Upcoming Events

Kurt Lewin famously stated, “There is nothing so practical as a good theory.” Yet many of us would say our best theories were built in the field, at work and not in a classroom. That said, perhaps our schooling helped us get to that level, the next, or into a job where we could learn how to practice effectively in the “real world.” What differentiates the type of formal education that helps prepare OD pracititioners? How does this relate to the mission, vision, and values of the OD Network of Chicago? Hear from those who know best–the alums of some representative formal programs.

“The greatest ability in business is to get along with others and to influence their actions.” – John Hancock

The ability to influence others is crucial in your career, in management, and leadership.  When signing a new client, you use influence to convince them you can deliver better results than the competition.

When you are a manager, you use influence to motivate your employees to bring their best.  When you lead a team, you use influence to set the strategy and get everybody on board.  Lastly, as an OD professional, you use influence to get stakeholders to communicate with one another to improve process and workflow.

But what are the tactics that influence people to behave a certain way in the workplace?  We will identify and discuss the most common and effective influence tactics used in the workplace and apply these to your experiences. By attending this event, you will be able to quickly identify the tactics being used all around your workplace and on you, and also learn how to utilize them to get what you want.

There is an increasing interest in the study of the “positive” aspects of life and the human psyche, as opposed to the “negative” focus that psychology has taken for most of its history.

What is the power of gratitude and how can it be practiced? How is happiness defined? What is Psychological Capital and how does it increase organizational commitment, job satisfaction, employee well-being, and performance?

Join a diverse group of people interested in these topics for a lively conversation. We will discuss everything from theory all the way to hands-on practical tools. You will be able to choose from the following topics:

• Gratitude
• Happiness
• Mindfulness
• Positive leadership
• Psychological Capital
• Signature Strengths

We’ll have several rounds of conversation, so that you can join the discussions that interest you the most. It’s a fascinating subject and we’re excited to explore it with you!

We loves us our assessments, but…are our clients getting the most out of them? What do our best loved assessments say about us? Assessments emanate from “root metaphors” reflecting assumptions about the nature of reality and knowledge. Consultants and clients also have root metaphors –often unconscious ones. Becoming aware of the root metaphor of your assessment tool, your own perspective on assessment, and that of any particular client can help address any incompatibilities that can impede the assessment process from reaching its full potential.

Come explore, reflect upon and share:

• Favorite individual, team or organizational assessments.
• Best and worst experiences with assessment as administrators/sponsors/coaches/”targets.”
• How our own biases, as illuminated by assessments, may help or hinder our ability to sell, interpret, coach and get the most out of assessment.
• Respective next steps as responsible and enthusiastic promoters of assessment.

YOU MAY BRING YOUR FAVORITE ASSESSMENT TOOL FOR A SHOW AND TELL!

Julie Benesh, PhD is Program Director and Department Chair for the Business Psychology Programs at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology’s Online Campus. She has used the MBTI since 1988 and will be presenting at the Association for International Type International conference for the third time in July 2015. This session is a ‘draft’ of her session there; “Taking Type to the Next Level.”

Does your company or organization make you a better person?  What if we saw work as an essential context for personal growth? And what if employees’ continuous development were assumed to be the critical ingredient for a company’s success?  These are questions raised by Robert Kegan, Lisa Lahey, Andy Fleming and Matthew Miller in a recent Harvard Business Review article, “Making Business Personal.”

Join us to learn more about “deliberately developmental organizations” and the research results Kegan has produced through his work in the Harvard Graduate School of Education.  We’ll do some experiential work around what it means to be deliberately developmental and what it would take to shift our workplace focus to continuous learning.

Maggie Shreve is the current treasurer and immediate past president of the OD Network of Chicago.  She is currently a process improvement consultant at Rush University Medical Center.  She learned about DDOs at the 2013 national OD Network conference where Robert Kegan was a keynote speaker.

Behavioral Economics is method of economic analysis that applies psychological insights into human behavior to explain economic decision-making. What could be more OD? Learn some BE basics to enhance your OD practice and find out where to learn more.

About the Presenters:

Dr. Elizabeth Schwab developed the Master of Art in Behavioral Economics program, launched in Spring 2015. Currently, she is the Associate Department Chair for the Business Psychology Department. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology with an emphasis in Neuropsychology, a Master’s degree in Applied Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Organizational Effectiveness, and a Doctorate in Business Psychology. Her research is grounded in Behavioral Economics and focuses on the relationship between affect, cognitive information processing, and persuasive messages. She has taught with The Chicago School of Professional Psychology since 2011. and has more than 10 years of experience consulting in the restaurant/bar, marketing, legal, and academic/education industries. Her experience ranges from training and education to skill building and message consulting and includes; individualized coaching to improve and build business skills, concept development for new product regional release, development of effective training systems, and website critiques and organization/brand-message alignment; all through the lens of Behavioral Economics,

Julie Benesh, PhD, MFA, SPHR is Program Chair of ODN/C and Program Director and Department Chair of Business Psychology programs for The Chicago School of Professional Psychology’s Online Campus. She has consulted to various industries for over 20 years, while simultaneously spending more than a decade leading an OD function in an academic medical center where she developed organizational leaders, talent, systems, and teams to support culture change and associated financial turnaround, infrastructure transformation, stakeholder satisfaction, and employee engagement. Prior to entering the healthcare industry Julie held a senior management position with a Chicago social service agency and worked as an educational researcher at the University of Illinois. She has taught at DePaul University, Northeastern Illinois University, Rush University, and Robert Morris. She holds a certificate in organizational interventions from the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland.

As we endeavor to design organizations that are agile, we often find recurring challenges that senior leaders ask OD professionals to help overcome.  If you would like to be introduced to practical techniques that enhance alignment of your organization design efforts with your corporate strategy, join us for a dynamic presentation on the future of organization design.

In this session, you’ll have the chance to hear from one of the experts in this field, Janice Schonwetter.  Janice was a notable contributor to her org design firm’s latest book Mastering the Cube: Overcoming Stumbling Blocks and Building an Organization that Works.  She will share insights and key points from their work. You will leave this session with an understanding of the importance of ensuring that all leaders are “Alignment Leaders” and how to change the “design logic” of organizations so they are better able to deal with future complexity and change.

In commenting on the AlignOrg book, Clayton Christensen – Professor, Harvard Business School, said,

This is a great step-by-step how-to manual on defining and changing the design of your company. If you’re facing such challenges and have only time to read one thing, read this.

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from an OD leader and improve alignment and performance in your organization!

A personal brand is a concise, consistent message that communicates your strengths.  By remaining true to your personal brand, you will attract the kinds of sponsors that appreciate and need your skills and abilities and filter out the those that don’t. Ultimately, matching your projects to your individual strengths.

Learn to create a branding statement using SOAR, which stands for Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations and Results. SOAR is a strategic planning framework that focuses on strengths and seeks to align values and passion with opportunities in your industry.

It started in the 90s…the ‘change industry’ was burgeoning. Then came Y2K, for those old enough to remember. Now they are everywhere. Some seem a lot like “us,” others not so much. Let’s talk about what we have in common, what’s different and where there may be opportunities to work together.

You’ve just been appointed as a leader of an OD/L&D functionor been called upon as external or internal consultant to assist a newly appointed leader in assessing and realigning his/her function to better meet the needs of the broader enterprise.

 Where do you start?

 How do you put an approach together to determine what products and services to offer?

How will you offer these products and services in ways that are relevant, cost effective and helpful?

How will you engage your employees in this significant change effort?

How do you create the “organizational space” for innovation?

How do you determine if you are being successful in your efforts?

In answering these questions participants will learn principles of organization design and employee empowerment.

Join us as Michael McGovern shares with us his experiences and lessons learned revitalizing and realigning an OD/L&D practice within the BP/Amoco’s North American Information Technology Department.

Our approach provides a sequence of situations and questions. Break-out teams will then develop and present their approaches and solutions to the whole group. Large group discussion will follow.

Mike will then share the actual case-study decisions that were taken, the rationale for those decisions, resulting outcomes and lessons learned.

Facilitator: Michael McGovern is a seasoned internal and external Organization Development consultant with over 25 years of experience working in the private and public sectors for such companies as Abbott Labs, BP/Amoco and the Chicago Transit Authority. Mike has a Masters in OD from Loyola University of Chicago.