Psychological Safety in a Time of Mandatory Remote Work  

  
We need a feeling of Psychological Safety to speak up. Especially when a team is dealing with complex, high consequence issues.

Psychological Safety is usually achieved through in-person, interpersonal interaction that creates relationships of trust.

But how do we build relationships that develop and sustain Psychological Safety when team members cannot be together face-to-face in our pandemic-driven, remote, virtual working environment?

We will puzzle together about these issues and on building relationships of trust characterized by Psychological Safety in this paradoxical Zoom virtual session.

Please join us online on May 14 to discuss our various approaches to this timely challenge!

Facilitators:  Pete Sorenson, Strategic Organization Design  and  Nancy Dixon, Common Knowledge Associates

Schedule for Thursday Evening:
–  6:45  Begin virtual setup / Networking
–  7:15  Announcements / Program
–  8:45  Closing and evaluation 

Zoom Link to Join Virtual Meeting will be sent to all who register.

 
Facilitator BIOs: 

Peter Jay Sorenson, CMC®  is an independent strategic organization design and change management consultant, coach, social entrepreneur, university instructor, and ethicist.  His professional focus is to collaborate on and discover and create the next generation of organization design technology that can match the speed of change and disruption in this volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous, (VUCA) digitally fueled world. (And on developing the next generation of organization designers that will make this world work from a values, effectiveness, and efficiency points of view.)

Personally his focus has been on using innovation to create economic and social self-reliance for individuals, families, and organizations in both the developing and developed world.

Nancy Dixon, PhD, is founder of Common Knowledge Associates and is a thought leader in the field of Knowledge Management.  Her recent research and consulting has focused on increasing the engagement and productivity of remote teams. She has written eight books as well as over 50 articles that focus on how organizations learn.  Her latest thinking is on her blog, “Conversation Matters” at www.nancydixonblog.com.

Her consulting firm conducts in-depth assessments of knowledge sharing efforts within organizations, e.g. how people are collaborating, sharing knowledge, and making use of lessons learned. Dr. Dixon is a former tenured Professor of Administrative Sciences at The George Washington University, and served on The University of Texas Human Resource Development Graduate Faculty. Her book Common Knowledge was selected in 2010 as one of the best 100 business books.

The Brain Science Behind Positive & Negative Workforce Communications 

  
Do you ever wonder why people say you should not complain?  Do you know someone who is so critical that no one wants to interact with them?  Do you know someone who is so prejudiced that they simply cannot work with a particular coworker?  Well, believe it or not, these three behaviors are related, and they all have one thing in common: they damage the human brain. Conversely, positive communication, such as praise, is good for the brain.

When these negative forms of communication become the “elephant in the room”, they can cause huge hidden costs, because little is done to track their occurrence, and often little is done in response to them – mainly because managers don’t always know how to deal with them.  And the most overlooked way to make employees happy – positive communication is often ignored or overlooked.

Please join us online on April 9 to discuss these inspiring ideas!

Speaker:  Victoria Brown, Brown Innovation Consulting

Schedule for Thursday Evening:
–  6:45  Begin virtual setup / Networking
–  7:15  Announcements / Program
–  8:45  Closing and evaluation 

Zoom link to Join Virtual Meeting will be sent to all who register.

Speaker BIO: 

Victoria Brown has worked for many years as an SAP consultant on very large ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) implementations.  She has a BS degree from UT Arlington in Mathematics and Computer Science, and an Executive MBA and Masters of Human Resource Management from the American Graduate School of Management.

She currently works with businesses to seek innovative ways to increase profitability by using their ERP systems to track not Key Performance Indicators, but Key Predictive Indicators, which helps the business to understand where their next innovation should take place.  She loves studying languages, speaks English and Spanish fluently, knows French, German, and has recently added Hebrew to the stack.  She loves cats and volunteers to help kitties get adjusted to new environments while they are being sold.

 Culture-Shaping Tools:
Better OD with Assessments  

UPDATE:  Sorry for the late notice but University of Dallas has just closed its campus to outside events due to health concerns.  So do not come to UD!    This meeting will now be VIRTUAL. 

If you haven’t registered and would like to attend virtually please go ahead and register!  

On Thursday we will send an update to everyone who has registered with the details on how to attend and the meeting link.   Thanks for your patience!!  

Note: We’re excited to add a third expert on assessments to this month’s program – Dr. Nila Sinha.
     
There’s a wide range of assessments at the individual, team and organization level that can enhance the practice of OD. Today there are so many choices of assessment tools that it can feel overwhelming to choose the most appropriate ones. The wrong tool, or even a good tool poorly applied, can be harmful to good practice and to those who are assessed. Good tools, applied properly, can help shape the culture of an organization!

Our March 2020 meeting will feature three OD practitioners — Chris Price, Brandon Jordan, and Nila Sinha — who are skilled and experienced with assessments and will help guide us to better practice. The session will include time for each of us to share favorite tools we’ve used in the various categories (Individual, Team, Organization, and others) as well as practical tips on choosing tools if you’re looking for something new. This includes the decision to “build or buy” an assessment, how to configure it when you have options, and implementation best practices and watch-outs.

Please plan to join us at UD on March 12th, and bring examples of assessments you currently use as well as your questions about picking the right tool and implementing it properly. This should be a lively and informative session!

Speakers:  Chris Price, Price Leadership Group,  Brandon Jordan, Workforce Lifecycle Analysis,  and  Nila Sinha,  Sinha Solutions, Inc.

Schedule for Thursday Evening:
–  6:30  Networking / Food / Intros 
–  7:00  Announcements / Program
–  8:45  Closing and evaluation 

Meeting Location:  University of Dallas – SB Hall, Serafy Special Events Room *    TBD
  Campus: 1845 East Northgate Drive,    Irving, TX 75062     (972-721-5000)

Cost:   No charge for members ($60/year).  $10 for guests.

 
Speaker BIOs: 

Chris Price, Price Leadership Group:    Under the tagline We Make People & Culture Simple, Chris Price works with organizations to improve results in Productivity, Innovation, and Financial Performance. Chris has led and coached teams and leaders (and ran corporate OD Practices) in North America, Europe, Russia, and Asia. Chris launched Price Leadership Group a decade ago to help organizations Make Great People Decisions and Engage People as Partners — with professional-level Assessments & Systems for Individuals / Teams / Organizations.

Chris is certified in numerous tools and systems proven to improve the critical business areas of Hiring, Development, Coaching, and Talent Planning, with direct experience implementing in over 20 countries.  Since 2001 Chris has been a faculty member at the Global Institute for Leadership Development (GILD).  He is also a Professional Member of the National Speakers Association (NSA) and a Past President of the North Texas NSA Chapter.

Brandon Jordan, Workforce Lifecycle Analytics:    Brandon partners with clients primarily to design and implement enterprise talent management, employee listening strategies, and programs for organization development. With over fifteen years of continuous work in talent management and organization development, Brandon founded Workforce Lifecycle Analytics. Prior to launching WLA, Brandon worked for Willis Towers Watson, IBM, Kenexa, and Batrus Hollweg International.

Brandon completed his graduate training at the University of Tulsa where he received his M.A. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology.  He earned his B.A. in Psychology from the University of North Texas. Brandon is also a member of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP), Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), and DallasHR, as well as an active researcher and speaker in the academic and scientific community. For more information about Brandon and his work, see: https://workforcelifecycle.com/

Nila Sinha, PhD, Sinha Solutions, Inc.: As founder and principal of Sinha Solutions, Nila leverages 20 years of experience in talent selection and leadership development. Her areas of specialization include competency-based hiring and development programs, psychological assessment, test validation, and employee development. In her career as Senior Director at OutMatch, she worked with clients in the design and validation of customized selection systems and leadership development programs. She has adapted assessment tools and conducted certification training for businesses across the international marketplace including Indonesia, Korea, India, and China.

Nila’s focus through Sinha Solutions remains with high touch consulting from a scientist-practitioner perspective and identifying core issues and maintaining a “solutions focus” with an emphasis on measuring outcomes that positively affect organizational results.  Nila completed her doctorate at Florida International University in Industrial/Organizational Psychology.  She is certified in numerous assessments including the Hogan instruments, Emergenetics, as well as the Assess and OutMatch suite of tools.

Establishing a Successful OD Practice:
The Secret Sauce!   

Schedule for Thursday Evening:
–  6:30  Networking / Food / Intros 
–  7:00  Announcements / Program
–  8:45  Closing and evaluation 

Meeting Location:  

University of Dallas – SB Hall, Serafy Special Events Room *
   Campus: 1845 East Northgate Drive,    Irving, TX 75062     (972-721-5000)

Panelist BIOs:   

Steve Maffei  –  VP, Organizational Effectiveness & Patient Experience at Methodist Health System.  Steve has held several leadership positions at large scale for profit organizations such as Ford Motor Credit Company and GE Capital.  For the past 10 years he has also been involved in the not for profit world of health systems.

Aliya Khan  –  Director, Talent Management at Ericsson.  Aliya has extensive Fortune 500 cross-industry and consulting experience in the talent management, learning & development, diversity & inclusion, leadership and change management. She has worked at large global organizations such as PepsiCo, Chevron and Accenture..

Trevor Spunt  –  Founder, Soarington – a consultancy that provides expertise in Change Management, Executive Coaching, Leadership & Team Development.  Prior to Soarington, Trevor worked at IBM and established a successful change management practice helping Fortune 500 clients build organizational effectiveness capabilities.

Thomas Rajan  –  Managing Director, Global Talent Strategy and People Development at American Airlines. Previously Thomas has held internal operations as well as business consulting positions within the airline industry. This rich hands-on business experience enables him to bring a unique inside out perspective into the talent management space.

Moderator:   Pallavi Ridout, Founder & CEO of The ELM Advisory Group – providing Executive Coaching, Facilitation, Leadership & Team development solutions. Pallavi has 20+ years of experience in HR Talent Management as well as Organizational Development, and has held leadership positions with global organizations such as Warner Bros. and ICANN.

Hindsight-Foresight-Insight-Action:
Shaping Our Future with Optimism in a Digital Age   

Schedule for Thursday Evening:
–  6:30  Networking / Food / Intros 
–  7:00  Announcements / Program
–  8:45  Closing and evaluation 

Meeting Location:  

University of Dallas – SB Hall, Serafy Special Events Room *
   Campus: 1845 East Northgate Drive,    Irving, TX 75062     (972-721-5000)

Speaker BIO:  Peter Jay Sorenson, CMC®

We currently live in a digitally fueled, volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous, (VUCA) world of organizations.

Pete’s focus is to collaborate on, discover, and create the next generation of organization design technology that can match the speed of change and disruption we are experiencing.

He is also focused on developing the next generation of organization designers that will make this world work from a values, effectiveness, and efficiency point of view.

He is known for his ability to see the big picture, make sense of messes, and lead teams to resolve complex issues.  He relates well to people from all stations of life, speaks frankly, and has a practical eye for getting things done.

He currently serves as the President of the Socio-Technical Systems Roundtable Stewards Team and is an Adjunct Lecturer of Engineering in the Lyle School of Engineering at Southern Methodist University.

In his consulting Pete’s clients come from the High Tech, Healthcare, Energy, Government, and Not-for-Profit Sectors. He has also been deeply involved in humanitarian initiatives in the developing world that focus on entrepreneurship and microfinance.

Annual Networking/Social Meeting
and “Gold Elephant Book Exchange”

Meeting Goals:
 – Connect: get to know one another better – personally & professionally
  – Learn: share knowledge informally during the book exchange
  – Enjoy: fellowship + creative responses (and humor) of the game

Please bring a gift-wrapped book that is meaningful to you — perhaps a book from your own library to ‘pay it forward’ or one from a second hand bookstore. Don’t spend a lot of money – it’s the thought that counts!

The game will be similar to a traditional white elephant gift exchange — each person in turn will unwrap a book or ‘steal’ one that someone else has already opened. Unlike ‘white elephants’ (which are often useless), the books are ‘gold elephants’ that will contain some unique nuggets of wisdom when opened (or stolen) by the right recipient! Discovering those golden nuggets will be part of the game as people talk about the books they give (and the ones they get)!

Handout/Procedure for the ‘Gold Elephant Book Exchange’

Presenter / Facilitator: Jim Jameson

(Please join our LinkedIn Group if you haven’t yet done so, and comment on the discussions.)

Schedule for Thursday Evening:
–  6:30  Intros / Networking / Food
–  7:00  Announcements / Program
–  8:45  Closing and evaluation

Meeting Location:  

University of Dallas – SB Hall, Serafy Special Events Room *
   Campus: 1845 East Northgate Drive,    Irving, TX 75062     (972-721-5000)

Cost:   No charge for members ($60/year).  $10 for guests.

Facilitator BIO:      
Jim Jameson is currently “semi-retired” from his various consulting roles and is exploring new avenues.  His professional mission has been to improve the success rate of technology adoption projects, working mainly in the areas of Business Analysis, Change Management, Collaboration, and Knowledge Management.  He believes that focusing on the people side of technology change is the key to improving ROI on transformational ‘IT solutions’.

Jim earned an MS degree in Information Systems and post-grad certificate in Knowledge Management, both from George Washington University in DC.

Programming & Brainstorming for 2020!  

(Please join our LinkedIn Group if you haven’t yet done so, and comment on the discussions.)  

Schedule for Thursday Evening:
–  6:00  Pre-meeting  (for org improvement)
–  7:00  Networking / Food / Intros
–  7:15   Announcements / Program
–  8:45  Closing and evaluation 

Meeting Location:  

University of Dallas – SB Hall, Serafy Special Events Room *
   Campus: 1845 East Northgate Drive,    Irving, TX 75062     (972-721-5000)

Facilitator BIO:

Logan Renfrow is a global corporate development professional with strong entrepreneurial leadership skills and the proven ability to develop and apply strategic insight. He spent five years in China and Singapore successfully managing organizational change and growth initiatives for an international manufacturer of electrical power systems for the shipbuilding and oil and gas industries.

Logan is currently working for a Dallas-based firm providing cross-cultural training programs where he develops the material for individual and group sessions, oversees the company’s global network of trainers, and advises clients on Chinese business culture. He received his undergraduate degree from Texas A&M University and completed his master’s degree in Organizational Leadership at Gonzaga University.

OD SOUND BITES
(TEDx-Style Presentations)   

Schedule for Thursday Evening:
–  6:30  Networking / Food / Intros 
–  7:00  Announcements / Program
–  8:45  Closing and evaluation 

Meeting Location:  

University of Dallas – SB Hall, Serafy Special Events Room *
   Campus: 1845 East Northgate Drive,    Irving, TX 75062     (972-721-5000)

BIOs:  

Pallavi Ridout is an Executive Coach, facilitator, speaker and OD consultant.  For the past 16 years she has worked in leadership roles within the OD and Talent Management functions for global organizations. During this time she coached several hundred executives and helped employees and teams perform at their peak at organizations such as ICANN and Warner Bros. She is currently writing a book inspired by her life changing decision to embark on a journey of “living a life without regret”.  On this journey she decided to quit her successful corporate career to prioritize family, pursue her passion for motivational speaking, and inspire others.

Peter Jay Sorenson, CMC®  is an independent strategic organization design and change management consultant, coach, social entrepreneur, university instructor, and ethicist.  His professional focus is to collaborate on and discover and create the next generation of organization design technology that can match the speed of change and disruption in this volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous, (VUCA) digitally fueled world. (And on developing the next generation of organization designers that will make this world work from a values, effectiveness, and efficiency points of view.)   Personally his focus has been on using innovation to create economic and social self-reliance for individuals, families, and organizations in both the developing and developed world.

Dr. Ben Dilla is a business professor at the University of Dallas and an executive coach, trainer, and consultant through his own company, Bold Leader Development. His career as an Industrial & Organizational Psychologist included working as a behavioral scientist in the US Air Force, as a leadership development consultant for Personnel Decisions International (PDI, now Korn Ferry), and in OD & Training leadership roles for several companies in the DFW area. As a coach, he often works with accomplished technical professionals who want to develop and improve their leadership and influence skills, which led him to promote a strengths-based approach to the skills of Emotional Intelligence.

Lara Azcona, MBA is a Prosci certified change practitioner.  She has implemented change management across global organizations including technology and organizational changes at National Semiconductor and process change at Ernst & Young.  Strengthened by her experience in the educational field her goal is to make necessary change in the workplace an exciting prospect rather than a dreaded reality.

Jim Jameson is a semi-retired Consultant.  His work is mainly in the areas of Change Management, Collaboration, KM, and Communications. He believes that focusing on the people side of technology change is the key to improving ROI on transformational ‘IT solutions’.  Before focusing on OD Jim’s original background was in Engineering and Information Technology, mostly in the Oil & Gas industry.

Joel Bennett, Ph.D., is president of Organizational Wellness and Learning Systems (OWLS), a consulting firm that specializes in evidence-based wellness, resilience, mental well-being, and catalyzing healthy work cultures from the inside out.  He first delivered stress-management programming in 1985, and OWLS programs have since reached close to 250,000 workers across the United States and abroad.  Dr. Bennett is the author of over 30 peer-reviewed research articles, and he has authored/ co-authored five books.

Moderator:  Nancy Dixon is a thought leader in the field of Knowledge Management.  Her recent research and consulting has focused on increasing the engagement and productivity of remote teams. She has written eight books as well as over 50 articles that focus on how organizations learn.  Her latest thinking is on her blog, “Conversation Matters” at www.nancydixonblog.com.

Embrace Strengths to Make an Impact    

Schedule for Thursday Evening:
–  6:30  Networking / Food / Intros 
–  7:00  Announcements / Program
–  8:45  Closing and evaluation 

Meeting Location:  

University of Dallas – SB Hall, Serafy Special Events Room *
   Campus: 1845 East Northgate Drive,    Irving, TX 75062     (972-721-5000)

Speaker BIO: Brandy Schade     

Brandy Schade is a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach who has coached 1000+ professionals and facilitated 70+ workshops across industries, within 15+ business units and in 15+ countries.

You can find her Gallup coaching profile here: Brandy Schade  –  Or connect with Brandy on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandyschade/.

Goal:  An evening full of personal and professional development and growth!

We Suck at Designing & Changing Organizations!
Can Design Thinking Help Us Do Better? 

Schedule for Thursday Evening:
–  6:30  Networking / Food / Intros 
–  7:00  Announcements / Program
–  8:45  Closing and evaluation 

Meeting Location:  

University of Dallas – SB Hall, Serafy Special Events Room *
   Campus: 1845 East Northgate Drive,    Irving, TX 75062     (972-721-5000)

Speaker BIO: Peter Jay Sorenson, CMC®   strategicorganizationdesign.com 

We currently live in a digitally fueled, volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous, (VUCA) world of organizations.

Pete’s focus is to collaborate on, discover, and create the next generation of organization design technology that can match the speed of change and disruption we are experiencing.

He is also focused on developing the next generation of organization designers that will make this world work from a values, effectiveness, and efficiency point of view.

He is known for his ability to see the big picture, make sense of messes, and lead teams to resolve complex issues.  He relates well to people from all stations of life, speaks frankly, and has a practical eye for getting things done.

He currently serves as the President of the Socio-Technical Systems Roundtable Stewards Team and is an Adjunct Lecturer of Engineering in the Lyle School of Engineering at Southern Methodist University.

In his consulting Pete’s clients come from the High Tech, Healthcare, Energy, Government, and Not-for-Profit Sectors. He has also been deeply involved in humanitarian initiatives in the developing world that focus on entrepreneurship and microfinance.