June 27, 2019
Thirty-four future leaders from the U.S. egg industry gathered on Lake Tahoe for the seventh annual UEP Future Leaders Conference, June 18-21. The robust agenda included in-depth learning about the purpose and function of UEP, team-building adventures and working on real-world industry challenges through mock taskforce exercises.
The opening session began with Billy Nolan, an expert in personality assessment, facilitating the group through a “color temperament profile” discovery exercise. During this session, participants determined their temperaments and learned how people with different personalities can leverage each other’s strengths to get work done.
UEP President and CEO Chad Gregory led the opening session on the second day of the conference, discussing how the industry has changed over the years and the current structure and leadership of UEP. Mike West, Sara Stiebrs and Lisa Beohm shared their progression through various levels of involvement with UEP. They provided insights into the benefits of collaboration and shared real-life examples of their UEP experiences with committees and the board.
The next session, facilitated by Matt Sutton–Vermeulen from Context, taught the future leaders how to use a “backcasting” model to build simple action plans that lead to successful outcomes. Participants divided into small groups to tackle tough issues (e.g., hen housing, community and people, egg safety and hen health). They each created their own definition of success for their particular issue and then backcasted to the current state. Through this process, the future leaders learned how to collaboratively identify opportunities and challenges, leverage existing processes and determine the strategic actions needed to reach their goals.
The afternoon of day two focused on team building. The Future Leaders, working in new small groups, were given unique “Amazing Race” challenges that demanded collaboration while balancing the knowledge learned from the color temperament profile exercise from the previous day.
The final session on day three was dedicated to strategic planning and included interactive breakout sessions. Working in their Amazing Race teams, the Future Leaders learned the critical components of strategic planning by developing ways to address multiple challenges and opportunities and move from objectives to implementation. Utilizing role-playing, the participants developed current and long-term solutions for egg industry issues from their balanced team perspectives.
While the agenda was packed with leadership skills development, problem-solving and team building, the conference also provided exceptional opportunities for networking, friendship and fun. UEP is grateful to the Future Leaders Conference sponsors for the continued support of such an important program for the next generation of egg industry leaders.
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interview requests, contact Hinda Mitchell.