Upcoming Events

We love OD…and many of us have a lot to share. Feel free to bring a topic to propose–a book, a technique, a case study, a question, a problem, an idea. Or just show up, have a festive glass of wine and see what offerings are in the offing.

Discussions about team building usually do not include considerations of the potential risks. There is a common assumption that somehow the team will be better off after the team building activities than before. However, this may not always be the case.  In this session we will explore the following questions:

1. How might a team be worse off after team building activities than before?
2. What are some conditions or elements that may cause a poor outcome?
3. What are some consulting practices in the contracting, design, and delivery of team building that can minimize risks?

John Cooper will facilitate  us in an interactive session to explore these issues.  We will identify success factors, landmines, and strategies for both internal and external consultants in contracting, designing, and delivering team building activities to leaders.

John Cooper, MSOD, PCC, has been consulting and coaching to leaders and teams since 1998. His experience includes line management, internal consulting and training management. He is a past president of ODN Chicago and has served as a Board Advisor for the past ten years.  His education includes a Masters in OD and Coaching Training at the International Gestalt Coaching Program. His practice areas include Executive Coaching, Team Performance, Organization Design, and Strategic Planning.  He also teaches Leadership and Strategic Thinking at Northwestern University.

In an archaeological expedition, researchers will frequently comb through ruins, studying abandoned architecture and artifacts for clues about an ancient civilization’s culture. The same concept can be applied to current, fully-occupied corporate environments as well.

When viewed through both Edgar Schein’s classic framework of “artifacts, espoused values, and underlying assumptions” and through qualitative observations drawn from environmental psychology, physical space can reveal insights into the personality and values of modern organizations. Within this context, “design” can function as a specific form of intervention in enabling change.

This program will explore basic concepts connecting physical environments and corporate culture with an opportunity for attendees to conduct their own hypothetical “table-top archaeology” and participate in a mock design process in support of an organizational change. This program is framed with a design-based lens emphasizing the act of “doing” in contrast to a research-based lens emphasizing precedents. (In other words, there will be no right answers.) Both the presentation and activities are intended to be fun and casual and to underscore how seamlessly OD capabilities can support physical design opportunities.

Presenter Bio:
Charles Renner has over two decades of experience applying design methodology to help shape built environments, design organizational processes, and create actionable consensus within diverse teams. In addition to his private-sector career, Charles has been an active participant in numerous non-profit organizations, frequently in a leadership role. Charles holds an M.B.A. in Sustainable Business from the prestigious Pinchot University (formerly the Bainbridge Graduate Institute) where he focused on Change Management, Organization Development, Leadership Development, and Sustainable Systems. Charles also holds a B.A. in Architecture from Iowa State University and an architectural license from the State of Illinois.

Recent Gallup survey data indicates that less than 30% of employees are engaged in their work and this number hasn’t moved in over 25 years of Gallup surveying.  They have also found, through extensive corporate interviews, that 7 out of 10 managers are clearly not effective or good at managing and leading (1 out of 10 is a “natural” and 2 out of 10 can be trained to be good).

What conclusions should we draw from their observations?  Why are so many employers investing in surveys but not necessarily in changing their work places?

[Note:  This is a  change from our originally scheduled program as the presenter could not make it]

As a communications expert supporting executives in telling their business and career stories, Kimberly Robb Baker hears the good, the bad, and the ugly of organizational design from C-suite leaders. Where do they need our help the most? Developing relevant communications and delivering them in a way that middle managers and front-line workers find accessible.

In this session Kim will share real scenarios her clients faced. You’ll have the opportunity to peek behind the curtain of family-owned to global 2000 organizations, finding out how they solved real problems, handled change management, business turnarounds, and process/technology rollouts.

Presenter Bio:

Kimberly Robb Baker has seen all sides of internal communications. From her early career with chaotic startups to stints at Fortune 500 companies and her ten years as Chief Career Storyteller at MovinOnUpResumes.com, she has experienced first-hand the power of effective internal communications done well—and the disaster of careless or harmful messaging. Kim is the winningest resume writer of 2015, former certification chair of the National Resume Writers’ Association, and frequently quoted expert on career and communications topics.

Another Conversation with Edgar Schein is our second opportunity to meet with Dr. Schein in a relaxed atmosphere.  Our first conversation was over 5 years ago and 122 people showed up!  We hope you can join us for this special “mini-event” on Monday, May 2nd at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology.

Note the special start time of 7 pm.  There will be no dinner served for this conversation, but we will have coffee and tea.

Edgar Henry Schein, a former professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, has made a notable mark on the field of organizational development in many areas, including career development, group process consultation, and organizational culture. He is the son of former University of Chicago professor Marcel Schein.

Facilitated by: April Kenfield and Maggie Shreve
Presented by: George Hay and Maggie Shreve

The OD Network of Chicago is offering its first special event as an opportunity to expand our understanding of change with two internationally known thought leaders: Barbara Bunker and Bill Pasmore. You won’t want to miss this once-in-a-lifetime chance to engage in meaningful conversations with both Drs. Bunker and Pasmore. Along with OD colleagues, HR professionals, I/O psychologists, business leaders, and students, you’ll have ample space to discuss what works and doesn’t work in today’s complex, continuous change. This special event is not targeted to OD practitioners alone…it is appropriate for anyone working through or leading others in change efforts.

We will meet at the beautifully outfitted Summit West on the 6th floor of the Ogilvie Transportation Center. The weekend package includes a Friday night reception with beer and wine, full breakfast and lunch, plus all materials.

Here is the current schedule:

• Beer & wine reception from 5:30 till 6:30 pm, Friday, May 20th
• Program with Barbara Bunker, 6:30 till 9:00 pm, Friday, May 20th
• Breakfast from 8 till 9 am, Saturday, May 21st
• Program with Bill Pasmore, 9:00 till noon, Saturday, May 21st
• Lunch, 12:00 noon till 1:30 pm, May 21st
• Dialogue on how to affect change with Barbara and Bill, 1:30 till 4:30, Saturday, May 21st

Biographies of Barbara and Bill:

BARBARA BENEDICT BUNKER is emeritus professor of psychology at the State University of New York at Buffalo and a consultant to business. She has taught in executive development programs at Columbia, Pepperdine, and the Harvard University School of Education and has held Fulbright Lectureships in the business schools of Keio University and Kobe University in Japan. Bunker is coauthor of “Large Group Interventions” from Jossey-Bass. In her own words:

My scholarly contributions are in three major areas. First, as an organizational/social psychologist, I have focused on planned change processes in groups and organizations. Closely aligned with investigations of organizational change is my interest in the changing role of women in work organizations. Most recently, I have been conceptualizing and doing research on trust in organizations, a requirement for collaborative change efforts. In several book chapters (with Roy Lewicki), we have developed a staged model of trust development and types of trust. We are now collecting data about the dissolution of trust in work settings and refining an instrument to measure these forms of trust.

WILLIAM PASMORE is an international authority in organizational leadership, joining the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL®) in January 2008 in the newly created role of Organizational Practice Leader. He leads CCL’s efforts to help clients develop the larger organizational leadership systems that increase their overall performance and enable their individual leaders to thrive. As a partner in the Corporate Learning & Organizational Development Practice of the consulting firm Oliver Wyman Delta, he headed the global research practice and worked personally with top executives of Fortune 500 companies on organizational architecture and development as well as succession planning, talent management and strategic planning. He co-founded the SIGMA program (Social Innovations in Global Management), which provides leadership and managerial training to socially responsible not-for-profit organizations around the world. As a thought leader in the field of organization development, he has published 21 books and numerous articles, including The Board’s New Roles in Succession Planning, How to Make Sure Your Next CEO is a Winner, Choosing the Best Next CEO, Designing Effective Organizations, Creating Strategic Change, Research in Organization Change and Development, Relationships that Enable Enterprise Change, and his most recent, Leading Continuous Change:  Navigating Churn in the Real World.

Registration:
Early bird registration, paid online, will guarantee you a spot at a lesser price. After May 11th, all registration fees increase.

Questions:
If you have any questions about this opportunity, please contact Maggie Shreve, Chair of the Special Event Committee and Treasurer, OD Network of Chicago at 312.646.9033 or magshreve@gmail.com.

We hope to see you there!!!

Facilitated by: Alysun Johns
Presented by: Human Synergistics

Join ODN/C for the July Annual Celebration!

Enjoy free admission and wine to celebrate our new board members as well as thank those who have served. We will also engage you in our organization’s strategic planning to continue the mission and goals of this community.

The July program will apply a strategic planning framework to engage your voices in the future of ODNC! This program will introduce you to a Strength-based strategic planning model called SOAR. SOAR is a strategy formulation and planning framework that allows an organization to plan its most preferred future. SOAR takes the Appreciative Inquiry philosophy and applies it to provide a strategic thinking and dialog process. SOAR applications include: strategy, strategic planning, team building, coaching, leadership development, and strategic summits.

Join us to:

• Celebrate
• Learn SOAR, a strength based strategic planning model
• Contribute to the strategic direction of ODN/C