Organization Development Network

Working Creatively on the Edge (E)

Dancing with Surprises: Working Productively with the Unexpected
Larry Dressler, Blue Wing Consulting, LLC
Sam Elmore, Brinc

Surprises happen. It’s a law of nature in organizational change. We go in with a plan and then the unexpected, uninvited, and uncontrollable walk in the door. In the face of surprises, how do we avoid getting caught up in our feelings of anxiety, embarrassment, distraction or resentment. Based on Larry Dressler's book, Standing in the Fire, this session focuses on the OD practitioner's interior—our mental, emotional, and physical state of being—as a powerful resource. In this highly experiential session, you will learn practical ways to cultivate calm, playfulness, and agility in the face of breakdowns.

Herb Shepard Meets The Beatles: Big Ideas, Great Music and Messages For Today
David R. Glaser, Vogel/Glaser & Associates, Inc.

The 1960’s were a time of dramatic societal change, and OD, as a new field, was emerging in this vibrant environment of changing values and new priorities. From the vantage point of the 21st century, we see that these cultural changes were expressed in the music and the phenomenon of the Beatles and in the work of OD pioneer Herb Shepard, who is little acknowledged today, but who is best known for his provocative “Rules of Thumb for Change Agents.” Both refreshing optimism and challenging perspectives on change are evident in the work of Herb Shepard and The Beatles. This session will explore ways that these diverse creative forces both reflected and shaped the culture; it will generate insight about how the challenges we face today, as change agents, can be supported by the messages of the 60’s.

Cultivating Leaders and Leadership (L)

Building Adaptive Organizations: How a Leading Global Company Transformed their R&D Organization
Dr. Sumant Ramachandra, Hospira, Inc.
Dr. Carolyn Hendrickson, Tandem Group, Inc.

Traditional “operational” approaches to change management are not sufficient when facing the “adaptive” challenges of our current business environment. R&D organizations in particular are going through a radical rethinking as a new world of collaboration emerges across companies and nations. Learn directly from the senior executive of a $4B leading global pharmaceutical company about how he transformed his R&D organization. Dr. Sumant Ramachandra will share the lessons he learned as he designed and implemented a transformational roadmap that produced significant business results, while building the adaptive capability he needed in his organization to ensure future success. In this interactive session you will learn key lessons from this executive’s experience and be introduced to leading edge frameworks and tools for building adaptive organizations.

David Bradford's Shared Leadership Model: Transforming Public Sector Leadership to Meet the Obama Administration’s Expectations
Alfred L. Cooke, Federal Executive Institute

Although David Bradford's “shared leadership” model is a staple in the leadership development arena, it has not had the influence and use that it deserves. Bradford’s work lends itself especially to building a commitment to collaboration, one of the key concerns of the Obama Administration. The session will provide consultants and leaders—particularly leaders from the public sector—with an orientation to a leadership tool that has been used successfully to assist federal agencies in developing an approach to shared leadership in their work.

Working Across Cultures and Time Zones: Integrated Talent Management at Avanade
Gabriel Shirley, Avanade, Inc

Participants will learn the challenges and opportunities of influencing culture change in a global organization through the implementation of integrated talent management processes and tools. Employee engagement, career progression, and choosing where to have global standards vs. local autonomy in a highly distributed company are some of the issues that will be explored. Through experiential exercises you will get a felt sense of the different perspectives in this organizational system and how they can be leveraged to influence multiple strategic initiatives simultaneously.

Exploring the Dynamics of Change (C)

Can Unions Change? An Exploration of Unions and Organization Development
Allison Porter, Alvarez Porter Group
Joe Alvarez, Alvarez Porter Group

Unions are both a town hall and an army; a membership organization and a social movement; a defender of the status quo and a force for change. Understanding these dynamics is essential to successfully working with unions as partners in a change process, whether that is inside their own organizations or in the places where their members work. Learn how unions are engaging thousands of members in powerful conversations about the future; partnering with employers to change the dynamics of the shop floor; and intentionally changing their own culture, structures and practices to become more effective organizations. Explore how OD practitioners who share core values with labor unions can be essential partners in helping unions achieve this potential.

The Gestalt Approach to Change Management
Herb Stevenson, Cleveland Consulting Group, Inc
Rick Maurer, Maurer & Associates

Leading change is difficult, and most organizational changes fail (IBM and McKinsey research). We owe it to our clients to provide the strongest support possible as they embark on challenging new endeavors. Applying OD technologies with a Gestalt stance allows leaders, consultants, and coaches to build and maintain support for change far more effectively than more typical approaches to leading and managing new endeavors. You will learn how to use two powerful Gestalt models (cycle of experience and the paradoxical theory of change) to assess, anticipate problems, plan, and monitor change projects. In addition, you will be introduced to the Gestalt approach to resistance and use of self. And you will have an opportunity to apply what you are learning on a case study.

Strengthening Communities, Respecting Cultures (C/C)

A Case for Collaboration in Cities
Jane Wheeler, Bowling Green State University
Steven H. Cady, Bowling Green State University

This session provides practical tools and principles for whole system change in cities. You will learn ways to bring together diverse groups to co-create a better future that they take action to achieve. If you are working in city level organizing and providing strategic level support, this session is for you. Learn how the process for transformation begins during the election. When a community of stakeholders and citizens come together to craft a vision of the future, getting elected becomes one step on the journey. This session will provide a review of the leading edge cases from around the country of city-wide collaborative efforts. Tools and process will be provided. And, a case study of Toledo, Ohio will be woven throughout the presentation to bring the concepts to life.

Identifying Tools for Practice (T)

Arts-Based Learning: A New Paradigm for the 21st-Century OD Professional
Michael Y. Brenner, Ed.D., IdeAgency

The realities of the 21st century require a change in the mindset of organizations and individuals. Such a change involves unleashing our innate creativity, imagination, and intuition to solve complex problems in new and innovative ways. One of the most powerful ways to tap into these abilities is through art. Art enables us to see things others do not see, or to see things differently. Art forces us to explore, experiment, and ultimately challenge our most deeply held assumptions about ourselves and others. In this session, participants will gain a better understanding of how to use the cultural and performing arts to help clients leverage crucial “right brain” competencies. Attendees will also create their own art works in order to experience the methodology first hand.

The Identity Effect: How Identity-Based Management Drives Employee Engagement and Business Performance
Larry Ackerman, The Identity Circle LLC

According to new research, ‘identity strength’ is a leading indicator of employee engagement and business performance. Yet, “identity”—what it is, how it influences organizations and people, and how to manage it—remains largely a mystery. Not anymore. In this revealing session, author and consultant Larry Ackerman explains The Identity Effect: how identity influences business through its powerful, quantitative impact on engagement and performance, and how to capitalize on it. Discover how the Laws of Identity—the source of The Identity Effect—govern the lives and fortunes of organizations and individuals, equally, providing a model for aligning the deepest needs of employers with the deepest needs of employees: the need to create value in the world and be rewarded for it in return.

The Neuroscience of Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
Aman Gohal, Booz Allen Hamilton
Mark Ball, Google

During this session individuals will learn the principles and research behind Emotional Intelligence (EQ), as well as how simple relaxation techniques offer a heightened degree of awareness and the ability to make deliberate choices despite complex situations. Neuroscience research unveils the physiological and neurological benefit behind principles of EQ and traditional intra-personal reflection and meditative training. This session is geared toward enabling a deeper understanding of how we use our selves as practitioners in any moment. The choice point of our practice is taken down to our very breath. The principles and practices discussed are based on Emotional Intelligence research, neuroscience research, and relaxation practices based on principles of The Achieving Personal Excellence Program (APEX) offered by The International Association for Human Values.

Turning Autopilot Off: Decision Making as Science and Art
Nancy Dill, Genzyme Corporation

Managers and leaders are paid to make decisions...often complex, high impact ones. Yet decision making is a relatively untapped opportunity for organizational improvement. What kind of impact would it have if your leaders and managers improved the quality of their decision making by 5%? By 30%? This session will focus on a new approach, Decision Making Lessons Learned, being pioneered at Genzyme as we launch the international manufacture of new drugs. Participants will learn how to facilitate sessions which lead to specific improvement recommendations and lasting insights for client groups. The session will provide context, approach, and tools for doing the initial diagnostic work. Participants will collaboratively design the containers needed for successful implementation.

Working Creatively on the Edge (E)

A Rose By Any Other Name: What If It's Not Called OD in My Organization?
Gay Lynch, Thought Partners, Inc.

This session is designed for new and existing practitioners who are looking for methods to increase the impact of their work by aligning it with the principles and practices of OD. Whether your official job role is trainer, performance improvement specialist, OD consultant, instructional designer, or any of the vast range of job titles associated with improving individual and organizational effectiveness, certain characteristics, values, and ways of working make us most effective. Join this session to review and reflect on the basic elements that define OD and walk away with a set of tools, techniques, and resources to increase your knowledge and skill, and support your confidence and on-going professional development.

Next Generation Organizations: Cisco's Collaborative Management Model
Jodi Krause, Cisco Systems

Creating a company that is built for both operational excellence and innovation is the dream of every CEO. But how? Businesses today are under increasing pressure to find new ways to increase productivity and stay ahead of the competition. Cisco, a world-renowned computer networking company, has built an innovative collaborative management model, their "Dynamic Networked Organization," that uses virtual, cross-functional executive teams within a functional hierarchy to create greater speed, scale, and flexibility across the business. This presentation provides insight into Cisco’s cultural transformation from a command-and-control to a collaborative company through the eyes of an internal OD practitioner. Attendees will learn how Cisco is implementing collaborative structure, processes, and technology to positively impact the organization’s strategy and performance.

Student Paper Presentation

Yaron Prywes, Teacher's College of Columbia University for "Organization History (OHx): Making the Construct Explicit in Organization Change Literature" Shirley Mayton, Fielding Graduate University for "Survivor Coping; A Fresh Look at Resiliency in the Wake of Downsizing" Rodney Mayer, University of Maryland, University College for "Managing the Metaphors of Transorganizational Development" Each year, the OD Network sponsors a Student Papers competition. Winners are invited to present a summary of their paper at the annual event. For Conference 2010, we are pleased to present the perspectives of three students on very diverse topics. Please come join them!

Cultivating Leaders and Leadership (L)

Leading from the Middle: A Systemic Approach
Barry Oshry, Power+Systems, Inc.

“Middles,” employees in mid-level positions, are often seen as the stumbling block in organizational change efforts—they are seen as resistant or weak or ineffective. The judgments are often personal, i.e., “too bad we have this weak cast of characters.” And when the judgments are personal, so are the solutions, i.e., “fix them, fire them, or run them through another training program.” This session will surface the systemic causes of middle weakness and will demonstrate how Middles can become the key players in organizational success.

OD in Healthcare: Dialogue with Leaders
Heather Hanson, Kaiser Permanente
Jason Wolf, Ph.D., The Beryl Institute
Mark Moir, Sanford Health-Merit Care

Learn about cutting edge OD practices from authors of the new book, OD in Healthcare Handbook: A Guide for Leaders. Join these healthcare leaders as they host a conversation around OD practices in an experiential session examining practitioner-situated case studies. This session will provide an opportunity for you to collaborate with your colleagues in the examination of proven practices, share ideas of new processes and tools, and build your own network of OD scholar-practitioners in the field of healthcare.

Exploring the Dynamics of Change (C)

Embracing the “Gift Story”: An Organizational Change Effort in Public Education
JoAnn Lawrence, The Ball Foundation
Srik Gopalakrishnan, New Teacher Center
Sue Brewer, Rowland Unified School District (Retired)

In a climate of severe budget cuts, large, complex school systems are struggling with hierarchy, control, and mandates that prevent them from effectively serving the needs of diverse stakeholders. This session tells the story of one OD effort to buck the trend; an effort to truly transform a siloed and bureaucratic school district into a more nimble, flexible, and generative system, while consciously embracing the “gift story” of community and possibility. Attendees will learn about the impetus behind the effort, the change process itself, and the emerging results for the organization and its students, including successes and speed bumps. The session will include models, constructs, and principles, as well as stories, examples, and quotes from participants on the ground.

Engagement is the New Change Management
Dick and Emily Axelrod, the Axelrod Group, Inc.

In major corporations around the world, the process by which change happens is virtually the same whether you are developing a strategic plan, improving a process, or redesigning an organization. These practices often produce engagement gaps, and according to neuroscience, they work against innovation and creativity. In 2009, Dick and Emily Axelrod set out to uncover change secrets. They conducted dozens of interviews with organization leaders and OD consultants, along with leading-edge thinkers like author David Rock, and Shoji Shiba, winner of the Deming Prize. In this session, Dick and Emily will share the interview results, the importance of everyday interactions, methods, and context, and why engagement is core to what they have come to call the New Change Management.

Strengthening Communities, Respecting Cultures (C/C)

Diversity to the Next Level: Multicultural Competency
Enrique J. Zaldivar, Inspired-Inc.

Many US-based OD consultants perceive diversity competence from a US-centric point of view, and haven’t yet benefited much from the considerable research, experience, and insights in multicultural competency from an international viewpoint. This perspective concerns all OD practitioners, as the world shrinks in an ongoing process of growing interdependence among the world’s organizations. We’ve come a long way in diversity (there is much to be grateful for and appreciate here), and yet we still have a long way to go. To developing enhanced multicultural awareness, this session taps into participants’ current skills and experience with diversity, takes this strong diversity competence to the next level, and increases our effectiveness as OD consultants, by experientially increasing our own cultural self-awareness and placing it within the context of other cultures.

Having 2020 Vision: Community Change Initiatives
Barbara Mink, Fielding Graduate University
Thomas Werner, WELL Role Coaching & Consulting

In this session, the theoretical underpinnings of a newly constructed community change initiative, Having 2020 Vision, will be presented. Following the presentation of two case studies of initiatives conducted in Austin, Texas, participants will learn how to utilize the models and tools demonstrated. They will then practice using some of these tools through small group work in a mock-case examination as they begin to construct a community plan for change.

Identifying Tools for Practice (T)

Best Practice in OD Evaluation: Understanding the impact of Organisation Development
Andy Smith, Roffey Park Instititute
Liz Finney MA (Cantab), Roffey Park Instititute

This session will provide participants with key insights about how to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of OD interventions. It will include practical tips from an international group of experienced OD practitioners, and explore specifically how evaluation adds value and enhances the credibility of OD, how evaluation is set to become a critical element in the future of OD, and what might be included in an OD evaluation toolkit.

Learning How to Read the Room: Kantor's Four Player Model in Action
Dr. Anne Perschel, Germane Consulting
Nancy Heaton Lonstein, Germane Consulting

"What is going on in this group?" "Why do their interactions seem so unproductive?" "How can I help the team and ensure the best decisions are made?" Every OD consultant, every leader and manager, indeed every person who communicates with others on a regular basis has asked these questions and struggled to understand what is happening in a group interaction, and how they can improve communicative efficacy either as a member or a coach consultant to the group's leadership. Using David Kantor's theory of Structural Dynamics, we'll provide an overview of the most accessible and discussable framework for understanding the invisible structures that exist in face-to-face communications: The Four Player Model. The value of this behavioral framework as both a diagnostic and intervention tool is illustrated through video, case analysis, and group reflection.

Using Social Network Analysis to Change the Conversation: Leadership, Power, and Politics in a Law Firm
Susan Letterman White, J.D., M.S.O.D., Letterman White Consulting

Law firms are like consulting firms, universities, and other systems where individuals are accustomed and encouraged to operate from a position of autonomy and independence. When these systems are faced with the need for centralized leadership, the how and why of making such a change can be very threatening. Organization discourse theory tells us that change happens by changing the conversation, but how can we facilitate these conversations in the face of extreme fear and distrust? Social Network Analysis algorithms create diagrams and metrics, which give a group the chance to talk about its power, politics, and leadership dynamics, since everyone can simultaneously see and then make sense of these together.

Working Creatively on the Edge (E)

Applying Visual Metaphors to Executive Coaching and Developmental Counseling
Dana Tinkle, Independent Consultant
Robert Barner, Ph.D, Southern Methodist University

This presentation will show participants how to use and interpret visual metaphors as an assessment tool in career counseling and executive coaching. Participants will be introduced to both self-generated metaphors and the images available in the VE2 (Visual Explorer) deck, and they’ll then be presented with two case histories that illustrate the use of this tool.

Organizational Perceptions and Paradigms: Through the Eyes of the Feminine
Cosette Grant-Overton, Grant & Associates, LLC
Marsha Tongel, Tongel Consulting Group, Inc.

Women are increasingly creating and leading organizations, as well as making rich contributions to the field of organization development. This session will explore some of the perceptions, paradigms, and theoretical models that are being offered by women as they work with organizational creation, development, culture, and leadership. Participants will learn about specific organizational concepts, theories and models presented by historic and contemporary women theorists, researchers, and practitioners. The meaning, relevance, and implications of these theoretical models for today's organizations and for the practice of organization development will also be discussed.

Teamwork Tango®: How to Lead and When to Follow
Yael Schy, Dramatic Strides Consulting

This interactive, movement-based workshop, which has been used successfully in a variety of corporate, nonprofit, and academic organizations, uses dancing with a partner as a metaphor for leader and follower relationships in the workplace. The daily “dance” between leaders and followers requires mutual understanding and a balance of give and take. Truly effective leaders also know how and when to follow, and productive team members must understand and have the opportunity to experience being a team leader. Through a series of innovative partnering exercises, you will learn five key principles that are applied to leading and following in organizations. You will leave with new tools for working with clients to develop their leadership and teambuilding skills, as well as gaining new insights about your own leadership style.

Cultivating Leaders and Leadership (L)

Achievement Award Winners

Exploring the Dynamics of Change (C)

Growing the Global Organization: A Case Study in Complex Organization Capacity-Building
Carol Brainard, Brainard Consulting LLC

This session retraces the steps of a three-year OD initiative for rapid global expansion of an international non-profit. Using Jay Galbraith’s Star Model as a starting framework for organizational change, we explore the challenges of centralized/decentralized global governance, matrix organizations that cross international boundaries, organizing for innovation, and building capacity for entity-wide business processes. While examining key issues and decision points throughout this initiative, participants will work in small groups to assess the situation and suggest approaches and plans. We will then review what actually happened in the case, evaluate how leadership and cultural dynamics can influence results, and identify lessons learned. This is an opportunity for participants to hone their skills for holistic, collaborative organization change.

Order from Chaos: A Theory and Practice for Turning Upheaval into Opportunity
Peggy Holman,

What does it take to see opportunities where others see problems? How do you bring people together to pursue possibilities when faced with upheaval? As our organizations, communities, and other social systems experience increased uncertainty, a framework for engaging with disruption and the unknown becomes key to meeting today's challenges. This session provides theory, principles, and hands-on practices for taking the “emergency” out of emergence. It draws from the natural science of emergence to make practical sense of the deeper patterns of whole system change processes, such as Open Space Technology, Future Search, The World Cafe, Appreciative Inquiry, and others.

Strengthening Communities, Respecting Cultures (C/C)

Accelerated Culture Change: OD Pioneers Share Groundbreaking Approach
Fred Miller, The Kaleel Jamison Consulting Group
Valerie V. Davis-Howard, The Kaleel Jamison Consulting Group

In one of the biggest OD shifts of the last decade or so, designing five- to seven-year culture change efforts went from the norm to an untenable strategy, since organizations had neither the time nor patience to undertake efforts that do not yield more rapid results. Organizational Development pioneers Fred Miller and Judith Katz from The Kaleel Jamison Consulting Group will share their ground-breaking approach to accelerating culture change in organizations. Judith and Fred will share their current work with a client where they are implementing large-scale, sustainable culture change to significantly shift the organization in just 6-18 months.

Custody of the Culture: Why We Need Clear Thinking and Imaginative Interventions
Christopher Kiddy, Aries Consulting Limited
Isabel Doverty, Standard Chartered Bank

This session proposes that organization culture is too preoccupied with values and fails to differentiate or give sufficient attention to beliefs. We suggest that culture comprises vision, values, beliefs and behaviors, and that while vision and values need to be enduring and companywide, beliefs and behaviors can change and vary, providing scope for cultural diversity and allowing for differences in strategies and business models in different parts of large businesses. The second part of this session offers ideas for strengthening culture, in particular linking ‘dilemmas’ of values and beliefs to models of culture. Practitioners are provided with the resources to challenge top management thinking, reinforced by imaginative, practical tools that are well grounded in theory.

Driving Cultural Integration After a Fortune 100 Merger
Lisa Brooks-Greaux, Pfizer Animal Health
Wendy Heckelman, PhD, WLH Consulting, Inc.

The session is designed to provide both internal and external OD consultants with an overall process to help them drive cultural integration, especially after a merger. The session will outline a case study where a Fortune 100 organization’s leadership leveraged the opportunity of a merger to redefine its culture and core beliefs. Participants will explore and discuss the challenges an organization faces during a post-merger integration, the business case for a Cultural Integration Plan that addresses organizational, team and individual needs, and the lessons learned from cultural integration efforts. We’ll also review an effective cascade process to drive cultural transformation, along with specific, necessary tools, and consider possible barriers to implementing such process.

Identifying Tools for Practice (T)

Appreciative Inquiry in Academic Medicine: Changing the Conversation and Cultivating Relationships
Anne Williams, University of Virginia Health System

The University of Virginia Center for Appreciative Practice (UVACAP) is an innovative proto-institution [an entity that arises from and ultimately transcends a collaborative relationship] commissioned by the executive leadership at the University of Virginia (UVA) Health System to use Appreciative Inquiry (AI) to build a collaborative and patient-focused culture within the Health System. Leaders from the UVA Center for Appreciative Practice will share their experience using the AI process to drive whole system culture change and discuss opportunities and challenges associated with using AI in an academic medical center.

Our Exploding Interest in Employee Engagement: What Does This Tipping Point Mean for OD Practitioners?
Kenneth W. Thomas, Naval Postgraduate School

The organizational interest in “employee engagement” represents a tipping point in assumptions about motivation. Most of today’s jobs require a paradigm of work and motivation that is based more on a sense of meaningful contribution than on economic assumptions. Based on his new book and twenty-plus years of research and applications, Ken Thomas provides a tested set of concepts and tools to help clients understand, measure, and facilitate employee engagement. This interactive session uses a questionnaire to help participants tune into four key intrinsic rewards that drive engaged behavior—a sense of meaningfulness, choice, competence, and progress. It will also introduce participants to a diagnostic framework that identifies missing building blocks for each reward, applying it to a change project.

Working Creatively on the Edge (E)

Student Research Colloquium

Inaugurated at Conference 2009, these sessions again provide current and recently graduated OD students a chance to present their most intriguing research projects and field work. Join these emerging scholar-practitioners as they report the results of their latest cutting-edge inquiries, and learn how you might apply those results to your own practice.  As new ideas and theories emerge within our top academic institutions, this is a unique opportunity to meet and talk with emerging researchers as they showcase their talent. Learn what's engaged our students' attention and energy, determine how new research might influence our own work as practitioners, and help identify those theories that are practical and relevant enough to help guide OD practice in the future.

Cultivating Leaders and Leadership (L)

Generational Differences in Organizational Leadership: International Perspectives
Annika Hylmo, Ph.D., The Insight Generation
Ulf Boman, Kairos Futures

As the world readies itself for the upcoming transition of leadership so-called Baby Boomers to younger generations, organizations everywhere are asking the question: how does the forward-thinking, 21st century organization prepare itself to recruit and retain the best talent in an increasingly competitive marketplace? Responding to this significant challenge may require a shift in leadership style, and this shift may differ depending on the particular generations in the workforce and the national or local culture in which the organization operates. Through the presentation of cutting-edge research, this session focuses on just how leadership may need to ”flex” in terms of style in order to respond to the different generations that are part of the internal and external customer base.

Leadership Legacies: Leaving a Positive Imprint while Building Communities
Kittie Watson, Ph.D., Innolect Inc.
Melonie Hall, Entergy New Orleans
Rebecca Ripley, Innolect Inc.

OD professionals have opportunities to build awareness about and offer options for addressing social issues as they work with corporate leaders who wish to leave positive legacies. This session will highlight what forward-thinking practitioners and organizations might do to develop leadership capability while serving and supporting the communities in which they live. Since Conference 2010 is in New Orleans, we will showcase a leader who is focused on equipping her team/customers with new skills to help address community issues and rebuild a stronger city. Through a case analysis interview, we will show how she used a poverty simulation to build compassion in her customer service representatives while bridging gaps between the business and “community benefit” organizations. We will also share examples of what other corporations are doing to promote volunteerism among their employees, and brainstorm possible strategies for developing leadership legacy-building capability.

Exploring the Dynamics of Change (C)

Ratcheting Up Organizational Change Effectiveness: A Sampler of Engagement Strategies
Tom Devane, Tom Devane & Associates, Inc.

The “new normal” is officially here. And employee engagement is more important than ever. Complex problems combined with lean internal resources make it critical—and highly challenging—to effectively and efficiently engage employees. With a focus on maximum pragmatic value, in this highly-interactive session we’ll run an accelerated mini-version of three proven, highly successful group methods for improving organizational performance. And we won’t just talk about them, we’ll DO them in a compressed timeframe mode so you can experience what they’re like. You’ll select from a palette of group methods like Appreciative Inquiry, World Cafe, Search Conference, Dialogue, Open Space, Visual Explorer, and Scenario Planning. Throughout, and at the session close we’ll collectively reflect, and you’ll develop personal action plans for back home.

Strengthening Communities, Respecting Cultures (C/C)

Transitioning to a Stewardship Culture in a Healthcare Setting
Debbie Fischer, Mount Sinai Hospital

To ensure that its future health care system was viable and sustainable, the Ontario government had to change the way it did business, so it required the Ministry of Health to transform itself into a steward for provincial health care, a monumental structural and cultural shift in a $40 billion business. This transition, the largest in any Ontario ministry, required sustained and committed leadership, and a five-phase process was used, focusing on disciplined project management, change management, process re-design, and new structures and technology. Collectively, these activities transformed the Ministry, its structure, and the way it works, and this unprecedented learning and development program helped create a stewardship culture. We’ll explore this complex transformation process, and the theories and concepts that guided it.

Understanding Privilege and Racial Equity: Sustaining 21st Century Organizations During Difficult Economic Times
Beth Applegate, Applegate Consulting Group
Maggie Potapchuk, MP Associates

During difficult economic times in our global and diverse society, each practitioner is responsible for understanding the internal and external systemic forces, especially as they relate to race, power, and privilege. To be effective in organizations in the future, it is important that, as practitioners, we understand how these dynamics influence our own and others’ world views, and how they create covert systemic processes. Only with such awareness can we be truly skillful at diagnosing organizational issues and creating effective intervention(s). Join us for a conversation about these dynamics and their impact on our work.

Identifying Tools for Practice (T)

Can You Hear Us Now?: Connecting with the OD Network Using Social Media
Alex Dunne, Locomotive Partners
Peter Norlin, OD Network

During the past year, OD Network has experimented with emerging social media tools to connect with you more successfully. Our LinkedIn group is currently approaching 10,000 members, and our daily Twitter stream continues to attract followers steadily. But is it working? Are we succeeding in connecting with you in ways that are meaningful, in the virtual places you frequent and on the media-platforms you use? And when we do so, is your experience with the Network consistent with our mission to be the premiere global professional association at the center of OD thought and practice leadership? Join OD Network’s Executive Director and a member of the Network’s social-media strategy team to hear about what we’ve learned about connecting via these tools, and to share your feedback about how we might do an even better job.  

Crisis or Opportunity? High-Engagement Organization Design with an Automobile Manufacturer
Deb Peluso, The Change Collaborative, LLC
Paul Tolchinsky, Performance Development Associates

This session will chronicle the redesign of the human resources function at a major automobile manufacturer before, during, and after the crisis of the recent economic downturn that brought the auto industry to a near standstill. The case study details how the HR transformation started as an intellectual study of possibilities with little sense of urgency, then rapidly launched into the key initiative for HR leaders during this past economic recession. The aim of the project was to transform a rigid, functionally-focused HR structure into a highly flexible matrix organization positioned for future expansion and for serving of multiple North American companies. Participants will learn about the methods and processes used to help bring about this cultural and structural transformation.

Presence-Based Intervening: Developing and Extending Your Signature Presence
Doug Silsbee, Presence-Based Coaching

It is well-established that self-awareness and presence are key elements of practitioner success. Given this, it is surprising that so many competency-based development programs focus on techniques (the Doing), rather than on presence (the Being.) This highly experiential workshop explores the critical influence of presence in guiding real, sustainable change. We will experience how presence, both for intervener and internal leaders of change, is the very basis for producing generative new actions. We will learn specific practices for developing signature presence in order to be as resourceful as possible with our clients. Lastly, we will explore orienting, holding a relational field, and extension as pragmatic means to evoke presence in clients.

Synergic Inquiry: Embracing Differences to Enhance Cross-Cultural Leadership and Organizational Performance
Bernice Moore, ICO Consulting
Nancy Southern, Saybrook University

Using our differences to create greater organizational performance is a critical success factor for leaders and organizations in the global economy. The workforce within the United States is diverse; organizations reach across national boundaries to create global markets and increase profitability. Often the differences between people, different ways of working, and different cultural backgrounds create conflicts and barriers to success rather than enhancing collective capability. By inquiring into the nature of our differences, exploring what they are and how they affect us, synergic inquiry releases the energy of conflicts and differences, and channels that energy into positive, collective action.

The Future of Visual Meetings: Group Graphics Meets New Media to Tackle Today's Tough Problems
David Sibbet, The Grove Consultants International

With new tools and media, it is now possible for anyone to use visual language and graphic tools to support high engagement, systems thinking, and productivity in groups—be they face- to-face or virtual. This session will focus on accessible, yet powerful group graphic strategies that non-facilitators can use to tackle the big challenges they face.

Working Creatively on the Edge (E)

Getting Great Results from Virtual Meetings
Julia Young, Facilitate.com

Frustrated by long teleconferences that go nowhere? Want to make your remote sessions more productive, interactive, and engaging? We’ll use collaborative technology as we explore what all OD consultants need to know about planning and facilitating remote meetings. How is planning for a successful “same-time” remote meeting different than planning a face-to-face meeting? How can you structure time and activities to ensure the active participation of everyone? How can you manage difficult people when you can’t see them? How can you use asynchronous pre-work to prepare participants and focus your agenda? Are there situations when meeting virtually just doesn’t work? Learn tips and techniques to address your most challenging situations. (And experience virtual collaboration from your desktop before the Conference with two optional online events.)

Hot Diggity Dog: Understanding Self-Organizing Systems Through Dog Rescue Experience
Madeline Finnerty, Ph. D., Finnerty International

Imagine a well orchestrated organization with no CEO, no performance reviews, and no hiring policies. Imagine an efficient and effective organization that learns, grows, and transforms itself without consultants, strategic plans, or change management. Organizations rooted in the command and control architecture of the industrial era find it difficult to believe that such a creature could possibly exist. This session provides an intimate look into just such a self-organizing system, the complex network of dog rescue operations. Discover transferable principles about the nature of self-organizing systems through stories of a dynamic system that makes these theoretical models come alive.

Student Research Colloquium

Inaugurated at Conference 2009, these sessions again provide current and recently graduated OD students a chance to present their most intriguing research projects and field work. Join these emerging scholar-practitioners as they report the results of their latest cutting-edge inquiries, and learn how you might apply those results to your own practice.  As new ideas and theories emerge within our top academic institutions, this is a unique opportunity to meet and talk with emerging researchers as they showcase their talent. Learn what's engaged our students' attention and energy, determine how new research might influence our own work as practitioners, and help identify those theories that are practical and relevant enough to help guide OD practice in the future.

Cultivating Leaders and Leadership (L)

What Makes a Leader Truly Global?
Linda Sharkey, Center for Global Leadership Development
Nazneen Razi, Jones Lang LaSalle
Peter Barge,
Robert Cooke, Human Synergistics International

This session focuses on the factors that make leaders effective in complex multi-cultural organizations. The findings of a research initiative, stimulated by the current demand for global leadership talent, will be shared. Factors distinguishing successful global leaders were uncovered via literature reviews, interviews, and surveys. The profile of personal styles and capabilities that was identified is critical for selecting, developing, and preparing leaders for the challenges of global positions. This session focuses on how to help organizations recruit and develop talent for global assignments, increase the success rate of leaders, and reduce the costs of mistakes.

Exploring the Dynamics of Change (C)

Changing Our Minds About Change: A World of New Possibilities
Deepa Rachel, Manford

Organizations, Institutions, and individuals can only maintain excellence by constant renewal of the mind, by generating new possibilities to act upon. For growth is maintained not only by strategic brilliance, but also by the nature and quality of our thinking. This session explores the way our internal beliefs and attitudes affect our ability to see new possibilities. How do we develop the willingness to risk diversity of thought? How might we become aware of our mental conditioning and its limiting effects? Most importantly, how might we demolish fixed mindsets, shifting from breakdowns to breakthroughs by focusing on the “Important” rather than “urgent?” During this session we’ll explore these questions, and consider how we might think about problems as possibilities rather than limitations

Evaluating Organizational Change
Jill Shaver, B. J. Shaver Consulting, Inc.
Kathryn Parker, SickKids Learning Institute
Paula Burns, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT)

Evaluation has a key role in successful organizational change, including the determination and measurement of “success,” and the distillation of insight and learning about the process. Evaluation enables leaders and practitioners to determine what worked, how well it worked, the potential next steps to take, and how desired outcomes might be achieved more efficiently and effectively in the future. Evaluation of change—both process and outcomes—is therefore critical for every change leader and practitioner. This session describes the grounding of organizational change in change theory, approaches to program evaluation, and how program evaluation may be applied to the evaluation of organizational change; and it also proposes a framework for evaluating change within organizations.

Managing Global Enterprise Transformation: A Leadership Imperative at Dell
Alejandro Reyes, Dell, Inc.
Ashley Yount, Dell, Inc.

Dell , Inc., reached a significant milestone last year as it celebrated its 25th anniversary . As a maturing organization, the company and its leaders have embarked on a significant journey to define the next chapter of growth. Attendees will learn how this company has redefined its purpose, values, brand, and strategy, and how it now utilizes a signature process called Leadership Imperative to engage the head, heart, and hands of every employee to help Dell win.

Strengthening Communities, Respecting Cultures (C/C)

Melding Cultures: Creating Community During Mergers
Andrea E. Graff, Genentech (A Member of the Roche Group)
Josh Sandifer, Genentech (A Member of the Roche Group)

Evidence shows that the success of mergers and acquisitions is determined by how well the cultural aspects of the transition are managed. After more than a year, Roche (a Swiss-based global giant of 77,000 employees) acquired full ownership of Genentech (a California-based, US biotechnology company of about 12,000 employees) in March 2009. What a laboratory for corporate culture co-creation! How did OD play a valuable role as a strategic partner in a merger with such cultural imperatives? To continue the critical business of meeting unmet medical needs for patients, while creating a great place to work for employees, it was critical to create a community through the melding of diverse cultures. This session is a highly interactive case study focused on practical approaches, presented by internal practitioners.

Identifying Tools for Practice (T)

Courage and Compromise: A Framework for OD Practitioners and Leaders Facing Choices Under Pressure
Dennis Riedlinger,
Elizabeth Doty, WorkLore

Engaging with any organization requires flexibility; yet too much compromise can become collusion with the status quo. As we strive to build more socially-responsible and sustainable organizations and restore trust in more traditional industries, OD practitioners and leaders alike face complex, new questions. For instance, which compromises are healthy and which go too far? When does “playing the game” become part of the problem? When is courage called for, and how do we act on it practically and skillfully? In this interactive session based on the book, The Compromise Trap, we’ll learn a framework for weighing healthy and unhealthy compromises, and a way to “redefine the game” that increases your impact with your clients, your organization, and the larger world, illustrated with a case example from a major chemical company.

Reaching Resonance: Engaging Organizations through Emotional Intelligence
Carol Grannis, Leading Edge Coaching and Development
Cindy Maher, Leading Edge Coaching and Development

As an OD practitioner and HR leader, how do you impact the emotional state of your organization? What specifically do you do to raise morale, commitment, creativity, and retention—or inadvertently push employees down into apathy, anger, and disengagement? Find out how the emotional intelligence competencies of self-awareness, social-awareness, relationship management, and self-management link to employee engagement and organizational success. This unique session is comprised of interactive exercises, dynamic discussion, and live improvisational theatre (no PowerPoint!). Experienced leadership development consultants (and veteran actors) Cindy Maher and Carol Grannis will demonstrate concepts and teach skills through realistic and often hilarious scenes that are performed right in front of you. You’ll leave this transformational session laughing and ready to use practical and ready-to-apply skills and tools.