The Leadership Brevard class of 2019 arrived at KSCVC for the ‘Innovation’ session; who better to lead off the day’s theme than our own LEAD Brevard chairman of the board of directors’ Dale Ketcham, Vice President, Government & External Relations of Space Florida and Leadership Brevard graduate ’86.

Updates to and in the future planning for Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex (in case you wondered what KSCVC acronym was) was shared by Jean Ann Bowman (LB ‘19), Senior Director of Operations, Delaware North Companies, KSCVC and Cyn McMyne (LB ’17), Senior Director of Human Resources, Delaware North Companies, KSCVC.

Lynda Weatherman, President & CEO, Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast (EDC) arrived as the whirlwind she is and shared some BRAC (Base realignment and closure) history, this community’s success in retaining not only USAF assets but NOTU as well. Then and now, we celebrate our military members and installations as a key piece of the innovation sector of our economy.

At monthly half-day class sessions, participants sharpen critical skills necessary for effective leadership in their organization. Experienced subject matter experts as facilitators lead sessions and participants will learn and practice the skills of a results-oriented leader.

Session two of the 2018 – 2019 year was November 6, 2018 with subject matter expert Susan Mazza, Author/Founder – Random Acts of Leadership and CEO, Clarus Consulting Group, LLC. Frequently listed as one of the top 100 Leadership Blogs in the world, Susan is a recognized thought leader and leadership expert. She is the founder and author of the highly-acclaimed blog RandomActsofLeadership.com and the creator of the Leadership in Action System™, a proven system for elevating your leadership and amplifying your impact through the power of simple, everyday actions.

The session focused on an introduction to the Strategy in Action™ Program, offering our leaders practical access to thinking and leading strategically to improve performance while increasing work satisfaction and reducing burnout. A process for decision making was introduced and left participants with an action plan for this model.

When asked what was the most valuable take-away from the session, participants said:

• Structured process for action planning.
• How to create a strategic plan for decision making.
• Why + What before How.
• How to break down the decision making process and define success.
• Learning to be strategic.
• Begin with the end in mind. What’s the intention/intended outcome?
• Don’t be afraid to ask leadership or team members what defines success of a project.
• Concept of “clarity, alignment, leverage”; why and what before how.
• To be strategic requires clarity.

And told us that these were the actions they would take with that new knowledge:

• Balancing success and satisfaction is key.
• Structuring meeting and projects with the outcome in mind.
• I will be creating a weekly department summary email for my membership department to share with all.
• Learning to prioritize my daily tasks better.
• Have a conversation with boss to come up with a strategy to present in the next meeting.
• Clearly define the why, what, and how of a given strategy. I will also try to bring others clarity in regards to projects that I oversee.
• Meeting with my business partner using this strategy.
• Getting employees feedback. Explain my decisions better. Include them on my decisions.
• Make sure I communicate the why and what to the crew.
• Asking these questions to guide me to better decision making.
• Plan more strategic mission and vision for my team.
• Clarifying the why and what the conditions of success are.

• There are different processes and work flows to determining the action plan.
• Activity vs deliverable vs outcome.
• That I couldn't’t truly have an impact on initiating change, it can start with me.
• The new thinking of having a strategy in action plan, I never thought I needed one.
• You don’t have to be the leader to lead.
• I found the idea that we should breakdown the measures of success/activities/deliverables/outcomes helpful.
• New way to approach strategy formulation.

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