DAU hosts WACUC Strategic Learning Symposium: building bridges—pursuing partnerships - Networking and Career Development

Program Manager, Jan-Feb, 2003 by Sylwia Gasiorek-Nelson

Representatives of government and industry corporate universities from across the nation gathered together at the Defense Acquisition University (DAU) on Nov. 7, 2002, to participate in the Washington Area Corporate University Consortium (WACUC) Strategic Learning Symposium.

Hosted at DAU's main campus at Fort Belvoir, Va., the 2002 WACUC Symposium emphasized the importance of partnerships--sharing ideas, sharing knowledge, and learning from other's experiences in meeting the needs of the continuous learning workforce. Several dynamic presentations, workshop sessions, and panels as well as exhibits from industry and government reinforced the symposium theme of "Performance Improvement Through Strategic Partnering"

Welcoming the participants was Dr. Toni Ungaretti, member of the WACUC Board of Directors and Assistant Dean and Director of the Division of Undergraduate Studies in the School of Professional Studies in Business and Education, Johns Hopkins University.

"We have come together to look at learning, to develop partnerships, to learn from each other, and to work together to make corporate universities a wonderful moving force for higher education," she said.

She also expressed gratitude to all who participated in making the 2002 event a resounding success.

"We, at WACUC, are very exited to have this opportunity to be here at DAU's beautiful facilities. We're delighted with our host and we are absolutely grateful to all who worked tirelessly to make sure that this event happened."

Opening Remarks

Frank J. Anderson, Jr., President, DAU, and member of the WACUC Board of Directors, welcomed all the symposium participants to the DAU Fort Belvoir campus. He described the day's events as not only a great opportunity to team, but also to get to meet a lot of other dynamic organizations in the learning business, to share, and to grow together.

Anderson's presentation focused on the training transformation process that DoD and DAU are currently undergoing.

"It will give you a context--why what we do is so important for our organization and for our nation," he said. "It will also provide perspectives on the training transformation from our senior leaders."

Two years ago, Anderson explained, DAU started a huge undertaking to transform its way of training the DoD AT&L workforce--a community of about 140,000 people.

"We are a critical part of growth in our economy--the growth of people in the workforce," he said, "and our challenge is to figure out how to prepare people to excel tomorrow."

Anderson also emphasized that any transformation initiative or major initiative requires a significant amount of communication and partnership, and partnerships like WACUC are the best way to share best practices, borrow ideas and concepts, share experiences, and build relationships to face the future together.

Culture--The Key to Effective Partnerships

Dr. Thomas Sawner, Chief Executive Officer, River Oaks Associates, delivered an informative and motivational keynote address entitled, "Culture: The Key to Effective Partnerships."

Sawner, who has an extensive background in leadership development, executive coaching, organizational change, strategic planning, and adult learning, focused on the importance of organizational culture as a key factor for success or failure and addressed the following topics:

* Five key cultural values that define the "Leadership Envelope" and how to intuitively assess the five values for your team.

* How the "Leadership Envelope" defines the bounds within which a team leader must operate to be successful.

* How an awareness of differing team cultures can smooth the path for a successful alliance or partnering opportunity.

* How the five cultural sub-scales can be used to predict organizational performance and how to focus performance improvement by knowing an organization's cultural scale values.

About WACUC

The Washington Area Corporate University Consortium (WACUC) is a forum for collaboration and partnership among governments, businesses, and higher education organizations in the greater Washington, D.C. region. The group is comprised of representatives affiliated with workplace learning and corporate universities. One of the growing trends in workplace learning is the incorporation of college credit programs into training initiatives. WACUC provides a platform for discussion in ways to integrate accredited courses into job-specific learning.

At present, the consortium consists of 60 members, representing 30 organizations. In addition to DAU, other member organizations include Booz, Allen & Hamilton; the Erickson Foundation; The George Washington University; Corporate University Enterprise; National Institute of Standards and Technology; Regent University; United States Postal Service; the Pentagon Federal Credit Union; the Patent and Trademark University; Anne Arundel Community College; United States Bureau of Census; University of Maryland; the Washington Post; the Humane Society of the United States; Northern Virginia Community College; and Johns Hopkins University.