Pre-Conference Sessions

Customize and deepen your learning by including pre-conference
workshops in your conference schedule.     *Additional fees apply.

Teams of 4 or more that register for any combination of sessions can take $125 off the price per person per session. Just call the Conference department at 1-800-272-0945 or 1-781-398-9700 to register your team.

 

Sunday, November 13, 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

PC01 Preparing to Learn: Launching the After Action Review Cycle $895
Marilyn Darling and Mark Pires, Signet Consulting Group

We tend to think of learning as something that happens after action, but some of the most powerful stages in the learning process happen beforehand as teams set goals, predict challenges, and plan and coordinate action. The U.S. Army’s After Action Review is well known as a learning tool. But what is less well known is how Army leaders set the stage for learning through an intricately coordinated whole-team planning and preparation process that truly empowers reflection after action.

This workshop introduces the whole cycle of learning as it is practiced by the “best of the best” in the Army. Gain an understanding of when, how, and why to use After Action Reviews in your organization. Practice preparing to learn, using the conference itself as a focus. Finally, take away a learning plan to apply in the conference itself, along with simple tools for raising the level of learning in your own work processes.

Marilyn Darling is the president of Signet Consulting Group. Founded in 1989, Signet’s research and consulting focus is the intersection between leading, learning and execution. Over the past eight years, Marilyn and her partner, Charles Parry, have conducted research on the learning and leadership practices of the U.S. Army’s Opposing Force, whose mission is to be the toughest enemy American soldiers will ever face. Marilyn is a founding member of the Society for Organizational Learning.

Lt. Col. Mark Pires (retired) is a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Army and West Point graduate. His last posting was as Commander of an armor battalion consisting of 58 tanks, 550 soldiers, over 160 support vehicles and over $150 million of property. Mark’s postings included Chief of Plans for an entire Army division. His awards include the Legion of Merit and five Meritorious Service Medals. Mark is an expert on the Army’s AAR method.

 

PC02 Leading Strategic Conversations: A Key Business Imperative
$895
David Isaacs, Clearing Communications and The World Café

“An organization’s results are determined through the webs of human commitments born in webs of human conversations.”
—Fernando Flores

In today’s knowledge era, innovation emerges primarily from people’s collaborative energies and the processes and systems that they jointly create in the service of exceptional organizational performance. To engage and synergize collective as well as individual capabilities, innovative leaders build their capacity to design, host, and convene strategic conversations around their organization’s most important questions. In this highly interactive session, learn and practice World Café design principles for leading strategic conversations. In addition, begin conversations in our learning community as to how you will bring these principles, practices, and processes to the “real-life” questions, challenges, and initiatives in your professional setting.

David Isaacs is co-founder, with Juanita Brown, of the World Café, and is president of Clearing Communications, an organizational and communications strategy company. He has served as a line executive in the healthcare field and has been active in projects related to global sustainability with the SoL Sustainability Consortium, the Natural Step (Sweden), and the Kellogg Foundation. He is the coauthor of The World Café: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter.

 

PC03 Human Dynamics: Understanding People As Whole Systems
$895
Sandra Seagal and David Horne, Human Dynamics International

Why do people act differently in similar situations? How do conflicts arise within groups, even when the members share a common purpose and vision? Why is it that some children succeed in school and others do not, though they may be of equal intelligence and potential?

The field of Human Dynamics offers insights into these questions and tools for improving communication, enhancing teaching and learning, and integrating and developing groups and individuals. Based on 25 years of research and practice, Human Dynamics identifies the interaction in people of three universal principles: mental (intellectual), emotional (relational), and physical (practical). It enables individuals to discover how these principles combine and interplay in specific ways to form personality dynamics, or ways of being, that are characterized by fundamentally different learning processes and patterns of functioning. These distinctions, which appear to be hardwired, cross culture, age, race, and gender. They can be identified, even in infancy.

This workshop will focus on the critical implications of this new body of knowledge for educators, children, and families.

Sandra Seagal, Ph.D., has been engaged since 1979 in original investigation in the new field of Human Dynamics and in developing training programs for organizational development, education, parenting, healthcare, and cross-cultural understanding and collaboration. She is founder and president of Human Dynamics International and executive director of Human Dynamics Institute, a nonprofit research organization. Her work has been lauded by such luminaries as the late Buckminster Fuller, who nominated her for a MacArthur Fellowship. Sandra previously served as a teacher, school psychologist, and psychotherapist in private practice.

David Horne, M.A., has been engaged with Sandra Seagal in investigations in the field of Human Dynamics, and in the development and dissemination internationally of training programs based upon this new knowledge, since 1983. He served for 25 years in the field of special education as a therapist, administrator, and writer and producer of training films. David is a partner in Human Dynamics International and co-director of Human Dynamics Institute, a nonprofit research organization.

 

PC04 Leading Systemic Change: The Art of Being, Thinking, and Acting Systemically
$895
David Peter Stroh, Bridgeway Partners; Michael Goodman, Innovation Associates Organizational Learning

Leading systemic change requires that we develop a certain life orientation, think differently about the complexity that confronts us, and act in ways that enable others to engage responsibly in creating more sustainable results. In this workshop, learn to apply advanced systems thinking tools within the context of a way of being and a set of behaviors that amplify the effectiveness of these tools. Experience the importance of leading with curiosity, clarity, compassion, commitment, and courage. Learn a six-step process for engaging diverse stakeholders in developing a shared understanding of their interdependencies. And practice new systems thinking skills specifically designed to strengthen people’s motivations and abilities to collaborate.

David Peter Stroh is cofounder of Bridgeway Partners and was a founding partner of Innovation Associates, the pioneering consulting firm in the area of organizational learning. David’s expertise lies in visionary planning, leadership development, systems thinking, organization design, and change management. He helps diverse stakeholders align around a common purpose and integrate their thinking to improve performance. David is committed to bringing business discipline to social sector organizations and social consciousness to businesses.

Michael Goodman is principal of Innovation Associates Organizational Learning. An internationally recognized speaker, author, and practitioner in the fields of systems thinking, organizational learning, and leadership, his main focus is helping organizations to sustain their capacity for learning and change. Mike helped create many of the innovations that have made systems thinking accessible to business leaders. He served as the primary contributor to the systems thinking chapter in the acclaimed Fifth Discipline Fieldbook.

For more information about the content of these courses, please call 1-781-398-9700.

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