Ann Epps

Ann Epps, MA, IAF CPF, MTT

Profile

Ms. Epps has more than 30 years of strategic planning, organization development, leadership development, and process facilitation experience.   Ann works with clients internationally in Asia as well as in the US and Europe.  Her clients span the spectrum from large business organizations to national governments to small non-profits. She is known for her keen attention to client needs and a passion for close client collaboration to design and facilitate projects that deliver the desired client outcomes.  Ann was among the first recipients named to the International Association of Facilitator Hall of Fame.

Employment History

• Senior Partner – LENS Leadership International, Asia
• Associate Trainer – Civil Service College of Singapore
• International Trainer – Schouten and Nelisson, the Netherlands
• Co-Director – Institute of Cultural Affairs, Rocky Mountain Region, USA
• Manager –  Market Research, International Harvester Agricultural Division
• Lecturer –  Southern Methodist University (SMU)

Competency Areas

• Leadership Development

Employee involvement, consensus building, peer coaching, 360 degree leadership assessment, and leadership development.

• Meeting Design and Facilitation

Creatively design and facilitate large and small group meetings, retreats and planning sessions.  Team-building.

• Organizational Strategy

Organization change, strategy development, participatory project evaluation, business & organizational strategic planning.

• Training Development and Delivery

Leadership development programs. Critical Conversations.  Trainer of Trainers in the Technology of Participation (ToP) Facilitation Methods. Strategic Planning, innovation, and Organization Change Implementation programs.  Influencing Skills. Stakeholder engagement. peer coaching. basics of project management.

• Project Management

Collaborations involving multiple stakeholders. Participatory Project Evaluations.

• Stakeholder Engagement

Total organization engagement projects. Multi-cultural team building. Cross-sector team collaboration.

Education

• Master’s Degree in English Literature – Southern Methodist University (SMU), Dallas
• Bachelor’s Degree in Social Sciences – SMU, Dallas
• Certificate in Communication and Human Relations– University of Kansas
• Certificate in Education – Lander College, Greenwood, S. Carolina
• Global Academy, Institute of Cultural Affairs, Chicago

Professional Associations

• International Association of Facilitators (IAF), founding member and former board member      
• National ToP Trainer’s Network
• Association for Training and Development, Rocky Mtn. Region
• Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA)

Professional Certification and Awards

• Phi Beta Kappa, Southern Methodist University
• Mortar Board (national women’s honor society)
• Certified Professional Facilitator – International Association of Facilitators (IAF)
• Certified Professional Facilitator Assessor – IAF
• IAF Hall of Fame
• Mentor Trainer – National ToP Trainer’s Network
• Total Quality Management Consultant Certification
• Marketing for Managers’ Certificate –  Northwestern University, Chicago

Publications and Presentations

• Participation Works:  Business Cases from Around the World (co-authored case)
• Facilitation for Innovation: Inspiring Creative Teams (co-creator)
• Breakthrough Facilitation
• Lure the Tiger Out of the Mountains: Developing Creative Solutions for Tough Issues
• The Wizardry of Facilitation
• Navigating the Waves of Cross-Cultural and Co-Facilitation
• Facilitation from the Inside Out
• Wizardry of Productive Meetings

Ann Epps’ Selected Project List

• Cultural Diversity Facilitation: Project leader and facilitator for “Cultural Dimensions of Business Ethics” training workshop for 2,500 managers and staff of ExxonMobil. Working in partnership with ExxonMobil senior managers, designed  and led a one-day workshop for all staff in Malaysia for implementation of the world-wide organization’s business ethics.
• Designed and facilitated Diversity and Inclusion strategy and communication sessions with British Petroleum Asian leaders to promote greater diversity in the hiring, retaining, and support of more diverse qualified employees.  Consultation included the development of diversity and inclusion conversation formats for BP managers to lead with their associates.
• Curriculum Design: Co-led a research team and to develop a new course “Facilitation for Innovation: Inspiring Group Creativity” for international and national mangers and team leaders. The course provides demonstrates methodologies for planning more effective meetings using design-thinking processes.  The course has been conducted in eight US cities in addition to 5 international locations.
• Organization Change: Designed and facilitated an international bank’s customer service strategy development and implementation process in Malaysia beginning with the president and divisional managers.  Facilitated the process with 1,000 staff, then trained 6 bank facilitators to facilitate the process with 1,000 more branch bank staff country-wide.
• Founder and board member of International Association of Facilitators (IAF). One of 50 global assessors to certify IAF professional facilitators.  Served as process manager for facilitator assessment events in Sweden, Taiwan, USA, the Netherlands, and France and assessor in more than 20 events in Europe, Turkey, Canada, Asia, and the USA.
• Leadership Development: Largest Malaysian Bank’s Leadership Academy – Provided training to 40 Learning Technologists in effective meetings, difficult conversations, strategic planning facilitation
• Organization Assessment, strategic planning and project evaluation:  Team lead for evaluating Save the Children Norway Laos country programs in collaboration with the Ministry of Education. Organized and facilitated 45 interviews in Vientiane and in two other province capitals.  Documented interviews, teamwork, and evaluation summary.
• Organization Change:  Designed and co-led project with technical college to shift 40 instructors from lecturers to learning facilitators.  Designed and conducted eleven days of facilitation training with all instructors and mentored eight change facilitators to champion change across the college.
• Joint Venture Facilitator: Lead facilitator of merger between Norway and UK Save the Children Organizations in Sri Lanka.  Designed and facilitated the three-year process of merging program, operational, and financial components of the two organizations. Involved extensive interviews with 35 individuals; compiling results; and integrating results into facilitated consensus building sessions.
• Consensus Facilitation:  Facilitated representatives of an association of medical scientists to discuss, select, and describe possible scientific projects capable of winning a Nobel prize for medicine.

• Leadership Development: Designed and trained facilitative leadership sessions for senior officers of the Singapore Civil Service through the Civil Service College for eleven years. More than 1,300 officers were trained in Technology of Participation (ToP) meeting methods, critical communications, and strategic planning methodologies.  Multiple agencies such as the Subordinate Courts, the Internal Revenue Service, the Singapore Police, and the Home Affairs Ministry also contracted for in-house training.
• Leadership Development: Project leader and facilitator for Shell training in Malaysia and Singapore for seven years.  Coordinated team of six to deliver approximately 15 courses a year to Shell project leaders and managers.  Training included coaching skills, stakeholder engagement in a multi-cultural environment, influencing skills, and team building.  Lead trainer for USA Shell project leaders in Stakeholder Engagement, Coaching, Project Management and Influencing Skills in Houston and Port Arthur, Texas, and Gonzales, Louisiana.
• Large Conference Facilitation: Designed a conference interactive session and trained table facilitators for a 400-person conference of the Southeast Asia Petroleum Association.   Accomplished objective to develop ways to cut expenses in the use of sub-contractors
• Strategic Thinking: Designed and trained managers of a media conglomerate in Strategic Thinking Habits. Singapore Press Holdings contracted one to three runs of the course every year for 18 years. The company objective was to enable managers to see opportunities in multiple arenas beyond the print media for marketing products.
• Joint Venture Facilitation:  Facilitated the visioning and strategy development for a joint venture between two non-profit organizations:  The Council of Energy Resource Tribes and the Institute of Cultural Affairs, Colorado.
• Leadership Development: Co-designed and led Facilitative Leadership sessions with TVS Holdings, one of India’s largest conglomerates.  Chairman and divisional managers attended sessions to intensify Six Sigma lean manufacturing through use of participation methods among the factory-level teams.  Conducted another eight, 3-day sessions with multiple company managers within the group.
• Strategy Implementation: Process Consultant to Malaysian investment bank for strategy implementation. The government bank contracted for facilitation of team action planning among senior managers.
• Team Alignment: Lead facilitator for petroleum joint venture team alignment between Asian and US petroleum companies.  The objective was for refinery cross-cultural teams to achieve maximum synergy to enhance productivity.  The facilitation involved consultation to promote an understanding of the two different cultural styles and practices.  Result of facilitation was a deeper awareness and acceptance of the two cultures and a consensus on action plans for moving forward.
• Large Organization Facilitation: Co-designer and facilitator for ten-year strategy roadmap sessions for national IT agency which wanted input from across the agency to build their future strategy.
• Large Conference Facilitation: Lead designer and facilitator of a national E-Learning Conference with 70 CEO’s.  Facilitated vision session for innovative learning methodologies for the future.

• Large Conference Facilitation: Lead designer and facilitator a national R & D conference with 60 researchers and scientists projecting 50 years into the future to determine research and grant needs.  The areas of health, education, and energy were explored and envisioned far into the future with accompanying next-step implementation plans.
• Leadership Development: Lead trainer for 60 Brunei petroleum company managers in Effective Meetings and Strategic Planning.
• Organization Change: Lead designer and facilitator of organization change project with Save the Children Norway in Sri Lanka.  Facilitated a sensitive workshop designing the future of the country organization which had to shift from 100 to 5 staff over the next 3 years.
• Strategic Planning and Leadership Development: Facilitated multiple country strategic planning and facilitator training sessions over a ten-year period for Save the Children Norway Asian managers in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand. Also facilitated a region-wide strategic planning session for the Southeast Asian region. Special emphasis on training and empowering Asian women to fill management roles in the organization.
• Leadership Development: Designed and conducted Participatory Management and Project Management Training sessions for twenty Mongolian Child Rights Center Staff and Coordinators, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.  Center management needed communication and meeting skills for collaboration with children, government officials, social workers, and parents with a focus on helping street children living in poverty to become self-sufficient.
• Leadership Development: Co-Designed and conducted an 8-day Participative Management development program for newly appointed regional managers (Korean, Thai, Taiwanese, Malaysian, Singaporean, American) of world’s largest American connector manufacturer based in Singapore
• Seminar Design, Organization, and Training: Organized, secured funding for, designed, and staffed a Southeast Asia Regional Human Development Training Seminar (10 days long) for non-profit and government community development project staff and officers
• Public Course Facilitator Training:  Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA) USA and LENS Leadership International, Asia.  Trained more than 1,000 facilitators in consensus techniques, participatory strategic and action planning, managing difficult situations, and participatory event design.    Mentor trainer of Technology of Participation (ToP). Founded Malaysia facilitator forum. Lead organizer of ten facilitator conferences in Malaysia and Singapore. Served on USA ToP Network Board of Directors.
• Co-director USA Non-profit Organization: Major responsibilities included recruiting and managing volunteers for three programs:  Rocky Mountain participation in the International Exposition of Rural Development, conducting a series of facilitation training workshops, and securing financial support for a series of Colorado rural community town meetings.
• Co-Director, Institute of Cultural Affairs, Republic of the Philippines: Organized, secured funding for, designed, trained and staffed a Southeast Asia Regional Human Development Training Seminar (10 days long) for NGO and government integrated community development project staff and officers.
• Organization Re-organization:  Harley Davidson contracted a facilitated workshop for managers and project team leaders analyze and align reorganization efforts and develop strategies for improved communications across the headquarters.