Forums
Hastily Formed Networks: Organizing for Extraordinary Performance
Jeff Clanon, SoL; Carol
Gorelick, SOLUTIONS; Susan Higgins,
Naval Postgraduate School
When a crisis occurs—whether it’s a natural disaster such as
Hurricane Katrina or a major urgent situation in an organization—how
can groups of people create effective, coordinated action? In response to
this question, representatives from Boeing, Department of Defense, DTE, Ford,
SoL, and Tufts Feinstein International Center have started an applied learning
project through SoL to study and apply the principles of Hastily Formed Networks
(HFNs). A Hastily Formed Network is a form of organization that is suited
to accomplishing difficult tasks and developing capabilities for rapid learning
in response to urgent needs. In this session, Jeff, Carol, and Sue will share
what they are learning about this promising way of organizing.
Jeff
Clanon is a founding consultant member and the director
of Partnership Development for SoL. He is focused on discovering, teaching,
and implementing
theory and practice in the area of organizational learning. Jeff is particularly
interested in leadership as systemic phenomenon and its implications for
senior managers as they create and sustain work environments.
Carol Gorelick is
the co-founder and principal of SOLUTIONS for Information & Management
Services. She is also a professor at Pace University’s executive MBA
program in the Lubin School of Business.
Susan Higgins is the deputy director of the Cebrowski
Institute for Innovation and Information Superiority at the Naval Postgraduate
School (NPS) in Monterey,
CA. Additionally, she is a lecturer in the Information Science Department
at NPS, where she teaches online and resident courses in Command and Control
and Defense Transformation. Susan holds the Office of Secretary of Defense
Transformation Chair at NPS.
Leveraging
Diversity and Inclusiveness to Create High-Performing Organizations
John
F. Sequeira, Shell; Shelia Covert-Weiss
and Greg Clark, Ford Motor Company;
Frank Schneider, SoL
Like many organizations, Shell and Ford recognize the value in effectively managing diversity and inclusiveness. They have expended tremendous efforts and resources to attract, retain, and develop a diverse workforce, yet the results have not always been as sustainable as desired. Practitioners from these companies will share how they applied systems thinking tools to surface root causes and mental models that may have slowed down their progress. They will offer lessons learned and steps taken to engage employees with their hearts and minds. The presenters will also discuss how to underscore the importance of diversity and inclusiveness as a key practice for achieving business success and organizational excellence.
John
F. Sequeira, a senior advisor within Shell’s Global
Diversity & Inclusiveness Consultancy Practice, promotes change by integrating
D&I into Shell’s global business and people strategies. John has
held various HR and managerial roles across most of Shell’s business
segments. A champion of diversity through several past professional board
affiliations, he currently serves on the Board of the National Hispanic Corporate
Council.
Shelia
Covert-Weiss, Organizational Learning Specialist, has
spent the last five years actively engaged in developing ways to bring systems
thinking to Ford’s internal Information Technology organization. She
previously managed organizational change enablement for the reengineering
of Ford’s Information Technology organization, as well as the development
and implementation of computer-based simulation models. Shelia has a background
in organizational behavior consulting.
Greg Clark,
Organizational Learning Specialist, spends most of his time at Ford Motor
Company applying information technology solutions to the
challenges facing Ford’s product development organization. Having
also spent time as an internal consultant at Ford, Greg continues to find
opportunities to apply systems thinking and system dynamics across the
company.
Frank
Schneider is Partnership Development Specialist at SoL. Working with SoL’s organizational members, including AT&T,
DTE Energy, IFC, Shell, and Petrotrin, he identifies business and organizational
challenges
and develops collaborative change projects to address them. Frank has an
MBA from Boston College and has published articles in The Systems Thinker and Reflections: The SoL Journal.
How
Relationships Shape Our Brains—and Our Organizations
Elaine Johnson, Marylhurst University
Our moral codes tell us to be good to one other. Now new findings in biology send us the same message. Scientists have found that the brain is incomplete at birth and that experiences are required to complete the brain’s circuitry. Relationships with others complete circuits that enable the brain to value others, experience intimacy, and maintain emotional balance. Knowing exactly how relationships shape the brain’s physical structure encourages us to cultivate positive connections in our daily lives. This presentation describes the shaping power of relationships on the human brain and explores how people can unleash that power most effectively.
Elaine
Johnson is an adjunct professor of literature and writing
at Marylhurst University, Marylhurst, Oregon. She served for many years
as a university
professor and administrator, community college dean, and high school teacher
and department chair. Elaine is the author of Contextual Teaching and
Learning: What It Is and Why It’s Here to Stay (Corwin Press, 2002) and The
Dismantling of Public Education and How to Stop It (Scarecrow Education, 2003).
Transforming Our Systems Through Social Innovation
Tracy Huston, Menlo Lab, and Lou
Cox, Consultant/Psychologist
Leaders everywhere,
from business, education, healthcare, and government, are waking up to
the fact
that we can no longer operate independently, but
that we need each other in order to address the challenges we all face. Like
actors in a play, we must figure out how to knit our roles together as part
of an “ensemble.” In this interactive forum, learn how leaders
in local communities are building both the personal and relational capacities
needed to work across institutional boundaries. Explore emerging approaches
to collective ways of “seeing” and “being” together
in change, based on tools from the worlds of improvisation, intra- and interpersonal
dynamics, and collective wisdom.
Tracy Huston is a consultant and co-founder of Menlo Lab,
a network of practitioners and consultants dedicated to supporting social
innovation
in local communities. She helps leaders develop the personal, relational,
and systemic capacities needed to effect whole system change. Tracy supports
executive development at Nissan and is affiliated with the Presencing Institute.
She is the author of Inside-Out: Stories and Methods for Creating the
Future We Want (to be published by SoL in April 2007).
Lou Cox, PhD, is a consultant/psychologist who specializes in facilitating
learning and change processes. He has developed methods that allow teams
and organizations to stay connected to their collective intelligence and
creativity, resulting in sustained learning and high performance. Clients
have included the Disney Corporation, AT&T, American Airlines, Sony
Corporation, and rock and roll bands, including Aerosmith, REM, and BonJovi.
Lou is a consultant member of the Society for Organizational Learning.
Connecting with Your Creativity to Build Teams Across Cultures and Generations
Peggy Taylor, Charlie
Murphy, and Young Artist/Facilitators, The Power of
Hope
How can we bring vitality, joy, and imagination into our work on a daily basis? Through their wide-ranging experience facilitating multicultural groups of teens and adults, Peggy Taylor and Charlie Murphy have developed a set of effective principles and practices that bring out the strengths of individuals while building teams that connect across generational and cultural divides. In this forum led by Peggy, Charlie, and a group of young artist/facilitators, you will learn how to use easy-to-lead activities from the arts to transform the culture in organizations and classrooms. You may also discover that you—and all of us—are creative! No previous experience in the arts is required.
Peggy
Taylor and Charlie Murphy are co-founders of the Power of Hope: Youth
Empowerment Through the Arts, whose mission is to unleash the positive
potential of youth through art-centered, intergenerational, and multicultural
learning programs that value self-awareness, leadership, community, and
social change. Charlie is a youth development specialist and award-winning
composer and artistic director of the popular Seattle band Rumors of
the Big Wave. He recently received an Ashoka Fellowship honoring his work
as
a social entrepreneur. Peggy holds a master’s of education from Lesley
University in the use of creative arts in learning. She is a writer, musician,
facilitator, and choral director with a knack for connecting people with
their creative voice. Peggy is co-author of Chop Wood, Carry Water:
A Guide to Finding Spiritual Fulfillment in Everyday Life, which has sold over
a quarter of a million copies worldwide.
Conversation as a Radical Act
Juanita
Brown, The World
Café
Radical:
Growing from the root or related to the basic nature of something
—World English Dictionary
Evolutionary
biologist Humberto Maturana has helped us see that, as humans, we “bring forth worlds” through the networks of conversation
in which we participate. This “radical” scientific insight has
powerful implications for amplifying our systemic impact in relationship
to our organizations, our communities, and the key challenges of our time.
Add your voice to this highly interactive forum and explore exciting opportunities
to more consciously and choicefully engage collective intelligence and coordinated
action. In the process, learn how we can co-evolve the futures we want rather
than being
forced to live with the futures we get.
Juanita Brown is a co-originator of the World Café, an innovative
approach to large-group dialogue. She is the co-author of The World
Café:
Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter (Berrett-Koehler,
2005) and the founder of Whole Systems Associates. Juanita has served as
a Research
Affiliate with the Institute for the Future, a Senior Affiliate with the
MIT Organizational Learning Center (now the Society for Organizational Learning),
and a Fellow of the World Business Academy.