ATD Charlotte upcoming events

From Lived Experience to Learning Impact: Designing Leadership Training That Actually Changes Behavior (16 Apr 2026)

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 21:45:00 GMT

From Lived Experience to Learning Impact: Designing Leadership Training That Actually Changes Behavior

Registration Deadline: April 9

Leadership development programs often raise awareness but struggle to create lasting behavior change. Learning and development professionals are under increasing pressure to design training that resonates with leaders, reflects real workplace challenges, and translates into meaningful action long after the session ends. This presentation explores how experiential learning can be intentionally designed to close the gap between knowing and doing. In this session, participants will examine why traditional content heavy approaches frequently fall short and how experience based learning better aligns with how adults learn and retain information. The session introduces a clear, repeatable framework built around experience, reflection, and application. Rather than relying on storytelling alone, participants learn how to structure lived workplace experiences into purposeful learning moments that support insight, engagement, and transfer. Through guided discussion and interactive activities, attendees will explore common leadership training challenges and practice redesigning a learning experience using an experiential lens. The session emphasizes practical application rather than a single topic area, making the framework adaptable across leadership development, burnout prevention, inclusion, and change initiatives. Participants will leave with actionable tools, facilitation strategies, and a practical approach they can immediately apply to elevate the impact of their leadership training and create learning experiences that leaders remember and apply in their day to day work.

Learning Objectives:

1.Identify why traditional leadership training often fails to drive sustained behavior change.

2.Explain how experiential learning and lived experience can be intentionally structured to improve engagement and retention.

3.Apply a simple experience–reflection–application framework to redesign a leadership or talent development session.

4.Design one practical learning activity that can be immediately adapted for leadership development, burnout, inclusion, or change initiatives.

Register Now!

Presented by:

Chef Maria Kemp

Chef Maria Kemp is an Experiential Learning Strategist and leadership development facilitator with more than a decade of experience designing and delivering learning experiences that drive real behavior change. She brings a strong foundation in corporate environments, facilitation, and experiential learning design to her work with organizations and learning and development teams. Maria is known for turning real workplace challenges into practical, engaging leadership development tools that help leaders move from awareness to action. Her work supports learning professionals who want to create training that resonates, sticks, and delivers lasting impact.

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Join ATD Charlotte for our monthly chapter meeting. Meet other talent development professionals in the Charlotte area, discover job opportunities and - if you're recruiting - connect with job seekers, hear about the latest chapter news, and participate in a fantastic program.

All times Eastern Time (US & Canada)

Location: NOTE: New Location!!

CPI Security Systems Corporate Office

4300 Sandy Porter Rd, Charlotte, NC 28273

Parking: please park anywhere in the parking lot (EV is for employees only, though).

Enter through the main entrance in the front of the building that faces Sandy Porter Road, please enter 4300 building (not 4200 building).

Check in: 5-6pm

Meeting start time: 5:45pm

Note: For any guests attending (without a guest pass), please select 'Guest-In Person' for your registration; the cost is $25 to cover the meeting and food.

We are looking forward to seeing you! Remember that in order to protect food costs and your membership dollars ATD charges a $25 no-show fee. So if something comes up please cancel by Thursday (7 days prior to the event) 12noon before the meeting. Thanks!!!

Meeting Schedule:

All times Eastern Time (US & Canada)

5:45pm - Meeting starts
Dinner!
Networking & Job Forum
Chapter Announcements
Presentation
8:00pm - Meeting Concludes

Every Important Message Deserves a Story: A Hands-On Session (21 May 2026)

Thu, 21 May 2026 21:45:00 GMT

Every Important Message Deserves a Story: A Hands-On Session

Registration Deadline: May 14

We communicate with people from across the company every day. Sometimes, you have an important message that requires the listener to act:

- Open up

- Collaborate

- Take ownership

- Commit

But how do you prepare a message that triggers a real response? Facts, data, information—that’s the easy stuff—but these things, by themselves, don’t trigger change.

First, step away from the slide deck and shut down your favorite AI tool. It’s time to be human and think human. There are four simple questions that will get you started on the right foot to preparing a message that your audience will have a hard time resisting. In this session, Rance leads you through answering those four questions.

Come with a message in mind:

You might need to present data to stakeholders or rally your team around a new idea or have a serious discussion with a teammate about their performance. Whatever your important message is, you’ll leave this session with a great starting point to design and deliver that message.

Register Now!

Presented by:

Rance Greene

Rance Greene formed needastory.com for those who struggle with storytelling at work. His methodology—Story Design—gives leaders, sales teams, marketers and presenters a systematic and creative way for discovering who their audience is and how to persuade them to take action on new ideas. He helps professionals discover that they are uniquely equipped to tell the best story for their audiences. Rance is the author of Instructional Story Design, a practical guide for developing stories that train. He coaches, teaches, speaks and writes often on the benefits of stories to connect people to one another.

Website: www.needastory.com

School link: www.schoolofstorydesign.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rancegreene/

Book link: https://amzn.to/2up6VLY

Register Now!

All times Eastern Time (US & Canada)

Location: NOTE: New Location!!

CPI Security Systems Corporate Office

4300 Sandy Porter Rd, Charlotte, NC 28273

Parking: please park anywhere in the parking lot (EV is for employees only, though).

Enter through the main entrance in the front of the building that faces Sandy Porter Road, please enter 4300 building (not 4200 building).

Check in: 5-6pm

Meeting start time: 5:45pm

Note: For any guests attending (without a guest pass), please select 'Guest-In Person' for your registration; the cost is $25 to cover the meeting and food.

Meeting Schedule:

All times Eastern Time (US & Canada)

5:45pm - Meeting starts
Dinner!
Networking & Job Forum
Chapter Announcements
Presentation
8:00pm - Meeting Concludes