Insurance Professional Skills Development Series

Held in Partnership with the IU Kelley School of Business Executive Education

Change Leadership | July 2, 9, 16, 23 l Broc Pittsford

• Session Details To be Announced Soon!

Communication with Influence | September 9, 16, 23, 30 l Speaker: Trent Deckard

• Session 1: Projecting Confidence into Everyday Leadership Communication. We build upon our previous seminars, to retake up the subject of confidence build from credibility. This time, we discuss common ways that confidence become visible through the verbal and non-verbal communicator. We go beyond the small strategies to take big steps towards communicating in the successful way of influential leadership.
• Session 2: Taking the Unexpected out of Connecting with Others. In this session, we offer leaders key tips and strategies designed to connect more fully with audiences of all kinds. We go beyond simply understanding others to explore the global dimensions of difference that separate leaders and prevent successful communication.
• Session 3: The AI of Influence. Here, we talk about how to get to the point with busy workplace deciders and how Generative AI is quickly becoming the number one workplace partner of so many leaders. In the session, we demystify AI use, demonstrate successful ways it can be used in everyday leadership communication, and further enhance our workplace credibility.
• Session 4: Change as a Leadership Concept. This final gathering will engage the key elements of change necessary to move people forward with winning ideas, big and small. It will explore the common mistakes and pitfalls that leaders make, demonstrating proven concepts to organize others around movement towards action of every kind.

Strategic Innovation for Insurance Leaders | November 4, 11, 18, 25 l Speaker: Greg Fisher

• Session 1: The Strategic Innovation Imperative. Why must mutual insurers innovate — and why is “innovation” not one thing? This session examines the competitive pressures, evolving policyholder expectations, and market dynamics that make strategic innovation essential. Participants will be introduced to a practical framework that distinguishes four distinct modes of innovation, each with different drivers, strengths, and trade-offs. Leaders will assess where their own organization currently stands and begins to think strategically about their innovation choices.
• Session 2: Driving Innovation from Within. How can organizations harness the ideas and energy of their own people to innovate? This session explores two internally focused modes of innovation — one driven by leadership through formal structures and strategic direction, the other fueled by employees through grassroots experimentation and intrapreneurship. Participants will examine real-world examples of both approaches, consider the tension between top-down direction and bottom-up initiative, and identify opportunities to strengthen internal innovation in their own organizations.
• Session 3: Bringing Outside Ideas In. Some of the most powerful innovations come from beyond an organization’s boundaries. This session explores two externally focused modes of innovation — one involving structured partnerships, alliances, and ventures with outside organizations, the other tapping into customers, agents, and broader communities as sources of innovative ideas. Participants will examine how leading organizations manage external innovation relationships and will map opportunities to better leverage their own external networks and stakeholder communities.
• Session 4: Building Your Innovation Portfolio. Innovation is most powerful when leaders think in terms of a portfolio of approaches rather than a single initiative. This final session integrates the four modes of innovation and introduces the individual-level action principles that enable leaders to drive innovation regardless of the mode they are activating. Participants will assess which modes are underdeveloped in their organizations and develop a personal action plan with concrete steps to foster strategic innovation in their teams and areas of responsibility.