SPECIAL FEATURE: KNOW YOUR COLLEAGUES—MARGO MURRAY AND NANCY CRAIN BURNS

What attracted you to Performance Improvement (PI)/Human Performance Technology (HPT)/the ISPI?

In 1965 I was appointed to establish the first Training and Development/Learning and Development/PI group in The Pacific Telephone Company. I searched for resources to develop my staff and found the National Society for Programmed Instruction (NSPI). My colleague, Dr. Richard Peterson at AT&T, had recommended the Center for Programmed Learning for Business at the University of Michigan. I was already using George Ordiorne's Management by Objectives as a line manager. I contracted with his team of Geary Rummler, Dale Brethower, Karen Brethower, and Joe Yaney to do a workshop for my fledgling team in San Francisco. Then I went to the NSPI conference in St. Louis, Missouri (1966) and met Bob Mager, Susan Markle, William Deterline, Peter Pipe, Roger Kaufman, Robert Filep, Don Tosti, Roger Addison, and many more members. In the ensuing five decades, I have continued to learn from all of those luminaries and have had opportunities to partner and work directly with some on client projects.

What is some of the work you are most proud of?

My most rewarding endeavors resulted from working with the following projects:

First, Leadership in Reproductive Health in seven African and Asian countries, resulting in decreased maternal and infant mortality, the spread of HIV/AIDS, female genital mutilation, and other major health issues. We achieved measured results over the 8 years we were funded, primarily by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Dr. Luis Gasparotto took my model and resources to implement a similarly effective program in five Latin American countries. In some countries, the leadership development efforts, funded by local resources, continue to improve reproductive health for thousands of people.

Secondly, The Mentoring Center (TMC) in Oakland, California. I served as a volunteer almost from the founding by visionary Martin Jacks, serving highly at-risk youth. Then, when I was board director and board cochair of TMC for 10 years, measured results included significant reduction in recidivism, drugs, gangs, and crime for hundreds of young people in California.

Also, I'm pleased that I launched careers for many people who started with me at MMHA (The Managers' Mentors, Inc.) as interns or project associates. As a Certified Course Manager 1 (Mager & Pipe), I was able to coach these emerging professionals to become certified in criterion referenced instruction and instructional module development. Two of the dozens of them, Pat Killoran and Bob Carr, went on to become leaders and officers in NSPI and ISPI.

When people speak or think of you, what do you want them to say or remember?

In 1970, during a personal growth seminar with Dr. James Nugent, I wrote this epitaph, “Margo is to be remembered for having created environments within which other people achieved their goals.” I believe I have behaved consistently with that.

What do you do and/or are doing now?

Consulting on mentoring processes and providing assessments and resources with long-term clients, executive coaching, and some webinars. I am the advisor to the Bay Area/Boise State chapter of ISPI, serve as the ISPI historian, and am working in the family vineyard in mid Missouri.

Please share one of Margo's Maxims that you mentioned during your keynote speech in 1984

If there is something that needs to be done or fixed…"If it is to be, some part of it is up to me!”

Where can you be reached?

margo@mentors-mmha.com (please include “PIJ Journal” in the subject line).

Short Bio

Margo Murray, MBA, CPT, C-EI, has earned ISPI's highest honors: Outstanding Member, Member for Life, President, and the Rummler Award, and serves as mentor to many ISPI leaders. She has volunteered as officer and committee chair for ISPI for more than 50 years, currently as a reviewer for CPT applications, and advisor to the Bay Area/Boise State chapter.

Margo's thought leadership is evidenced by the many projects she has managed for public and private sector organizations worldwide, seeing opportunities and potential that are daunting to others. Always focused on results, she has added value in partnership with clients on performance improvement processes, utilizing her proven innovative models for strategic planning and facilitated mentoring. Margo most values the results of using these strategies to leverage scarce resources for reproductive health leadership in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and mentoring processes for youth in School to Work and TMC Oakland.

The preeminent researcher, designer, and evaluator of facilitated mentoring, her best-selling book, Beyond the Myths and Magic of Mentoring: How to Facilitate an Effective Mentoring Process, is considered the seminal work on facilitated mentoring.

Margo has been an invited speaker at many international, regional, and national events, including the United States Agency for International Development and the United Nations Secretariat. Her custom-designed programs and published articles have won professional awards and White House Recognition for Excellence and are translated into Swedish, Spanish, French, Japanese, Korean, and Arabic. She is founding faculty of the Emotional Intelligence Training & Research Institute, and recipient of the first Personal Excellence Award from Emotional Intelligence Learning Systems.

Margo believes—and behaves consistently with her belief—that it is a tragic waste of human resources for any generation to learn by trial and error what someone has already learned, and she passes her knowledge on. Her many volunteer leadership roles include the following: director emeritus of the International Mentoring Association; member of Editorial Advisory Board of Peer Resources (Mentoring); executive board cochair of TMC Oakland; vice president of International Training in Communication; president of ISPI; chair of Executive Board and CFO of the International Federation of Training and Development Organisations (IFTDO). In 1998, IFTDO awarded her Honorary Member, only the third ever granted.

What attracted you to PI/HPT/ISPI?

I was introduced to the International Society for Performance Improvement by my brother, Al Crain. In 2003, Al was a student in Boise State University's Instructional and Performance Technology program. He invited me to attend the ISPI conference in Boston with him. I was very impressed by the “giving nature” of conference speakers and attendees. These performance improvement professionals were willing to share their information freely and I felt that I had found a professional home and family.

Later, I received a call from Guy Wallace, then ISPI director, when he invited me to join the society. Guy also served as ISPI president and is now serving as one of our ISPI historians, along with Margo Murray and Roger Addison. In Boston, I also met Eileen Banchoff from the ISPI Michigan chapter and joined that, as well. Dr. Judy Hale introduced the “Certified Performance Technologist (CPT)” designation, and I applied the ISPI Performance Improvement Principles to my work at General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC).

ISPI has had a very positive impact on my corporate career, academic life, and consulting and nonprofit work! Living by the ISPI 10 Principles and Practices of Performance Technology Improvement has helped me practice that “Being better matters!” Understanding that the term technology in this context means the “applied science” in our work explains the meaning behind the methodology. I believe that ISPI membership is priceless!

What is some of the work you are most proud of?

During my corporate career, I successfully led three field accounting departments, served on a branch executive committee, and was promoted to [a position at GMAC] Detroit, Michigan headquarters. I led project teams and served as liaison to corporate executives to implement technology systems for executive office and field offices. In this role, I worked with vice presidents and directors in Human Resources, Training and Performance Improvement, Plans and Programs, Advertising/Relationship Marketing and Communications, Privacy Programs, and with the Information Technology CIO.

By applying the 10 ISPI Principles to my university teaching career, I developed an approach to teaching courses that engaged students and made me a better instructor. This enabled me to apply the concepts to a broad range of disciplines, including business, organizational, and project management; leadership; entrepreneurship, and more.

In my consulting and nonprofit work, I have led visioning sessions with boards of directors, councils, and committees. Working with our many wonderful ISPI volunteers, we have made a positive difference for our society and members.

My membership with ISPI has provided an opportunity to meet with many thought leaders. I appreciated much encouragement from Dr. Roger Kaufman. He also served as one of our historians. A wonderful invitation from Dr. Darlene Van Tiem led to my coediting Cases on Performance Improvement Innovation and working with great authors in the field. There are so many more to thank!

When people speak or think of you, what do you want them to say or remember?

I would like those that I meet to know that I truly care for them and their success. I hope that they will say, “Nancy made a positive difference in my life and/or career.”

What you do and/or are doing now?

I am the president of Crain Burns Associates, LLC, a coaching, consulting, and leading nonprofit organization.

Where can you be reached?

Ncburns13phd@gmail.com (please include “PIJ article” in the subject line).

Short Bio

Nancy Crain Burns, CPT, PhD, MBA, PMP, CAEL, is the founder and president of Crain Burns Associates, LLC. She is currently serving as president of the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) and is proud to call the society her professional home.

As a Certified Performance Technologist, Nancy leads individuals, teams, and organizations through strategies, identifying opportunities that achieve effective solutions. Her dissertation research connected aspects of leadership, communication, and influence styles that enhance self-reflection and collaboration with others. During her career in an automotive and financial services organization, Nancy worked her way through the field organization to a position in the firm's executive office (from the “mail room to the board room”). She has worked in operations, accounting, and project and information technology management, and has also worked as a liaison with business executives for strategic planning and technology requirements. After “retirement” from the corporate world, Dr. Burns moved into academia as an instructor and teaching/learning coordinator. In this role, she developed courses, mentored faculty, and enhanced courses in the Global Project Management curriculum. She has taught leadership, entrepreneurship, organizational behavior, management (strategic, human resource, and operations), philosophy of American enterprise, as well as training in organizations and project management at the university level. Dr. Burns is active in her community and has served on several nonprofit boards. She was the chair of the steering committee for a rural community visioning implementation. Nancy joined ISPI (International Society and Michigan chapter) in 2003. She served as vice president of Programs in Michigan, CPT chair/president of the Capella University chapter, and program chair/society liaison of the Tennessee chapter. She is a CPT reviewer for the international organization. As an ISPI director, she served as a liaison to several committees, including Chapter Partnership and Marketing, as well as fulfilling roles as treasurer, president-elect and editor-in-chief/editorial advisor for Performance Improvement Journal. In her role as president, she serves ex officio with all committees and is mentoring President-Elect George Gu, the ISPI Executive Committee, and board members. She is also serving as director of IFTDO.