Category Archives: Meetings-2026

   You Can Steer Your AI Ship!!   

What We Humans Can & Cannot Do in the Age of AI  

Cannot Do:

• Ignore AI

Can Do:

• Learn how AI can help at an Individual, Team, Organizational, and Ecosystem Level.

AI is like fire:

• Fire can be constructively used to heat your water, cook your food, and heat your house.
• However, fire can also burn your house down, burn your town down, and burn the forest to ashes.

Can We Control AI?
Geoffry Hinton, the Godfather of AI and a 2024 Nobel Laureate in Physics, is uncertain if we will be able to control AI. (We will listen to his 10 December 2024 warning in our session.)

You Too Can Save a Day a Week in Productivity!
One recent study by the London School of Economics (LSE) says that people who use AI well save a day of productivity every week.

What will AI be for you?

Let’s explore the good, bad, ugly, and unknown about AI in our society and workplaces.

Please join us on February 12 and lend your voice to this important discussion!  We will all walk away better prepared to thrive in this fast-moving, chaotic, innovative world!!

Speaker:  Pete Sorenson, Strategic Organization Design   {see BIO below} 

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

Schedule for Thursday Evening February 12:  (CT)    
   –  6:45  Virtual setup and Networking
   –  7:00  Announcements / Intros  
   –  7:10  Program Begins  
   –  8:45  Closing and Wrap Up
   –  9:00  Program Ends

Zoom Link to join Virtual Meeting will be sent 2 days before meeting to all who register.

Speaker BIO:
           
Peter Jay Sorenson is a long-time organization development and organization design practitioner. He has been working in and around AI for the last couple of years and in and around technical innovation for over 50 years. He is curious and puzzled about AI and its impact on ourselves and our societies.

He is also the co-author, with Raghu Kowshik, of two books in the AI space:

• AI for the Ordinary: A Non-Technical Playbook for Citizens, Students, and Managers (forthcoming from Taylor and Francis – May 2026)
• Humane AI: The Covenant of Innovation (forthcoming from Taylor and Francis – September 2026)
• These are the first two books in a series curated and edited by Raghu Kowshik  .

  Belbin Team Roles – 

 a Dynamic Team Performance System 
     

Belbin Team Roles provides a research-based framework for understanding how value is created through interaction, not just individual effort. Rather than focusing on personality, Belbin reveals the behavioral functions a system needs in order to perform, adapt, and succeed.

By making visible the recurring patterns of contribution, coordination, and decision-making, Belbin helps teams see where energy flows, where it stalls, and what is missing in the system. Team Roles are not labels for people, but descriptions of the work that must be done to turn intent into results.

Whether designing high-performing teams, enabling leadership effectiveness, navigating tension, or strengthening inclusion, Belbin offers a shared language for aligning behavior with outcomes—so teams can intentionally shape how they work, not just what they do.

A complimentary Belbin Team Roles Assessment will be offered Pre or Post Session for all attendees.

Learning Objectives: 

• Explain the Belbin Team Roles framework and how it differs from personality-based models by focusing on contribution and behavior in context
• Identify the nine Belbin Team Roles and recognize how different roles add value
• Strengthen team effectiveness by:
• • Leveraging diversity of thinking and working styles in the context of a team system
  • Recognize overplayed strengths and allowable weaknesses
  • Create conditions where people feel valued for how they contribute and understand how to do so effectively.

Please join us on January 8 as we kick off the new year by learning about an interesting new tool, and perhaps discovering something about yourself!

Speakers:  DeeDee Smartt Lynch and Mike Lynch    (Smartt Strategies)      {see BIOs below} 

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

Schedule for Thursday Evening January 8:  (CT)    
   –  6:45  Virtual setup and Networking
   –  7:00  Announcements / Intros  
   –  7:10  Program Begins  
   –  8:45  Closing and Wrap Up
   –  9:00  Program Ends

Zoom Link to join Virtual Meeting will be sent 2 days before meeting to all who register.

Speaker BIOs:
           
DeeDee Smartt Lynch, President, Smartt Strategies –   
DeeDee Smartt Lynch is an international team development, training and coaching expert using the  Belbin Team Roles methodology with over 30 years of professional experience. As President of Smartt Strategies, she empowers individuals and teams to collaborate more effectively and achieve measurable results, leveraging her deep Belbin expertise. As a Certified Trainer for North America and the UK, DeeDee has delivered hundreds of Belbin trainings, co-authored the Belbin Chapter in The Handbook of Communication Training (Routledge, 2019), and presented at the 2024 Belbin International Conference in Cambridge, UK.

She has provided team coaching, training and executive coaching that includes extensive work with the U.S. Department of Defense and prominent organizations including Kite Pharma, USPS Managerial Leadership, SkinCeuticals (L’Oréal), Marriott Int’l., Marrietta College, Ohio University, Eli Lilly, Ingersoll Rand and many others. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Organizational Communications from the University of Texas at Austin.

Mike Lynch, Vice President of Operations –   
Mike Lynch brings 40 years of senior project management and design engineering experience in the nuclear industry. He has managed projects worldwide, including serving as VP Project Manager on a $2.4B project. A pioneer in applying Belbin Team Roles to optimize team performance, Mike has consistently transformed project teams into high-performing, cohesive, balanced units through data-driven approaches to interaction and collaboration.

Mike holds a B.Sc. in Applied Physics from Liverpool Polytechnic and an M.Sc. in Engineering Project Management from Lancaster University.  He co-authored the Belbin chapter in The Handbook of Communication Training (Routledge, 2019) and authored the Smartt Strategies Project Managers Handbook.