Organization Development Network

Frances Baldwin on The Art of Engagement…Taking Transformative Simplicity to Scale. An experienced educator, researcher and consultant, Frances puts forward the idea that around the world groups, corporations, nonprofits, government, community organizations and educational institutions are enthusiastically engaged in face-to-face conversations resulting in breakthrough outcomes around critical strategic issues. She asks: What are the principles behind these generative and transformative approaches? How is collective exploration at these deeper dimensions shifting our perspectives and leveraging our presence? OD practitioners are the natural edge-walkers in an increasingly virtual world; her presentation is a call for continuously invigorating the applied behavioral sciences.

M. Frances Baldwin, Ed.D., is President of DesignedWisdom, Inc. For more than 35 years she has provided corporate leaders and other stakeholders with the core concepts, strategies and tools for guiding their personal, team and organizational change initiatives.

Ori Brafman on The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations. Based on ground-breaking research, the author of The Starfish and the Spider and Sway starts with the idea that if you cut off a spider’s head, it dies; if you cut off a starfish’s leg it grows a new one, and that leg can grow into an entirely new starfish. Traditional top-down organizations are like spiders, but today starfish organizations are changing the face of business and the world. You’ll hear about the hidden power behind the success of Wikipedia, craigslist, and Skype; what eBay and General Electric have in common with the abolitionist and women’s rights movements; what fundamental choice put General Motors and Toyota on vastly different paths—and what happens when starfish take on spiders. Ori Brafman and co-author Rod Beckstrom have discovered some unexpected answers, gripping stories, and a tapestry of unlikely connections.

Pamela Hartigan on Combining Markets and Meaning—Why Social Entrepreneurship is More than a Passing Trend. Pamela is the Managing Director of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship and the co-author of The Power of Unreasonable People: How Entrepreneurs Create Markets that Change the World—“required reading” at this year’s World Economic Forum. She’ll share how social entrepreneurship captures the imagination as a way of combining innovative solutions to social and environmental challenges with sustainable sources of revenue...and why it is a strong draw for individuals looking to be part of organizations that are fundamentally innovative, morally compelling and philosophically positive. She explores social entrepreneurship as it is evolving around the world and the key challenges it currently faces.

Dr. Hartigan is a graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, holds Masters in both International Economics and in Education and a PhD in Cognitive Psychology.

Patricia Shafer on WHOLE WORK(sm)—An E-vergence of Global Views. An expert on global leadership, Patricia asks whether managers around the world might share the same aspirations. Patricia’s forthcoming book, Whole Work: Developing Tomorrow’s Truly Global Leaders, is derived from research within multinationals on five continents. Her presentation will prompt you to re-think 21st century definitions of best organizations, best change practices, and best leaders.

Patricia Shafer is President of Compel Ltd., dedicated to Evoking.Courageous.LeadershipSM and co-founder of The Change Leaders, an international consulting and coaching network. She holds an MSc., Consulting and Coaching for Change, Oxford University, UK, and HEC, France; MBA, Northwestern University (Kellogg); and MA, Journalism, The Ohio State University.

If thought guides action, then our explicit and implicit theories shape what we see and do as OD practitioners. Join consultant, scholar, and author Bob Marshak for a wide-ranging discussion of why, as Kurt Lewin once said, "There is nothing so practical as a good theory."

Arvind Singhal will engage you in creating, listening to, and telling purposeful stories to support organizational and cultural change. His projects range from soap operas designed to transform attitudes about HIV AIDS in Africa to stories to support transformative change in U.S. corporations.

Organizational theorist Reuben McDaniel discusses how sensemaking, learning, and improvisation become primary tasks when managers recognize that organizations are complex adaptive systems.

Cathy Royal shares her observations on the global impact of skin color bias, economics, gender, age, and education on the U.S. and emerging nations. Dr Royal explores the effect of the coming election and of race and gender on social justice, inclusion, and organization development.

What does it take to bring together diverse stakeholders, sort out an array of values, priorities, and interests, and build a shared vision for addressing historically divisive challenges? Leaders of Envision Central Texas, a catalyst for change in the region’s growth management, share key lessons from this effort.