Designing for intentional inclusion

Peter Lawrence, Satty Misra
Ai Change Management

In 2021, working with our interns from the University of Liverpool, we asked the question …

 Is it possible to design diversity, equality, and inclusion into an organisation, and if so, how? 

 In 2022, we followed up our research to explore how we make it happen, to move us from talking to doing.

 We invite you to an interactive and informative conversation during which we will share our research findings, and hear from a client with whom we are engaged in a test and learn experience.

You will have the opportunity to share your insight that will inform our wider research and approach, and contribute to the story as it continues to unfold and develop.

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OD: unless applied, it is no practice…

Steve Hearsum, Nicoll Lloyd
Edge & Stretch

There is much talk about the ‘theory’, ‘art’, ‘science’ and ‘practice’ of OD, or a combination thereof. Get OD folk together and we can spend a lot of time chewing on which of those it is – or isn’t.

As the challenges we face in a world stretched to its limits impact on how we enable ‘good work’, ‘make a difference’, ‘deliver results’, what then is the practical face of OD ?

How are we supported with and supporting practical ‘being and doing’ – enabling clients in their contexts and with their challenges and opportunities?

A Gap and a hypothesis
There are few places that accredit consulting supervision or offer consulting supervision programmes. Supervisory/shadow consulting spaces for OD practitioners run the risk of being too insular and concerned with OD first, and clients second.

The Experiment
In 2021, Steve launched Learning to be at the Centre of Change, a place to experience jargon-free peer learning grounded in the messy and dirty reality of what it means to change organisations. No jargon, no ‘OD bollox’, a place for useful discomfort in service of learning. The first cohort ended in July 2022, and Nicoll was part of that.

The Inquiry
We want to share the story, and engage in a wider inquiry into how we might better support consultants – OD or otherwise – get to grips with their practice, and open a wider conversation about the implications of the lack of supervision for consultants more generally.

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Organisational trauma and healing: a systemic perspective

Guillermo Rogel, Hendrika Santer-Bream
Guy’s and St Thomas Trust

In the context of challenging world events and local responses to them, we are seeing more teams shaped by trauma in our OD work.

We frequently meet what our clients usually call dysfunctional teams. They can be characterised by breakdown in communication, sometimes toxic interpersonal relations and lack of performance. In these situations, our curious OD stance invites us to hold our judgment and take a systemic perspective.

In our experience a dysfunctional team can be a team affected by trauma. It can perceive its environment to be unsupportive and try to protect itself. It is usually stuck in the past and is regularly overcome by difficult emotions. Trauma contagion may occur as team members are swept up in co-workers’ feelings, anxieties, and stresses. Trauma can continue to play out long after the event.

Healing interventions will be needed to restore the individual and or the team.
Often managers will react rather distantly and rationally, which creates relationships in which one appears strong and the other weak and ashamed.

Drawing on a recent case study and pointing to systemic constellations theory, we will share our experience of designing an intervention that reactivated a team’s self-regulating and healing ability. We will invite participants to reflect with us on identifying and intervening in such cases. We will work on participants’ practical experiences guided by systemic principles that we hope will open the possibility for steps towards better.

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The room you’re in – making a difference with your presence through awareness and intentionality

Sheena Cartwright, Pietro Catania
Enchangement Limited

This interactive learning experience uses Gestalt OD as a framework. The session is designed to enhance our awareness and help us to be clear on our intentions when intervening.

The challenging environments we face, demand us to bring our practice to the next level so we can engage and activate change at multiple levels of system.

Gestalt provides a lens for us to use enabling us to focus on the way we make contact with individuals, groups and systems. We will explore the power of making contact at the boundary level, whilst being aware of the context and the intentional use of our presence.

Sheena Cartwright (UK) and Pietro Catania (Italy) bring extensive experience from their own OD practices, working with a wide range of Global organisations. They have both completed the iGOLD (International Gestalt Organisation and Leadership Development) programme and are on iGOLD faculty for the Introduction to Gestalt in Organisations Programme.

Are you ready to engage with us, experiment with and reflect on your impact?

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The white man problem (session 1)

Michael Ciszewski, Peter Norlin
Campden Hill International

If we truly want to break the current logjam of systemic, institutionalized racism, we now believe there’s only one path to success: helping white men participate willingly in dismantling white supremacy. And so, if we’re correct, we must design and use a specific strategy that has the potential to confront this root cause head-on.

Based on our experience and observations, we know that this is an especially daunting challenge. Because unfortunately, we’ve also come to believe that many EDI initiatives in organisations are built on a faulty assumption, the assumption that most white men are ready and willing to begin this work as fully-engaged, focused, committed partners from the outset. And so, for the last two years, we have been experimenting with an idea, an approach that we now believe has the potential to meet some key conditions that are required for sustainable, systemic EDI success.

Join us in this first of two sessions where we intend to outline the theoretical underpinnings and rationale for our design and process. Specifically, we’ll share the essential framework of our approach, as well as the rationale behind that structure and process.

Attendees will be invited to participate in the conversational model we typically use during White Men’s Conversations. While our intended audience is white men, all participants are welcome.

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Turn up, make up and make do: the practices and premises of an external OD jobbing practitioner

Alastair Wyllie
Wyllie & Reid

In this session I’ll share my core practices as an external jobbing practitioner – skilled, experienced, versatile and pragmatic, sometimes independent, sometimes an associate – a ‘performative bricoleur’ who shows up, connects, engages, relates and works with whomsoever is in the room in relation to how they see their issues in their current situation, using whatever is to hand and however makes most sense between us at the time.

I shall also share my understanding of the fundamental premises that help or hinder this way of working with my clients’ living systems, before inviting session participants to notice, acknowledge and make sense of their own ways of working, and the living systems that sustain them.

Finally, I’ll be curious to discover what this reflective practice inspires or provokes as a take-away that may be positively disruptive in our evolving developmental practices and living systems.

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What’s in a name: language that connects and disconnects

Lizzie Reather, Sonya Johnston
Glasgow Caledonian University

Have you ever found yourself trying to explain what OD is to a senior member of staff or chief exec? Before you can even begin to highlight the benefits of engaging, an OD practitioner encounters language barriers. A contract may be a legal document; a coach directs a sports team in training; AI is artificial intelligence…
Conversations around OD are rewarding and inspiring, but we can only have those discussions if we find ways to connect with decisions makers and clients, learning about their experiences and bridging gaps between the needs in their organisations and the benefits OD can bring.
How do we establish a shared frame of reference and go to where the client is, using an awareness of our language and theirs to balance clarity, creativity, and maybe even useful ambiguity as we form relationships, work and grow together?
How can OD practitioners help each other and their clients to face this challenge, and how, as a community, do we improve the visibility and value of OD and all that it offers?
Join us to test and develop an approach to bridging communication gaps and overcoming some of the barriers to shared understanding. We intend that participants will gain some practical knowledge and approaches to apply in their practice.

Culture eats leadership development for breakfast

Lisa Schmidt
Worksphere

Imagine trying to develop a professional sports coach the following way: one week of training a year, all of it sitting in a classroom. If the budget permits, offer them a monthly coffee with a mentor to talk through how things are going.

We probably agree they’d never amount to much, let alone win a championship. Yet the fantasy that we can create powerful, effective leaders by taking them out of their environments, showing them some TED Talks or having them build towers with noodles and marshmallows, will somehow result in a broad set of positive, sustainable behaviours (along with exceptional team performance), continues to rule the field of leadership development.

This needs to change, and those best positioned to lead the way will be in this session! We’ve all seen money thrown at off-the-shelf programs (here’s your binder!) and big box consultants with proprietary assessments (our coaching program is a game-changer!) that don’t result in meaningful positive change. Oh, and stop me if you’ve been on the receiving end of a senior leader sending you the latest from the Harvard Business Review to send out to all the organization’s managers.

Let’s stop tearing our collective OD hair out and re-imagine leadership development—what it might look like and how it’s done—and start IN THIS SESSION to conceptualize and co-create the mindsets, practices and (maybe) programs that take leadership development out of the classroom (and off the e-mail attachments) and into the places where it’s most effective and lasting.

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Future Forward 2033 – creating the future for OD in the NHS

Karen Dumain
Do OD – NHS England & NHS Employers

From 2013 to 2033, the NHS has a 10 year strategy & plan for its NHS People Professionals
What does this mean for Organisation Development in the NHS? OD’s impact on patient care, value & its credability? What does this mean for the NHS OD professional? And the implications for external OD consultants working with the NHS? As a UK public sector health care system what might we learn from other sectors & more globally?

Celebrating 10 years of Do OD & OD in the NHS we’ll explore the past, present and future of OD practice . What have we learnt about doing OD in the NHS & it’s impact? What’s the picture for OD today?
Peter Druker famously said ‘The best way to predict the future is to create it’
How do we create the future we need for OD in the NHS & across the public sector?
This highly participative session will call on the wisdom & experience of the group to help shine a light on the future for OD in the NHS.

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Is it possible to design an organisation which gives blue collar workers similar flexibility to that of a white-collar worker?

Ian Donald
Siemens

During the last few years due to Covid, white collar workers at Siemens Congleton have gained the opportunity to work in a Hybrid model. This will continue as the business returns to normal where typically white-collar workers can spend on average 2 to 3 days a week working from home and the rest of the time in the office. They can also “Flex” their working time, depending on business and personal needs.
Blue-collar workers do not have the same opportunities as they need to be onsite to manufacture products and their working times are fixed, due to current manufacturing practices, equipment availability and supply chains.
Is there a way to design an organisation such that blue-collar workers can benefit from a more flexible working model, whilst achieving the same output and productivity? What would the model look like? What would be the advantages and disadvantages? How would you transition to the new model?

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Male Perspectives On The Value Of Women At Work

Susan Popoola
Mosaic Fusions Ltd

In 2021, I wrote “Male Perspectives on The Value of Women at Work”, a book which provides an in-depth exploration of the value women bring to the world of work – from the variety of perspectives of a rich diversity of men who highlight some things women uniquely bring to the workplace. It also highlights challenges that impede women’s ability to realise their full potential – both at individual and systemic levels.

My session will cover:
• My motivations for writing the book
• Insights into the demographics of the Study.
• How the study went with highlights of the key learning from the study.
• Recommendations on what women, men and organisation leaders need to do to better realise the value of women at work.
• Reflections from the participants on the findings

Intended Outcomes
• Participants will leave with a better understanding of how men and women typically navigate the workplace differently.
• Participants will gain insights into how they can more fully realise their individual value at work.
• Participants will leave with a great appreciate of colleagues of different genders with a better understanding of how to support them within the workplace.
• Participants will have a better understanding of the policies, procedures and cultural practices impact on employees of different genders with thoughts on changes that they can make to enabler a deeper sense of being valued, belonging, and better outcomes from all employees in order to develop happier, more effective, fulfilling and productive teams.

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Rethinking consulting

Megan Taylor, Gita Goldman, Jo Wood, Jemma Barton
RISE Beyond

Consulting in the reality of complexity requires something different. It is not possible to be completely objective or remain ‘external’, and there are certainly no straightforward solutions to our client’s challenges. So what does this mean for how we do our work? What is our role when we are working with clients, particularly when it is often still understood to be one that provides answers or clear ways forward? How can we adapt our practice to work with our complex realities? and how might this better serve us all?

In this session, we will be exploring the tensions that exist in our work as organisatoinal development consultants and step into a conversation about what a consulting practice looks like that better acknowledges concepts such as paradox, complexity, and not knowing.

We hope participants will be able to share their quandaries and questions and bring ideas to small group conversations about what might be possible. We will share our thinking on what an improvisational consulting practice might look like, and engage the group in various activities to play with and challenge our collective understanding of organisational change and development.

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What do we mean by collaboration and how we can develop our collaborative practice?

Toby Lindsay
The Kings Fund

This session aims to explore both what we mean by collaboration and how we can develop our collaborative practice. It will offer some insights and provocation from our work at The Kings Fund as support for an open collaborative inquiry for participants to share and learn together. We will reflect on our processes of working together to further seek illumination and insight into the area of inquiry. We will use a range of techniques and processes to:
• Explore what collaboration means to us and our relationship with it
• Look at the practice of collaboration and deepen insight into how it is achieved
• Wonder together about the future of collaboration in terms of our practice and community
Using our experience of being together in collaborative inquiry as a vehicle for further reflection and insight.
Whilst this session takes the drive for ‘collaboration not competition’ in the health and care sector as an informing area, we want to explore the theme in its broadest sense, relating that to our selves and our work, all are welcome.

Creating the listening organisation

Mike Pounsford
Couravel

This workshop explores

• Why organisations that listen well to their people are critical for success in emerging hybrid organisations
• How difficult it is to achieve effective listening at an organisational level
• Key factors and strategies that can improve listening

This session provides an opportunity to discuss and share if and how listening to employees can be embedded in the culture of the organisations that are emerging post pandemic. We’ll look at what gets in the way and the role leaders need to play to create listening cultures.

Listening often assumes a taken for granted capability that is poorly understood and executed. Leaders often lack insight into how difficult speaking up can be. Traditional approaches to listening often focus on counting opinions rather than making opinions count. Response cycles can be slow and poor. Individuals and minorities can feel overlooked. Sometimes people crave decisiveness while sometimes they seek a sensitive ear: how clear are we on the role listening needs to play in our organisation strategy?

As we create new ways of working post pandemic the importance of ensuring all people feel that they have a voice in the organisation has never been more important. Drawing on the experiences of workshop participants, exploration of hypothetical scenarios and insights from four years of research we will aim to leave participants with practical ideas on how to improve listening within their own or their clients’ organisations.

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Designing an expert od practitioner curriculum for the Civil Service

Nick Richmond, Sarah Amies, Susanne Gidda
Tricordant

The UK Civil Service is not just an organisation it is a whole sector of organisations working to deliver the Governments priorities. The central Organisation Development & Design Team is reviewing its Expert OD&D capability to enable the UK Civil Service to best respond to current and emerging challenges. In collaboration with the Civil Service, Tricordant expanded on the competencies within Dr Mee-Yan Cheung-Judge’s OD APP to implement an evidenced based, agile approach to assessing the Civil Service OD&D learning needs. A curriculum was subsequently designed for the Expert OD Practitioner community together with recommendations for it’s successful implementation and ongoing improvement. In this session we will touch on the underlying research and assessment methodology, explore critical challenges, and share the outline curriculum. This session will be co-facilitated between Tricordant and our client.

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Holding the stage for self organised transformation

Dagmar Wötzel
The Art of Adaptive Organisations

You’ll hear the story of the team Technology and Innovation and their CTO over 3 years, who needed to adapt fast and be innovative to add their value to the business under high pressure. The stage provided invited self-organized prototypes. The story is told from my view as part of the Leadership Team and their transformation expert.
During the session, you will have time to reflect with your peers and discuss your experiences and learning concerning self-organization in transformation.

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Provoking OD practice – stimulating future directions for OD practice

Stefan Cantore
Sheffield University Management School

Provocations stimulate thinking and open up opportunities for reflexivity and creativity. Traditionally they been used in the natural sciences to test the effects of a stimuli so that a detailed understanding of the physical response of an organism is generated. Sometimes in medical treatment and research provoking a response helps to correlate physiological and behavioural responses with the genetic and physical constitution of a patient. More recently crafting provocations have been used in the social sciences to help people:
‘…… think analytically about the social and cultural norms associated with a particular phenomenon. Indeed, the process of provocation might provide a space where these norms are transgressed, if only momentarily.’ (Pangrazio,2017 pg.230)
In this session participants will be introduced to provocation as a research/inquiry method and be supported in testing it out for themselves through a range of individual and shared activities. Takeaways are likely to include personal insights into some long held assumptions about personal OD practice, experiences of provoking and being provoked in a safe space and the surfacing of ideas and images of what OD practice could be look in the future. We will also take time to consider how provocations can be incorporated into work with clients.
Provocations are unsettling so come prepared!

Reference

Pangrazio, L. (2017). Exploring provocation as a research method in the social sciences. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 20(2), 225-236.)

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The future of artful knowing

James Traeger
Mayvin

In our coaching and development interventions, we aim to bring the client’s real work into the conversation. We refer to this as “getting close to the grain of the work.” Theories and models can be a bit abstract and detached for participants. Paradoxically, what could be perceived as more abstracted ways of knowing, through artful practice, can quite quickly tap into a client’s reality through more experiential knowledge.

“the process allowed access to feelings / events I hadn’t noticed myself”
“Summoning the unseen!”
“hugely insightful- was amazing what came up”

In this session we will explore this practice edge through our own artful practice.

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The white man problem (session 2)

Michael Ciszewski
Campden Hill International

In our first session on Thursday, we explored the background and assumptions that led us to design White Men’s Conversations. In this next conversation, we’ll continue to explore whether and how our approach, design, and process might be an essential and effective strategy to dismantle white supremacy.

We’re now convinced that any assumptions we may have had about white men’s readiness to confront systemic racism are likely incorrect. In fact, we now believe that most white men are rarely ready to take even Step 1 in an anti-racist agenda. To commit themselves to whole-heartedly supporting a specific anti-racist initiative, we propose that most white men must first successfully navigate what we have chosen to call “Step 0.”

We define Step 0 as the acknowledgment by a white man that, in addition to being a unique individual, he also is a member of a group identified as “white men.” And we believe that because many white men are unaware that they embody this dual identity, they then quickly reject this reality when it’s pointed out. Why are white men able to do this so easily?

We’re eager to hear your responses to this question and to share our own thinking about its implications, so please join us for Part 2 of this conversation. As with Part 1, though our focus is on white men, we’ll welcome anyone who’d like to join us for this session.