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Worcester Local Area Group
Next Worcester program meeting What: Three Levels of
Learning The September 10 Worcester meeting
will be "Three Levels of Learning". Participants will have
their choice of three discussion groups: "Mentoring," "Team
Building" and
"Organizational Learning". Those attending
each section will determine the focus of the discussion, while
benefiting from the expertise of the subject matter experts
facilitating. Following the small group sessions will be whole group
discussion on lessons learned, commonalities, and ideas for further
learning. This program is designed for those working in OD and
related fields, as well as those interested in issues generally
applicable to the world of work. Those attending will learn new
ideas, share experiences, thinking and interests, obtain
opportunities for further learning, be able to make connections, and
experience the power of Learning Group shared learning and
community. “Mentoring” will be facilitated by Polly
Silva. Polly is an independent consultant specializing in
organizational learning and development. She has been a business
lecturer at Albertus Magnus College, Eastern Connecticut State
University, Albertus Magnus University, and the University of
Hartford. Previously, she held management positions at MCI, Performance Engineering
Corporation, and the Arlington (Virginia) County government. She has
a Ph. D. in Adult Learning and Human Resource Management from
Virginia Technical University. Since joining the Learning Group in
January she has become active in the Worcester Local Area Group,
working on program meetings, membership, and the Worcester branch of
our Mentoring Program; she was the
winner of our August 2008 Member
Recognition Award. Possible topics for this section include mentoring
vs. coaching, individual vs. group mentoring, formal vs. informal
mentoring, characteristics of good mentoring programs – and
whatever you want to talk about. For the draft outline for
this section, click here. “Team Learning” will be facilitated by Debora
Bercume. Deborah is Principal of Bercume Associates, which
enables people and business to be their best. She has over twenty
years of experience working with professionals to achieve personal
and professional fulfillment. Her clients have included American Cancer Society,
Bertucci’s, Cambridge Health Alliance, Clariant Corporation,
Cutler Associates, EMC Corporation, Massachusetts Department of
Human Resources, Panera Bread, Parametric Technology, Southbridge
Savings Bank, Straumann Manufacturing, and Westborough Bank. She has
received certifications through the Institute of Professional
Empowerment Coaching as a Certified Executive & Leadership
Coach, a Master Core Energy Leadership Certified Coach, and a
Certified Coach Trainer.Deborah presented on “DiSC Indra”
at our August
2008 “Four Models for Conflict Resolution” program. Possible topics for this section include coaching for learning, action learning, kaizen, challenges to successful team learning – and whatever you want to talk about. For the draft outline for this section, click here. “Organizational Learning” will be facilitated by Hugh
McGill. Hugh is Process Evaluation Coach at AstraZeneca and
Principal of HVM
Consulting. He has over twenty-five years experience in
organizational understanding; his business experience started on the
production line and grew to supervisory and management
responsibilities. He teaches in the leadership graduate programs at
Northeastern University and Cambridge College and sees himself as a
guide and a catalyst to help individuals reflect on their
experiences and to use that knowledge towards their own personal
growth. His
accomplishments include implementing successful production
operations in both start-up and established companies, designing and
implementing organizational restructuring, ISO 9000 implementation
and change management, and guiding individuals and teams to
sustainable productivity and holding held human resource and
manufacturing leadership positions in private, public and
employee-owned companies. A former member of our Coordinating
Committee, Hugh co-facilitated the section on “Conflict
Resolution” at our March 2004
“Communities of Practice” meeting. Possible topics for this section include learning organization, communities of practice, action learning – and whatever you want to talk about. For the draft outline for this section, click here. - - - We will have notes on the August 7 "Careers and Work" Worcester meeting posted here soon. - - - Meeting notes for June 3, 2008 The June 3 Worcester meeting features Paul Kampas of Kampas Research on "A Visual Language and Framework for Organization Diagnosis and Design". We learned a new methodology for understanding organizations and change management, as well as for examining the place of OD inside organizations. For the presentation piece, click here. Notes soon! - - - Meeting Notes for April 3, 2008 Our April 3 meeting was "Shared Learning in Three Areas of OD". Participants has their choice of small group discussion on one of three topics: "Culture Change" (facilitated by Anne Perschel of Germane Consulting), "Leadership Development" (facilitated by Dan Nicholes of the Center for Business and Industry at Worcester State College, and "Team Building" (facilitated by Leslie Zobler of Fallon Clinic). Following these was a whole group session on lessons learned and ideas for follow up. We will notes and documents posted soon. Meeting Notes for January 10, 2008 Our January 10 meeting was on "Dialogue". It was facilitated by Jim Murphy, a member of our Coordinating Committee and the Chief Learning Officer of Management 2008. We will have notes and documents posted soon. Meeting Notes for November 27, 2007 Virginia Swain led the November 27 meeting on "Why Mission Statements Matter". Co-founder of the Worcester Local Area Group, Virginia is CEO and Director of the Institute for Global Leadership. Participants received an overview of and experiential learning on the mission statement process and how it helps us dig below the surface of our lives and refocus on our core values and principles. Virginia began by asking why those attending had come. Some of the answers were as follows:
Virginia then cited two of her influences in her work on mission issues:
Virginia's chief interest has been the question "Why am I here?" She notes that there are three categories of people, based on they feel about that: traditionalists, modernists, and cultural creatives. It is with the third of these that her work is most focused on. Cultural creatives are people who are in service to others. Mission statements, which provide goals, objectives and action steps are a great aid to them. Virginia then gave us an exercise: to write down one word that best describes you. A way to see what our mission should be! We
then considered the first handout, "The Seven Stages of
Transition". Based on Life
Changes, by Sabrina Spencer and John Adams, this model can
be applied to individuals or organizations. The seven steps, which
lead to a new vision, are as follows:
The different stage of this transition cycle requires different styles of leadership, as shown in the second handout, "Personal/Institutional/National/Global Life Cycle Model". Adapted by Virginia from the life cycle model of Arlin Rothauge, this identifies the following needs:
Virginia described the role of celebrations at the different steps, an idea she developed from work she did at the United Nations. A ceremony she arranged was so moving that it "converted" an opponent of the change effort. Techniques for gaining insight and self-awareness help us to determine our mission. But we also need to plan how to create our vision into action. The underlying questions are "What am I? and "Why I am I here?" We then did an exercise in pairs, each person choosing a defining life moment (possibly not recognized as such at the time) and telling the other about it. The listener then told their reaction and understanding - and we all found that this "feedback" made us realize things that we had not understood before. In analyzing what it was like to listen to the other person's story, we found that the experience felt meaningful and challenging. The feedback added to our mental model and was a "gift". Knowing who you are enable you to help others find out who they are. Virginia asked us to consider our idea of ourselves: how it relates to what we were in the past, are in the present and will be in the future. Our mission statement tells us what has to happen for that future to be realized. In conclusion, she asked to reflect on our feedback impacted our understanding of our life purpose. In reviewing the meeting, those participating found it to be give valuable insight and learning. For more in Virginia's work on personal and organizational mission, see the 2008 IGL event listing and her article "Mission "Possible". The Worcester October 17 meeting featured Leslie Zobler, Leadership and Organizational Development Specialist, Fallon Clinic, on "A Day in the Life of a Shadow Coach". Leslie described innovation in customer feedback at Fallon and how it is an example of a large-scale organizational change. A particular highlight of the Fallon system is the "shadowing" of health care workers (doctors, nurses, and other staff) for one whole day. Two persons watch and record all interactions of the care provider with each patient. Data is also collected from patients via a survey. The shadow data template emphasizes the Fallon organizational standards for customer service. These in turn are based on best practice recommendations derived from research emphasizing that success in health care delivery is very dependent on how the patient perceives the doctor and other providers. The shadowers thus act as the "eyes of the patient". It was noted that the patient is otherwise always with only one other person (e.g., doctor or nurse) so that this is only way that accurate information on these interactions can obtained. Feedback is given from the compiled reports to staff. At first, it was feared that those receiving these might be defensive or unreceptive, and efforts is made to make sure that the positive aims of this process are emphasized. But in fact even those getting those most negative feedback have proved to be aware of the value of being able to see themselves as others see them. The process has thus led to change by providers and their supervisor, in clinic procedures, in the organizational culture, and in the data collection process itself. In addition, those attending were able to provide comments and suggestions that Leslie felt would be valuable for Fallon to consider. The program thus illustrated the Learning Group as a community for shared learning. Leslie also asked us to consider some other organizational settings in which such shadowing would be valuate. The following list was thus obtained:
For
Leslie's presentation piece, click
here! Meeting Notes for August 1 Our August 1 presenter was Gary Segal, featured Gary Segal, Senior Director, Staffing and Development, Fallon Clinic on “Personal Transformation”. Gary explained that his presentation was a shortened version of a two and half day residential program based on the classic workshops of NTL. Considerable psychological research indicates that our basic personalities, belief systems, and values are former between the ages of eight and twelve. However, significant emotional events can alter these traits. Gary explained this process by describing some of events that influence his life . He then led us through exercise in which we considered and discussed our life histories in small groups, paying attention to the time period in which we were eight to twelve. In particular we examined the following and how they affected our personality:
We also discussed significant events since that period and how they affected us. Overall, these are what determines how we see the world. Gary also walked us through some of the other parts of these transformation workshops, including the following:
Gary noted that these exercises are "not for the faint of heart". Going though them requires honesty and courage and may raise privacy or boundary issues. For Gary's masterly PowerPoint presentation piece, click here. Warning: You may wish to download before viewing, as the file is so large as to take a long time to access. Meeting notes for June 19 The
theme of this meeting at Worcester
State College, facilitated by Mike Halperin and Virginia Swain,
was "Our Passions and OD". The pre-meeting recommended
reading for the session was Michael
Doyle's highly prescient 1986
article "Now is the Time for All Good OD Practitioners to Come
to the Aid of Breaking into small groups, those attending discussed the following questions:
We then reported on our discussions to the whole group. On passions, some of the answers that were given were as follows:
In relating passions to OD, the following some connections that were were noted were these:
On connecting our passions to the levels noted in the Doyle article, some observations were as follows:
As to the skills needed to operationalize our passions, suggestions included these:
In reviewing the meeting, there was agreement that it was a good learning experience. The hope was expressed that members can help the group to continue and to grow. Meeting notes for May 9 The May 9 meeting, hosted by Fallon Clinic in Worcester, featured a World Cafe format, conducted by Mike and Virginia, for discussion on the issue of change. The first question was, "What drew you here and what would you like to get out of this meeting?" Answers were as follows:
In the second round the question was "What are the conditions that will increase your personal receptivity to change?" Response were as follows:
The next question was, "Given the conditions that influence your personal receptivity to change, how can you maximize the success for organizational change?" These responses were given:
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