Although people were interested in what I was teaching, they were more interested in finding out how big the classes were, and jaws certainly dropped when I mentioned the class size. Strikingly, when I described my day-to-day teaching experience to one of my high school choir directions, Linda Schaller, she mentioned that she was thrilled to see my choir education getting put to good use. Back in the day, I actually thought for a period of time that I was going to be a music major, so in a lot of ways, it always felt as if I had abandoned things I learned in the choir or band room. But, I realized in this visit, and in the 4 weeks I had been in the large lecture hall, that there were important lessons learned from my music experience. In fact, many of these lessons were ones I engaged in on a daily basis without even knowing it. 

As a tribute to the blast from the past I experienced back in September, here are some important lessons I have gleaned for teaching large lectures to undergraduate students. I should note that all of these can be helpful whether you are teaching five students or 500 students. But, here is what has mattered most to me during the fall 2016 semester:

For many of us, SIOP’s annual conference is the central justification for our being involved in this organization—and we’ll demonstrate this point by referring to that conference as “SIOP” through the rest of this column to no ill effect. Watch:

Going to SIOP is many things: exhilarating, rewarding, expensive, daunting, eye opening, exhausting. Because of this combination, it is perhaps like Disney World—

one has to decide whether to expend the resources to go and, once there, one may want to have a game plan regarding how to use the limited (and expensive!) time one has to maximum effect. So the second part of this article is something like the unofficial guide to SIOP for everyone from graduate students to late-career professionals, but the first part is the argument for going to SIOP in the first place. Instead of just stating our opinions, we sought input from a range of subject matter experts with moderate to high immersion in the I-O world who have attended SIOP as little as one or as many as “more than 10” times. Our modest sample included 11 interviewees, with a mix of academics and professionals.

Attending the SIOP annual conference is a highlight for many, and although the yearly trek is beneficial for many reasons, it is important to plan ahead and tailor your conference experience in order to maximize the benefits. In particular, it is important to recognize that your personal needs and goals change as your career progresses. Whether you aim to network for a potential career, search for project collaborators, or want to gain insight into an emerging area of research, the specific aspects of the SIOP conference that you choose to capitalize on will change over time. In this TIP-Topics column, we present you with some important considerations and “TIPs” on how to craft your ideal conference experience. So pack your bags for Anaheim and the 2016 SIOP conference.

Everyone has different goals when it comes to the annual conference; it is important to reflect on what you want to get out of your time in Anaheim and choose your activities accordingly. Through our own experiences at the conference, we have identified four types of SIOP conference attendees.

As a psychologist, I consistently find myself interested in the pursuits of other people and how and why they engage in the lives of their family, friends, and community. As a humanitarian work psychologist, I am particularly compelled to understand and engage in the work of people who go beyond themselves and work in a capacity that serves the greater good, especially in times of crisis and need. Although there are some excellent global initiatives happening currently (e.g., the Sustainable Development Goals, which I will highlight in the next issue of TIP), some of the most pressing issues are the human rights crises that continue to occur globally and, more specifically, those events occurring presently in the Syrian region. I would imagine most of us remain at least passively abreast of the continuing refugee crisis in Syria. However, from a basic social psychology perspective, it is highly likely that we will remain firmly rooted in our passive concern without active regard to the situation at hand.

Our vision is to be the world’s most trusted partner for innovative component solutions.  This reflects our longstanding belief that our customer comes first and that we must be easy to do business with.  We have learned that our customers are also more successful when they engage us earlier in the design process so that we can contribute the talents of our engineers and scientists to finding or creating the best capacitor for the customer’s needs.

The rollout of the mission, vision, and values was an extensive process.  Our leadership team (top 16 leaders) accepted it June 2011.  Our CEO and a couple of us on the team presented it in our globally televised quarterly town hall meeting in July 2011.  Our HR team did translations into 18 languages and our facilities team got framed posters made for our plants and office locations in the 28 countries in which we operate.  Globally each plant and office location was asked to send in video clips of employees telling a short story (15–30 seconds) about what one of the values meant to them.  We received and posted on line the best of those.  We asked each location to meet and talk about the values.