PHIL SIMON
Phil Simon
Interactive Workshops
I offer a number of single and multi-day workshops for driven professionals looking to solve problems, expand their knowledge, and acquire new skills.
IF YOU THINK EDUCATION IS EXPENSIVE, TRY ESTIMATING THE COST OF IGNORANCE.
—HOWARD GARDNER
Overview
If I’ve learned anything in my speaking career, it’s this:
One-hour keynotes can certainly insipre and inform audiences.
I’ll never claim otherwise. Still, there’s only so much material and learning that one can pack into a reasonable speech. Cue Benjamin Franklin quote.
Sometimes an organization, team, or group needs a dedicated block of time—one that allows attendees to ask detailed questions, flush out ideas, understand new concepts, and begin the process of changing entrenched behaviors.
In this vein, I offer extended, interactive, and customized workshops. Groups of professionals and senior execs walk away with new skills, knowledge, and frameworks to immediately apply in their jobs.
The Nine and the Future of Work
A series of tectonic shifts is reshaping the workplace.
One could write a book about that sentence.
I should know. I have. The Nine: The Tectonic Forces Reshaping the Workplace covers generative AI, automation, dispersion, blockchain, and other trends that are rendering the workplace unrecognizable from its prepandemic counterpart. Make no mistake: There’s no going back.
FIne, but how does our organization, department, or team best prepare for these changes?
That query is the most important facing business leaders today.
Over the course of this interactive, customized two- or three-day strategy workshop, I facilitate discussions to help answer it. Attendees will walk away with a better understanding of these forces and begin to formulate plans to deal with them.
All attendees will receive a copy of The Nine: The Tectonic Forces Reshaping the Workplace.
Low-Code/No-Code
Guess where most future business apps will come from.
I’ll wait.
Your IT department? Nope. Employees are overwhelmed; projects are backlogged. Leaders can’t focus on their own strategic priorities—let alone yours.
External developers? Probably not. They’re pricey and their track record isn’t spectacular, to quote Seinfeld.
Odds are they’re coming from non-traditional or citizen developers. An increasingly powerful array of drag-and-drop tools means that your financial analyst, marketing director, and HR clerk will be able to create essential business apps.
That’s the premise behind my new book Low-Code/No-Code: Citizen Developers and the Surprising Future of Business Applications. It’s also the focus on this workshop. Over the course of six hours, participants will learn:
- Why software developers and IT departments can’t keep up.
- Which tools let citizen developers build their own powerful tools.
- The strengths and limitations of LC/NC tools.
- The myths behind citizen development and low-code/no-code.
- Examples of companies that have quickly built affordable and über-useful apps.
But wait. There’s more.
Attendees will get their hands dirty.
During the workshop, they’ll build their own apps using the tool of their choice.
All participants will receive a signed copy of Low-Code/No-Code: Citizen Developers and the Surprising Future of Business Applications.
Project Management in the Hybrid Workplace
Organizations have struggled for decades when attempting to manage projects and launch new products while everyone worked together at the same time.
That ship has long sailed. Brass tacks: In remote and hybrid work environments, the same tactics and strategies no longer work as well.
My new workshop is based on my book Project Management in the Hybrid Workplace. Over the course of six hours, participants will learn:
- Why old project management techniques no longer hold as much water as they did in 2018.
- How to get all project participants to use the same technologies.
- How to identify the warning signs that a remote or hybrid project is starting to break bad.
- New techniques designed to minimize the chance of project failure.
- And much more.
All participants will receive a signed copy of Project Management in the Hybrid Workplace.
Reimagining Collaboration
Is your organization, department, or group languishing in a morass of e-mails? Do employees resist using new tools to communicate and collaborate? Are your business processes stuck in the pre-Covid world? Are employees quitting in droves because they’re burned out?
At least you’re not alone. Many folks struggle with change management, communication, collaboration, and technology.
Rest assured: It doesn’t have to be this way. In this custom workshop, I draw upon the lessons of my award-winning book Reimagining Collaboration: Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and the Post-COVID World of Work. I explain how to embrace automation and efficient business communication.
All attendees will receive a signed copy of Reimagining Collaboration.
Effective Data Visualization
The Era of Big Data arrived years ago, but your organization, department, group, or team is missing out. Specifically, employees continue to struggle to make sense of it all. They rely far too much upon Excel and static charts and graphs. Sure, IT folks can generate more exotic reports, but this process is frustrating and requires multiple iterations.
Fret not: It doesn’t need to be this way.
In this workshop, I show attendees a better way to visualize data. In this workshop, I draw upon key lessons from a few of my books, notably The Visual Organization: Data Visualization, Big Data, and the Quest for Better Decisions.
Over the course of the session, I introduce new tools, concepts, and trends for effective data visualization. What’s more, I provide attendees with concrete and valuable tips on how to turn vast quantities of data into knowledge, insights, and action. Finally, I explain the obstacles that inhibit our ability to create meaningful charts—and how to overcome them.