Seats still available at Organization Design Forum Conference

Organization design plays an especially critical role in turbulent environments. Marc Gerstein, President of the Organization Design Forum wrote, “Rarely do organization designers get a chance to save the world, but it would sometimes be a good idea if we could. We might have been able to point out that many of the decisions that have led to the current global economic crisis arose from poor design, pure and simple.” At the conference, we will explore how to survive the economic downturn, take advantage of the opportunities being presented, prepare for and accelerate the recovery.

Organization Design Forum 2009 Conference
Organization Design: Seizing Opportunity from Crisis — A Forum for Leaders, Practitioners and Educators
April 21-23
The Hotel Murano in Tacoma Washington
For more information

Community Conversations Project

Lucy Garrick (OSR 12) and a group of professional trainers and consultants have been working to find ways to make a difference in the lives of individuals impacted by the economic situation facing many of us.

The group is called the Community Conversations Project and they plan to host an event in April or May to bring people together who are unemployed or under-employed to see how they can support each other.

The Vision: We are addressing the needs of society in transition by fostering a shift from isolation to community.

The Mission: We endeavor to create a platform for self organization that will allow people to share their stories in unemployment and collectively pay attention to what emerges with a network of resources at the ready to assist with collective improvisation.

If you have been impacted by the economic downturn facing our country please take the time to participate in this survey.

For more information contact Lucy Garrick

Design a workshop for the 2009 annual conference

Stimulate the conversation about designing life and work in today's changing world. Design a 90-minute workshop session for the annual conference on Saturday, June 20. The design team for the conference is soliciting proposals due Friday, April 3.

Presenters are invited to develop interactive and experiential workshops that explore the nuances of effective and sustainable change in the complex human systems that comprise our work and our world. Two related conference paths are planned — one on emerging theories related to change and a second on practical applications for consultants and their clients.

Thinking in Systems: Practical lessons for building sustainable organizations and communities

Learn skills to build sustainable organizations and communities

Inspired by the book Thinking in Systems — A Primer by Donella Meadows this four-session web seminar series is designed to help you develop practical skills for applying Systems Thinking to your own organizations, communities and even your personal life.

Using compelling examples from today’s headline news, instructors Chris Soderquist and Diana Wright will demonstrate how Systems Thinking and iThink/STELLA can be used to better understand the interconnections of complex dynamic systems like the economy, environment, and social systems.

Web seminars will focus on specific topics according to the following schedule:

Fridays beginning April 17, 2009
11:00 12:10 PM EDT

Session 1: Introduction to Systems: Basic principles, April 17, 2009
Session 2: The Systems Zoo: Simple Examples of common systems, April 24, 2009
Session 3:, System Behavior: Surprises, traps, and opportunities, May 1, 2009
Session 4: Leverage Points: Places to intervene in a system, May 8, 2009

Presented by:
Chris Soderquist, Pontifex Consulting
Diana Wright, Sustainability Institute

Space is limited so register today. For more information visit http://www.iseesystems.com/Thinking or email support@iseesystems.com. Phone 603-448-4990 | Toll-Free 800-987-6758 | FAX 603-448-4992

Would you like an opportunity to practice creative team design?

Join OSR alumni and students for an information sharing session to explore opportunities to form a design team for the 2009 StoryWaves event during the November Pegasus Systems Thinking Conference in Seattle.

Members of the 2007 StoryWaves design team will share information on what is involved and how to get started. Larry West, alumni board member, is the sponsor of the 2009 event.

Two years ago, the Alumni Association created the StoryWaves evening during the Pegasus Seattle Conference. Design team members were alumni and current students. Below are some of their comments regarding this learning experience:

“In addition to working with a great bunch of people — exploring different design methods, which I absolutely loved — I also had two other benefits. First, I was able to have a hand in giving back something to a conference that I really love attending… Secondly, I got to introduce some new people to the Pegasus conference experience.” — OSR 11 graduate

“Whole systems learning embraces a balance of our minds, bodies and spirits. The experience of our StoryWaves design team prepared me as an incoming student through this wonderful and rewarding design experience.” — OSR 14 student

Design team forming for 2009 StoryWaves
Wednesday, April 22, 6–8 pm
Seattle University, Chardin Hall, Room 138
Reserve

What are you learning now? Part 3: agility to spirituality

OSR graduates responded to this question in our latest survey. Here is the third installment of the results.

“Agility and nimbleness — personal in my professional practice, academic in the way I design graduate course curriculum about designing and leading systemic organizational change, and professional in co-creating and co-designing with colleagues innovative approaches to sustained/embedded change within organizations, all sectors. We have to stay on our learning edges creating conditions for seeing possibility in these uncertain times. This is a time for agile creativity.”

Innovation — “Entrenched organizational leadership and personnel destroy innovation and innovative thinking. Without major changes in leadership and mandated structural change, designing systemic organizational change goes nowhere.”

Intuition — “How to surface my intuition and understand it well enough to communicate as something more than ‘Well, I just have a feeling that…’"

“Nuance and the ever constant reinforcement to stay open to the environment I am working on. OSR learnings are guidelines, not rules.”

Relationships — “I continue to learn about the intricacies of relationships and the dance we do, individually and in groups, and how that influences our internal and external environment.”

“Simplicity and singularity”

“Social construction: social reality formed through discourse”

Spirituality — “My work has focused on the spiritual facet of sustainability and living systems. I'm in an ongoing learning experience.”

Part 1: design, leadership, change
Part 2: complexity, connection, unique situations
Part 4: applying the learning