SECOND COLLABORATIVE FORUM
ON IMPLEMENTING ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING AND CHANGE
Wednesday, September 25, 1996
2:10 PM - 4:10 PM Eastern
(11:10 AM - 1:00 PM Pacific)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
** Theme: **
** EFFECTIVELY INVOLVING EXECUTIVES **
** IN ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING AND CHANGE
**
**
**
** How can change agents, with lower risk, maximize executives' **
** commitment to fund and participate in Organizational Learning **
** and other change initiatives? **
** **
** How can executives increase the validity and completeness of **
** the information on which they base funding and implementation **
** decisions about Organizational Learning and other change **
** initiatives? **
** **
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Collaborative Action Associates, Inc., cordially invites you to participate
in a practical, data-driven forum to discuss and test concrete solutions to
the issues above.
***** Please respond by Monday, September 9, 1996 *****
PURPOSE: In the First Collaborative Forum on Implementing Organizational
Learning and Change (July 1996), change agents from over 50 organizations
worldwide identified eight recurring barriers to implementing
Organizational Learning and other change initiatives and began a continuing
discussion of solutions. Executives and change agents in the First Forum
reported that one of the most important issues they face is how to more
openly and effectively work together to implement organizational change.
This Second Forum will identify, discuss and demonstrate new ways for
change agents and executives to more openly and effectively collaborate on
organizational learning and change initiatives, while reducing the
political and financial risks involved.
This series of implementation Forums provides a means for high-value
exchange of knowledge between those doing the day-to-day work of
transforming their organizations. The theme and content of each Forum are
based on input from participating practitioners, and the design of each
Forum incorporates feedback on and improvements to the previous Forums.
WHO SHOULD PARTICIPATE: Executives, managers, project managers, internal
consultants and other change agents who sincerely desire to increase the
openness and effectiveness with which they design, fund, implement and
measure the business results of organizational learning and change efforts.
DESIGN OF THE FORUM: The Implementation Forum unfolds in four stages.
1. IDENTIFYING THE BARRIERS: Individuals join the Forum by completing the
attached 15-minute questionnaire on critical barriers to more open and
effective collaboration between executives and change agents. This
information will be analyzed, and a summary of identified recurring
barriers will be distributed to all Forum participants. This recurring
barrier summary will be used to focus discussion during the subsequent
telephone conference call and Internet dialogue. (See stages 3 & 4 below.)
Respondents will also have an opportunity to submit a business situation
for possible use as a live case on the telephone conference call.
2. ORGANIZING THE TELEPHONE CONFERENCE: From the total pool of Forum
participants, a representative group of about 20 organizations will be
invited to join in a two hour telephone conference on September 25. This
subset of Forum participants will be selected so as to provide, in the
limited number of "seats" available, a cross-section of industries and
organizational roles.
3. CONDUCTING THE TELEPHONE CONFERENCE: On the September 25 telephone
conference, a panel of experienced executives and change agents will
discuss and demonstrate approaches to overcoming the barriers to effective
collaboration uncovered in the first stage of the Forum. Based on the
results of the Forum questionnaire analysis, a live business case from a
participating organization may be presented for discussion by panelists and
other telephone conference participants. The panel and telephone
conference participants will also have an opportunity to discuss questions
related to the theme of the Forum.
4. CONTINUING THE DIALOGUE ON THE INTERNET: After the telephone
conference, all Forum participants (i.e., respondents to the questionnaire
below) will receive:
- a transcript of the phone conference via email (an audio tape
will be made available at cost for those who request it);
- an opportunity to continue the Implementation Forum dialogue on a
private Internet discussion list activated for 30 - 60 days.
TELEPHONE CONFERENCE PANELISTS:
DR. BRIAN BECKER, VP of Operations, Shamrock In-Home Healthcare,
Rochester, Minn.
JAMES B. BALDWIN, President and CEO, Baldwin & Stone, Inc.,
Cambridge, Mass.
GRACE PASTIAK, Director - Network Systems Division, Tellabs, Inc.,
Lisle, Illinois
GARY LOSPALUTO, Co-President and Founder, Collaborative Action
Associates, Inc., Medford, Mass.
JOHN R. SNYDER (moderator), VP-Southwest Region, Collaborative Action
Associates, Inc., Austin, Texas.
Dr. BRIAN BECKER has extensive practical experience implementing
and teaching organizational learning, TQM and Action Science in business
organizations. Dr. Becker studied with Chris Argyris at Harvard and has
worked with other leading thinkers in the OD field, including Peter Senge.
Dr. Becker will be able to speak from his personal experiences in
successfully and unsuccessfully engaging executives in the design and
implementation of organizational change initiatives. As an executive he
can also speak to the demands and responsibilities of leading change. He
has also worked with 3M, Digital Equipment, Carrier and Norwest Banks. He
is an adjunct professor in the Business & Management Division of Cardinal
Strich College.
JAMES B. BALDWIN has over 30 years experience in marketing and
advertising. He started his career with N.W. Ayer's headquarters in
Philadelphia, working a new product model for consumer package goods
clients including Kimberly Clark, Dr. Scholl's and Sealtest. He was a
founding partner of Harcomm Associates (now Baldwin & Stone) in 1971. He
brought the firm through major reorganization after becoming CEO in 1988,
and since 1991 it has doubled in size (to $13 million in billings) and
profitability. His firm provides marketing consulting and advertising to
businesses in a wide range of industries including financial services,
retail, consumer goods and industrial. Recent clients include State Street
Bank, Scudder Mutual Funds, Thermo Electron, Garelick Farms Dairies, John
Hancock and Watts Regulator. Mr. Baldwin has worked with organizational
learning methods since 1992 and will be able to speak from an executive
perspective on the theme of the Forum.
GRACE PASTIAK has extensive experience working with a wide array of
organizational change methods. In her 20 years at Tellabs, she has held
high level management positions in new business development, manufacturing
operations, production and inventory control, and engineering operations.
Ms. Pastiak was featured in the New York Times Business Section for her
outstanding work with business teams, and she was highlighted in the book
*Swim With The Dolphins: How Women Can Succeed in Corporate America on
Their Own Terms*. Ms. Pastiak will be able to speak from her experience as
both a change agent and a senior manager working with other change agents.
GARY LOSPALUTO is a developer of practical methods for
collaborative design and implementation of organizational learning, and for
measuring the ROI of change efforts. He is also the inventor of a unique
approach to quality assurance for consulting practices, organizational
learning, and change methods. He has designed and worked extensively with
new, lower-risk ways to successfully engage upper management in
organizational change initiatives. Mr. Lospaluto received his Masters
degree at Harvard, where he studied and worked with Chris Argyris. He has
over 15 years experience consulting to a wide range of organizations,
including Motorola, Amoco Oil, Blue Cross, Owens-Corning, Tellabs, and
Digital Equipment Corporation.
JOHN R. SNYDER has over 15 years experience as a consultant,
manager, researcher and educator. His clients have included U S WEST
Communications, Tellabs, Tanisys, Petroleos de Venezuela and the University
of Washington. He has been an active member of the Learning Organization
community since 1991 and was a presenter at the 1995 Systems Thinking in
Action Conference.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE: By MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, please return your answers to
the questions below. All respondents will receive email confirmation that
we have received your completed questionnaire and enrolled you in the
Forum. As described above, we will be contacting a number of selected
respondents by September 13 to invite them to participate in the telephone
conference.
There is no fee for participation in this forum.
Those participating in the telephone conference will be asked to make a
regular toll call to the Sprint conference bridge in Florida.
*** The information you provide will be kept strictly confidential. ***
*** Analyses of the data collected will be reported in generic and ***
*** anonymous terms. Call CAA at (617) 391-6600 if you have ***
*** concerns or questions. ***
----------------------------- snip here -------------------------------
2nd Implementation Forum
PARTICIPANT QUESTIONNAIRE
**** Please return to jsnyder@pobox.com or fax to (512) 255-0606. ****
**** Do not reply to the list, if you received this via a list! ****
Name:
Organization:
Role in the organization:
Would you be interested in joining the Telephone Conference part of the
Forum if invited?
___ Yes. My phone number for invitation purposes is _______________.
Would you also be interested in discussing how your business
situation could be used (anonymously) as a live case during the
telephone conference?
___ Yes, I have a live business situation to offer.
___ No, I have no live business situation to offer.
___ No. I want to participate in the Forum, but *not* on the telephone
conference.
IF YOU ARE AN EXECUTIVE OR SENIOR MANAGER: Would you be interested in
joining the Telephone Conference panel to assist in providing feedback on
the effectiveness of the new tools and strategies discussed?
___ Yes.
___ No.
We would like to maximize our mutual business value and learning by
bringing a "whole system perspective" to the Forum discussion. To this
end, would you be willing to either invite your executives to this Second
Implementation Forum or invite them to complete an anonymous 15 minute
questionnaire on how they experience the way change agents typically engage
them in organizational learning and change initiatives?
___ Yes. I will invite my executive(s) to the Forum.
___ Yes. Please send the Executive Questionnaire for me to forward
to others in my organization.
___ No. I prefer not to invite others.
[IF YOU ARE AN EXECUTIVE OR SENIOR MANAGER ANSWER QUESTIONS E1 AND E2.]
E1. Think of an important organizational learning or change effort in which
someone asked you for funding and/or your participation. What were your
inner thoughts, positive or negative, about the completeness and accuracy
of the information being presented to you to support your decision-making?
Please respond as candidly and in as much detail as possible.
E2. Did you openly discuss these inner thoughts with the individual(s)
involved? If not, why not?
[IF YOU ARE A CHANGE AGENT SEEKING FUNDING OR PARTICIPATION FROM SENIOR
MANAGEMENT, ANSWER QUESTIONS C1, C2 AND C3.]
C1. Think of an important organizational learning or change effort in which
you have recently been involved. What are the 2 or 3 most critical
barriers you encountered when trying to gain the full participation or
financial support of executives and senior managers? Please respond as
candidly as possible from your inner thoughts.
C2. Describe what you did to address these barriers.
C3. Reflecting on these barriers, what about them is difficult to discuss
openly with the executive(s) or senior manager(s)?
***** Please return to jsnyder@pobox.com or fax to (512) 255-0606. *****
(c) 1996 by CAA, Inc.
-------------
John Snyder
Collaborative Action Associates "The end of all thought
Round Rock, TX must be action."
jsnyder@pobox.com - Aldous Huxley
(512) 218-4870 phone
(512) 255-0606 fax
--jsnyder@bga.com (John R. Snyder)
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>