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The Art of Framing Powerful Questions: Conversational Leadership and the World Café

Pre and post Forum tours highlighting the best of Oman; its people, landscape and culture.

April 2008

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Collaborative learning is a key aspect of the Forum and a core principle of SoL, which is reflected in the concurrent sessions. These offer opportunities for participants to explore specific topics in more depth, experience new tools in the field, and learn from the experiences of colleagues. Included during these times some plenary guest will go deeper into the work that they are currently involved.

These expected concurrent sessions are subject to change.

Flying the Magic Carpet of Multi-Cultural Knowledge and Innovation Networks
How can organizations embedded in multi-national and multi-cultural environments tap the collective intelligence of its diverse networks for profound innovation? We will together experience the power of systemic constellations – like a ride on a magic carpet!
Presenters
Doris Wilhelmer and Petra Wagner-Luptacik are both senior researchers with the Austrian Research Centers (ARC), Department of Systems Research. Doris just finished her PhD in organizational development on complementary innovation consulting and has extensive experience in various HR management positions. Petra’s research and consulting work focuses on knowledge networks and learning systems as well as on strategic foresight. She is also the coordinator of the Society of Organizational Learning (SoL) Austria.

Inside Omani Corporate Culture: Research into Cross-Cultural Management Styles
The increasing importance of the Arab world economically and politically has necessitated examining the approach to management the Arab World. This session will explore the role that national culture, subcultures and corporate culture play in influencing the styles of Gulf managers. The style and behaviour of indigenous Gulf managers is examined in comparison to expatriate managers working in Oman. Other variables such as gender, level and source of education and the organisational position of subject managers is analyzed as well.
Presenter
Dr. Salem Al-Ismaily Chief Executive, OCIPED, Oman has maintained interest on the influence of national and corporate culture on management styles, particularly in the context of the Gulf business community.

Managing Globalization While Giving Poor People the Opportunity to Escape Poverty and to Improve their Lives: The International Finance Corporation’s Five Year Organizational Learning Journey
Presenter
Yolanda Hegngi - International Finance Corporation (World Bank Group)

Reviving Discussion Education in Arabic—MaHakaat
Join a discussion considering the revival of Arabic speaking Abbasids and Ummayads as a cornerstone of creating a modern, uniquely Arab learning environment which draws on the successes of the Arab Golden Age.
Presenters
Graham Leonard most recently has been engaged in designing an Arabic Touchstones curricula, (MaHakaat), a discussion based program to revive Abbasid-Umayyad learning methods for students in the Arab world to engage with the classical Arabic literature while empowering (modernizing) thinking for 21st century globalization.
Mu'in Mohammed Hindawi

Sustainable Learning Environments: A New Approach to Corporate Strategy
The inspiring case of a Fortune 500 Oil Company in the process of transforming 7000 retail outlets, into numerous evolutionary engines, across a culturally diverse sub-continent.

Presenters
Dipti Sanzgiri is Executive Director (Finance & Internal Coach), BPCL (http://www.bharatpetroleum.in/). Having facilitated organizational transformation using FOL & VLP methods, she currently leads the strategy actualization initiative of BPCL with Illumine.
Jasbir Singh Sokhi is General Manager (New Initiatives), BPCL (an oil retail Fortune 500 Company - http://www.bharatpetroleum.in/). He is responsible for envisioning, modeling, and actualizing the new retail outlet business models.
Srinivas Venkatram is CEO & Head of Research of Illumine Knowledge Resources (http://www.illumine.info/). His research focus is the transformation of the modern workplace into an arena for personal and social evolution.
Anannya Deb does modeling of community engagements at Illumine (http://www.illumine.info/). This modeling enables change leaders to discover ways of engaging with stakeholder collectives, leading to “performance level” and “meaning & purpose level” outcomes.

The Cultural Photo Lab: Taking Pictures of What We Can’t See
Presenters
Stephan Berchtold - Choices Management Consulting,
Stefan Gueldenberg - Hochschule Liechtenstein,
Roosevelt Finlayson, MDR

Developing Local Talent through Workplace Learning in Oman
Presenters
Shabir Hussain and Adam Thurston Lomas - Shell International Exploration & Production

Changing Faces: Bridging the Gap between Chinese High Tech Workers and a Western Multi-National Corporation
This session is an interactive case study of a greenfield manufacturing start-up by a High Tech multinational corporation in the Western Chinese city of Chengdu. Chengdu, a tier-two Chinese city is the center of the Chinese Taoist culture. Presenter
Nora L. Hughes, PhD is an executive with a worldwide clientele. She is an accomplished manager, author, speaker and consultant. Her extensive cross-cultural experience in creating effective organizations which are aligned to execute the company strategy has won her the long-lasting respect of successful leaders, managers and teams in Asia, Eastern Europe and the US. As President of The Hughes Consulting Group, Dr. Hughes has been providing management consulting services since.

Collaboration Across Organizations: Building an Entrepreneurial Culture
The concept of entrepreneurship is picking up in this region. Many private and public sector organizations have introduced initiatives to support the creation of Small & Medium Size Enterprises. This session will present an opportunity framework model for three organizations from different sectors sharing a unified vision “to support entrepreneurs in Oman”.
Presenter
Abdullah Al Jufaili is currently the Director of Intilaaqah, a Shell social investment program aimed at promoting and supporting the development of entrepreneurs. Before joining Shell he working for various organizations including Knowledge Oasis Muscat, the first technology park in Oman as the Director of the first incubator program (The Knowledge Mine)
Said AlKindy is currently the Local Business Development Manager in Petroleum Development Oman. After a number of years of engineering field work, developed a close interest in the tribal communities in the Oil concession area. Has been managing the Local community Contracting program in the last eight years.
Abeer Mohamed Al Abduwani, General Manager of GroFin Oman. MBA Strathclyde University. Worked in various places including the Muscat Securities Market and State General Reserve Fund

Cross-Boundary Leadership: An Experiential Workshop Exploring Leadership across Boundaries
This workshop will explore some different ways of exercising ‘cross-boundary leadership’ through practicing in the room with three different approaches, and then reflecting on the impact of these approaches.
Presenters
Pamela Paquin Hall-Host of the SoL European Sustainability Group, Associate -Pioneers of Change, Pangea of Denmark
Alok Singh is a consultant and facilitator based at Roffey Park Institute in the UK.

Project ELIAS: Building Leadership for the New Millennium
Presenters
Peter Senge, with ELIAS fellows Judith Flick, Presencing Institute and Frans Sugiarta, Executive Director of UID Forum

Struggles of Inclusion: Implementing Participatory Methods in the Hierarchal Workplace
This session discusses the participatory methods that are used as a management tool by companies in Iran that posses either a multinational or hierarchal culture. The participatory methods help promote corporate development, and moving companies from traditional to modern management practices.
Presenter
Shahrzad Saderi works as a Middle East facilitator and consultant bringing over 15 years of organizational development in public and private sector. Her work has a special focus on cross cultural management development, multi cultural teams, facilitating strategic planning and diversity initiatives.

Systemic Constellations as a Way of Co-Sensing
Systemic Constellations as a way to listen to subtleness and to find meaning in what people sense by drawing on the collective intelligence of those being present.
Presenters
Claude Rosselet born 1952 in Zurich (Switzerland). Several years of experience as manager in leading Swiss corporations; since 1994 consultant for executives, project teams and boards of directors. Facilitator for innovation and change processes; lecturer at various universities and institutions; http://www.inscena.ch
Christoph Mandl Professor at the School of Business, Economics and Statistics, University of Vienna; Research Council Member of SoL; Founding Member and Council Member of SoL Austria; http://www.mlp.co.at/index_en.html

The Body and Conversation Café
Presenters
Pierre Goirand and Stephen Meng

The Indirect Approach: Building Cross-Sector Connections at the Crossroads of Socio-Economic Development and Security
We’ll explore examples of new systemic approaches the US Department of Defense entities are using to address security challenges of this century by partnering with NGOs, IO’s, and non-military organizations.
Presenters
Sue Higgins is the Defense Transformation Chair & Deputy Director-Cebrowski Institute for Innovation, Naval Postgraduate School, a retired Naval Officer & former Liaison Officer to SoL
Jean Tully - Tully Consulting, (engineer, OL/ST expert/teacher, sailboat racer) helps individuals & teams navigate changing environments. She’s a former HP-SoL Liaison Officer & past SoL Governing Council member.

LEGO(R) Serious Play Workshop: Exploring and Bridging
LEGO SERIOUS PLAY is an innovative, experiential process designed to enhance innovation and business performance. It taps into a team’s creativity, enabling them to create robust solutions for organizational challenges. Although the use of LEGO bricks in business might at first appear unusual, it has become a much recognized and favored tool used by leading organizations worldwide. The LEGO SERIOUS PLAY methodology is now widely deployed by ambitious organizations faced with tackling challenging business issues.
Presenter
Per Kristiansen - Trivium – is an experienced consultant in and facilitator of change, innovation and strategy. Vast intercultural and international experience in working with change, innovation and strategy in complex environments (start ups and large organizations)

Serving the Underserved: Progressive Energy Solutions through a Sustainable Business Model
Presenter
Roberto Boca is the Director of the Emerging Consumer Markets for BP Alternative Energy. Since 2004, Roberto has led the development of the business to provide access to cleaner, safer and affordable energy solutions to a large number of emerging consumers across the developing world.

Strategy, Learning and Sustainability: Moving Beyond Failed Attempts to Delivering New Levels of Capacity and Success
Presenter
Sultan Bin Battal – SABIC

Team Academy Network: Creating Team Entrepreneurs for Bringing Social and Cultural Divide
Do you want to be transformed by the Team Academy spirit? Be an actor in this workshop where members of the Team Academy Network in Europe will tell their personal testimonies. Be engaged in generative conversations about your significant learning experiences. Co-create about future possibilities expanding your own visions, Team Academy Network and SoL.
Presenters
Johannes Partanen. Team Academy’s founder and the innovator of all learning theories, methods and tools used in Team Academy. He has been awarded highly respected Finland’s Chamber of Commerence’s Silver Cross –award for promoting entrepreneurship in Finland.
Hanna Heikkinen. Jyväskylä Polytechnic’s Team Academy’s BBA degree on Business Administration in Finland. Currently she is operating as a CEO and entrepreneur in management consulting company Taitovire Valmennus Inc (Finland). She also operates as a coach in Team Academy and acts as a co-ordinator of Finland’s Society for Organizational learning fractal.
Ulla Luukas, experienced business leader in Nokia Corporation, she she moved to become a coach in Team Academy Finland in 2003.
Ville Keränen and Tatu Tuohimetsä graduated in Team Academy Finland. All of them have high skills in entrepreneurship, team building, organizational learning and leadership.
Etienne Collignon,Studies at the Management School of Lyon. Doctor in Management Sciences. Since 1988 in Solvay,chemical and pharmaceutical company, acting as leader in Knowledge Management, Development and Innovation. Member of the Board of SoL France.
Laurent Marbacher, Consultant in Esprit d’Entreprise, in Pays de Loire and Paris. Experience in managing multidisciplinary work teams, projects management and coaching. Promoting Team Entrepreneurs in Angers, France.
Charles van der Haegen and Robert Collartact as consultants in Comind, Belgium, leading international projects in organizational learning, complexity and self-development teams for companies and communities. They support the Team Academy Network in Europe and worldwide.
Claudia Neusüß. Political consultant in international projects, visiting professor at the American University in Cyprus. She is co-founder of one of Europe’s largest women’s entrepreneurship centers in Berlin. She co-initiated the award winning German team academy “Learning Journey” on social entrepreneurship.
Javier Ruiz. Ph.D. Degree in Chemistry, currently he is with LABEIN Research Institute, in the Innovation Systems unit. He has co-authored two books, more than forty articles and papers in international and national technical magazines about innovation, business and quality management. He is head coach of Team Academy in Euskadi.

Towards Integral Transition Management: The Case of the Sustainable Materials Usage Transition in Belgium
A presentation on the approach and personal experience of the sustainable materials usage arena in Belgium; followed by an exchange of experiences with whole systems change and integral approaches to the transition management methodology.
Presenter
Erik Mathijs is Professor in Natural Resource Economics at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. His research focuses on new forms of business and consumption based on the co-creation of value.

Archetypical Energy in Complex Living Systems! A Learning Journey
An interactive workshop focused on collective learning in complex living systems. Be surprised about an unorthodox perspective to change. Keywords: collective energy, re-align personal and organizational drivers, archetypes, practical tool
Presenters
Rik Berbé MSc, has 20 years experience in organizational development and personal mastery. He coaches and facilitates people as well as organizations in the area of sustainable development. In addition to this he is a consultant in the field of vision, strategy and leadership.
Mario Brouwer MSc - MBA, has 20 years of experience as an interim manager and consultant in the field of marketing, market research and customer relationship management. Most of his experience has been built in the market research area.

Conversational Leadership--Methods to Bridge the Understanding Gulf
If implemented across the board by individuals in leadership positions, Conversational Leadership moves an organization, through its myriad of meetings and conversations, to common understanding and alignment.
Presenters
Raymond D. Jorgensen Ph.D., CEO has over 30 years experience and leads JLC in conducting programs to affect organizational change using Conversational Leadership in a wide range of industries in public and private sectors.
Brian McElyea:COO of JLC, is recognized as an international authority organizational change. His work includes facilitating sustainable organizational change with executive boards utilizing the proven JLC techniques.

Cultivating Transformative Leadership in Civil Society and the Co-creation of the Energy Field for Democratization in Asia
The world is changing rapidly and dramatically, posing fundamental problems for human being and society. A paradigm shift is required in the way we think about our surrounding , we must transform ourselves as a prerequisite to transforming our world.
Presenter
Chaiwat Thirapantu , the president of Civicnet Institute, Thailand. He has pursued the idea of building equitable and participative societies since he was a young man. He was named an Ashoka Fellow in 1994 for his innovative work with Bangkok Forum, creating active citizen engagement across traditional boundaries. He has worked as a “process activists” bringing diverse groups together on a large scale to support a life affirming and democratic future of his nation.

Cross Sectoral Leadership for Collective Action on HIV and AIDS
This session focuses on the insights from a learning journey of cross-sectoral Zambian leaders seeking to find ways to achieve profound and lasting impact on the HIV and AIDS pandemic in Zambia.
Presenters
Judith Flick,Prescencing Institute, is an experienced facilitator with extensive cross-sectoral, multi-lingual experience in both leading cutting-edge initiatives and facilitating large change management processes. Chillufya Kasutu, Oxfam – Zambian Aids Relief
Chillufya Kasutu,Oxfam – Zambian Aids Relief

Developing Circular Economy and Building Eco-friendly Laiwu Steel Guided by Learning Organization Theory
Participate in a learning conversation on circular economies in practice with Laiwu Steel Group Ltd, a top ten Chinese steel company where we hope to improve upon our past sustainability successes with colleagues.
Presenter
Shengsheng Zhang - Lia Wu Steel, Vice President of Laiwu Steel Group, Ltd.; Shanghai - is a leader from one of the 10 leading steel corporations in China who is focusing on the energy efficiency and economic performance of Laiwu Steel Group.

Exploring Sustainable Solutions for the Limits to Growth Archetype
Presenters
Junko Edahiro and Rich Oda - Japan for Sustainability / Change Agent Inc.

Community Action Research and Cultural Theory for Effective Decision Making and Implementation in Complex Environments: Bridging the gulf between plural voices and solidarities
Community Action Research and Cultural Theory for effective decision making and implementation in complex environments: bridging the Gulf between plural voices and solidarities
Presenters
Dr Michael Thompson - Oxford, Bergen, IIASA, Michael Thompson: anthropologist and Fellow at the James Martin Institute, University of Oxford.
Dipak Gyawali – IIASA Former Water Minister, hydropower engineer and political economist.
Charles van der Haegen – Comind Societal Entrepreneur

Drivers of Resilience and Sustainability – Lessons from the Long-Living Organizations and Institutions
An interactive presentation employing learning activities to co-create clarity around such questions as, “is there a cluster of (potentially culturally based) particular ingredients contributing to organizational resilience and longevity”?
Presenters
Ivo Wenzler - Accenture
Gideon Shimshon – Accenture,
Elyssebeth Leigh - University of Technology Sydney

Engaging the Corporation in Community Healthcare--Bridging the Gap
Presenter
Dr Al-Mutairi has helped in developing new disease prevention programs and recently has used “café” style sessions for a new approach in Kingdom to promote healthcare awareness of certain disorders. Dr. Eiman Mutairi Medical Services, Saudi Aramco earned her Ph.D. from the University of Bristol, UK, in the field of Bio-Organic Chemistry.

Knowledge Interventions as a Solution to the Challenges of Integration
The Precision Knowledge Interventions approach views change journeys as a stream of discrete knowledge failures that are quickly addressed through precision transformations.
Presenters
Srinivas Venkatram (principal presenter) is CEO & Head of Research of Illumine Knowledge Resources (http://www.illumine.info/). His research focus is the transformation of the modern workplace into an arena for personal and social evolution.
R.Ranganath is Deputy General Manager & Head-Practice School in BPCL (an oil retail Fortune 500 Company - http://www.bharatpetroleum.in/). He is responsible for competence building and the innovation infrastructure of BPCL-Retail.
Rebecca Ittyerah practices learning architecture at Illumine (http://www.illumine.info/). She has participated in a decade of research and innovation in the development of Precision Knowledge InterventionsTM.

Local Development: A Process Supported by the Investment in Social Capital
A practitioner’s introduction to social capital as fundamental to the construction of development and a fair society. This methodology intentionally energizes the multitude of manifestations from relationships between people and organizations.
Presenters
Carlos Alberto Lopes da Silva. We are an educational organization and develop methodologies to foment such relationships and partnerships that generate groups we denominate social nets, which are social capital.

RWS Renews: 5 Generations of Innovation in a Civil Service Organization
How people with passion can create structured opportunities for innovation and organizational development: the story of 16 years of continuous renewal at a large civil service organization in the Netherlands.
Presenters
Hank Kune is director of Educore (the Netherlands). His work focuses on systemic innovation in the field of public policy-making, innovations in civil service organisations, and developing future centre initiatives for government.
Edwin Kuil is director of the Corporate Learning Center of Rijkswaterstaat, in the Netherlands. He has been working on innovation – its strategies, finance and implementation – for the last six years.
Ton Van der Wiel is an innovation manager for Dutch national Government. His focus is public sector renewal. He currently works for the Dutch Senior Civil Service.