Agile and Thriving

In the dynamic world of business today, organizations must become more agile in order to thrive – and in some cases, merely to survive.  While the increased speed of business enables faster responses to a continually changing environment, it also causes issues with worker burnout and decreased performance.

In this session, we will explore the topics of Organizational Agility and Positive Organizational Psychology. At an organizational level, agility consists of routines of strategizing dynamically; perceiving environmental change; testing responses; and implementing changes based on the learnings from those tests.  As we work to bring in these new practices, engaging in a positive model of change (such as Appreciative Inquiry) can create sustained energy and enthusiasm and enable teams to focus on the positive future – keyed in on what is going well, instead of continually seeing challenges and obstacles to achieving their goals. This combined model of an agile, thriving team has been found to be highly effective in the VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, & ambiguous) world of business today.

Join us to learn how you can apply these practices to increase responsiveness, effectiveness, and resiliency in teams by participating in hands-on exercises that bring these concepts to life.

NOTE BENE:  This program is being offered on the first Thursday of February so that you have the second Thursday (February 14th) to celebrate Valentine’s Day.

Presenter

Rachael L. Narel, Ph.D., CISA

Rachael has spent over 18 years in the IT and software fields, having experience in virtually every functional area of an organization through both team and leadership roles. Her diverse background includes organization development, change management, strategic planning and process improvement, product management and marketing, new product development, and customer service, sales and support.

Rachael is an Assistant Professor at Benedictine University where she teaches in the Master of Science of Management and Organization Behavior program and continues to pursue research in the areas of Organizational Agility and Thriving.  She also consults in practice at Peters & Associates where she partners with clients and prospects to understand business vision, goals, and challenges, and assists in uncovering business solutions and technology that will help immediately and in the future with a focus on user adoption and change management practices.

Rachael holds both a PhD in Organization Development and a Master of Science in Management and Organization Behavior from Benedictine University, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and Biology from Saint Xavier University. She also holds the Certified Information Systems Auditor credentials through ISACA.

For more information about this program, contact Maggie Shreve, administrator, at 312.730.0041 or admin@odnchicago.org.