Organization Development Network

When someone brings up the subjects of marketing or practice development, do you encounter a sense of uneasiness? Or perhaps even fear and loathing? Do you find that tasks to help build your practice invariably seem to stay at the bottom of your to-do lists? During this session, you'll learn how to rethink what marketing and business development should look like for today's OD practitioner. You'll learn how to use your interpersonal skills and apply them in ways that are natural and authentic to your personality. You'll stop feeling like a “salesperson”, because you'll stop trying to sell and instead help people buy what they need. You'll also learn some practical, leading-edge strategies and techniques to leverage the power of the Internet, search engine marketing, and social media (LinkedIn, blogging, etc.) to help people find you when they're looking for solutions to their problems or opportunities. We'll also leave room for a Q & A session to gain full understanding on how best to apply this learning to your practice.

Chris Grindem and Annie Wolock, as a team, have more than 50 years of branding, traditional, and e-marketing experience. Chris and Annie have worked together for close to a decade in a wide range of fields, including their own professional practices. And while neither professes to be OD experts, they have been intimately involved with the OD Network for the past two years. Chris has his BA and MBA in marketing from Michigan State University and worked with advertising agencies including Leo Burnett, Doner, and J. Walter Thompson. He's also worked in marketing at Goodyear and managed a start-up marketing measurement firm. Annie has her BBA in Marketing from Eastern Michigan University and has owned several businesses including her current firm, Keystone Media. Keystone Media is a full service, eMarketing, website design and development firm, located in downtown Ann Arbor, MI.

This interactive session will introduce you to the power of paying attention to networks. After a brief introduction to Smart Networks, you’ll first practice the processes of mapping, analyzing, and enhancing networks. You'll then generate and compare hand-drawn network maps of current projects, and finally, you'll analyze a set of software-generated network maps. This session will also offer you the opportunity to take a self-assessment of their Network Weaver skills, and to practice a set of Network Weaving activities that can enhance your networks. Moving networks to action is critical, so we'll discuss the importance of supporting self-organizing in networks, and together we will look at social media and how it has been used to support networks and self-organizing. And we'll help you think about strategies for adapting these ideas and practices in your work.

June Holley provides consulting, training, and coaching to organizations around the world who are interested in creating healthier communities through a better understanding of networks, collaboration, innovation and learning. She has co-developed the Smart Network Analyzer, a user-friendly network mapping application to help communities and regions identify and enhance their networks. This mapping process is complemented with coaching programs for Network Weavers, a new leadership role committed to creating healthier networks. Her clients include the United Nations, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, The California Endowment, Social Venture Partners, Plexus Institute for Complexity, Social Venture Partners, and the Center for Disease Control. An avid researcher on complexity and organizations, she has co-authored over 30 papers, articles, and books on various aspects of economic and community networking. She has also been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Non-profit Quarterly, Ohio Magazine, Entrepreneur, In Business and many other publications.

How will having four generations in the workplace create new challenges for learning and development professionals? What requirements for designing and delivering learning and performance support must now be satisfied in order to meet a new diversity of learning needs, styles, and digital expectations? What other major trends and factors visible now will dramatically change where, how, and when we learn? Finally, how will these new approaches and the use of Web 2.0 tools create new needs for specific skill sets among learning and development professionals? Participate in an interactive session to explore trends, research, and best practice examples showing how a growing number of companies are responding to these questions and transforming their cross-generational learning and development strategies.

Jeanne Meister is the author of Corporate Quality Universities, as well as Corporate Universities: Lessons in Building a World-Class Work Force. She is also co-author of an upcoming book focused on innovations in recruitment, learning, development, and retention, to be published by Harper Collins in 2010. Her most recent internal role was as Vice President, Market Development, for Accenture Learning, where she was responsible for launching and managing all research initiatives on developing innovations in workplace learning and performance. Her research has been profiled in such publications as Chronicle of Higher Education, CLO Magazine, Harvard Business Review Japan, Financial Times, Journal of Business Strategy, TRAINING, T&D Magazine, and Workforce Management. In addition, she is on the Advisory Board of the Executive Program in Work-Based Learning Leadership, a collaboration between Wharton School and University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.

At the point where sustainability and social responsibility initiatives converge, you'll find that a new sector of our economy is also suddenly emerging—private industry for public benefit. This new organizational structure, an integration of for-profit, non-profit, and social entrepreneurship models in a single company, is now recognized and certified, company-wide, as a B Corporation. In this session, you will learn more about B Corporations—what they are, who they are, their benefits, and how this new certification is offering an infrastructure to advance sustainable businesses. At this session, you’ll also hear presenters offer personal experiences with B Corporations from three different perspectives—internal leader, funder, and investor.

Stephanie Ryan has been consulting in the arena of organizational learning for over twenty years, six years at Innovation Associates, with co- founder, Peter Senge. The heart of her work is cultivating the capacity for systems sensing, an embodied awareness of our relationship to whole systems. Stephanie also works part-time with B Lab, a non-profit that certifies triple bottom line companies as B Corporations. She believes the emerging sector of private companies for public benefit is a key leverage point for today's economic and social challenges. She's published articles on collaborative learning practices and creating learning communities. She is also the Co-Executive Producer of BeComing, a documentary featuring a cross-generational and ethnically diverse circle of ten women engaged in the deeper questions of their lives.

What allows some groups to create experiences that far exceed expectations? How do these groups differ from others?  What can group members, leaders, and facilitators do to intentionally create these extraordinary experiences? These questions led to a three year field study, writing a book, and some useful answers. Interviews with members of sixty extraordinary groups helped us develop a new way of seeing, understanding, and working with groups. For example, we've identified eight indicators of extraordinary group performance. And, we believe great groups come from meeting six underlying group needs. Plus, we have described four primary feelings fulfilled in transformative group experiences. All of this is brought together in a model showing the creative dynamic between performance, need, and feelings. Come to this session to learn about our work, to deepen your insight into your own group experiences, and to see how you might make your next group--whether at work, in the community, or at home--extraordinary.

Geoff Bellman worked inside major corporations for fourteen years before starting his own consulting firm in 1977. He's written six books including The Consultant's Calling and Getting Things Done When You Are Not In Charge. His consulting and workshops have taken him to five continents. Geoff received the Organization Development Network’s 2006 “Sharing the Wealth” award for his contributions to advancing the profession. He is a charter member of the Woodlands Group which has been meeting quarterly for over thirty years, exploring individual, organizational, and societal change. Geoff helped found the Community Consulting Partnership in 1996, an organization which teaches consulting skills while consulting to Seattle community organizations.

Kathleen D. Ryan is known for her work in turning fear-based organizations into ones where collaboration and trust are the keys to high performance. She is a principal of The Orion Partnership, a consulting firm based near Seattle. She has co-authored two books, Driving Fear Out of the Workplace: Creating the High-Trust, High-Performance Organization, and The Courageous Messenger: How to Successfully Speak Up at Work. Kathleen is a recipient of the Society for Human Resource Management's National Book Award. She is a founder of The Community Consulting Partnership, a Seattle-based effort that helps volunteers improve their organization consulting skills while serving a community organization. Additionally, she serves on the Board of Directors for Seattle University's Master's program in Organizational Design and Renewal.

This session will show how two integrated models of social and political change can confront the complex issues in our public education and community justice systems to foster transformation and sustained improvement. Complex social/political systems such as public education and community corrections are notoriously difficult to improve, particularly over the long term. Even dazzling improvements in one part of the system are seldom adopted into the larger organization. Then the innovations themselves die away and the cycle repeats. Why is improving these political/social systems so difficult? What have we been missing? What have we learned about effecting change in other settings that can speed progress? And do the answers point to an evolving future for the field of organization development? John Goodlad has spent a lifetime researching and developing strategies for school renewal. Elyse Clawson is at the forefront of a national partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice using an integrated approach that combines best practices, organization development, and community collaboration. Robert McCarthy has been an OD consultant working in these areas and large system change for 30 years. The session will be interactive after short presentations.

John I. Goodlad is perhaps the world's best-known advocate for educational renewal. He has authored, co-authored, or edited over 30 books, written chapters in more than 100 others, and has more than 200 articles in professional journals. In addition to a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, John holds honorary doctorates from twenty colleges and universities. He has held professorships at Agnes Scott College, Emory University, the University of Chicago, UCLA, and the University of Washington. He is president of the Institute for Educational Inquiry, founder of the National Network for Educational Renewal, dean emeritus of the UCLA Graduate School of Education, and professor emeritus of education of the Center for Educational Renewal at the University of Washington in Seattle. For the past quarter century, Goodlad has been involved in an array of educational renewal programs and projects including large-scale studies of educational change, schooling, and teacher education.

Elyse Clawson is a national leader in rethinking criminal and juvenile justice. Her work over 30 years is marked by reform of state and county corrections systems that have become national models for their innovation, inclusiveness, and effectiveness in reducing recidivism. Today, as Executive Director of the non-profit Crime and Justice Institute, Ms. Clawson is at the forefront of an initiative with the National Institute of Corrections to the transform the nation's community justice systems. The initiative combines organization development, community collaboration, and evidence-based practices in an integrated model that creates openness to change and sustained effort. Elyse consults on policy and practice in criminal/juvenile justice, and human services for state and local government, serves on numerous boards and commissions, and is sought after for her ability to distill complex system change into strategies that overcome social and political inertia.

Robert McCarthy is a writer, teacher, and consultant specializing in policy and change strategy for businesses and social sector organizations. During 30 years of practice he has guided more than a 100 strategic change efforts in complex systems. Partnering with the leaders in healthcare, government, education and criminal justice, many of these efforts have become national models. Bob's work is about candor, trust, and common purpose as the basis for collaboration to align leadership and the organization. He assists the process of change by delineating strategic issues, identifying new alternatives, and establishing a climate in which people with differing views can work together. His present focus is writing, coaching, and supporting HR and OD practitioners. Bob holds a M.S. in organization development from Pepperdine, and is a member of the City Club of Portland which provides him opportunities to contribute to the life of the community.

Become part of an extraordinary global initiative, OD World Summit 2010, a collective effort involving many international colleagues that began in a small country, Hungary, and that now has a strong, unique vision and direction. You'll hear Hungarian members of the Summit Design Team describe how you can contribute to this inspiring event, an opportunity to join together to infuse our profession with global perspectives and synergy. During this session, you'll also hear about the launch of the event three years ago, including the story of its title, which involved a careful search for a focus that would inspire and energize our global community of colleagues. You'll learn about its three organizing dimensions — promoting professional cross-fertilization, learning from non-conventional organizations, and increasing our global impact — and you'll experience the Design Team's strong commitment to extend Summit's impact beyond Budapest by creating and strengthening connections among multiple generations of global OD practitioners. Come to this session to taste the culture and opportunities that the Summit will offer, and to learn how you might participate in future Summit design and planning activities. The OD World Summit 2010 has the potential to change the way we work and the way we work together on the global stage. Join this exciting process now!

Imre Lövey, Ph.D., is the managing partner of Concordia Organization and Management Development Ltd., one of the premier consulting companies in Hungary, which he founded in 1984. In 1986, he also launched and was the first president of the Hungarian Organization Development Society. One of the pioneers of OD and experiential learning in Hungary, he was also a visiting professor at the Anderson Graduate School of Management at University of California-Los Angeles, 1990-1997, and his international experience has included consulting engagements, culture change projects, lectures, or visiting professorships in India, Peru, Thailand, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Macedonia, Mexico, Montenegro, South Africa, Ghana, and Slovakia. In addition to a number of articles in professional journals, he is the author of two books: The Joyful Organization: Understanding Organizational Health, Diseases, and Joy (2003), and How Healthy is Your Organization? (2007), co-authored with M.S. Nadkarni with Eszter Erdélyi. In 2007 he received the Richard Beckhard Award from of the International Organization Development Association for his outstanding contribution in developing the profession internationally. Dr. Lövey is the chair of the organizing committee of the OD World Summit 2010.

Marsha Clark, Marsha Clark Associates;
Carol Goglia, Frito Lay;
Lucy Gonzalez, Mission Foods;
Christina Pitts, PITTS-ALDRICH ASSOCIATES

Imagine capitalizing on your unique and authentic leadership strengths as a woman, integrating your personal and professional choices to create a joyful lifestyle, and discovering female allies to mutually support continuous growth. Following a 25 year career in “corporate America,” this was my quest. My passion was about helping women achieve career goals and hold onto themselves in the process. Learn how I used my experience and passionto create a year-long leadership development program for women. Hear how well four graduates of this program have fared in a variety of organizational settings.

Roger Harrison has, in a consulting career spanning fifty years, pioneered the use of conceptual models to understand and cope with emerging issues of OD practice, organizational culture and interpersonal processes. In his view, theories offer the practitioner more or less useful maps for navigating the organizational, group and interpersonal territories we traverse in the course of our work. He views theories as not so much valid or invalid as they are more or less useful for finding our way in a particular terrain or ecology. He will invite us into dialogue regarding the theories we use, and to explore what territories they illuminate for us.

Barry Oshry will share the story of the evolution of his human systems framework, how 40 years of observation of whole systems has led to powerful knowledge about system life. Interactive discussion will focus on the implications of this framework for the practice of organization development. Barry and partner Karen Ellis Oshry, are co-directors of Power+Systems, Inc. of Boston. Barry is the developer of the Power Lab and the Organization Workshop. Power+Systems' network of trainers conduct these programs for organizations and institutions across the globe. Barry is also the author of numerous books and articles including Seeing Systems: Unlocking the Mysteries of Organizational Life and Leading Systems: Lessons from the Power Lab.

Geoff Bellman fell into OD in the late sixties and never escaped. Fourteen years an internal corporate practitioner, and close to thirty on his own, he has written six books along the way--The Consultant’s Calling and The Beauty of the Beast among them. He has given a career to cursing and blessing large organizations and all of us that are part of them. He calls himself a change architect; he loves design of interventions and models. Geoff is a thoughtful thief of ideas; he helps others see differently; he acts as if work is only part of life.

Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff are co-directors of Future Search Network, an international non-profit. They are co-authors of Future Search: An Action Guide and Don't Just Do Something, Stand There! Ten Principles for Leading Meetings That Matter. Marv also is author of Organizational Diagnosis and Productive Workplaces Revisited, selected by OD Network members as one of the field's five most influential books. They will discuss how they use differentiation/integration (D/I) Theory at all levels—community, organization, group, sub-group, and individual to (a) understand what's going on, and (b) design structures that enable clients to learn and act for themselves. Sandra has a Ph.D. in Psychology from Temple University and consults around the world. Marv was for 20 years a partner in Block Petrella Weisbord and member of NTL Institute. He is visiting faculty in the Organization and Systems Renewal Program at Seattle University and the Benedictine University Doctoral Program in OD.

Dick and Emily Axelrod Dick and Emily Axelrod talk about the theory and practice of creating engaged organizations. Dick and Emily created the Conference Model®, and together they helped pioneer the use of large groups to change organizations. Dick is core faculty for Columbia University's Principles and Practices in Organization Development, and Dick and Emily are faculty in the University of Chicago's Leadership Arts Program. He serves on the Board of Directors of Berrett-Koehler Publishers, and he authored “Terms of Engagement: Changing the Way We Change Organizations.” Dick and Emily co-authored “You Don't Have to Do It Alone: How to Involve Others to Get Things Done”, along with Julie Beedon and Robert Jacobs. Dick and Emily bring a combined sixty years of teaching and consulting experience to their work, with Dick's clients including Boeing, Coca-Cola, Harley-Davidson, Hewlett Packard, and the NHS, and Emily's recent clients including Calgary Healthcare Region, Thysenkrupp, Barrington Public School District 220, Fraser Health System, and the NHS.

Judith H. Katz, an OD practitioner and consultant for more than 30 years, shares her wisdom and experience on OD and how practitioners can make big organizational impacts by implementing strategic culture change efforts to leverage diversity and build cultures of inclusion. As Executive Vice President of The Kaleel Jamison Consulting Group since 1985 and a guest lecturer at several colleges and universities, Judith has had the opportunity to bring her experience to numerous for-profit and nonprofit organizations and educational institutions throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. She is the author of two books, including the landmark White Awareness, and co-author of The Inclusion Breakthrough: Unleashing the Real Power of Diversity and Be BIG: Step Up, Step Out, Be Bold. Judith has been a member of the OD Practitioner Editorial Board since 1993.

Ann Feyerherm talks about the “self as instrument” as foundational to her work and the work of an OD practitioner. She will share her continuing journey on how to “show up fully” to do the work and how that takes courageous acts, surrendering, and continued work on one's own consciousness. She is a Professor of Organization Theory and Management at Pepperdine University, serves as the Department Chair of Management and has recently been the Director of the MSOD Program. As a contribution to the OD field, she serves as the incoming Chair of the ODC Division of the Academy of Management and is on several editorial and advisory boards. She teaches, advises students, consults, publishes and presents at conferences while trying to juggle a personal life, too.

Dorothy E. Siminovitch is an executive, team, and organizational coach, and she teaches in the Professional School of Psychology in California, the Eurasian Gestalt Coaching Program in Istanbul, and at the Gestalt International Study Center in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. She has also taught at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland and the Gestalt Center for Organization & Systems Development. She co-founded the first Gestalt coaching program to receive International Coach Federation training program accreditation. Dorothy is a board member of the International Consortium of Coaching in Organizations (ICCO). She finds that Kurt Lewin, a seminal contributor to the social sciences, is also a key figure for Gestalt practice. His belief that “there is nothing so practical as a good theory” sits at the core of Dorothy's commitment to developing coaching models in organizational change contexts that translate into sound practice. Dorothy will provide theoretical and experiential insights into Gestalt-based coaching practices integrated with personality theory, behavioral neurobiology, and leadership development models.

Michael Broom is an organizational psychologist and OD practitioner with over 30 years of experience. He is currently a board member of the OD Network and a former board member of the NTL Institute. He has taught at Johns Hopkins, American, Georgetown, and Fielding Universities. He founded with Edie Seashore the Triple Impact Practitioner and Leadership programs. Together they developed the “Meta-Model of Planned Change” which focuses on the disciplines needed for the successful practice of OD. Michael will share his views on the systems thinking, diversity, and power dynamics as they relate the practice of organization development.

An intimate conversation with the Conference community
Sunday, Oct. 18th: 7:30-9:00 PM

As a topic, a capability, and a force, power reverberates throughout the field of OD, garnering both disdain and respect. Although we talk a lot about power, we seldom really talk about it. We discuss it primarily in our role as systems observers, identifying who (other than us) has it, and assessing how it is being used. Rarely do we directly face and engage our own potency, complicity, counter-dependence, or accountability around the issue of power.

In this opening community session, we will initiate a collective conversation about this important topic in a new way, focusing explicitly on our personal experiences with power. To prepare for this conversation, ask yourself: What are the critical and provocative questions that OD practitioners need to ask themselves about power? What about power scares us, and what are we quietly drawn to? What dimensions of the power would we rather avoid discussing? What would we like to change about our relationship to power? What needs to change in our relationship to power? What new possibilities might open in our work by changing how we think and talk about power?

Society, communities, organizations, and our profession are now moving through uncharted waters. Our opportunity and potential to influence organizations and society is expanding, and it is essential that we now examine our often tacit assumptions about power. We hope this conversation about power will echo throughout the rest of the conference, deepening our conversations and ultimately opening our eyes to new choices in our relationships with our customers and each other.

Tuesday, Oct. 20th: 10:30-12:00 PM

Icons, Influencers & Interventions: Reflecting on the Evolution and History of OD

Presenters: Edgar Schein, MIT; Edith Seashore ,Seashore & Associates; Peter Sorensen, Benedictine University; Therese Yaeger, Benedictine University

“The OD field continues to develop new theorists, researchers, and practitioners who are building on the work of the early pioneers and extending it to contemporary issues and conditions” (Cummings and Worley, 2009). If today's OD theories are based on the work of early pioneers, who are these pioneers and how have they shaped and steered today's new OD approaches? What current techniques link back to Action Research, Survey Feedback, and Quality of Work Life? This session, involving OD practitioners, academics, and icons, consists of two parts. First, a discussion of the evolution of OD history is presented by OD icons Edie Seashore, Edgar Schein, and Peter Sorensen. The second half of the session involves a look at contemporary OD approaches and their link to historical OD. Both portions of the presentation involve a panel of all OD Network Award Recipients. Time for audience participation and Q&A time is allowed. Join us as OD scholars and practitioners unpackage contemporary OD techniques via OD icons and influencers. From past to present, and from influencers to interventions, multiple perspectives of OD history are shared.

Learning from the Legends of OD: Moving the Essence Forward

Presenters: Ted Tschudy, Organization Consultant; Sandra Janoff, Future Search Network; Marvin Weisbord, International Future Search Network; Charles Seashore, Fielding University and The Lewin Center

This session utilizes selected clips from filmed interviews conducted by Marv Weisbord with legendary OD practitioners, including Miriam Lewin, Bob Tannenbaum, Dick Beckhard, Ron Lippitt, Ken Benne, Merrelyn Emery, Elsie Cross, Bob Chin, Joe Luft, and Don Schon. While viewing the film clips, the presenters and participants will explore common themes in the contributions and “ways of practice” of these legendary practitioners. These themes will be considered in the context of current OD practice and the emerging challenges presented by today's organizations and their contemporary environments. We hope that participants will appreciate more deeply the contributions of these and other “legends” of OD, and understand more clearly how they themselves can structure their practices to contribute to creative innovations in current and future OD practice.

Get Published!

Monday, Oct. 19th: 11:45 AM-1:15 PM

The Organization Development Network invites you to a lunchtime meeting on Monday to discuss with members of the Editorial Review Board your ideas for articles and your questions about getting published in the OD Practitioner, OD Seasonings, and Practicing OD. Share what you have learned from client practice, applying OD theories, and developing your own approaches and methods. It is a perfect time to give something back to the OD community by offering your case experiences in OD Network publications.

Conversations with OD Network Award Recipients

Monday, Oct. 19: 5:15-6:15 PM

Join a stimulating conversation with 2009 OD Network Award winners on Monday afternoon. Honor their noteworthy contributions to organization development in this inspiring, informal session. Learn from these OD practitioners and organizations who have embodied key OD values, principles, and practices in exemplary ways.

A Pecha Kucha Throwdown

Tuesday, Oct. 20th: 6:45-8:15 PM

If you missed last year's launch, here's another opportunity to participate in this exciting new presentation format. If you thrive on innovation and spontaneity (and you know who you are!), here's a chance to tell your colleagues about a project, initiative, approach, or practice that you’re especially proud of. As a format for this session, we'll use a presentation approach launched in Japan called pecha kucha (Japanese for “chatter”). The presentation roster is now open on a first-come, first-served basis, so to learn more and reserve your space as a presenter, go to www.odnetwork.org/conf2009 and see the Special Sessions section.

Each presenter is limited to using only 20 slides, with only 20 seconds per slide, for a total presentation length of 6 minutes, 40 seconds. Read more about this format at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecha_Kucha. This year's session is limited to only 12 presenters, on a first-come, first-served basis. Contact Linda Sherman to reserve a spot.