Episode 284

In this episode of the Unscripted Podcast, host Sarah Nicastro gives an update on the upcoming announcement of the Future of Field Service Stand Out 50 leadership awards, a look into plans for Future of Field Service x IFS Unleashed, and a heads up on upcoming research to watch for.
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Episode Highlights:

Sarah - 00:00:00:

I just wanted to take the opportunity to fill you in on some of the things that are coming up and to make sure that you know to keep an eye out for the Standout 50 announcement and to hopefully help us in celebrating and acknowledging the hard work that service leaders do and the impact that they're having on so many. And that's true not only of the 50 that we worked hard to select, but everyone that was nominated and even those who were not.

Welcome to the UNSCRIPTED Podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Nicastro. Actually, today I'm also the guest or just doing a solo episode. I wanted to record a quick solo. I realize it's been quite a while since I've done so, and there's been some exciting things that myself and the team have been working on, and I thought it would be good to just give our listeners a little bit of an update on some of the things that will be coming up for you to keep an eye out for and just share some of the things that we've been hard at work at that we're really excited about. So for those of you that follow along regularly, you'll know that for the past few years, we've been doing the Future of Field Service live tour. This year, we have had or will have three events. We did our first event in Stockholm, our second event in Cologne, Germany, and we are gearing up for our third event, which will be very different from the others, but I think a whole lot of fun. So we are actually doing sort of an event within the event at IFS Unleashed, which is IFS's global conference taking place in Orlando, October 14th through the 18th at the Marriott World Center. So Future of Field Service has some of its own content and networking opportunities and things like that taking place throughout the week. So we'll be recording two live podcasts on site that you will get to listen to and be able to keep an eye out for. We're hosting three drop-in clinics. So sort of a bit like a roundtable where we're picking certain topics and having a working conversation around those topics in a way that the folks participating can leave with hopefully some good perspective and some actionable insights. And probably the thing I'm most excited for is on October, 17th at the event, we will officially announce the Future of Field Service Standout 50. So hopefully some of you have seen the information on that. It's something that we were promoting at the beginning of summer. So it is a way to acknowledge the hard work and impact service leaders are having within their businesses or their teams, their customers, their companies, and the industry at large. So we had a nomination period where anyone could nominate a leader that they work for, work with, know, etc. And myself, along with Dot Mynahan, who was with Otis Elevator for more than 30 years, running field service, John Carroll, who leads the service council community, and then Dr. Tim Baines, who is the executive director of the advanced services group at Aston Business School. The four of us served as the judges for the awards. So we went through all of the nominations and landed on the top 50. So the Standout 50. And that list will be announced on October 17th live at IFS Unleashed. And some of the folks will be with us in person. Others won't. That'll really just be the official announcement of that list. And then we have a variety of things planned after to recognize and acknowledge those 50 leaders and celebrate the impact that they've had on their teams, their peers, their companies, and the industry. I'm really excited that's coming up. One of the other big projects that we've been doing with, or alongside the Standout 50, is a research report that we will be publishing around the same time. So what we wanted to do is take the opportunity to pick the brains, if you will, of these 50 leaders who have been nominated and selected to represent stellar leadership in service and understand what is on their minds. So when we were thinking about what would we want to ask and how would we want to structure a research piece, I kept coming back in my mind to, you know, when I'm interviewing people. And they talk about sort of these different pillars of what's important to them in service leadership. There's the people, process, technology trifecta that is commonly referred to. So we decided to structure the survey that way. So we have a set of questions around people, process, and technology, and getting their perspective on what is important in each of those categories, a pulse check, if you will, on where they are at in topics that relate to those categories and where their businesses are at, and also taking a look ahead at some of the trends that are top of mind or innovations that are top of mind for them. So we will be alongside announcing the Standout 50. We will be able to share this report that really captures their perspective at this time on what is important. What are the challenges? What are the opportunities? What do they foresee in the future? And use that as a way to share some of their knowledge with our broader audience. I'm really excited for that as well. And that's something that you will be able to find on futurefieldservice.com when it is published. And of course, we'll share. I am personally also very excited for IFS Unleashed. So while we will be doing some of our own content at our event within the event, I will, of course, also be partaking in all of the IFS content and activities throughout the week as well. So there's a great agenda in place. The thing that I'm most excited for is eight-time Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt is giving a keynote. And I'm really excited to hear what he has to say at the IFS Unleashed event in 2022, was it? No, 23. Last year. I can't keep track. The last one that happened, Michael Phelps spoke, and I found his interview so impactful. So I'm really excited for that session. Gary Player, famous golfer, will also be there. And the MIT Center for Information Systems Research is doing an AI readiness program, which I think will be really insightful and helpful for folks that are attending. So I'm excited for that as well. And then perhaps most exciting of all, we are taking the opportunity, since I will be in Orlando, to take the kids to Disney. Eric, Evan, and Ellis are flying down after the event to gear up for some fun and go to Disney. We will be there for Ellis' eighth birthday, which he's excited for. But he has also told me that he is happy we'll be at Disney, but he still wants to have a birthday party when we come home. So I'm pulling double duty on that. But I'm excited to have a week of hard work and a lot of engagement with the Future of Field Service community, with the IFS customer base, and then finish it off with my family coming to join me and having some fun. So it'll be the best of both worlds. So I just wanted to take the opportunity to fill you in on some of the things that are coming up and to make sure that you know to keep an eye out for the Standout 50 announcement and to hopefully help us in celebrating and acknowledging the hard work that service leaders do and the impact that they're having on so many. And that's true, not only of the 50 that we worked hard to select, but everyone that was nominated and even those who were not. I hope you'll keep an eye out for that and also for the research piece that we'll be doing alongside so that you can really think about what's top of mind for these folks and how that compares with what's going on in your brains and in your organizations and in your industries, etc. So if you want to have a look at the IFS Unleashed agenda and just get an idea of what's going on there, if it's something that you might be interested in participating in, you can do that at ifsunleashed.com. Otherwise, the Standout 50 announcement, the Standout 50 research piece will both be available in due time on futureoffieldservice.com. And of course, in the background of all of the exciting work around those initiatives, we are continuing to crank out our weekly articles and this weekly podcast. So those will keep coming as well. As far as UNSCRIPTED goes, you've found us if you're listening to this, which is wonderful. But you can always find the episodes on futureoffieldservice.com. You can also find the video versions on YouTube. And then if you regularly use Apple or Spotify, you can find and subscribe to the podcast there as well so that you don't miss anything. So a lot of fun and exciting things going on. A lot of really good insights and information that will be coming out to our community in the late October timeframe. So I look forward to bringing that all to you and keeping our regularly scheduled programming going in the meantime. I hope you're all well and stay tuned for more soon. You can find anything you need and all the ways to get in touch at futureoffieldservice.com. The podcast is published in partnership with IFS. You can learn more at ifs.com. As always, thank you for listening.