"That Was Great!": More High Impact Exercises For Teaching Or Consulting On Organizational Change 11
A two-hour interactive Academy of Management Annual meeting PDW workshop in Vancouver, Friday, August 7, 11.45am-1.45pm
Pan Pacific Vancouver, Cypress Suite
Do you teach, research, or have an interest in organizational change?
For the 11th consecutive year, we offer a PDW to 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). The workshop covers high impact classic and contemporary exercises that receive very positive responses in change programs. Two key features underpin this workshop:
- The workshop has a "hands-on" approach where participants get to experience, in part, the actual exercise or activity being undertaken.
- 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.
Presenters will introduce their exercise, provide the audience with a short, hands-on sampling of it and the method for debriefing it, and will provide more detailed take away notes.
1. Gary Wagenheim and Keith Hunter (Simon Fraser U.) will present Headband Game which will focus on a highly interactive game to facilitate learning about the impact of role expectations on individual behavior and group performance. The session facilitators will use the headband game to help participants experience and examine some effects of role expectations on behavior, communication, decision-making and overall group performance. During the session, participants will have the opportunity to participate in the headband game and then discuss their learning and ideas for classroom application.
2. Susan Resnick West and Cindy Martinez (U. Southern California) will present the Marshmallow Challenge intended to help teams experience fundamental dynamics of innovation. By putting participants in teams and challenging them to build the tallest freestanding structure, this exercise reveals the need for the core innovation skills of experimentation and play. The exercise works well to introduce a course lecture on innovation, change or team development, as well as executive innovation workshops. The exercise creates a deep understanding of why experimentation and play are critical elements of innovation while challenging the conventional wisdom of plan twice, act once.
3. Susan Adams and Tony Buono (Bentley University) will present an Exercise for Prioritizing Change Goals. The exercise engages participants in clarifying and understanding the goals of change-related projects, forcing them to fully examine the underlying values and rationale that drive the change and its outcomes. The exercise begins with an identification of a particular organizational change that is assigned to the participants. Small groups then brainstorm a list of specific goals of the change (both positive and negative), in terms of what the group/organization wants to achieve and avoid.
4. Ann Feyerherm (Pepperdine U.) will present Troika Consulting. This exercise is used for students learning consulting skills, coaching skills, or enrolled in organization behavior or organization development classes. It is a methodology for helping participants gain clarity on a challenge facing them, and as such is a method for one's own problem-solving as well as teaching a method for others to problem solve. It would be excellent for students who are in learning groups as a means to advance their own learning.
5. Gavin Schwarz (UNSW), Richard Dunford (U. Newcastle), and Ian Palmer (RMIT U) will lead all presenters in a discussion of How to Effectively Debrief High Impact Exercises focusing on outcomes for organizational change teaching and consulting.
No pre-registration is neccesary to attend the session.
For information on the session contact Gavin Schwarz (g.schwarz@unsw.edu.au).