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By Lesley Lykins posted 12-12-2017 05:12 PM

  

By: Lesley Lykins, Executive Director, CXPA

“How do you feel about this?” is the most common question I’m asked when I share with people the fact that the United States Navy will be deploying me to Afghanistan this March.  It always fascinates me that the first question is one about emotions.   

I guess, to me, the questions that I always expect involve logistics and maybe first and foremost, “Why on earth are you being deployed?  Are you even in the military?”  But here it is, the United States has been at war for the past 16 years and I’ve served in the U.S. Navy on both active duty and as an active reservist since May 2001.  It is my turn to fill what the military refers to as an individual augmentation to Afghanistan.

Lesley_Lykins_Navy_Photo.jpg
Cmdr. Lesley Lykins, USNR

It feels a bit like being a small child sitting on the edge of the beach just where the water comes up on the shoreline.  Every once in a while, a big wave rolls in and splashes you full-on in the face.  As I get closer to my deployment date, those big waves crash a bit more frequently.  It is never easy for a military service member to deploy, but I’m finding it especially hard this time around leaving behind my husband and children as well as the CXPA (which I consider part of my family).

Sometimes it is just plain hard. Knowing each of you and the rough yet satisfying road you travel on as a CX Professional – I know you get it. The CXPA is now a 7-year-old non-profit association and it has been built and nurtured by each of you through your willingness to share hard-earned lessons. Supporting you all along the way - behind the discussion board, webinars, events and committees - you’ll find a relatively small group of dedicated people, striving to provide a member experience you’d both enjoy and be proud of. 

As the association has grown, our staff has changed throughout that time.  In fact, at the end of 2016 the CXPA migrated from the association management company used to launch the association, to IntinXec Management Inc. (provides full service association management, as well as events and consulting to nonprofit trade associations and professional societies), which has proven to be a great cultural fit for CXPA.  This is no small undertaking as the legal, administrative, IT and event support structure are all provided by the association management company.

The CXPA has experimented with various staffing roles and infrastructure over the past 7 years and has adjusted and remained flexible as we grew and adapted.  We have now landed on an organizational infrastructure that puts our community at the forefront.  When I’m asked about the CXPA, I always begin by sharing that the true strength of this organization is our community, the willingness of each member to both share and mentor as well as seek out best practices and knowledge as a CX professional. Therefore, it makes sense to build a staff infrastructure around supporting and nurturing our community.

At my core, I am a community manager.  I was first hired by Bruce Temkin and Jeanne Bliss to serve as the CXPA’s community manager determining and defining programming and content and encouraging community engagement and sharing.  Today, the CXPA has two community managers hired through IntrinXec and serving the CXPA community with additional specific segments assigned to each one.

We’ve recently restructured our CXPA staff to support segmented communities including Local Networking Teams, CCXPs, Corporate Members, New Members, Sponsors and Industry Partners.  You may have already had the opportunity to interact with Derik Iverson from our team, or our newest member, Molly Perrin.  Their roles are to support our overarching CXPA community and each of you in your drive to connect, learn and share with other CX Professionals.

CXPA events and programming has always been “by members for members.”  This is a critical component of who we are and how we engage with one another.  Our annual Insight Exchange event is planned and executed by committees of members working together on a volunteer basis.  We have over 60 members who’ve volunteered to plan the 2018 event in New Orleans.  This is significant and further speaks to the strength of this association through the willing community of CX professionals.  On our team we have a talented event coordinator, Keely Cogswell, who handles event logistics on the ground at the location as well as providing support to the numerous committees meeting to plan each event.  Keely relies on the CX expertise and guidance of the members volunteering and they rely on her daily focus, drive and coordination across the eight sub-committees planning the event.

Finally, the CXPA has the distinct honor and heavy responsibility of running the day-to-day operations for CCXP, the industry certification for CX professionals.  CCXP requires daily applicant review, support, testing center coordination, certification renewal tracking and more.  Our program lead for certification is Adrienne Bryant, a well-respected association expert and valuable team member.  Adrienne brings understanding and knowledge of certification compliancy and credibility and works closely with the volunteer CCXP Advisory Team to ensure as the CCXP grows we abide by standards and uphold the exam integrity.  To give you some perspective though, Adrienne is dual-hatted and is also our go to person for IT support and website maintenance and upkeep.  These roles are both critical for CXPA and as you can imagine demanding.

This week the CXPA will lose a valuable employee that many of you have worked closely with.  A CX practitioner herself, Erica Ashfeld started with CXPA as our Local Networking community manager and last year took on greater responsibility as our Strategic Partnership Lead working primarily with sponsors, corporate members and industry partners.  Erica has accepted a position with Carlson Wagonlit and looks forward to this new opportunity while continuing as a CXPA member herself.  Our team will greatly miss Erica’s knowledge and history.  As part of our new infrastructure we will be introducing another community manager who will work alongside Derik and Molly to directly support our sponsors and industry partners.

Our team is small, mighty and extremely dedicated.  They thrive on supporting you and working hard to surprise and delight each member.  Customer Experience continues to grow rapidly and with the energy and momentum across the industry there are unlimited opportunities for our industry association.  Last month, the CXPA Board of Directors met to discuss prioritization for CXPA and it became apparent that in order for CXPA to continue to expand and influence the industry our team must evaluate current processes and program and introduce scalability.

The success of CXPA requires us to ensure we are responsibly managing the programs and offerings you as members value and can do so across the board – for members in the here in the U.S. as well as those in Australia, Brazil, the U.A.E and beyond.  The CXPA’s continued success is also dependent on you as members to continue to own this association, bring your lessons learned, questions and time to the group.  Our strength as CX professionals is in this network of peers willing to come together to advance the discipline.

As I prepare to deploy for the better part of 2018, I do so with the knowledge that we have more members volunteering in various ways than ever before.  We have a highly engaged and passionate Board of Directors.  We have smart and devoted leaders in Diane Magers our CEO and Jaime Nolan the IntrinXec Management Inc. CEO, and we have the talented staff organized in a structure to support our CXPA community. It won’t be me on the other end of emails and phone calls next year, but that won’t for a minute slow down the worldwide progress and growth of such a committed group of devoted professionals. 

 

Lesley Lykins is a Commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve.  She has been involuntarily recalled to active duty to support operations in Afghanistan from March through November 2018.

Please reach out to any of our CXPA Staff.  Their contact information can be found here: https://www.cxpa.org/contactus

 

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12-17-2017 05:58 PM

Lesley,
We are all so grateful for your dedication to the CXPA and now as you serve in this incredible way for all of us. You will be bringing the support and love of the entire CX community. Thanks to you and your family for all you are doing!

12-15-2017 09:58 AM

​Thank you for sharing your thoughts with the CXPA community, Lesley; and thank you for all of your wonderful work on behalf of all of us CX professionals. Best wishes to you and yours for the holiday season and for your deployment.​

12-15-2017 09:31 AM

Good luck Lesley! Stay safe!

12-15-2017 08:53 AM

Strong, smart and dedicated.  The US Navy couldn't ask for anything more in their fight in the war on terrorism.  Good thoughts and prayers are already headed your way.

12-15-2017 08:53 AM

Good Luck Lesley. Thank you for your many years of service both in the military and CXPA! We look forward to hearing about your experience when you return.

12-13-2017 09:58 AM

Excellent summary of how things work in CXPA, Lesley. Our gratitude to you is beyond expression of words. We all love your big heart, impressive bandwidth, and immeasurable dedication to our collective growth. We're excited already for your return!

12-13-2017 09:43 AM

Thank you Rob!  I appreciate the support.

12-12-2017 08:19 PM

Lesley. Thank you for your service to CXPA and the USA! Best wishes for a successful and rewarding deployment to Afghanistan. Looking forward to hearing about your adventure when you are back home next winter.