"That Was Great!": More High Impact Activities, Exercises And Approaches For Teaching Or Consulting On Organizational Change
A two-hour interactive Academy of Management Annual meeting PDW workshop in Atlanta Sunday, Aug 13 2006 10:00AM - 12:00PM at Hilton Atlanta in Grand Salon A
This workshop follows on from a highly successful and well-attended session in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Honolulu</st1:city></st1:place> (AOM 2005). The session will provide a forum for educators, researchers and consultants to showcase high impact methods for teaching organizational change in its many contexts (undergraduate, EMBA, MBA, corporate training, consulting, etc.). The workshop covers high impact classic exercises that still receive very positive responses in change programs, as well as newer approaches which provide novel activities, exercises or methodologies to the teaching of organizational change. Two key features underpin this workshop:
1. The workshop has a "hands-on" approach where participants get to experience, in part, the actual exercise or activity being undertaken.
2. The teaching philosophy underpinning the workshop is a "multiple perspectives" approach which assumes that a variety of approaches, assumptions and methodologies may be employed to explore the many areas associated with organizational change.
Each of the following presenters will introduce their exercise, provide the audience with a short, hands-on sampling of it and the method for debriefing it. Each presenter will provide more detailed notes for the audience to take away on the exercise and how to run it.
1. Ian Palmer (<st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Technology</st1:placename>, <st1:city w:st="on">Sydney</st1:city>) and Richard Dunford (<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Macquarie</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:place>) will present the exercise entitled "Symbols" that highlights a range of issues linking communication processes, formal structure and the attribution of meaning. The exercise typically reveals a number of elements which can form the content of a debrief on change. These elements include the conscious or unconscious decision by the top management team as to what information should be communicated to other parts of the organization, the creation of meaning/purpose in a context where the meaning/purpose is not officially conveyed, information overload, the evolution of group dynamic, and the effect of communication processes on emotional responses. This is a high-impact exercise which has been used very effectively with undergraduates, MBA students, in corporate taining and consulting.
2. Tony Buono (<st1:placename w:st="on">Bentley</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">College</st1:placetype>, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Boston</st1:city></st1:place>) and Ken Kerber (Kerber & Associates) will present an exercise that challenges students to operate in a self-organizing system and provides an opportunity for the class to take ownership of an organizational change and to analyze ways to build greater change capacity. Focusing on making sense of the iterative nature of change, the exercise is based on an open-ended assignment with only a vague/general sense of the desired direction/anticipated outcome.
3. Chris Worley (<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Pepperdine</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:place>) will present a segment on using exercises in the context of an organizational development intervention. The segment will describe and then actively involve participants in how to use these interventions in a manner that facilitates OD experiential learning and activity-oriented learning.
4. Phil Mirvis (Organizational Psychology) will present an exercise entitled "Theming the experience: An Exercise in Drama and Organizational Change". The exercise looks at the "dramatizing" of organization change. The intent is to show how concepts of the performance arts, such as scripting, staging, and directing apply to organization change efforts. This exercise will show how business executives bring change to life with these methods. Material will be drawn from the author's multi-year study of change-as-theater, 'To the Desert and Back'.
5. Gavin Schwarz (<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">New South Wales</st1:placename></st1:place>) will lead all presenters in a discussion of outcomes for organizational change teaching and consulting.
For information on the session contact Gavin Schwarz (g.schwarz@unsw.edu.au), Ian Palmer (i.palmer@uts.edu.au), or Richard Dunford (Richard.Dunford@mgsm.edu.au).