ISPI History (and interest in performance improvement before joining):

I recently became a member as of May 2007 after being encouraged to join by my manager and ISPI Board member, Weston McMillan following a career transition from a Workforce Management Analyst to my current role as the Training Supervisor of Outsourcing Logistics.

Prior to joining ISPI, I have always been interested in enhancing performance both personally and in challenging others to do the same.  My previous role in Workforce Management offered ample opportunity to improve processes and performance through deep dive analysis and action planning based predominantly around numerical metrics.  In order to further my career growth and feed my insatiable appetite for knowledge, I wanted to expand my analytical skill set by joining Training & Development.  From my point of view, Workforce Management served as the “reactive” resource, while the opportunity in Training & Development would help me foster a greater understanding of the necessary foundations needed to expect and implement high performance.

The best thing about my ISPI involvement:

Being relatively new to my position, the experience and expertise of ISPI members has been enlightening and insightful towards my take on performance improvement.    

Most interesting performance improvement job/project? And why?

Two words that have been the theme of my tenure thus far have been consistency and transparency.  Tasked with implementing consistent and transparent training processes amongst our outsourcing vendors has been an incredible experience due to the opportunities afforded by the relative infancy of outsourcing at our company.  By first taking inventory of our current outsourcing landscape, and then designing a roadmap for ensuring that training processes are consistent and transparent across different vendors, has been a valuable “quick win” for our Training & Development department.  Working with the training needs and requirements of our outsource vendors, and the workforce requirements of our internal teams has been a delicate balancing act where the goal of this project has been to lay a solid foundation for future growth needs.

Accomplishments I’m most proud of (personally and professionally):

For me, the two are intertwined.  At eBay, I have not followed what some would consider a traditional career path dictated by the role I was in.  Having the courage to step outside of my comfort zone to join fast-paced and challenging departments has been an exciting and rewarding experience.   

Something hardly anyone knows about me:

I am one of the few who prefer Winter to Summer.

Who (actress/actor) would play me in the story of my life:

I would not want to put anyone in the position of trying to play me…but if I had to choose one, it would probably be Will Ferrell.  Basically, because any movie about the story of my life would make me question that film maker’s sanity and having Will Ferrell play the role of me would at the very least ensure that it was hilariously entertaining.

My “theme song”-:

It would be tough to choose just one, but the sensible side of me would have to say “Turn” by Travis.  It is a song that sums up the delicate balance between dreams and reality, something that is constantly on the mind of this full-fledged day dreamer.

Favorite movie of all time:

“The Fifth Element”.  Visually and conceptually stunning!

If there’s anything I’ve learned in life, it’s:

Tough times never last, tough people do.

What will your life legacy be (hopefully!)?

That I had helped whoever, whenever and with whatever, to the best of my ability and did so with a smile.