Events.

Mar
27

Regional OD Partnership Series -You Are What You Practice: Use of Self and Self Mastery

CBODN Learning Series - You Are What You Practice: Use of Self and Self Mastery

We are proud to formally announce programming partnerships with our sibling regional OD networks: the Pacific Northwest Organization Development Network (PNODN) and the Chesapeake Bay Organization Development Network (CBODN).

Moving forward, you’ll see events labeled, Regional OD Partner Series in our newsletters and on our events page. You can register for these programs directly through MNODN. That means if you’re an MNODN member, you can attend Regional OD Partner Series programs without paying a non-member fee to the hosting partner network. You can attend these programs as you would our very own!

You Are What You Practice: Use of Self and Self Mastery

Is your practice what you preach and teach?

In this session, participants will experiment with undoing lies and seeking transformation. These two skills are essential to the practice of OD. We will use techniques and tools developed by the GestaltOSD Center. They are part of an integrative perspective called Heartfulness Organization & Systems Development.

Desired Outcomes: Heightened Awareness of your answers to:

  1. What is OD?

  2. What is your Practice?

  3. What is your answer to the three fundamental questions of life?

  4. What is your one-minute OD introduction of yourself?

    Register today

John D. Carter is an internationally prominent organizational consultant and innovative educator. He has led and designed some of the most creative and innovative organizational change efforts in the field of Organization Development. Currently President of the Gestalt Center for Organization & Systems Development (OSD), John has served the fields of OD and Gestalt OSD for over 40 years as founder and CEO of John D. Carter & Associates, and as an esteemed faculty member of several educational institutions (e.g., Gestalt Institute of Cleveland [GIC], Saybrook Institute, Benedictine University, Columbia University, Union Graduate School, and  Case Western Reserve University [CWRU]). He has served as an Executive Board or Trustee member of many leading organizations involved with OD (e.g., GIC, Gestalt International Study Center, National Training Laboratories [NTL], Fielding Graduate University, and ODN), and is an Emeritus member of NTL. John earned his Ph.D. from CWRU’s renowned Organizational Behavior program; he is a Kappa Alpha Psi and Alpha Phi Omega lifetime member. As an independent consultant, John has worked with over 40 leaders of major domestic and international organizations. He is a co-founder and developer of ground-breaking training programs in OSD at GIC, where he began as a student in the 1960s and went on to serve as a faculty member, CEO, Director of Corporate Training, Program and Finance Director, Dean of Faculty, and OSD Center Head. He is a GIC Distinguished Honorary Fellow. John has been honored by the Organization Development Network (ODN) and the   Gestalt Organization & Systems Development Center (GOSD) with their Lifetime Achievement Award. Throughout his career, John has continually developed a spiritual dimension, eventually becoming a Preceptor in the Ram Chandra Mission. John, the son of an original Tuskegee Airman, lives in Cleveland with his wife Veronica Hopper Carter, and daughter Annelise.

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MNODN Community of Practice
Apr
4

MNODN Community of Practice

This is a virtual event (Zoom)

MNODN's mission is to engage in growth and learning opportunities that foster a strong, diverse, and supportive community of organization development professionals in Minnesota and beyond. At our community of practice workshop you'll get a chance to leverage the knowledge, skillsets and experiences of your MNODN colleagues to help solve your professional questions and sticky issues.

All are welcome! Bring a specific issue or question to solicit ideas, resources and advice from other individuals who share your passion for OD and human systems.

No issues? No problem! Come as a peer consultant to advise, collaborate and use your own expertise to support your fellow OD enthusiasts.

This workshop is free. Registration today!

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MNODN Networking Event!
Apr
11

MNODN Networking Event!

Come to our spring social where you can connect with colleagues who share your passion for people and apply their expertise to help organizations thrive!  And if you have a colleague who would like to learn more about MNODN, there are welcome to come along!

Venue: Punch Bowl Social (West End)

Address:1691 Park Place Blvd, Minneapolis, MN 55416

Date: Thursday, April 11, 2024
Time: 5:00 - 7:00 pm

Heavy appetizers and beverages will be provided!

Register today!

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2024 NEEDS A FRESH APPROACH: There is a new "spot on" tool in the house!
Mar
7

2024 NEEDS A FRESH APPROACH: There is a new "spot on" tool in the house!

Speaker: Vicky DiGiovanni

Time: 6-8:00pm CT, Thursday, March 7

Location (in-person event):

Westwood Hills Nature Center 8300 W Franklin Ave.

St. Louis Park, MN 55426

Program Description:

Are you in need of a fresh and inspiring approach to effectively develop your organizations in these challenging and transitional times? Creating focused agility will be key.  This new approach is to first understand how you fascinate and are valued by others. With these insights you can begin to use these strengths to engage and influence others. This in turn will allow you to see others' advantages to build respect, trust, agility and a cohesive unit toward a focused mission.

To fully understand the wide range of positive and applicable impacts this process benefits, you will personally learn how you fascinate and are valued by others (you will take the Fascinate assessment and receive your results report as part of this workshop). You will learn this through a new science-based assessment that is the first tool that measures how you are distinctly valuable through the eyes of others. You will also understand how to better influence and persuade others through more effective, differentiating communication with other personalities. One can not ignore communication pitfalls. This process will also help you understand your (and others') pitfalls creating ineffective communication with tips to prevent or reduce ineffective communication. We will analyze the collective group to identify benefits and challenges of the strengths as if we were working together. Lastly, we will discuss how this fresh approach would benefit your professional roles and industry.

Outcomes:

  • Understand your natural strengths (and pitfalls) from the perspective of others

  • Understand how to adjust your communication style to engage with others

  • Learn how this new approach can tackle organizational challenges

  • Identify how this process can change culture and leadership styles

    Registration is closed.

Follow up Virtual Program: This session is a follow up to the 3/7 in-person program. While the 3/7 program is focused on the Fascinate assessment itself and understanding your personal results, this follow up will use what we’ve learned about the assessment to discuss it’s application in the OD field.

Time: 12-1pm CT, Thursday, March 14

(Zoom link will be distributed to the participants who register for March 7 program)

Vicky DiGiovanni

I am a Certified Fascinate® Advisor with extensive background in HR, systems, consulting, organizational development, change management, and management. My company mission is to disrupt the status-quo with a fresh approach that includes quickly clarifying strengths from others' perspective, and breaking through roadblocks to spark progress for individuals, organizations and teams. I provide a fresh perspective and impactful insights in focused conversation with a warm and expressive style. I love working with:

• Individuals to clarify strengths and communication styles for personal development and branding

• HR to champion employees for onboarding, development, and succession planning

• Organizations to unify teams for agility, effectiveness, change and progress

Contact me (vicky@freskocc.com) for more information!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/vickydigiovanni/ and https://www.freskocc.com/

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Resistance is Your Friend!
Feb
1

Resistance is Your Friend!

Speaker: Dr. Tolchinsky

Time: 6-7:30pm CT, Thursday, Feb 1

This is a virtual event (Zoom)

Program Description:

During this session we will talk about resistance, in the change management context. What are the key ingredients to overcoming resistance and what can you do, to give it voice. Resistance is a gift to be mined. People resist because they care, if they didn't care, they would just smile and look the other way....in this session we will explore how to embrace it and shift the energy from resistance to enablers.

Outcomes:

  • Learn to "sell" the change to resistors

  • Tools and techniques for uncovering and embracing resistance

  • Find your own hot spots, emotions that set you off...how do you manage self in the relationship with someone who is "resisting?"

    Registration is closed.

Dr. Tolchinsky

Dr. Tolchinsky has been consulting to major corporations around the world for the past forty years. He has extensive experience in managing large system change efforts; new plant design and start-ups; redesigning organizations (both public and private sector); and employee involvement and participative work systems. Paul's expertise is in the design of systems, applying socio-technical systems principles to organizations. He has designed/redesigned production systems, new facilities, high tech organizations and broader eco-systems.

Paul is the pioneer of Real Time Work Design (Large Group Interventions by Bunker and Alban, Jossey Bass, 1997), an approach to work design that involves whole organizations (often up to 800-1,000 employees at a time) and the Whole-Scale™ Change technology mentioned in Fusion Leadership (Daft and Lengel, Berrett Koehler, 1998). He is the author of over 50 articles on organization design and the co-author of two books on Large Group Methods entitled: Unleashing the Magic in Organizations: The Whole-Scale Approach and Unleashing the Magic: A Toolkit (2000).

In recent years he has been an invited speaker and guest lecturer on the design of systems and the future of work in Europe, Australia, India, Brazil, Singapore and Hong Kong. He is the co-founder of the European Organization forum, a community of Organization Design professionals (1200+ strong) across Europe. Paul's clients include the Siemens Power Systems (Germany), Continental AG (Germany), Miba AG (Austria), Knill Group (Austria), Eckes-Granini (Germany), General Electric Aerospace, Bank of America, Pratt & Whitney Engines (all USA), and Messier Dowty (Canada), and the CIA, to name just a few. Paul is the Managing Partner of Performance Development Associates. In addition, he has taught graduate courses in Organization Behavior, Organization Design and Development at Webster University (Vienna), The University of Innsbruck (Innsbruck), The Technical University of Lisbon, (Lisbon) and The School of Inspired Leadership (Gurgon, India).

Learn more about Dr. Tolchinsky via https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-tolchinsky-838394/

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Impact Through Influence: Examining the perception of influence employees have on their leaders and what it means for organizations.
Jan
4

Impact Through Influence: Examining the perception of influence employees have on their leaders and what it means for organizations.

Speaker: Tiffany Moore

Time: 6-7:30pm CT, Thursday, Jan 4

This is a virtual event

Program Description

Attendees will explore and better understand followership and the role it plays in organizations. Many employees have positive and negative stories of their attempts to influence leaders to create positive change.

For those with negative experiences, they can have decreased engagement, low morale, and eventually seek out other roles where they are able to add more value. Organizations with both flat and hierarchical structures experience the impacts followers have on their operations, culture, and profitability. For companies to grow and have a more sustainable workforce, they should consider creating a social marketplace where ideas and suggestions are shared equally among employees and leadership ultimately co-creating the leadership process.

The learnings from this program are applicable to leadership and OD coaches, consultants, as well as internal employees interested in becoming more effective in their role within an organization.

Outcomes:

  • Add to your consulting toolkit when coaching or developing leaders in need of creating a “social marketplace” where ideas and suggestions are shared equally co-creating the leadership process. This is especially helpful for those leaders who are not accustomed to inclusive input.

  • Become better equipped to treat organizations and the workforce as an interdependent ecosystem dependent on the ability of employees (followers) to positively influence.

  • Develop additional strategies for addressing when a leadership team is difficult to influence.

  • Assess when influence is used negatively that may self-serve rather than promote innovation within an organization.

  • Generally understand followership from an academic perspective.

    Register is closed.

Tiffany Moore

About the speaker:

After several years in project and client management-related roles, I eventually learned my passions and skills lay more with developing the people within organizations. In a variety of industries, I have served as a trusted advisor with extensive leadership experience, employee engagement, and team collaboration. I have helped large and small companies thrive through well-developed business development, leadership, and culture-building programs. Now as an independent consultant, I am committed to facilitating growth and collaboration for all. Everyone has something to offer and that communication and knowledge sharing bring out the best in everyone. Getting beyond the surface helps individuals work better together. I enjoy connecting with others to help them on their career paths or personal journeys.

Learn more about Tiffany via https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffanydmoore/ and https://www.tdmooreconsulting.com/.

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Behavior Awareness - Bringing valuable data to clients and igniting transformational change.
Dec
7

Behavior Awareness - Bringing valuable data to clients and igniting transformational change.

Speaker: Alexandra Walker

Time: 6-7:30pm CT, Thursday, December 7

This is a virtual event

One of our greatest services to clients is to astutely notice what they are doing and explore the impact these actions are having. This 'behavior awareness' is a strength of many coaches and consultants. What if we applied that skill to conversations specifically noting the verbal behaviors such as who spoke the most, who didn't speak at all, how many questions were asked, who built on others' ideas, who managed the conversation? And what if those observations were available in data sets so the individuals and teams could see view the conversation objectively and make decisions on how to more effectively communicate the next time they spoke?

Behavior awareness allows us to do that and the whole process could be done on the back of a napkin or so specifically a 28 page report is produced.

Join me as I explore the world of behavior awareness and how it can help clients not only communicate more effectively, but also achieve their highest priorities as a result.

Outcomes:

  • Define and explore Behavior Awareness as a consultative tool

  • Explore 18 verbal behaviors that can be observed in conversations

  • Learn a simple process participants can use immediately with clients

    Register has closed.

Alexandra Walker

About the speaker:

Alex has enjoyed her long career in Talent & Performance Management. She has worked in industries such as financial services, petroleum refining & marketing and manufacturing. No matter the setting, Alex builds trusted relationships with clients at all levels and helps unlock their greatest potential. Early in her career, Alex learned the power of learning experientially. She has woven this mindset and approach through her work delivering training, facilitating group processes, coaching and consulting. Clients benefit from Alex’s strategic thinking and ability to see past the irrelevant details to arrive at the best way forward. She curates her extensive knowledge to offer just the right insight and create a space that enables leaning in and learning. She moves through it all with a light hearted and collaborative nature.  In the end, even the toughest challenges become possible and enjoyable. 

Learn more about Alex via https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-m-walker/

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Building the Future Workplace: How We Integrate Workplace Well-Being and Performance
Nov
2

Building the Future Workplace: How We Integrate Workplace Well-Being and Performance

Speaker:Kate Snowie

Time: 6-8pm CT, Thursday, November 2nd

Venue (this is an in person only event):

Cedarholm Community Building & Golf Course

Golf View Room

2323 Hamline Ave N, Roseville, MN 55113

We will explore the dynamic relationship between employee well-being and organizational performance, and discuss how we can build both in unions. Participants can expect to gain an understanding of how to cultivate a workplace culture and systems that prioritizes well-being, while also optimizing performance.

Throughout the session, attendees will be introduced to a model that highlights the 3-pathways practitioners can consider when building a culture that supports well-being. We will also dive into the relationships between performance and stress and how we can harness eustress (positive stress) while mitigating the impacts of distress.

Through interactive discussions we will explore the challenges we face in applying such ideas, and what works in the real-world, allowing participants to assess what will likely work best in their organization or situation. Participants will leave with actionable insights on how to build a future-ready workplace that thrives on the synergy between well-being and performance, ultimately benefiting employees and the organization as a whole.

Outcomes:

  • Understand the Stress Process through a Psychological Lens, and where organizations can influence the process

  • Learn about the Yerkes-Dodson Law and how it applies to the relationship between stress and performance including the important distinctions between Under Arousal, Eustress, and Distress

  • Practical tools and ideas to help drive organizations towards a positive and productive model of well-being in the workplace

    (the registration has been closed)

Kate Snowise

About the speaker:

Kate Snowise trained as an Industrial & Organizational Psychologist in New Zealand. She moved to the USA 10-years ago and now practices as an Executive Coach, Speaker, and Facilitator. Kate is passionate about helping leaders deepen their self-knowledge and build organizations that put people at the center. She is an expert on Stress, Burnout, and Well-Being and frequently speaks on this topic. She has been acknowledged as a top Executive Coach by the Coach Federation and listed as one of the Top 15 Coaches in St. Paul by Influence Digest. Her thoughts have been featured on sites including FastCompany, Forbes, MindBodyGreen, and Huffington Post among others.

Learn more about her work via www.thrive.how

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MNODN Community of Practice
Oct
5

MNODN Community of Practice

This is a virtual event (Zoom)

MNODN's mission is to engage in growth and learning opportunities that foster a strong, diverse, and supportive community of organization development professionals in Minnesota and beyond. At our community of practice workshop you'll get a chance to leverage the knowledge, skillsets and experiences of your MNODN colleagues to help solve your professional questions and sticky issues.

All are welcome! Bring a specific issue or question to solicit ideas, resources and advice from other individuals who share your passion for OD and human systems.

No issues? No problem! Come as a peer consultant to advise, collaborate and use your own expertise to support your fellow OD enthusiasts.

This workshop is free. Registration is closed.

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Seeing Things Whole: A Threefold Perspective on Tackling Organizational Challenges
Sep
14

Seeing Things Whole: A Threefold Perspective on Tackling Organizational Challenges

This is a virtual event (Zoom)

Program Description:

Seeing Things Whole is an organizational framework that cultivates whole leaders and thriving organizations to positively impact the common good. Developed out of the servant leadership movement, the framework creates pathways for individuals and organizations to approach success through a multidimensional lens by seeking to support leaders to align their actions with their values. Leaders are supported to move towards multiple bottom line thinking when tackling challenges. During this presentation, you will be introduced to the framework and have the opportunity to analyze organizational challenges utilizing the model. Through an intentional exercise, you will consider common organizational challenges as a means to provide strategies for bringing a practice of ‘seeing things whole’ back to your work.

Objectives:

  • Introduce a threefold framework for analyzing organizational challenges

  • Apply multidimensional thinking to a current organizational challenge

  • Provide strategies for continuing examination and practice to create action in your work

    Registration is closed

About the Speaker:

Keri Clifton is the Program Director for the Reell Office of Seeing Things Whole at Augsburg University. She brings passion and excitement for supporting individuals and organizations to thrive through effective programming, sustained engagement, and continuous development. She is committed to serving others for the advancement of the common good. Keri has a breadth of experience in non-profit program development, management, and fundraising in the fields of community development, arts, and mental health education and advocacy. Keri holds a Bachelors of Arts degree in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin- Madison, Madison, WI and recently completed a Masters of Arts in Leadership from Augsburg University, Minneapolis, MN in June 2023.

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2023 MNODN Summer Social
Aug
24

2023 MNODN Summer Social

Let's socialize in person! Our MNODN summer social is a fun way to reconnect with colleagues, expand your professional network, raise your profile, get career advice, and learn about job opportunities.

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Monthly Program: OD Workshop - Grow and Let Go
Aug
16

Monthly Program: OD Workshop - Grow and Let Go

Program Description

Sponsor: MNODN and Pacific NW OD Network(PNODN)

Time: 6:30-8:30pm CT, August 16

Channel: Zoom

Are you looking for a quick and fun way to examine the present and plan for the future? Ecocycle Planning can both help you see the big picture and choose next steps for anything with a life cycle: a project, an unexpected event, your activities, a trip or even your health.

 In this session, you’ll choose a topic and map out what you are starting, doing well, undoing and dreaming about and where you are stuck. And you’ll receive support in identifying how to move forward. Come prepared to grow what you want and let go of what is getting in the way!

What to bring: a large sheet of paper (flip charts are ideal), sticky notes, pens and curiosity. Participants will learn the Ecocycle by applying it to a project of their own choosing. They will also discuss things in small groups using activities based on Liberating Structures.

Three Learning Objectives (Count for PMI course credit):

  1. Try a quick and simple, yet profound, planning tool (Ecocycle Planning)

  2. Explore how you might use the tool in your work and life

  3. Receive feedback on your next steps

Registration has closed!

Speaker:

Barb Bickford helps leaders who are frustrated with their boring unproductive meetings.  Through her consulting and teaching, she enables them to foster better group relationships, get better results and collaborate with confidence.  She also supports leaders by facilitating meetings on their behalf.  A geologist by training and with decades of experience in healthcare waste management, Barb especially loves working with scientists and professionals working in science, environmental health and public health.  Learn more about Barb here.

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