Programs and Events
Online and In-Person WAPS Programs and Events that Facilitate Global Learning and Exchange
UP-COMING EVENTS
2024 Fellow of WAPS Induction Ceremony
December 18, 2024, Wednesday
The Tenth
Knowledge-Sharing Forum
Stay tuned for our next KSF event in the first quarter of 2025.
WCPS(I)-WAPS
International Conference
August 20-21, 2025
Stay tuned for more information.
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The Knowledge-Sharing Forum (KSF) is an online-learning program delivered by the World Academy of Productivity Science.
KSF provides a forum for sharing knowledge and experiences, best practices and future trends by academicians, thought leaders, subject-matter experts, industry leaders, government officials and Fellows of WAPS around the world on productivity-related topics, challenges and issues.
KSF is a great source of learning, knowledge sharing, networking, and making a difference through one's professional expertise.
Forum Coordinators:
PAST EVENTS
9th KSF Event — December 5, 2024, Thursday
“Diversity in Productivity: Inclusive Leadership – Managing Diverse Teams to Optimize Productivity” was moderated by Mr. Leon Bian, a Fellow of WAPS and KSF Forum Coordinator.
Our three speakers offered strikingly diverse perspectives during the discussions, exemplifying real-world diversity.
Prof. Angela Lee presented extensive research data on the relationship between diversity and productivity, spanning a range of topics from academic collaboration to developmental psychology, agricultural practices in the Netherlands, workforce diversity in Belgium, and industry-specific studies in Taiwan. She concluded that the impact of diversity is a complex issue, with its effects varying depending on the industry context.
Mr. Rajesh Varma emphasized his belief in diversity, stating that it is not merely a moral imperative but also a sound business strategy. He provided various examples of how he has prioritized diversity within the investment management sector. Mr. Varma acknowledged that different countries possess distinct cultural values, noting that the norms in Scandinavian nations, for instance, can vary significantly from those found in Asian countries. According to McKinsey's 2019 business-case findings, top-quartile companies with ethnically and culturally diverse executive teams outperformed their fourth-quartile counterparts by 36% in profitability.
Ms. Flora Mutahi, an expert on the region, observed that the African continent is remarkably diverse, encompassing a wide range of ethnicities, languages, religions, genders, ages, socioeconomic backgrounds, and skill sets. She shared her experiences founding the "Women in Manufacturing" program, which helps women scale their businesses. She empowers women and youth by helping them gain access to funding, capacity-building opportunities, and professional networking.
Click below for selected Forum Presentations:
8th KSF Event — September 12, 2024, Thursday
“AI at the Crossroads: Public and Private Sector Innovations for Productivity” was moderated by Professor Carolyn Watters, a Fellow of WAPS.
The different perspectives shared by our three speakers sparked numerous questions and comments from Forum attendees.
Mr. Omprakash Subbarao advocated that we should use AI responsibly. He noted that responsibility starts from design to development to deployment of the AI systems – we need to build-in ethics, transparency, and accountability at every stage of the system’s life cycle.
Mr. Peter Watkins shared a cross-border collaborative initiative on the application of generative AI to the software development life cycle, quality assurance, and software testing. By leveraging generative AI, he noted that productivity is expected to be much higher, in the order of 3x to 5x improvement over the current manual testing.
Mr. Ben Lynch shared very practical experience. He cautioned that we should not use technology for the sake of technology, but use AI so it works correctly for us. If there are AI tools that can work for us, start to use them. But if they are not, then we need to be very careful because it is very expensive to pull AI systems.
Click below for selected Forum Presentations:
Mr. Ben Lynch – Is My Business Ready for AI, Is AI Ready for My Business?
7th KSF Event — June 13, 2024, Thursday
Discussion of our seventh KSF event was centered on “AI and Productivity: Seizing Opportunities Amidst Emerging Challenges.”
Our three esteemed speakers were Professor Michael Shepherd, Ms. Yue Cathy Chang, and Mr. Lun Peng.
The discussion revolved around the theme of AI and productivity, including AI’s potential in enhancing efficiency and sustainability across industries. Highlighted topics covered the role of AI in agriculture, the transformative potential of generative AI, and the establishment of an AI social networking platform.
Further discussions were brought up by Forum attendees touching on the challenges faced by small- and medium-sized corporations in adopting new technologies, the impact of AI on healthcare, and the significance of diversity and AI's potential between developed and developing countries.
Click below for Speakers' Presentation:
Dr. Michael Shepherd – AI and Productivity, Agricultural Productivity
Ms. Yue Cathy Chang – AI and Productivity
Mr. Lun Peng – Seizing Opps with Applied AI
WAPS Program (Mr. Leon Bian, Moderator)
6th KSF Event — March 7, 2024, Thursday
Discussion of our sixth KSF event was centered on “Sustainability and Productivity for the Benefit of Humankind.”
Dr. Payal Kumar is a journalist, educator and researcher. She described herself as an “accidental professor” because she changed course mid-way from a successful corporate leader to an academic. She sees sustainability and productivity as double-edged sword because of the conflicting priorities by different stakeholders. One of the many different issues raised by Dr. Kumar – which involves close of half of the world’s total population – is that women are also crucial agents for sustainability.
Dr. Barnes Sookdeo maintained that enhanced productivity is necessary for sustainability. As an expert – a practitioner and professor – in operations management, Dr. Sookdeo illustrated how an organization can unpack productivity to achieve sustainability. He concluded that an organization improving its productivity results in it generating greater output from its resources, and subsequently enhancing its sustainability.
Click below for Speakers' Presentation:
Dr. Payal Kumar – Sustainability and Productivity, Double Edged Sword
Dr. Barnes Sookdeo – Productivity and Sustainability for the Benefit of Humankind
5th KSF Event — November 16, 2023, Thursday
Discussion of our fifth KSF event was focused on “Mental Health and Productivity.”
Dr. Harvey Schipper, Fellow of WAPS, provided an opening address, followed by three distinguished speakers – Ms. Daryl Chow from Hong Kong, Dr. Joanne Frederick from the United States, and Ms. Elyse Schipper from Canada -- who shared their respective experiences relating to mental health and productivity.
Not dealing with mental-health challenges not only compromises individual productivity but also collective productivity, asserted Dr. Schipper. In the corporate setting, Ms. Chow shared that "People are the key in the transformation initiative;" a culture of connection and empowerment leads to productivity as empowerment pairs up with accountability.
Dr. Frederick pointed out the direct relationship between mental health and productivity: If we have poor mental health, it means we don’t have a strong ability to deal with issues. Poor mental health leads to depression, anxiety and burnout, which will in turn decrease severely our motivation and productivity.
Ms. Schipper, who focuses her work on youth mental health, illustrated with real cases how helping struggling youths improve their lives can in fact improve the wellbeing of their family as well.
Today’s topic, “Mental Health and Productivity,” is so relevant to everyone. Though important, it was not widely discussed until most recently. The different perspectives shared by our speakers are giving us much to ponder on and take responsible actions.
4th KSF Event — August 10, 2023, Thursday
Discussion of our fourth KSF event was focused on “Importance of Health and Wellness for Global Productivity.”
Our three esteemed speakers – Dr. Harald Harung of Norway, Dr. Khor Swee Kheng of Malaysia, and Dr. Aneeta Madhok of India – presented perspectives as a researcher, a medical doctor, and a psychologist respectively. They brought to the discussion empirical evidence and professional hands-on experience that we experience day-in and day-out.
A technical glitch interrupted the session's recording, and as a result, we lost the first part of the video, including Dr. Madhok's presentation, and, Dr. Harung was not able to get on video. However, that did not discount the important insights shared by our speakers.
Dr. Madhok pointed out that 27% more productivity is seen in organizations that invest in work-life balance. It is beneficial to have a culture where people are engaged – mind, body, heart, and soul. Dr. Khor noted that an individual’s health is heavily impacted by external factors – social determinants of health, which works hand-in-hand with scientific determinants of health. Dr. Harung shared that the development of the brain equals the development of the mind, the better the development, the more creativity and intelligence result, thus increasing productivity.
Click below for Speakers' Presentation:
Dr. Aneeta Madhok – Integrative Health
Dr. Khor Swee Kheng – Health, Health Economics, Health Systems
Dr. Harald Harung – Health and Productivity
3rd KSF Event — April 21, 2023, Friday
Discussion of our third KSF event was focused on “Making Education Vocational for Greater Employability.”
Our three esteemed thought leaders – Mrs. Abolaji Osime of Nigeria, Professor P.B. Sharma of India, and Dr. Carolyn Watters of Canada – brought different expertise to bear which helped make the session thought provoking and highly interactive.
It is overwhelmingly clear that government, enterprises, public and private education institutions, and individuals/workforce should all work together to make skills and knowledge applicable and thus productivity and the economy sustainable. It is about lifelong learning, as Mrs. Osime pointed out. Professor Sharma is fully committed to training future-ready professionals – a total package with healthy body, mind, and soul. Dr. Watters advocates the need to build an eco-system where credentials, outcome and success are key elements.
Our thought leaders sparked continuing questions, comments, and discussion by participants in the Zoom chat board, further enhancing the knowledge-sharing mission of the Forum.
A special thank you to WCPS Chairperson, Professor Mike Dillon, and Member of the WAPS Advisory Board, Dr. Michael Shepherd, for joining the event and providing their valuable comments.
2nd KSF Event — December 8, 2022, Thursday
Discussion of our second KSF event was focused on “Climate Change: Implications for You and Me.”
We are delighted that three esteemed speakers – Mr. Jorge Catalan from Mexico, Dr. Andrise Bass from U.S.A., and Dr. Aldo Manos from Italy / Kenya – joined the session moderated by Mr. Remi Dairo where they shared their insights and experience.
Mr. Catalan offered thoughts on how the food industry – a big consumer of energy, a big contributor of carbon emission, and also the main source of employment in developing countries – can find climate solution through sustainable agriculture and restoration of biodiversity. Dr. Bass noted that climate change is the most researched and mentioned topic for the past few years, it has significantly impacted people and nature. However, there is a missing element from you and me – there is not enough action taken to reverse climate change. Dr. Manos pointed out that people hurt mother earth so that they can put food on the table; it is all about “jobs”. We produce, we pollute, we continue to produce and continue to pollute. We need to break the cycle – he is positive that technology can help save the environment and the jobs.
A special thank you to WCPS President, Mr. Peter Watkins, for joining the event and giving an opening address.
1st KSF Event — September 17, 2022, Saturday
Discussion of our inaugural KSF event was focused on “Productivity Strategies for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals.”
We are delighted that three esteemed speakers – Dr. Arun Kumar Rath from India, Mrs. Detoun Ogwo from Nigeria, and Dr. Gaspare Manos from Italy – joined the session moderated by Mr. Remi Dairo where they shared their expertise and experience.
Dr. Rath asserted that economic growth and productivity development are intricately linked to all sectors of the economy. Mrs. Ogwo focused on a data-evaluation approach to achieve improved productivity. Dr. Manos stated that “Sustainability is not only global but local as well." He emphasized on grassroot, bottom-up approaches to productivity.
Other Events
WAPS hosts a variety of productivity-focused events, both independently and in collaboration with other entities.
The Academy is the go-to partner that creates, enhances, and disseminates the body of knowledge (BOK) for global productivity to its worldwide network.
PAST EVENTS
NOCN-WAPS Webinar — April 30, 2024, Tuesday
“Economic Growth through Improving Productivity Skills," a NOCN-WAPS Webinar featured expert voices from organizations across the globe -- Mr. Graham Hasting-Evans, Chief Executive of NOCN Group, Professor P.B. Sharma, Vice Chancellor of Amity University, Professor Philip McCann, Chair of Urban and Regional Economics of Alliance Manchester Business Schools, and Mr. Philip Hendrikx, Business Operations Director of Mitie Plc.
The experts each delivered inspiring and informative insights and the webinar concluded with an engaging panel discussion.
The discussion highlighted that sustainable and fair economic growth cannot be achieved without improvements in productivity. It tackled key questions such as:
- What are productivity skills?
- What can we learn from emerging economies about productivity?
- What is the role of the ‘circular economy’?
- How can the U.K. ‘level-up’ sustainably?
- How can industry maximize the benefits of digitization and AI without ‘replacing people’?
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