”
- “When leaders actively pursue teaching their team members how to communicate authentic appreciation in the ways desired by the recipients, the whole work culture improves. Interestingly, even managers and supervisors report they enjoy their work more. All of us thrive in an atmosphere of appreciation.”
- “74% of employees never or rarely express gratitude to their boss.” (Reminder that appreciation is important up, down, and sideways!)
- “There is a distinct difference between the Quality Time employees desire from their supervisor and what they value from co-workers. In response to this issue, we expanded the Motivating by Appreciation Inventory to allow individuals to indicate what actions they desire and from whom they want them.”
- Acts of Service are about the other person, not about you. “Ask before you help. Don’t assume you know what help they want or need. If you are going to help, do it their way.”
- “Our research with over 375,000 employees found that Tangible Gifts is the least chosen language of appreciation.” So if you’re going to do it, it’s important to give gifts “primarily to those individuals who appreciate them” and “give a gift the person values”. (Lorrie wrote about HPC’s take on gifts in “A Few of Our Favorite Things”.)
- “The surest way to find out the appropriateness of Physical Touch is simply to inquire.” Many people appreciate a good high five, fist bump, or handshake to celebrate a job well done. Just check with them first, and don’t hold it against them if they prefer not to touch.
Chapman & White also devote an entire chapter to the ROI of genuine appreciation. Take a look at these charts from the book:

Regarding remote and hybrid teams, Chapman & White basically say the needs are the same as fully in-person teams, but the intensity of certain needs are different. Here’s a snippet from the chapter on remote teams:

“In one study, prior to COVID-19, with almost 90,000 individuals who had taken our online assessment…we found that Words of Affirmation was the most desired appreciation language, followed by Quality Time and Acts of Service. But remote employees chose Quality Time as their primary language of appreciation more frequently (35% of employees) than workers on site (25%). The same pattern was found with employees both during the pandemic and afterwards.”

They go on to say, “…the single most important lesson we learned for effectively communicating appreciation to remote colleagues is that one must be more proactive than in face-to-face relationships. The most important factor is to understand, affirm, and relate to your colleagues as people.”

If you saw our new team video highlighting our operating values, or if you’re a longtime HPC friend, you know that People First is our number one value. We are all just people, with the same ups and downs, and the same desire to be loved, appreciated, and valued. If we were to sum up the 5 languages book(s) in the simplest terms, we’d say Be People First. Be people first toward yourselves, and be people first towards others.

If we remember to be People First, we just might get better at genuine appreciation all on our own.

For individuals or teams interested in learning more about The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace, we highly suggest starting with the MBA Inventory^TM, then reading the book (or listening to the audiobook). If you purchase the book, it comes with an access code to take the inventory. If you’d like to jump straight to the inventory, you can buy a single access code or codes for your entire team here. (I feel like it’s important for me to say that we’re not being paid to promote any of this, we just really like it.)
February 13, 2024
Boundaries & Rules around Working Successfully from Home
It’s Sunday afternoon as I sit at my computer and plan for the week ahead. I’ve been working from home for almost a decade now. My boundaries and rules have certainly changed over the past several years. As with most things, experience is the only way to do something well. This week, I’m sharing my top tips for setting boundaries around successfully working from home.

When I came on board with HPC, it was way before Covid, and remote work was not super common, so I discovered what worked and didn’t work through trial and error. During those early days, my children were in grade school & it was ideal for me to work when the house was quiet, so I did that. But I also constantly checked email and it wasn’t uncommon for me to work well into the night, even on the weekend. This was a huge shift for me, coming from a typical 8 to 5 role. No one was asking or expecting me to be available 24-7. My natural helper, people pleasing personality dictated my schedule those days.

With several remote working years under my belt now, I feel so much more comfortable with the flexible schedule I can create every week. Here are three ways I set boundaries and rules to successfully work from home:
1. I create a list, several (actually). At the end of each week, I create a daily list for the next week. Prioritizing 3 things that I need to accomplish each day works best. The daily list includes work responsibilities, but I also include personal responsibilities. For example, some form of exercise (ideally taking a walk outdoors) is on there most days, weather permitting.
2. I plan deep work early in the day and early in my week. I do my best to protect my Fridays. I make sure the most important tasks and meetings happen early in the week and day if possible. I recommend checking out the book, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, which helped me discover the time of day that I’m most productive.
3. Time blocking is so very helpful. Within my list(s), I often estimate how long I plan to work on each project or task. I often add these “time blocks” to my calendar to remind myself as well as to share with my coworkers what I have planned or the day and week. You can read more about time blocking in this article from Lifehack.org – How to Start Time Blocking to Get More Done.
Are you and or your team working remotely? What are your tips?

Here are a few more articles from The Point Blog you might want to check out:

SPECIAL FEATURE! How to Put the “Home” in Office

Creating a Work Space that Brings People Together

Book Review of When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing
November 28, 2023