AFP Conversations

In today's competitive job market, it is now more important than ever to recognize that learning itself is a skill.

In this special edition of the AFP Conversations Podcast, Jim Kaitz, president and CEO of AFP, speaks with Matt Smith, McKinsey and Company's chief learning officer. Matt is responsible for developing the firm's learning-and-development strategy and for the execution of learning-and-development programs for more than 29,000 colleagues globally.

In this interview, Matt discusses the fundamental skill of learning, how to nurture learning in others, and how companies can create a learning culture. He also discusses his "3x3x3" approach to learning, a practical strategy to continually learn, grow and achieve development.

In this special edition of the AFP Conversations Podcast, Jim Kaitz, President and CEO of AFP, speaks with Shawn Kanungo, who will appear at AFP 2021 as the MindShift Keynote speaker. Kanungo is a globally recognized innovation strategist who works closely with leaders to better plan for the opportunities and threats associated with disruptive innovation.

In this interview, Kanungo provides a preview of his presentation, Disruption DNA. He presents a roadmap for facing the onslaught of technological disruption impacting finance by exploring how to think and act differently to ensure you remain competitive and relevant.

AFP 2021 takes place November 7 - 10 in Washington, D.C. The early registration deadline is through June 25, 2021. To learn more about the event and to register, visit AFP2021.org.

In this special edition of the AFP Conversations Podcast, Jim Kaitz, President and CEO of AFP, speaks with Amy Edmonson, who will appear at AFP 2021 as the Tuesday Keynote speaker. Edmonson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School and author of the book The Fearless Organization, which offers practical guidance for teams and organizations who are serious about success in the modern economy.

In this interview, Edmonson provides a preview of her presentation, Leading Through Crisis: Leveraging Teaming to Solve Problems and Innovate. She discusses the value of successful teaming in a crisis and provides concrete tools that leaders and their teams can use to innovate in the face of disruption.

AFP 2021 takes place November 7 - 10 in Washington, D.C. The early registration deadline is through June 25, 2021. To learn more about the event and to register, visit AFP2021.org.

SkyStem is a leading provider of month-end close automation platforms. Its solution, ART, helps CFOs and controllers shorten the month-end close cycle and time to issue financials by automating balance sheet reconciliations, managing month-end tasks, performing flux and variance analysis, and providing insightful reporting.

In this episode of AFP Conversations, Tom Hunt, CTP, AFP's Director of Treasury Services, sat down with Linda Harris, assistant corporate controller at Ichor Systems, and Nancy Wu, head of sales and customer support for SkyStem, to discuss the month-end close and reconciliation process, potential challenges teams may face, and best practices for adoption.

Visit SkyStem's webiste for more information on month-end close automation platforms.

The common term "implicit bias" refers to attitudes or stereotypes that adversely impact or influence one's understanding, actions and decisions in an unconscious way. But how are these implicit biases manifested and what are their impact on an organization's culture?

In this episode of AFP Conversations, Jenny Okonkwo, president of Transform Consulting and founder of Black Female Accountants Network, a volunteer-led professional women's network with membership across Canada, the UK, the U.S., and Europe, discusses the important topic of implicit bias and her experience fostering diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

From a diversity and inclusion standpoint, Jenny dives deep into how individuals can mitigate against implicit or unconscious bias to attract a quality workforce, build quality teams and lower retention as an organization.

Jenny also provides listeners with tools for managers and leaders to get outside of their bubbles and reflect on their own biases, advice for how organizations can create long-lasting equitable solutions, and ways to develop an organization-wide DEI strategy.

Read Jenny's article, Implicit Bias in the Workplace, and visit the AFP DEI Resources page for more information.

What if financial professionals could have access to information that has previously been unknown, like what others are thinking and feeling? Dan Seidman, Managing Director of Read Emotions, believes that reading hidden emotions is a behavioral science that can be applied to managing, coaching and business partnering.

In this episode of AFP Conversations, Bryan Lapidus, FPAC, AFP's Director of FP&A Practice, is joined by Seidman to discuss how recognizing the emotions others feel during critical meetings is key to increasing empathy and rapport.

As finance engages with a variety of business partners with different agendas, priorities, and points of view, sustained success in this area requires the ability to build constructive relationships. Listen as Seidman explains how to apply these skills in the business arena – both in-person and online – to improve emotional intelligence.

Seidman will be speaking at AFP FinNext 2021 Virtual for the session, "Read (Hidden) Emotions: The Science Behind a New Skill." Click here to learn more about the event, taking place March 23 – 25.

In 2020, AARP was awarded the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation's highest recognition for performance excellence that a U.S. organization can receive. Specifically, the Baldrige committee praised AARP's Enterprise Dashboard, which enables leaders to sustain a focus on achieving the organization's key objectives: grow impact, grow relevance, grow revenue and engage workforce, driving down to individual performance objectives.

Scott Frisch, AARP's EVP and COO, was one of the prime drivers of this work. In this episode of AFP Conversations, Bryan Lapidus, FPAC, AFP's Director of FP&A Practice, is joined by Frisch to discuss the strategy and tactical implementation – including statistical models and organizational staffing – to create a North Star for the entire enterprise.

Frisch will be speaking at AFP FinNext 2021 Virtual for the session, "Data Dashboard for Total Impact." Click here to learn more about the event, taking place March 23 – 25.

Traditionally, finance has been about creating numbers and capturing data for a business. But how can we share that insight to stay relevant to business stakeholders?

In this episode of AFP Conversations, Bryan Lapidus, FPAC, AFP's Director of FP&A Practice, is joined by Jesper Sorensen, co-author of Implementing an Analytics Culture for Data Driven Decisions, to discuss the changes required within finance to reach its aspirations of providing actionable insight to the business.

Sorensen explains that the future of finance requires a roadmap on how to integrate business partnering skills, data science thinking and analytics tools, and an understanding of strategic thinking. This episode will further examine the principles and practice behind the transformation of a global finance department into an analytics business partner, and the resulting return in investment in terms of dollars, job security and career advancement.

Sorensen will be speaking at AFP FinNext 2021 Virtual alongside Larry Mizel for the session, "Becoming an Analytics Business Partner." Click here to learn more about the event, taking place March 23 – 25.

In this episode of AFP Conversations, Jim Kaitz, President and CEO of AFP, is joined by Erica Dhawan, globally recognized leadership expert and AFP FinNext 2021 Virtual Closing Keynote, to preview her keynote: "Leading Digitally: Foster Human Engagement at Work."

As the founder and CEO of Cotential and co-author of the bestselling book Get Big Things Done: The Power of Connectional Intelligence, Dhawan teaches leaders 21st century collaboration skills and behaviors and is the world's leading authority on Connectional Intelligence.

While remote collaboration and digital learning can be successful in the COVID-19 era, it can also be challenging to understand tone, body language and other non-verbal cues that provide meaningful context to communication. In this episode, Dhawan deep dives into new rules, tactics and nuances for effective digital body language to create intellectual and emotional connections – no matter the distance.

To learn more about digital body language, check out Dhawan's best practice toolkit at ericadhawan.com/dbl and get a copy of her book at ericadhawan.com/digitalbodylanguage.

Dhawan is the Closing Keynote at the AFP FinNext Virtual 2021, taking place March 23 – 25. Click here to learn more about the event.

In this episode of AFP Conversations, Jim Kaitz, CEO of AFP, is joined by author, lecturer, and AFP FinNext Virtual Conference Opening Keynote, Hal Gregersen to preview his keynote: "Navigating Uncertainty Through the Power of Inquiry."

Ranked as one of the world's 25 most influential management thinkers by Thinkers50, Gregersen has dedicated his career to finding out what kind of skills, corporate culture and practices produce innovative powerhouses.

Gregersen is the Opening Keynote at FinNext Virtual 2021, taking place March 23 - 25. Click here to register for the event.