Quick LIfTTS concentrates on the essential skills leaders need to take on today’s challenges.
There are enough books available about leadership that a person who committed to read one each week couldn’t finish them all in 15 lifetimes—more than 60,000 titles on Amazon.com alone. Luckily for NASA’s technical workforce, APPEL Knowledge Services has developed a new webinar series built around key insights leaders need to know to succeed. The first Quick LIfTTS (Leadership Insights for Technical Teams Series) webinar is scheduled for May 19, 2021 at 1 p.m. E.T.
Quick LIfTTS builds on the success of Quick HITS, a webinar series APPEL KS began in June 2020 to focus on the profound personal challenges that members of NASA’s workforce faced as they moved forward with complex projects during the global pandemic. Early Quick HITS webinars addressed such timely topics as working from home effectively, extinguishing burnout, and mastering stress.
“The Quick HITS series focuses on topics that members of our technical workforce can immediately apply to their current environment,” said Tiffany L. Smith, Acting NASA Chief Knowledge Officer and APPEL Knowledge Services Director. “Quick LIfTTS builds on that theme and offers short, focused webinars to engage people as leaders and introduce essential skills that leaders need to take on challenges.”
In the first Quick LIfTTS webinar, speaker, trainer, and storyteller Scott Robley will discuss influence—the ability to foster rapid, profound, and sustainable changes in behavior.
Credit: Scott Robley
In the first Quick LIfTTS webinar, titled “The Influencer,” speaker, trainer, and storyteller Scott Robley will discuss influence—the ability to foster rapid, profound, and sustainable changes in behavior—a skill he identifies as the single most determining characteristic of successful leadership. Still, he says, most leaders are not deliberative in how they approach challenges that require the use of influence.
In the webinar, Robley will teach attendees how to become successful influencers able to identify and effectively use six sources of influence to bring about change. As effective influencers, leaders know how to develop clear, measurable goals, identify the few vital behaviors of team members that need to change to achieve those results, and leverage their knowledge of the six sources of influence to ensure changes in those vital behaviors.
“Quick LIfTTS will provide people with the opportunity to reinforce or learn new skills that are crucial to developing increased competency in project management and systems engineering. Our research tells us that the most successful NASA technical leaders can demonstrate the skills we’re highlighting in the Quick LIfTTS series,” Smith said.
APPEL KS intends to deliver Quick HITS and Quick LIfTTS webinars on alternating months, following the May 19 Quick LIfTTS with a Quick HITS webinar on June 10 at 1 p.m. E.T., titled Conversational Competence. Trainer Lisa Cox will present tools that help teams establish solid communications during the good times so they can remain on track through the tough challenges. The next Quick LIfTTS, on July 15 at 1 p.m. E.T., presents techniques that leaders can use to forge common ground and bridge horizontal, vertical, demographic, and geographic boundaries on teams. As summer 2021 begins to wind down, the August 19 Quick HITS, also at 1 p.m. E.T., focuses on the skill of active listening in a virtual world.
“Quick LIfTTS is an opportunity for APPEL to bring forward the knowledge and techniques that enhance leadership in support of high-performing teams,” said Steve Angelillo, APPEL KS Deputy Director. “The short, value-rich sessions are live, which allows the audience to engage with the presenters and other attendees. The format enables us to evolve the content and topics more quickly than in a curriculum environment.”
Due to high demand, APPEL KS will streamline the process to attend a webinar beginning with the Quick LIfTTS on May 19, moving to a first-come, first-served basis on the day of the event. Rather than registering prospective attendees weeks in advance, APPEL will:
- Send an announcement email with a “save the date” feature two weeks prior to the webinar,
- Send a reminder email two days before, also with a “save the date” feature, and
- Send an invitation that includes a link to the actual webinar shortly after noon on the day of the event.
Attendance will be limited to the first 500 people to click that link.
“These webinars are tailored to the NASA technical workforce,” Smith said. “We want to be sure the workforce has the opportunity to engage with the presenter and with each other and that participants can speak in the language of NASA. We hope that our technical leaders will participate in these webinars and share what they learn with their teams in support of NASA’s mission.
“The past year has been incredibly challenging for our workforce, our families, and our communities. We’ve selected topics for APPEL webinars that focus on specific actions that people can take to make things a little easier for themselves and for those they work with and live with,” Smith said.
