Third time's a charm: Alumni Board invites you

Thanks to your OSR Master’s degree, you’ve probably earned several “Plays Well With Others” awards and accolades from colleagues at work, family at home and friends at play.

Isn’t it time to try a third OSR design team experience?

The OSR Alumni Association is looking for graduates interested in serving on the Association’s Board of Directors.

Here’s a chance to hone your collaborative team-member skills while supporting the OSR graduate programs and community. Through your board service you’ll be able to create deep and meaningful relationships throughout the OSR community.

As a board member, you’ll sign-on for a two-year commitment that includes:

• Participating in monthly, two-hour board meetings held at Seattle University;
• Assisting with a full-day annual board retreat (usually late Spring or early Summer);
• Contributing to board initiatives that fit your expertise and interests;
• Volunteering at OSR events and activities — serving as ambassadors on behalf the OSR community-at-large.

Current board initiatives are:

• Lead, manage and market the Alumni Association
• Design and produce learning events
• Develop community relationships
• Collaborate with OSR graduate programs, the OSR-Northwest board and the Alumni Association
• Connect OSR alumni members
• Partner in building and sustaining OSR graduate programs

Sound interesting? More details are online at osr-nw.org/alumni/ or email alumni board co-chair Lucy Garrick at osr-alumni@osr-nw.org.

Lucy Garrick: Holding partnership conversations

At Lucy Garrick's April workshop on Creating Cultures of Peace, the guest speaker, Riane Eisler, stressed the importance of talking openly about gender relations. Afterward, some of the participants asked how to go about holding these conversations since gender issues tend to be so controversial.

Here is the result — an article Lucy co-authored with Riane. “Holding Partnership Conversations” provides an overview of Eisler's work and is currently published in the June issue of the Integral Leadership Review, an academic digest on leadership. Read the article.

Lucy is a graduate of OSR 12 and co-chairs the OSR Alumni Association Board. She invites you to post an idea for peace on the Million Ideas for Peace blog.

Greg Williamson: Improving achievement through student engagement

Young people can work with adults to create positive change in fundamentally different ways. Northwest Education, the magazine from the Northwest Regional Education Laboratory, describes projects in several states that show some of the results including work by OSR 13 grad, Greg Williamson.

In the current issue, Greg talks about the role of student engagement to improve learning.

Even a simple thing — such as like how a parents might talk to their student when the state assessment results come in the mail — can be a vehicle for student engagement. At Washington's Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) we asked students to write a guide for this conversation, and to help redesign the WASL (Washington Assessment of Student Learning) report card so students could explain it in their own language. All of these examples, and many more, become clear once we begin seeing students as partners, as resources, and as people who are learning ‘on the job.’ The results are useful products that help schools meet their improvement targets while helping students make ‘what we are asking you to learn’ relevant to their lives. Students can find a way to connect to their own strengths — especially if they don't think they have any — and teach one important thing to one other person. The feeling of success that comes from that is irrepressible.”

Read the full article.

Greg Williamson and students from Black Hills High School present a workshop on youth participation in change at the OSR Annual Conference, Saturday, June 28.

World Café comes to the Ukraine

On April 17, 2008, L’viv was the site for the very first World Café to be held in the country of Ukraine and hosted by Linda Knudsen McAusland (OSR 12) and Ihor Savchak.

Over 30 people attended to explore the issue: a cultural vision for L’viv. The conversation question was  "What does it mean to have a creative, dynamic cultural community?"

Linda writes, "This was my first experience working with dialogue and World Café outside the United States. It was reaffirming to see it work in ways I was familiar with back home — that steady increase in the volume/energy in the room and its positive tone that comes from engagement. It’s the energy that comes from people intrigued and excited by the experience of meeting new people, sharing ideas, being heard/listened to and in finding common ground — and it is palpable. You know you have done something constructive when folks don’t want to leave at the end of the Café, and they explicitly state they will be back for the next one. And that is what we need — they must come back for more. If they don’t return and talk with each other and with us, we can not engage in cultural planning that is rooted in community."

Read more about the project.

Andrea Leary: Understanding teacher collaboration

Andrea Leary (OSR 12) writes about teacher collaboration for sharing best practices in the current edition of Washington State Kappan, a journal for education research, leadership and practice. For her article, Andrea interviewed teachers and coaches across Western Washington and educators from best-practice research. Download the article, .pdf 128KB

Julia Lynden honored for staff revitalization

Julia Lynden (center) was honored at the 2007 Regional Employee Recognition Celebration on Thursday, May 15, at Lacey Community Center.

Julia Lynden, OSR 13 graduate and a manager at Washington state's Department of Social and Health Services, is recognized for revitalizing and energizing the staff in the Information Systems Service Division (ISSD) Help Desk unit. The unit members are bringing new ideas for their work each day. Showing their worth to other ISSD units, staff members garnered new appreciation and higher self esteem. Customer satisfaction has increased as a result.

OSR 13 classmate Greg Williamson exclaims, “I have been fortunate enough to watch Julia interact with her peers at the agency. They love her for all the reasons we do: the respect she brings to the people she works with; the care she gives to every task; the designer's eye that breathes life into her activities; and the delightful sense of humor she uses to nurture optimism in others.”

Three OSR grads are newly minted PhDs

Congratulations, Dr. Mary Kenney (OSR-9) for your doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute and your deep study of personal transformation.

Congratulations, Dr. Karyn Lazarus (OSR-7) for your doctorate in Transformative Learning and Change at California Institute of Integral Studies and your creative exploration of group transformation.

Congratulations, Dr. Kathy Kelly (OSR-6) for your doctorate in Transformative Learning and Change at California Institute of Integral Studies and your innovative research in Ireland on personal transformation.

OSR alumni planning public events

OSR alumni are busy planning public events this spring — including members of OSR Alumni Association designing our third Annual Conference for Saturday, June 28. Online reservations begin Monday, May 5.

Lucy Garrick (OSR-12) hosted A Million Ideas for Peace at Seattle Art Museum on Saturday, April 12.

Systems Thinking 101 workshops are offered in May in Olympia and Seattle, designed by Steve Byers (OSR-13), Nalani Linder (OSR-12) and Colleen Ponto (OSR-7, current OSR faculty). Registration deadline is Monday, April 28th.

Creating Gracious Space is a 3-day course hosted by Pat Hughes (OSR-8) and Dale Nienow, Executive Director of the Center for Ethical Leadership. Thu, May 29–Sat, May 31.

Systems thinking 101 workshop

Needing a refresher in systems thinking basics?
Want to get some practice identifying causal loop variables?
Feel rusty with the system archetypes and leverage points?

With this nine-hour course, you'll gain the competence and confidence to start using systems thinking in your organization. You'll reinforce your systems thinking skills so that you can better understand systemic problems, make effective decisions, lead meaningful change and design your preferred future.

Workshop content includes:

• How to identify when complex issues can be better understood through systems thinking
• Developing and using a systems thinking perspective / worldview
• The ways of a systems thinker
• How to use and construct causal loop diagrams
• How to use and identify system archetypes

Dates:
In Olympia: Mondays, 6-9 pm, May 5, 12 & 19
In Seattle: Tuesdays, 6-9 pm, May 6, 13 & 20

Special Introductory Price: $375 Includes three, 3-hour sessions and all materials

To register or for more information, contact one of the facilitators: Steve Byers (OSR-13), Nalani Linder (OSR-12) and Colleen Ponto (OSR-7, current OSR faculty). Registration deadline is Monday, April 28th.

Creating Gracious Space

A residential course, Thursday, May 29 through Saturday, May 31

Facilitated by
Dr. Dale Nienow, Executive Director of the Center for Ethical Leadership
Pat Hughes (OSR-8), primary author of Gracious Space: A Practical Guide for Working Better Together, now in its second edition.

Dale and Pat will share how Gracious Space helps leaders work with difficult issues, cross boundaries and transform the way people work together. Participants will come away able to design and lead processes to create and hold Gracious Space in their own communities and organizations.

IslandWood, one of the nation’s most innovative educational facilities, is an outdoor learning center, set in 225 beautiful acres, and just a 35-minute ferry ride from the downtown Seattle ferry dock.

Creating Gracious Space is limited to 30 participants. Fees include the cost of tuition, materials, two nights of double-occupancy lodging, and all meals and snacks. A limited number of single rooms are available.

Contact the Center for Ethical Leadership at +1-206-328-3020 for more information or register at www.ethicalleadership.org.

Speed dating for field advisors

Update your OSR account for a Degree Committee date

Interested in being Degree Committee field advisors for current OSR-14 Masters students? OSR alumni should do the following:

1. Make sure your OSR account preferences indicate your willingness to serve.
• Go to the  OSR Community page and log-in by providing your email address and your password (first name, unless you have changed your password).
• Click on Update My Info. On the right, under Preferences, make sure there is a “Yes” next to ”Willing to be on a Degree Committee?“ If not, click the Edit button next to Preferences and make the change.
• Click Save.
2. Provide your bio or resume on the Update My Info page under the Bio/Resume section at the bottom left of the page.
3. Upload a close-up picture of yourself in the upper-right hand corner. A .jpg file is preferred.
4. Go to Degree Committees page. Review the OSR 14 student "ads" for field advisors and respond to those for whom you think you would be a good match. Students will also be using the OSR Contacts search function to seek field advisors, so that is why the first three steps above are critical. When you send students an email expressing interest in serving as a field advisor, students can immediately check out your Update My Info page.
5. Register for Speed Dating on Sat, Jan 12. Designed by Brian Mason (OSR 8) and Claire Ricci (OSR 11), speed dating introduces students and advisors in a fun and efficient manner. Register immediately as there are only a couple of openings for alumni wishing to participate in this event. (If you are unable to attend, it will not preclude you from being a field advisor).

Alumns are getting your attention

Angie Dairou (OSR 12). Her article, Bringing Systemic Therapy to Corporate Executives (download pdf), was published in September in a Journal for Clinical Counselors in Canada. The September edition focused on therapy and the workplace. The article will also appear in a business journal in China, where Angie is doing an increasing amount of her work.

Emily Koft (OSR 13) shares her pictures from her summer fellowship in Ghana. more

Sandra Sault-Poulson (OSR 8). Co-founder of Sustainable Cascadia designed and executed a very successful Cascadia Convergence 2007 Conference October 26-27 featuring David Suzuki. Sandra is also presenting a workshop on this topic for the Pegasus Conference on the morning of November 5th.

Katharine Wismer (OSR 13). Her course Theory Paper for OSR 13 was one of two student papers selected for award and presentation at the OD Network Conference in Baltimore. Matt Minahan, Ed.D., wrote the following in his blog covering the conference:

“We're in the 7th year of the SPP, and had 27 papers submitted this year, from 19 different graduate programs, across three continents. And, boy, did we have some GREAT submissions! In the end, the two best papers were "An Exploration of Social Constructionism Theory," by Katharine Wismer of Seattle University's OD and Renewal Program, and "Don't Ask What Complexity Can Do for You, Ask What You Can Do for Complexity," by Barbara Christian of the Milano New School. And, as one of the readers, I want to tell you that these two papers were the best among a whole batch that were fabulous. It was great to see these two scholar/practitioners present their ideas and themselves, and engage with some of the best thinkers in the field, including Therese Yeager, and Jason Wolfe, and Marilyn Blair, and Bill Gellermann, and Mark Berns, and others. It's hard not to be wildly optimistic about the future of our field, given the talent of these scholar/practitioners!”

Kellee Franklin (OSR-14 faculty) and Suzanne Williams (OSR 13) presented "Embedding Governance and Control in a Decentralized Environment: Overcoming Potential Challenges through Understanding the Importance of the Human Element in Organizational Performance" at the 6th Annual International Society for Performance Improvement European Conference in Heidelberg, Germany held November 1-3, 2007. For additional information, download the conference brochure.