Key Planning Assumptions: The Decisions That Shape Performance Every forecast, schedule and operational decision is built upon assumptions. Yet many organisations rarely review whether those assumptions remain valid.
This session explores the planning assumptions that matter most, drawing on our latest benchmarking research together with examples from leading. We'll examine how high-performing planning teams validate assumptions, respond to changing demand and create decision-making processes that improve confidence across the business.
Through a facilitated discussion with experienced practitioners, we'll explore where organisations are challenging conventional thinking and developing more robust approaches to planning.
You'll learn:
Be Ready to Learn: Turning Learning into Lasting Impact Learning is about far more than attending a conference, completing a module or gaining new knowledge. The real value comes from creating the time and space to reflect, challenge existing assumptions, apply ideas in practice and share what we discover with others.
In this keynote, we explore what it means to be prepared to learn, from understanding how we learn and protecting time for development, to creating the structure, support and momentum that turns learning into action. Drawing on practical experiences from The Forum’s six-month Assisted Learning Pathway, we’ll see how learning often travels far beyond the original topic: building curiosity and confidence, improving decision-making, changing behaviours and helping people influence wider organisational thinking.
As Reset | Redefining encourages us to question what we know and reconsider what good looks like, the next challenge is to make learning habitual. By creating a continuous rhythm of learning, applying, reflecting and sharing, we can sustain momentum, prepare ourselves for whatever comes next and begin to embed a standard of excellence where continuous improvement becomes instinctive, not an additional effort.
Effective Outsource Partnerships: From Partnership Principles to Best Practice What makes an outsource partnership genuinely effective? Great relationships need more than a good contract, they require shared outcomes, effective planning, trusted measures, clear governance, aligned commercials and the right technology and data.
Building on a year of learning through The Outsource Forum, this interactive session introduces the Outsource Partnership System, bringing together the interconnected elements that enable buyers and suppliers to succeed. Alongside honest, real-world experiences from our guest speaker, you'll assess your own partnership and explore where seemingly small weaknesses can create wider friction across the system.
In this session you will:
Whether you're a buyer, supplier or technology partner, this session will help you move beyond simply managing the contract towards designing a partnership that enables better decisions, stronger performance and shared outcomes.
Best-in-Class Planning: From Best Practice to Better Decisions The pace of change in customer operations has never been greater. AI, automation, flexible working and rising customer expectations are changing how organisations plan, allocate resources and make operational decisions.
Drawing on the latest Standards Benchmarking Assessments, this keynote explores what genuinely differentiates best-in-class planning teams from the rest. We'll share emerging trends, practical examples of how organisations are adopting AI within planning, and the capabilities that are becoming increasingly important for long-term success.
Bringing together themes from Customer Strategy & Planning, Reset | Redefining, and a first look at next year's focus on Sustaining Momentum, this session will challenge traditional thinking and provide practical ideas that planning teams can take back into their own organisations.
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Real-Time Beyond the Traffic Lights: Building Adaptive Decision Systems The best Real-Time teams don't simply react to what's happening today—they create the awareness and confidence to make better decisions as situations evolve.
This session explores how leading organisations are redefining Real-Time and on-the-day operational planning through the principles of awareness, systems thinking, and adaptive decision-making. Using The Forum's Clear to Chaos framework, we'll examine why traditional rule-based playbooks often struggle in complex environments, and how organisations can replace static procedures with an adaptive thinking framework that reflects business priorities.
Rather than creating a manual for every possible scenario, we'll demonstrate how the most effective Real-Time teams develop a shared understanding of objectives, trade-offs and decision principles, enabling faster, more consistent responses to changing operational conditions.
Scheduling Beyond the Rota: Designing Work That Works for Everyone Scheduling has evolved far beyond matching people to demand. Today's best scheduling teams balance customer experience, operational performance and employee wellbeing, making thousands of interconnected decisions that shape both organisational outcomes and the everyday experience of work.
This practical session explores how leading organisations are redesigning scheduling through a more strategic lens. We'll revisit The Forum's Scheduling Scorecard and 8-Key Considerations for Workforce Strategy & Culture, demonstrating how they provide a framework for making better scheduling decisions that support flexibility, fairness and long-term organisational performance.
We'll also explore the growing importance of wellbeing, mindfulness and achieving genuine work-life balance. Rather than viewing these as competing priorities, we'll show how the best organisations are creating scheduling approaches that improve employee engagement while delivering stronger operational results.
Designing High-Performing Planning Teams: Structure, Roles and Spans of Control As planning teams continue to evolve, organisations are asking the same questions. How large should a planning team be? What should specialist roles look like? How many direct reports can a manager effectively support? Where should planning sit within the wider organisation?
This interactive panel brings together leaders from across customer operations to explore the practical realities of designing effective planning functions. Using the latest benchmarking research alongside real organisational experience, we'll discuss different operating models, spans of control, specialist versus generalist roles, and the principles that underpin successful team design.
Rather than searching for a single 'right answer', we'll explore the factors that influence effective structures and how organisations are adapting as planning becomes more strategic.
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Telling a Story with Numbers: Executive Summaries Great analysis only creates value when people understand what it is telling them and know what to do next. This interactive workshop explores how to turn detailed data, analysis and reporting into clear, concise executive summaries that support better decision-making.
Discover how to identify what matters most for different stakeholders, structure information around the story the numbers are telling, and communicate the key messages without losing the insight behind them.
See practical examples of effective executive summaries and explore how small changes to the way information is presented can make a significant difference.
Move beyond simply presenting the numbers. Get your reports, dashboards and presentations understood and turn insight into action.
Positive tension is the hidden engine of high‑performing teams, and this session allows you to understand how you can utilise this tension effectively in teams/operations and organisations. Drawing on Kate Manton’s global leadership and operations background, we will explore how differences in thinking aren’t conflicts to avoid but the gap that drives better teamwork, decisions, stronger collaboration, and smarter customer operations. Using real techniques including turning contrasting styles into strengths and creating psychologically safe shared conflict, this 45‑minute session gives planners, analysts, and leaders practical ways to close the gap and raise performance.
We hear a lot about what AI could do, but what are organisations actually doing with it today? Drawing on real examples and experiences shared through our Leadership Forums and AI Special Interest Group, this interactive discussion explores how AI is being used across personal productivity, resource planning, insight, customer experience and operational improvement. We'll examine what we're learning about adoption, innovation and the difference between activity and genuine value. We'll also introduce our COMPASS AI Governance Framework, explore the hidden costs of AI consumption, and consider how organisations can encourage experimentation without creating uncontrolled complexity. We'll close with six practical takeaways to help you move beyond experimentation, share what works and embed AI responsibly. The challenge isn't simply using more AI. It's understanding where it adds value and creating the confidence to scale what works.
What if an agent could move a 9 a.m. start to noon and make up the hours on Thursday, without sending a single approval request? What happens to service levels when hundreds of agents make changes like that every month? And how do you reward the people who pick up the shifts nobody wants?
Verint TimeFlex answers all three with a bot that runs on top of your existing WFM system. It checks every requested change against forecasted volume, capacity and performance in real time, and only lets through the changes the business can absorb. Agents earn FlexCoins by taking hours the business needs, then spend them on changes that fit their own lives.
In this session we'll run TimeFlex live. You'll see agents move or split their shifts, turning what would previously have been a "no" into a "yes", with clear guidance on how to get there. We'll also show how contact centre leaders keep control of coverage, and share the results customers have reported, including significant drops in attrition.