Upcoming Events
- September 9, 2021
6:00 pm - 8:15 pm
OD for the Accidental Practitioner —
What is the difference between a knowledgeable OD practitioner and a Skillful OD practitioner? Between Proactive OD and Reactive OD? Between team building and team bonding? Join Larry Kokkelenberg, PhD, in this interactive session based on his recent book, “OD for the Accidental Practitioner.” We will look at developing the necessary skills to be an effective and successful OD consultant. Filled with practical applications from a veteran OD practitioner, this is a session you don’t want to miss!
About Our Presenter: Larry Kokkelenberg
Larry Kokkelenberg, Ph.D. has spent 45 years as a consultant working both as an internal and external consultant. He worked internally for Franklin Covey and the Federal Government, Office of Personnel Management HRS where he was the chief of employee engagement and directed their Organizational Development efforts with all other federal agencies. He has learned that the unexpected, the unusual, the unbelievable, is not once in a lifetime but is the norm when consulting with clients.
- October 14, 2021
6:00 pm - 8:15 pm
Diagnose and Develop Team Health
Teams are where we get work done, especially if you’re working on something ambitious and innovative. Yet, teamwork is becoming increasingly complex and dynamic as teams become more distributed, diverse, and matrixed. In this interactive workshop, we’ll explore what makes teams effective and how teams can improve how they work together. You’ll walk away with a framework to use as you assess team dynamics and some ideas to put into practice as you support team leaders on their journey to develop team performance.
About Our Presenter: Trista Taylor
Trista Taylor, is the Founder/CEO of Regroup, a team development company focused on helping leaders develop thriving teams. Prior to founding Regroup, Trista was at Google for 11 years where she operationalized Project Aristotle and helped hundreds of teams improve how they worked together. She lives in Seattle with her spouse and two daughters. In her free time, she enjoys gardening, snowboarding, camping, and vacationing in Hawaii.
- November 11, 2021
6:00 pm - 8:15 pm

About our facilitators: Neesa Sweet and Jerry Sullivan


Jerry Sullivan produces and moderates virtual events for Fortune 500 companies on subjects as diverse as communications skills and emotional intelligence. He won an Emmy Award for coverage of the Seoul Olympic games.
- December 9, 2021
6:00 pm - 8:15 pm
Annual Holiday Party Hosted by your Board
Thursday, December 9th, 6pm till 8:15 pm
Join us Thursday, December 9th, for our annual holiday/end-of-year virtual celebration! Our theme this year will be the North Pole Cafe, a world cafe event to review what we’ve done this year and talk about our 2022 plans for ODN/C.
Jump into different conversations with other OD professionals to hear emerging concepts and take in unique perspectives. This event is always a fun opportunity to grow your network and learn something new. Don’t miss your chance to soak up the good cheer!
Hosted by your Board of Directors.
Let’s hope we can end 2021 without a pandemic into 2022!!
- January 13, 2022
6:00 pm - 8:15 pm
Building Psychological Capital…
Learn how to build Psychological Capital from the new field of Positive Psychology. Psychological Capital (PsyCap) is the motivational propensity to achieve and is constructed from hope, self-efficacy, resilience, and optimism. PsyCap is significantly related to important outcomes such as engagement, organizational commitment, stress, well-being, turnover intentions and performance. This event will introduce the research around PsyCap and train participants how to increase their own PsyCap to better reach their own goals. These skills are essential for coaches, leaders and trainers.
About Our Presenter: Jennifer Thompson
Jennifer Thompson has combined her career as a business psychologist with the newest field of positive psychology and its effect on organizations and individuals. As an expert in statistics and research methodology, Jennifer can measure unseen phenomena in organizations and their effects on company culture. Through her PhD in Industrial/ Organizational Psychology and a Certification in Positive Psychology, Jennifer brings together a strong scientific background paired with the latest research on emotions and motivation to generate a powerful result.
Jennifer has the capacity to take complex scientific information and break it down simply for general audiences. She uses adult learning principles to make training engaging and change behaviors. Jennifer has been a professor in Business Psychology at The Chicago School for over 15 years. She has experience in the airline, technology, and healthcare industries.
- February 10, 2022
6:00 pm - 8:15 pm
Leading with Emotional Intelligence…
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- March 10, 2022
6:00 pm - 8:15 pm
Dialogic Organization Development and Generative Change: Helping Leaders Lead Emergent Change
Gervase will provide a brief overview to Dialogic Organization Development, and then describe some of his work in helping leaders understand emergent change approaches and help them develop the capacity to lead an emergent, generative change process. Dialogic Organization Development (OD) is a mindset about leadership and organizational change based on conclusions from three decades of studying successful transformational change. Focusing on the patterns of thinking and organizing that emerge from networks of meaning-making, the intent of Dialogic OD is to promote rapid transformation by disrupting (or working with the current disruption of) current patterns and engaging the right people in conversations that generate new, more useful ideas, meanings and beliefs to better manage complex problems and create more agile, adaptive teams and organizations. It encompasses a variety of methods, from one-on-one coaching to very large group events. The Generative Change Model is the focus of Gervase’s most recent book, The Dynamics of Generative Change, and helps managers and consultants understand how to lead an agile, rapid, transformation effort.
About our Presenter — Dr. Gervase Bushe
Gervase (pronounced Jervis) Bushe is the Professor of Leadership and Organization Development at the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser U in Vancouver, Canada. His career spans four decades of transforming organizational structures, cultures and processes away from command and control toward more collaborative work systems. He is an award-winning author of over 100 papers and four books on organizational change, leadership, teams and teamwork. Gervase has consulted to blue chip corporations and start-ups, public sector and business corporations, in a variety of sectors. Clear Leadership (2009) has been translated into 7 languages and over 100 certified facilitators have trained tens of thousands of managers in North America, Europe and Asia in his models and methods. Dialogic Organization Development: The Theory and Practice of Transformational Change, co-edited with Robert Marshak (2015) builds on his ground-breaking research into processes of generative leadership and change, and is transforming the OD discipline. In 2019 he co-founded the Bushe-Marshak Institute for Dialogic OD, which offers online courses and certification in Dialogic OD, and is the editor of the BMI Series in Dialogic Organization Development. Since 2016 HR Magazine in the UK has identified him as one of the 30 most influential HR Thinkers. In the last ranking he was 12th. A chapter on his life and work appears in the Palgrave Handbook of Organizational Change Thinkers. For more information and links to his papers go to www.gervasebushe.ca
For more information, contact Maggie Shreve at admin@odnchicago.org or 312.730.0041 (mobile/text)
- Special Event - Invited Sponsors
April 1, 2022 - May 1, 2022
8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Special Event for invited sponsors.
Listing on our website and acknowledgement during events.
Opportunity to introduce your organization at events.
Sponsored Thought Leadership posts on Social Media sites.
Multiple leadership opportunities.
- April 14, 2022
6:00 pm - 8:15 pm
Leverage Change…
People struggle with change. They complain it is hard, takes too long, and costs too much. All too often, its also ineffective. Look at your own experience. Wouldn’t you jump at the chance to achieve results in your own work faster, easier and better?
It’d be great if there were a predictable way to make this happen.
There is. It’s called Leverage Change.
These 8 smart, strategic actions, or levers, can be applied to any change, any time, any place. Use them and you’ll be on your way to getting more done with fewer headaches, hassles and problems. You can use the levers for everything from strategy implementation to culture change to mergers and acquisitions and leadership development.
This is a session where you’ll get real work done. Whether your change effort is straightforward or complex, involves only your own team or the whole organization, or is just beginning or well underway, your time with Jake will hit the mark. This presentation is really a consulting experience masquerading as a presentation. Using a unique “Rapid Response Consultation” approach, you’ll witness a real time roll up the sleeves demonstration of the power of applying the 8 Levers of Leverage Change.
You’ll also have your own opportunity to put these same strategies to work on any type of change on your plate.
Identify and address the most common problems in your current change work – and know how to do it when you recognize them in the future too.
Question your assumptions. Challenge your paradigm. Open your thinking.
You’ll leave with a fresh perspective on change that will transform the way you see and do change work forevermore. Faster, easier, better change is in your future. Join this session and see how.
About Our Facilitator:
Jake helps organizations, teams, and individuals make monumental changes.
Over the past 35 years he has worked in 61 industries, from high tech to manufacturing to hospitality to entertainment to financial services. I’ve consulted to 96 organizations, from Fortune 50 to national non-profits and community theaters.
Jake supported more than 210,000 people directly on important changes to their business. What kinds of changes? Everything from strategy implementation to culture change to mergers and acquisitions and leadership development.
He’s partnered with CEOs, front-line workers and changemakers in middle management in organizations like Ford, Kraft and Marriott. And, he’s helped create change in the City of New York, U.K.’s National Health Service and the United States Army and Navy.
- April 30, 2022
8:30 am - 5:00 pm

About this event…
Many people-centered professional associations reside in Chicagoland. Organization Development Resource Group, a group of inter-organization members, has created an event to foster community and share knowledge among Chicago-based organizations.
This unconference promotes peer-to-peer learning. Professionals from people-centered associations are welcome.
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- Attend TED-like talks from professionals exploring themes such as culture, change management, organization development, resilience, employee engagement, among others
- Challenge yourself on a high ropes team-building course with certified facilitators
- Experience team building/bonding on a low ropes course
- Participate in a World Café posing questions about emerging organization transformation
- Explore Henry Horner conference facility for future events
- Expand your network by meeting other professionals
- Lunch and snacks provided
- Learn and have fun!
** SPECIAL EVENT **
SPEAKER TOPICS INCLUDE:
- What We Should Expect From Our Leaders (OD)
- Lessons Learned: How to Build Resilient Cultures of Connection (HR)
- The Pursuit of Courage in Change Management: When Being Brave is Not an Option (CM)
- Equity and Anti-Racism as a Change Process (HR)
- Clarify OD Contribution: Using Visualization to Articulate Deliverables (OD)
- The Shifting Sands of Followership (OD)
- Open Stance: Thriving Amid Differences and Uncertainty (OD)
Book signing by Dr. Larry Kokkelenberg, OD for the Accidental Practitioner. Bring your book, and he will sign it.
The supporting associations include Organization Development Network/Chicago (ODN/C), Community of Organizational Development in Chicagoland (CODIC), Association for Talent Development Chicago Chapter (ATDChi), and Association of Change Management Professionals Midwest Chapter (ACMP Midwest).