Concurrent Session I 

 MicroTriggers® – Little Things Big Impact  
Janet Crenshaw Smith | President and Co-Founder, Ivy Planning Group

How do you achieve an INCLUSIVE workplace? In addition to big actions such as strategy development, implementation and performance measurement, little things matter too - MicroTriggers®.  Building this leadership competency across the organization increases engagement and leads to increased workforce productivity and customer satisfaction.

Explore the impact of subtle behaviors and micro-messages on team dynamics and individual and organizational productivity in complex business environments. In this highly interactive session you will develop and practice skills to help minimize the impact of negative micro-messages and patterns of micro-inequities in the workplace. You will also identify your personal MicroTriggers®, the factors that influence their intensity, and gain the skills to drive individual and group performance.

Building and Measuring Change: When Knowledge Becomes Wisdom through Collaborative Learning
Katherine LY Green | Owner/President, Green Consulting Group, LLC

NASA’s difficult experience with the Shuttle Columbia was attributed, in part, to NASA not demonstrating the characteristics of a learning organization. A place in which knowledge is communal, and its repeated use is the foundation of ever-deepening wisdom.  The reluctance to learn from prior actions can, and did, lead to repeated mistakes. To address those shortcomings, and to minimize lost knowledge due to an aging workforce, a Marshall Engineering Knowledge Management (KM) Project Team engaged Green Consulting Group to aid with the culture change. The challenge –  design a change strategy that would result in expanded views and actions towards learning and knowledge sharing.

Examine the approach used to address the complex factors, players, challenges and goals of the project. Explore KM concepts and best practices, discuss the reasoning behind the multi-pronged change strategy, and get outcome data on the efficacy of the change effort over an 18-month Pilot. Be part of an interactive discussion of strategies you can use to capture, re-use and disseminate shared knowledge in complex work systems.

Not in My Back Yard! Mapping Complex Stakeholder Dialogue
Michael Randel | Director, Randel Consulting Associates 

Change processes around the world share a common characteristic:  they are sure to upset some, if not all, of the stakeholders!  While consultative processes are commonly used by OD Practitioners to engage stakeholders, few approaches dare attempt fostering dialogue and decision-making among competing groups immersed in seemingly intractable issues.

This session introduces Dialogue Mapping, a creative and visual process for supporting dialogue and decision-making.  Learn about this method for mapping complex issues, resulting in shared understanding and consensus for decisions.  Practice using the core concepts of Dialogue Mapping in dialogue with others.  See how this approach brings about sustained change as we explore the story of a rapidly growing city that used Dialogue Mapping to facilitate breakthrough results for city planning.  Discover resources to help you start mapping the complex issues in your own organizations.   

OD on the Edge: Insights from Consulting in Afghanistan
Suzanne Mi. Zaldivar | President, Inspired-Inc

In this era of increased complexity and diversity, what is essential about OD across cultures? This session offers widely applicable insights from two OD consulting projects in Afghanistan, where few of the tools and values of OD are either understood or shared. It explores the questions: How can OD add value under unstable, challenging conditions?  And, how can OD be most effective within the multicultural context that has become reality throughout the world?  Join this conversation about what works in challenging cross-cultural situations and gain a deep appreciation of what is vital about the application of OD when there is a clash of values and worldviews.  Whether working locally or internationally, you will come away from this intriguing discussion with a greater appreciation of the extraordinary potential of OD. 

Concurrent Session II 

Beyond PowerPoint: Using Visual Thinking to Create Clarity from Complexity
Scott Williams | CEO and Founder, Maga Design
Julie Anixter | Chief Innovation Officer, Maga Design

Visual maps are powerful antidotes for a time-starved, multi-tasking business cultures that need clear reference points and roadmaps when making change.  For an organization that craves authentic dialogue, non-PowerPoint communications, and hands on involvement, the Maga Map process results in physical and digital maps that help stakeholders see themselves in, and act upon, strategy and business transformation. 

Explore a unique approach for visualizing complex strategies on a single page and get an in-depth look at how visual information mapping has helped large organizations including the Navy, the Air Force and diverse agencies and commercial firms, develop and implement strategy initiatives.

In this session you will learn the essential tenets of visual thinking and how to apply them to simplify issues and make them comprehensible to diverse stakeholders.  You will discover a concrete and practical way to apply the principals of key thought leaders including Edward Tufte, Dan Pink, and Tom Wujec, and actually become a part of the process, as a graphic recorder captures your thinking about real world issues, performing a form of visual exploration and group research that will be shared as part of the conference proceedings.

Baker's Dozen:  Stretch and Fold into the Future
Glenda Eoyang, PhD | Executive Director, Human Systems Dynamics Institute

Complexity brings with it many counterintuitive patterns.  One of our Human Systems Dynamics favorites was discovered by mathematicians and is called the Baker's Transform.  In this session, you will explore thirteen ways to use this powerful systems phenomenon to inspire adaptive strategies at work and at home -- using the system's natural energy to support your change efforts.  You come to recognize this characteristic pattern and develop an action plan to use what you learn in this workshop to tackle your own complex challenges.

The Serious Business of Building a Culture of Fun into the Workplace: You Can't Grow Sunflowers in a Desert!
Veronica Adams | Riding the Wave Training & Development
Page Anne Smith, MSOD, SPHR | Conversant Consulting

Continual innovation can only flourish in environments that openly encourage experimentation and allow employees to feel safe to fully engage their critical thinking abilities and imaginations and to propose new ideas for processes, services, and products. 

Studies have shown that when the same tasks are considered “play” instead of “work,” employees perform with more enthusiasm, energy, achieve better results, and produce more innovative ideas.  Quality and productivity improve when people view work as if their teams are in a big, experimental… uh, sandbox?   -- Exactly!! 

After reviewing a couple of case studies of businesses that have successfully transformed their cultures with fantastic results, jump into the sandbox with us as we brainstorm away!  You’ll leave with great ideas on ways managers and teams can cultivate a spirit of experimentation and creative thinking that transforms work environments into innovative idea factories guiding organizations towards success!  

Implementing Health Care Reform at HHS – A View from the Inside
Sunny Hester | Director, Human Capital Management, US Department of HHS
Jill Hinson
David Osborne

In 2010, the US Department of Health and Human Services experienced challenges associated with the alignment of the strategic environment as well as sweeping economic recovery initiatives and groundbreaking legislation.  These challenges were augmented by the charge pursued by the Office of Human Resources (OHR) to transform itself to deliver optimal effective and efficient services to its customer. 

Be a part of transforming HHS in this session that includes a unique simulation representing the real experiences of federal employees and providing opportunities for consultants to exercise their strategic planning, consulting process, project planning, and creative change management knowledge, skills and abilities. 

Join early as seating will be limited to 50 participants. 

Being Strategic about Change: Adding Direct Value to the Entire Enterprise and Critical Initiatives
Linda Ackerman Anderson | Vice President and Co-Founder, Being First, Inc

Most OD consultants spend time on important development work, but seldom consult to the most important change efforts required for business success. Few of us get asked to the executive table at the onset of strategic changes to provide guidance on setting them up for rapid launch and good process.  If you are ready to change the game on your ability to consult and influence within your organization, this session is for you.

Explore the role of the strategic change consultant and key approaches for rebranding OD to focus on enterprise change and business results. Learn five approaches to building enterprise change capabilityundefinedstrategies that serve business imperatives, ensure consistency and effectiveness in change, and align all change-related resources. The approaches include the Enterprise Change Agenda, Common Change Methodology, Change Infrastructures, Strategic Change Center of Excellence, and the Strategic Change Office.  Come challenge yourself to redefine your role and increase your impact.  

The Neuroscience of Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
Amanpreet (Aman) Gohal | Associate, Booz Allen Hamilton

Learn the principles and research behind Emotional Intelligence (EQ), as well as how simple relaxation techniques offer a heightened degree of awareness and the ability to make deliberate choices despite complex situations. Neuroscience research unveils the physiological and neurological benefits behind principles of EQ and traditional intra-personal reflection and meditative training.

Research based on both soft science and hard science will give practitioners an opportunity to reflect on the inter-dependent connection between our emotions, body and social interaction. Practitioners will learn and discuss how to use these connections to their advantage in their practice.  

Concurrent Session III

Leadership in the Moment
Cary Paul | Chief Improve Officer, BossaNova Consulting Group
Andrea Howe | President, BossaNova Consulting Group
Shawn Westfall | Improve Guru, BossaNova Consulting Group

Life is improvised. Is leadership any different?   Sure, “luck favors the prepared mind.” Yet no matter how much you prepare, true leadership is demonstrated in the moment, on the spot, in the middle of transformational change, when the unexpected occurs.

Learn how to apply the best practices of improv comedy to day-to-day business life. Arm yourself with a style of thinking, listening, and working that is creative, spontaneous, and results-oriented. The techniques of improv will teach you how to deal with the unexpected, think on your feet, listen to your stakeholders, speak in memorable ways, and provide creative solutions to problems.  Plus, you’re working hard at this conference all day…improv comedy is a great way to just blow off some steam! 

Hot Diggity Dog: Understanding Self-Organizing Systems Through Dog Rescue
Madeline Finnerty, PhD | President, Finnerty International, LLC

Imagine a well orchestrated organization with no CEO, no performance reviews, and no hiring policies. Imagine an efficient and effective organization that learns, grows, and transforms itself without consultants, strategic plans, or change management. Organizations rooted in the command and control architecture of the industrial era find it difficult to believe that such a creature could possibly exist.

This session provides a look into just such a self-organizing system: the complex network of dog rescue operations. Building upon stories gathered over ten years from personal experience and professional research in the world of dog rescue, the presenter will illuminate the extraordinary capacity for learning, growth, and transformation in a complex, self-organizing network. Why do people work? How are resources shared? How is trust built? How does change occur? You will leave this session with three things: truly provocative questions about the nature of your organization, curiosity to look for and recognize other interesting places where the future organization is emerging, and new possibilities that emerge from thinking about a totally different way of being in an organization. 

Liberating Structures: Big Change through Small Interventions 
Lisa Kimball | President/CEO, Plexus Institute

Complexity science is the science of change – a rich source for insights about the dynamics and patterns associated with the changes we face in our organizations and communities.    How can we put these powerful theoretical ideas to use in our day-to-day practice?   A portfolio of Interaction designs based on key principles from the complexity framework have been discovered, defined and developed.  “Liberating structures” enable us to design and facilitate engagements that literally CHANGE THE CONVERSATION about the nature of a problem and the possibilities for solutions

Like jazz and improvisation, these methodologies are made up of simple rule sets that produce and support creativity and make it easy for everyone to engage.  Liberating structures facilitate new patterns of engagement such as self-organization and bottoms-up leadership. In this session you will discover complexity principles at play in familiar group processes like Open Space and Appreciative Inquiry.  We’ll also explore new engagement designs that can have significant impact with very small interventions.  And you’ll develop plans to incorporate these ideas into the design of your own work.

Keeping Your Strategic Plans in Action – Tips and Techniques
Gino Magnifico | Chief Information Officer, Army Contracting Command
Brian Brennan | Projector Manager, Preferred Systems Solutions
Marisa Sanchez | Independent Consultant, Organizational Development & Change Management
Ruth Scogna Wagner | President, RSW Consulting

With the speed of change in today’s world, organizations cannot afford to invest time developing strategic plans that soon become “shelfware”, either quickly becoming irrelevant or forgotten in a hectic day-to-day business environment.   Organizations need to find ways to keep their strategies immediate and relevant on an almost continual basis -- as well as incorporated into their everyday business operations. 

In this seminar, you will learn techniques from work at the Army Contracting Command Chief Information Office for marrying a strategic plan with project planning and collaboration software to incorporate strategic goals into everyday operations.  We introduce the processes developed for continually reviewing the strategic plan, tools used to track completion of activity, and techniques for using these tools as communication vehicles to motivate and celebrate achievement.  Specific examples will be shared from the CIO’s strategic plan by those involved:  the Chief Information Officer, the Project Management Office project planning subject matter expert, and the Organization Development consultants leading the Strategic Planning effort. 

Unlearning for Creativity
Adriano Pianesi | Principal, ParticipAction Consulting, Inc

People's ability to acquire new knowledge in the workplace on an ongoing basis simply can't keep up with the continuous introduction of new change initiatives/programs/ideas. But how do we venture safely toward deep transformation in uncomfortable terrain, so that chaos and discomfort don't derail our work?  UNLEARNING is an essential part of that creative process. It is about unlearning old mental models and frameworks, and engaging creative chaos for something new to emerge.

This highly interactive session provides valuable space and easy-to-understand examples of how to confront and discard the ideas that don’t serve us anymore. You will learn the key to deep, applied, and creative  learning; explore the inner landscape of your personal unlearning; and take away strategies to simplify the challenge of facilitating unlearning for a group by embracing creative chaos, positive conflict and emotional intelligence.