Philadelphia Region Organizational Development Network

June 2003

Highlights:

New Board Slate Announced

I am pleased to announce the nominations to the PRODN Steering Committee for the 2003-2004 Program Year. The nominations will be voted on at the June 26, 2003 Monthly meeting.

Ronald Ettinger, PRODN Chair

Cynthia Brancato, New Practitioner SIG

Chuck Haughton, Lead, Membership

Diane Kitson, Lead, Programs & Learning Events

Nancy Roggen, Lead, Technology

Elizabeth Wilson, Treasurer

Katherine Woolrich, Lead, Communications

Kim Eberbach, Honorary Member   

The Diversity Chair position has not yet been filled.

Kim Eberbach is interested in hearing from anyone who would be interested in the Diversity Chair position. Kim can be reached at: 215.836.4326 keberbach@onemain.com

Thanks to Tricia Steege and Ron Preston who will be leaving the board this year – PRODN would be much the poorer (in so many senses) without your caring leadership. A rousing vote of thanks to Kim who will be an Honorary Member next year, but who has inspired us all with her resilience, leadership and ability to hold on to a challenging vision of what PRODN can become.

PRODN CALENDAR12, 2002

Monthly Meetings

- June 26 (Thursday) Assessing the ROI of OD Interventions with Terrence R. Simmons, Ron Preston and Christine Dreyfus 5:30 – 8:30 Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (City Line Avenue Philadelphia)

SPECIAL LEARNING EVENTS

- Tuesday June 3, 2003 Merging Cultures with optional Trainer Certification June 4, 2003 8:15 – 4:00 Leader Barry Oshry of Power and Systems, Inc (McCall Field, Upper Darby)

- Thursday & Friday, June 19-20, 2003 Facilitated by Antje Mattheus and Lorraine Marino 9:00 – 6:00 both days (McCall Field, Upper Darby)

- Friday November 14, 2003 Effective Strategic Partnering: Linking Business and Performance Needs with Jim and Dana Gaines-Robinson 8:30 – 4:30 (McCall Field, Upper Darby)

President’s Message

Hello PRODN Members,

As my tenure as Steering Committee Chair winds down, it is a pleasure to reflect upon the rich monthly programs and special learning events we've had since September.  Your programming committee has worked hard and diligently to bring such a line up of special guests.  For example, we've had the pleasure to explore Social Dreaming with Tom Michael, Trust in the Workplace with Robert Shaw, and two Gestalt programs, one with Ed Nevis and the other with John Carter and colleagues.  And Lorraine Marino and Antje Mattheus have continued with the deep-learning Whites Confronting Racism series.  Our own member, Paul Hilt, shared with us his passion and expertise around personal strengths, and this month, we have an internationally renowned guest returning, Barry Oshry.  I am so please to say that our monthly program with the Cornell Interactive Theatre Ensemble (CITE) was a huge success. It was especially rewarding to partner with the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), and their terrific Diversity Chair, Marilyn Dyson.  A special thank you to Marilyn and all of the folks on the planning committee from PRODN and SHRM that made it what it was.  In addition to this very full programming year, we have events scheduled for you into 2004. Check out the website for more information!  

As well as our educational efforts, the New Practitioner's Group continues to meet and PRODN continues to sponsor our Mentoring program.  There has been an overhaul to the PRODN website and all of the accoutrements, and we switched all of our administrative support to a new vendor.  Both of these were significant change efforts.  Your steering committee has met monthly to plan and keep all of this going.

From my perspective, one of the greatest challenges this year for the steering committee has been the issue of Diversity.  One of my leadership priorities was to further the work done by steering committee leaders before me to make our organization a more inclusive one, particularly with respect to people of color.  From my perspective, the current steering committee stumbled with the complexity of this issue, and had some measure of incremental change, probably mostly in terms of personal learning.  The current steering committee approved adding a Diversity Chair to the board, but the position remains open.  With the sweeping change that still needs to be done in this area, I leave my role as Chair feeling humbled by this daunting task.  And, I have a heightened awareness of the courage exhibited by those people of color and whites who continue to push for change in our field. It is my belief that our membership must implore that Diversity remain a central value for PRODN and for our members as organizational practitioners.

Finally, there are many thanks to be said:

Thank you to Nancy Roggen for her great effort and skill in taking charge of the website overhaul, and for her diligence in creating and disseminating the monthly newsletter.

Thank you to Tricia Steege for establishing and leading a highly creative and energized programming committee that delivered beyond my expectations.

Thank you to Cynthia Brancato for continuing to lead the New Practitioner's group, for her energy and support for the CITE program, and her powerful observation skills.

Thank you to Chuck Haughton for his work on MentorNet and Membership.

Thank you to Ron Preston for his work on assessing administrative efficiencies and the 2003 budget.

Thank you to Phil Hyde for his support with the CITE program, and for continuing to be present as the former Chair.

Finally, thank you to Ron Ettinger for all of his support in managing the organization and in making decisions to move PRODN forward. 

I imagine that most of the work this Steering Committee did is transparent to our membership, so I want to make explicit that it required significant efforts and commitment.

Best of luck to next year's committee (see this newsletter for nominations). 

Thank you for the opportunity to serve as Chair.

Kim Eberbach

Chair, PRODN

Website Update

We still have some wonderful offerings – and wish you a wonderful summer. Please plan to attend the sessions on our calendar and watch for the new updated website which is planning it’s debut June 16, 2003. Among the new features will be:

· Members will be able to download a Membership List in PDF format.

· New look and feel that features top of screen navigation.

· Enhanced administrative functions for our staff and board

· The ability for members to update their own information

· Forgotten Password functionality.

· The ability for members to indicate whether they wish to opt out of specific kinds of or all emails.

· More security in emailing offerings that prevents the inadvertent list of members accompanying a mailing.

Watch out for our new site – and please share your reactions. We’ll all miss the spider, hope you’ll find the added functionality a real improvement.

Welcome Phyllis Jones

PRODN's new administrator is Phyllis Jones of PD Jones & Associates, established in 1994. We are delighted to welcome Phyllis and her talented staff to their new role supporting PRODN and our members. Phyllis and her staff, Ruth Hanker and Kathy Wiltsey provide administrative support to various clients including several Human Resource organizations such as SHRM Philadelphia, Philadelphia HR Planning Group and Tri-State HRMA.

They look forward to working with and providing administrative support to PRODN members!

You can reach Phyllis and her team at P.O. Box 2322 Cherry Hill, NJ 08034
or by Phone at: 215-665-8151. If you want to communicate by fax: 856-216-1493 (fax) (Yes both of these get you to Phyllis and her team!)

SIG MEETINGS

Learning Group Next meeting, June 9, 2003 6:30 – 9:00 at Page Morahan’s House

735 Fetters Mill Road, Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006 Call for directions or check the website215-947-6542 We will be discussing pages 229-end in the book we are currently
reading:  Lessons from the Field, Applying Appreciative Inquiry, Sue Annis Hammond and Cathy Royal, eds., published by Thin Book Publishing, ISBN: 0966537335.

New Practitioners Group SIG

Next meetings

June 18 (Friday).

Monthly meetings will be near Conshohocken. Please contact Cynthia Brancato for directions or additional information at 215-652-1602 or email her at Cynthia_Brancato@Merck.com

OTHER NEWS – Session Summaries

How to Maximize Success with Organizational Political Savvy

with Joel R DeLuca, Ph.D. & Kathryn C. Mayer

It was quite an evening - A “Memorial” if you will. With the impending Memorial Day weekend fast approaching, about 28 of us gathered to build our understanding of the criticalness of being savvy politically. While the topic of “Politics” elicits the feeling of putting two fingers up in front of ourselves in the form of an “X”, Joel Deluca and his business partner, Kathryn Mayer, Citigroup (formerly Salomon Smith Barney) showed us the value of understanding that understanding how to strategize and influence within organizations is not defeating our role as change agents but rather enhancing it. Prior to our arrival at the session, we were encouraged to take the Politically Savvy quiz online at www.politicalsavvy.com. When we arrived, we found a packet on each seat, along with a copy of Joel’s book, Political Savvy: Systematic Approaches to Leadership Behind-the Scenes. Joel began our session by reminding us that mistakes don’t mean failure. Taking a quote from Peter Druker that “No leadership education is complete until it is grounded in the political realities of organizational life”, Joel helped shift our mindset to engage in a simulation.

Grouping us in numbers of six, we were presented with a real life case study with about a case and then asked to present the strategy to deal with the challenges. In the simulation, our boss, Alice, had asked us to come up with a strategy that she could present at an upcoming key leadership meeting where she needed to influence her agenda and meet her goals but create a win-win situation for all vested interests. She was facing the facts of her young tenure with the company of 1 year, being the only female on a leadership team of 5, with two of the leadership having been with the company for 28 or more years. Through the twenty-five minute process of uncovering facts that were given to each us in the group via a deck of cards, we were to define to whom and in what order Alice should speak prior to the meeting so that the results were a win-win for everyone. While most found the exercise challenging because of the time of day we were being asked to think, there was an agreement that we learned a lot about learning how to strategize and influence while keeping it ethical, above board and maintaining others self esteem.

Joel touched on the 7 Savvy Strategy Tools and Tactics which are elaborated on in his book. Kathryn shared how she has been using this in her work as a client of Political Savvy at Citigroup and her quest to begin working closer with women regarding Political Savvy. Interesting comments were made regarding the gender differences in dealing with Politics.

Anyone who wasn’t able to attend this event missed a rich evening full of interesting discussion, mind set shifts and the opportunity to walk away with a FREE copy of Joel’s book!

Meeting Location Directions

Directions to Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine

4170 City Ave

Rowland Building
Philadelphia, PA 19131

215 871-6100 (after hours 215 871 6351)

From Philadelphia International Airport
Take Interstate 95 North.
Look for signs to Interstate 76 West to Philadelphia - Valley Forge.
I-76 (follow signs to Valley Forge) at St. Joseph's University sign - stay in left lane and look for Exit City Line Avenue, Route 1 South.
Take City Avenue South two blocks to Monument Road (Adam's Mark Hotel is on the left).
Make a left onto Monument Road, PCOM's entrance is on right before light. Our meetings will be in the Rowland Building. Follow signs to parking garage (flat fee $4).

From New York, New Jersey or New England
Take the New Jersey Turnpike South to the PA Turnpike Exit 6.
Take the PA Turnpike West To Exit #24 (King of Prussia/Valley Forge).
After the tollbooth, follow signs for Philadelphia, Interstate 76 East.
Take I-76 East to the City Avenue Exit (also known as City Line Avenue or U.S. Route 1 South). Take City Avenue South two blocks to Monument Road (Adam's Mark Hotel is on the left). Make a left onto Monument Road, PCOM's entrance is on right before light. Our meetings will be in the Rowland Building. Follow signs to parking garage (flat fee $4).

From the West
Drive east on the PA Turnpike to Exit #24 (King of Prussia/Valley Forge).
After the toll booth, follow signs for Philadelphia, Interstate 76 East.
Take I-76 East to the City Avenue Exit (also known as City Line Avenue or U.S. Route 1 South). Take City Avenue South two blocks to Monument Road (Adam's Mark Hotel is on the left). Make a left onto Monument Road, PCOM's entrance is on right before light. Our meetings will be in the Rowland Building. Follow signs to parking garage (flat fee $4).