Upcoming Events

Got Drama?

Want a Breakthrough?

Need a Laugh?

Join us on August 7th, for this special event — a celebration of our profession and the future. Invite at least two of your colleagues to attend with you!

NOTE: Pre-register price is $10.00 or $20.00 at the door the night of the event

What makes OD so special?
Can you do more of that in your work this week?

So often, when we could use the power of OD, we don’t. Whether or not you have a job that’s called “OD,” can you apply the few magic ingredients required to achieve the human, sustainable outcomes that OD seeks? We will explore the essentials and challenge each other to apply them in our current work.

Bruce Mabee and Julie Benesh will facilitate. They will also facilitate the follow-up, “Helping each other use OD more fully,” to fit the schedules of those who are interested.

Julie Benesh, PhD, MFA, SPHR is an Assistant Professor of Organizational Leadership for The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. She has been consulting for over 20 years including ten years leading an OD group in an academic medical center. She is Program Chair of ODN/C and a former Co-President and Mentoring Program Co-Chair.

Bruce Mabee, MS, CPLP, is Managing Partner of Milestone Partners, LLC. A consultant for over 35 years in OD, strategic change and leadership, Bruce also serves as an adjunct faculty member of the Benedictine Uni- versity Master’s Program in OD. He is a board advisor and former President of the OD Network of Chicago.

• Curious about LEAN process improvement?
• Wonder what it means in the context of healthcare?

Then join us on Wednesday, September 19, 2012 for a discussion of LEAN as applied to a Family & Medical Leave Act program. Mark Cerkvenik will be our speaker.

A light snack will be served. Donations to cover the cost of food are suggested at $3 per person.

The Healthcare Community of Practice is a group of people interested in or practicing organization development in healthcare settings. Our primary purpose is to build our own body of knowledge about how to improve healthcare outcomes and systems. Anyone interested in discussing change efforts in the healthcare field, as planners of or presenters for our meetings, is welcome. For more information, contact Michael McGovern: 224.531.3235 or michaelfmcgovern@gmail.com.

Mark Cerkvenik is Director of Organizational Development at Loyola University Health System and has led multiple kaizen there within the Human Resources department. He has been practicing OD for over 14 years and consulted with such firms as AT&T, Newmont Gold, Schneider-Electric and Gordon Food Service. He holds an MBA from Keller Graduate School of Management and an MSW from University of Illinois at Chicago.

The science of competencies can sometimes seem quite abstract and puzzling.  Join us for a dynamic conversation demystifying competencies and competency modeling in service of Talent Management. 

Discover

• Why competencies and competency modeling are important
• How to do it and tailor it to your organization

Featured Speaker – Business Decision, Inc. (BDI)

Jim Graber, Ph.D., is an Organizational Psychologist. He specializes in organization talent management and technology. He has worked for more than 100 domestic and international clients. Jim manages the design and development of the focus talent management (TM) software suite. He also co-authored Competency-Based Training Basics (American Society of Training and Development – ASTD, 2010) and Lean but Agile: Rethink Workforce Planning and Gain a True Competitive Edge (American Management Association- AMACOM, 2012).

We have something for everyone this season – an opportunity to share OD skills in a World Cafe/mini-workshop setting, share non-OD talents from photography to fiction, or just be edified and entertained!

Plus holiday treats and beverages!!!

After a history of unsuccessful change, a community college system turned to a structured approach to move 300 administrative, 2,000 faculty, and 30,000 students to new student administrative support processes and systems. Come to learn how they instituted business readiness, leadership alignment, and communication to help make their change successful.

Steve Salisbury is an independent change management consultant with more than 30 years of business experience working for firms such as Whirlpool Corporation, Johnson & Johnson, John Deere, and Amway.

Our February meeting falls on Valentine’s Day. Rather than writing it off as a bad evening to hold a professional event or changing our regular second Thursday meeting time, we have decided to take advantage of it. Whether you hate or love Valentine’s Day, there’s something for everyone at our OD & Community Open Space!

We will be exploring three love-oriented issues:

• How to use OD skills to help (directly or indirectly) under-served communities
• How to use OD skills to build community within organizations or systems
• How to create and sustain communities of OD practitioners so that we are nurtured rather than depleted by our own efforts

There is much rich overlap among these issues, so we hope you will come out instead of staying home eating bon-bons–and be sure to bring any loved ones who might otherwise feel neglected.

We have seeded the meeting with established “experts” in community building to attend and get some conversations going, but at the same time we acknowledge the expertise that all of our participants bring. We all belong to many communities, including the one here and now. Open Space offers the flexibility for whoever wants to to lead a discussion, but all are equally free to participate, listen or just flit around or hang around–all learning and participation styles accommodated.

Julie Benesh, Program Chair

In this session, organizational improvisation scholar-practitioner and author, Pamela Meyer, Ph.D. will provide an overview of some of the new and emerging research and practice in this area and facilitate a panel discussion of practitioners who are using these ideas in very different ways in their work with organizations.

Panelists: Bruce Mabee, Milestone Partners

Karolus Smejda, Powersuasion

Mark Kaufman, Career Advancement Network

Leadership. Strategies for growth, development, and change. Economic crises. All challenges that strain the brains of OD professionals and their clients.

And our brains are, literally, the key to addressing those challenges. Recent research has brought us an explosion of knowledge about the brain. Just a decade ago, accepted dogma told us that at birth we received all the neurons we’d ever have, and our brains would remain unchanged by life’s experiences after a relatively young age. You’ve heard the phrases that reflect this thinking:

“That’s just the way I am….He’s wired that way….Can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”

Now we know that the brain is neuroplastic.  We can continue to “grow” the brain and its capacity by making new connections or literally growing new neurons across our lifetimes. This is news that you and your clients can use!

So change your brain and change your life…your potential for leadership… your ability to engage with change. It all starts with you AND your brain. Come join Karen Szymanski and Diane Wilson to get acquainted with your “gray matter” and learn how to begin.