Loading…
IMPACT! CHOLearning 2026
The Community of Human and Organizational Learning’s 32nd Annual Learning Conference!

From June 22nd to 26th, our gathering at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel, promises four immersive days packed with insights, innovation, and collaboration. Start the week with an array of workshops on Monday, kickstarting an enriching week, and explore the Co-Located workshops on Friday for a deeper dive into specialized topics.

Be sure to mark the workshops you plan to attend. We use this to help the presenters prepare and ensure we have the proper accommodations for everyone.



Venue: Spruce clear filter
arrow_back View All Dates
Wednesday, June 24
 

1:35pm MDT

Next HOP Frontier: The Digital Fork in the Road-Tools That Police vs. Tools That Enablerontier
LIMITED
Wednesday June 24, 2026 1:35pm - 2:25pm MDT
Limited Capacity seats available
By 2026, digital JSAs, operational digital twins, sentry cobots, AI copilots, and wearable technologies are no longer futuristic concepts — they are becoming part of everyday work. Yet these same technologies sit at a critical crossroads: they can be used to surveil people to ensure they do work compliantly, or to design systems so people can work safely.
The difference isn’t the technology. It’s intent.
This session takes participants through a “day in the life” of three roles in 2026 — a frontline worker, a manager, and an engineer — each interacting with advanced digital tools. For each role, two possible futures are explored. In one, technology becomes a compliance engine, amplifying oversight, reinforcing blame, and threatening professional identity and expertise. In the other, technology becomes a capacity-building partner, reshaping work design, revealing hidden constraints, and enabling resilient human performance.
Drawing on Human and Organizational Performance (HOP, the session explores a central tension of innovation: every innovation threatens someone’s expertise — and resistance is often a rational and predictable response. Participants will examine how intent, governance, and organizational learning practices determine whether technology becomes a digital tattletale or a cognitive aid.
This session explores the next frontier of HOP: designing digital systems that support how humans actually think, learn, and perform.





Conference Presenters
avatar for Joe Estey

Joe Estey

Sr Perf Improvement Specialist, Lucas Engineering
Joe Estey has over 40 years’ experience training and consulting first line workers, foremen, supervisors, department managers and executives in Human Performance Improvement and effective leadership and management principles and practices. He works routinely with forest management... Read More →
Wednesday June 24, 2026 1:35pm - 2:25pm MDT
Spruce IM PEI Tower Mezzanine Level

2:35pm MDT

From Principles to Practice: Operationalizing HOP for Real-World Impact
LIMITED
Wednesday June 24, 2026 2:35pm - 3:25pm MDT
Limited Capacity seats available
Human and Organizational Performance (HOP) principles have been in existence for decades, distilled from research, field experience, and lessons learned across various industries. These principles are deceptively simple—recognizing human fallibility, understanding that context drives behavior, and valuing learning as a core mechanism for improvement. Yet knowing the principles and living them are two very different challenges.
Conference Presenters
avatar for Hilary Framke

Hilary Framke

VP of EHS Solutions, SafetyStratus
Hilary Framke is a progressive leader in EHS, Sustainability & Podcast Host who has worked for organizations across industrial and commercial markets with global oversight. Hilary began her career in the food industry spending her early practitioner years in poultry and egg products... Read More →
Wednesday June 24, 2026 2:35pm - 3:25pm MDT
Spruce IM PEI Tower Mezzanine Level

2:35pm MDT

Part I Don't Wait (for Incident to Occur) - Learn from Everyday Work using HOP Principles
LIMITED
Wednesday June 24, 2026 2:35pm - 3:25pm MDT
Limited Capacity seats available
Part 1 of 2
Significant risks hide in our daily successes, but we don't have to wait for incidents to occur to learn -- we can learn every day through good habits, routines, and structured daily debriefs. Drawing on concepts from his 2026 book, Safety Science for Outdoor & Experiential Education, Steve Smith will provide an overview of HOP Principles and invite participants to practice debriefing through two different lenses - a traditional approach, and a HOP-informed approach. What are effective ways to use daily debriefs and guiding questions to understand the difference between work-as-imagined and work-as-done? This session will be 50% presentation, 50% hands-on-practice and applying the concepts from the presentation to actual, recent events and participant experiences, in the spirit of learning, not blaming.



Conference Presenters
avatar for Steve Smith

Steve Smith

Founder and Lead Consultant, Experiential Consulting, LLC
Steve Smith has worked in the outdoor industry for over thirty years, including leadership roles in the field, in the office, in the board room, and in national conferences, specializing in risk management. Since founding Experiential Consulting in 2008, the team at EC has worked... Read More →
Wednesday June 24, 2026 2:35pm - 3:25pm MDT
Spruce IM PEI Tower Mezzanine Level

3:35pm MDT

Part II Don't Wait (for Incident to Occur) - Learn from Everyday Work using HOP Principles
LIMITED
Wednesday June 24, 2026 3:35pm - 4:25pm MDT
Limited Capacity seats available
Part 2

Significant risks hide in our daily successes, but we don't have to wait for incidents to occur to learn -- we can learn every day through good habits, routines, and structured daily debriefs. Drawing on concepts from his 2026 book, Safety Science for Outdoor & Experiential Education, Steve Smith will provide an overview of HOP Principles and invite participants to practice debriefing through two different lenses - a traditional approach, and a HOP-informed approach. What are effective ways to use daily debriefs and guiding questions to understand the difference between work-as-imagined and work-as-done? This session will be 50% presentation, 50% hands-on-practice and applying the concepts from the presentation to actual, recent events and participant experiences, in the spirt of learning, not blaming.



Conference Presenters
avatar for Steve Smith

Steve Smith

Founder and Lead Consultant, Experiential Consulting, LLC
Steve Smith has worked in the outdoor industry for over thirty years, including leadership roles in the field, in the office, in the board room, and in national conferences, specializing in risk management. Since founding Experiential Consulting in 2008, the team at EC has worked... Read More →
Wednesday June 24, 2026 3:35pm - 4:25pm MDT
Spruce IM PEI Tower Mezzanine Level
 
Share Modal

Share this link via

Or copy link

Filter sessions
Apply filters to sessions.
Filtered by Date -