The SoL Flash is a quarterly e-newsletter with pointers to important developments in the field of organizational learning as well as timely updates on SoL community news and events.
Summer 2006
Editor's Note
This issue of the Flash is full of announcements from SoL members and friends highlighting a number exciting events and opportunities for the SoL community.
The next Flash will be published in late October 2006. Please submit your updates and articles for inclusion to me at rachel@solonline.org by October 2, 2006.
Rachel Dow
SoL Flash Editor
SoL Flash, Volume 10, Issue 3
Table of Contents
Features
Upcoming SoL Gatherings
Presence in Action, A New DVD Featuring C. Otto Scharmer
Profit for Life, A New SoL Publication by Jay Bragdon
Reflections Sustainability Compilation
Business Manager Position at SoL
SoL's Hastily Formed Networks Project
SoL Sponsors Liminal Group Leadership Communications Event
Reflections: The SoL Journal
-- Volume 7, Issue 2
Sustainability News
-- SoL Sustainability Consortium Summer Newsletter
-- The 2nd SoL Business Innovation for Sustainability Forum
-- SoL European Sustainability Group (ESG)
Upcoming Founding SoL Courses and Events
-- Foundations for Leadership
-- Presencing: Collective Leadership for Profound Innovation and Change
Other Local SoL Community Updates and Events
-- SoL Finland
-- SoL France
Updates and Events from SoL Communities in Formation
-- SoL Jeans "Gets Down in the Dirt"
SoL Member Opportunities
-- Systems Thinking Development Program
-- Calling all SoL Photographers
-- SoL Special Offers Webpage
SoL Business
-- SoL Council Elections
-- Upcoming SoL Council Meetings
SoL Community Events
-- Authentic Leadership Certificate Program
-- Deep Democracy: Unleashing the Potential of Teams
-- MIT Understanding and Solving Complex Business Problems
-- Vancouver Dialogues
-- Liminal Group, Leadership Communications: The Articulate Executive
-- Alt Wheels Festival
-- Legacy Retreat for Executives in Transition
-- Business as an Agent of World Benefit Conference
-- 16th Annual Pegasus Conference
-- Sustainable School Development Conference
SoL Community News
-- Jay Forrester Inducted into the IFORS Operational Research Hall of Fame
-- Peter Senge Makes HR Magazine List of 100 Most Influential People
-- Marilyn Darling, Signet and DTE in Business Week
-- LOPN, Learning Organisation Practitioners' Network, Singapore
-- Employment Opportunities
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Features
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Upcoming SoL Gatherings
Three upcoming meetings offer opportunities for SoL members to broaden their networks and deepen their involvement.
In September a special combined meeting of SoL's organizational representatives and SoL's consulting convergence group will be hosted by the Ford Motor Company in Detroit.
In November, SoL will host a World Café and lunch for SoL members following Peter Senge's keynote address, "We've Never Been Here Before," at the Pegasus Systems Thinking in Action Conference in Boston. Peter Senge, Sherry Immediato, and members of the SoL Council will participate in discussions with SoL members on topics that emerge at the conference. Read more and register for the World Café...
In March of 2007, the SoL Sustainability Consortium will hold The Second SoL Business Innovation for Sustainability Forum in Atlanta. The Coca-Cola Company will serve as local sponsor for this meeting. This forum is designed for all SoL members and is open to the public.
Many of SoL's local community coordinators will be meeting later this fall to consider the types of global community gatherings that they will offer in 2007. If you have an interest in being an active participant in a design team for such an event, please contact Jean Macdonald at the SoL office.
Many SoL members have indicated interest in creating simple, low cost opportunities for virtual gatherings. Similar networks host periodic teleconferences featuring a guest discussion leader, recent authors, organizational case studies, and consulting "clinics." We would like to know if members are interested in experimenting with a series of community-organized teleconferences. This would require members of the SoL community to volunteer to schedule, host, and present. The SoL staff would publicize the call(s) and provide access to any documents presenters may want to share.
If you are interested in taking a leadership role in initiating community organized events, or if you would like to identify yourself as a resource to those who do volunteer, please contact SoL's Projects and Marketing Assistant, Tatiana Lewis, at tatiana@solonline.org or +1-617-300- 9528.
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Presence in Action: An Introduction to Theory U
A New DVD Featuring C. Otto Scharmer
 This September, SoL will release its first DVD, Presence in Action: An Introduction to Theory U, which features C. Otto Scharmer's keynote address from the SoL Global Forum in Vienna, September 2005.
In three segments, "Shifting the Social Field," "Facing Three Enemies," and "A 12-Step Presencing Practice," Otto Scharmer introduces the social technology of presencing to management and management science. "Presencing," a blend of "presence" and "sensing," refers to the ability to sense and bring into the present one's highest future potential. Scharmer shows us our current blind spot and encourages co-creation of a future that depends on each of us.
The learning and change theories that guide leaders' actions are based on reflecting on experiences of the past. But the complex challenges facing us today require a new form of learning - one that connects us to the emerging future.
Available at the SoL Store in Late September 2006
Price to be determined
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Profit for Life: How Capitalism Excels, A New SoL Publication by Jay Bragdon
 Profit for Life: How Capitalism Excels introduces a radical new premise to business leaders and investors that brings clarity to a corporate world beset by debt, scandal and chaos: living assets (people and nature) are far more important to corporate health than non-living (capital) assets. Most companies put capital assets first and are suffering for it. A few - like HSBC, Nucor, Toyota, Alcoa - put living assets first and are thriving. Companies that steward living assets - their real sources of wealth - have natural advantages over those that simply look to end results such as returns on capital and earnings per share. This book, based on the analytic model that companies are living systems (de Geus) and operate within larger living systems (Senge), proves living assets, rather than capital assets, are the true source of corporate energy and innovation.
Order Profit for Life now! .........................................................................
Reflections Sustainability Compilation
This new 150-page collection contains 14 articles published in Reflections over the past 7 years. It combines classics like "Metanoic Organizations in the Transition to a Sustainable Society" by Peter Senge and Charles Kiefer with "Rethinking Corporate Responsibility" by Sir John Browne, CEO of BP, the late Donella Meadows' prescient "How Many Experts Do We Heed Earth's Warnings?" and more contemporary selections like "Socially Responsible Investing and Trillium Asset Management" by Bill Torbert. A timely complement to the recently published Learning for Sustainability, this comprehensive volume is thought-provoking, inspiring, and a valuable reference for anyone interested in sustainability issues.
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Business Manager Position at SoL
SoL is looking for a Business Manager. This is a unique opportunity to join the SoL staff in a new position designed to complement the managing director's strategic management and business development responsibilities. This person in this position will hold a blend of responsibilities in five key areas: finance, human resources, general administration, information technology, and events.
Reporting to the managing director; the business manager is a member of the management team, fulfills the duties of a controller, and provides management supervision for the staff accountant, database manager, network administrator, webmaster, and events manager. We anticipate this position to be 75-80% time with the possibility to increase to 100%.
In addition to a strong financial background with prior job experience in finance, this person must have prior management experience and the ability to work collaboratively with a flexible and optimistic approach.
View the full job description
To apply: Send a letter describing your interest and qualifications along with a resume to hr@solonline.org, subject line: Business Manager.
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SoL's Hastily Formed Networks Project
Momentum continues to accelerate both in terms of interest and participation in SoL's Hastily Formed Networks Project. In May, George Roth, Senior researcher at MIT, presented a research proposal at the May Liaison Meeting for capturing the learning that is occurring around forming, leading, and deploying networks in urgent organizational situations in which central authority is absent (or in some cases in spite of central authority).
New organizations joining current participants which include Ford, Boeing, DoD-Naval Post Graduate School, SoL, The Feinstein International Famine Center, are DTE and The World Bank Institute. A face-to-face meeting is scheduled for October 2 which will be held at and hosted by the World Bank Institute.
For further information contact Jeff Clanon at jclanon@solonline.org
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SoL Sponsors Liminal Group Leadership Communications Event
In support of our ongoing exploration into how we can inform more people about the work of SoL, we are sponsoring a one-day leadership event in New York City this September.
Leadership Communications: The Articulate Executive will take place on Setember 20 and features Granville Toogood, who has coached over half of the Fortune 500 CEOS. Members of SoL's staff will be onsite to distribute information about SoL and the services we offer.
As part of our sponsorship aggreement, friends and members of SoL will recieve 10% off the regular registration rate when you use the discount code "SOL" to register for the event.
Register for this event. For more information please download the event flier or contact Liminal Group (212) 546-4625, info@liminalgroup.com .........................................................................
Reflections: The SoL Journal
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Reflections: The SoL Journal Volume 7, Issue 2
 This issue of Reflections features a group of articles that speak to performance improvement, and how we can effectively learn from others.
"The Thinking Production System" by Michael Balle, Godefroy Beauvallet, Art Smalley and Durward K. Sobek looks at the purposes that underlie the Toyota Production System (TPS), and helps us appreciate the work of management in producing a supportive context for new tools and methods. Roger Saillant, CEO of Plug Power, provides a commentary.
SoL research member George Roth, who has studied lean enterprises extensively, examines current change management frameworks and how they might be improved in "Distributing Leadership Practices for Lean Transformation." Bill Bellows of Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne offers his commentary.
Bahattin Aydin's article "From Human Resources to Human Relations" documents the transformation of the company performance management system from bureaucratic paperwork to meaningful interaction. A consultant to the effort, Evrim Calkaver, the coordinator of SoL's local community in Turkey, provides a commentary.
SoL consultant member Peter Pruyn and Michael Sterling author "Space Flight Resources Management." The authors' intent is to document their specific case as well as to provide the reader with a toolbox with which to build their own team learning and group decision-making curriculum.
An excerpt from The Managerial Moment of Truth, by Bruce Bodaken and Robert Fritz, and a book review of Marilee Adams' Change your Questions, Change Your Life, round out the issue.
Upcoming issues of Reflections will be organized around sustainability, systems thinking, and new developments in the theory and practice of organizational learning.
Want to read more? Join SoL as a Connections member and enjoy immediate access to Reflections: The SoL Journal. .........................................................................
Sustainability News
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SoL Sustainability Consortium Summer Newsletter
The summer issue of the SoL Sustainability Consortium News is available now.
Highlights include a report from Women Leading Sustainability, a recap of the spring sustainability meeting, updates from working groups, and a member profile of Roger Salliant from Plug Power. This issue also includes George David's (UTC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer) remarks to the International Conference on Intelligent Green and Energy-Efficient Building and Technologies.
Download the SoL Sustainability Consortium News
For more information on the SoL Sustainability Consortium visit www.solsustainability.org .........................................................................
The 2nd SoL Business Innovation for Sustainability Forum: Leadership, Learning & Collaboration for a Living Economy
March 27-30, 2007 - Atlanta, Georgia, US
We are very excited to announce the dates and location of the 2007 SoL Sustainability Forum. The 2nd SoL Business Innovation for Sustainability Forum: Leadership, Learning & Collaboration for a Living Economy will be held in Atlanta, Georgia on March 27-30, 2007 at the Crowne Plaza Ravinia. Please mark your calendars and begin thinking about the key business partners and stakeholders you would like to invite to attend this event with you.
For more information, contact Martha Brown, Forum Coordinator at martha.brown@solsustainability.org.
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SoL European Sustainability Group (ESG)
www.solonline.org/public_pages/comm_EuropeanSustainabilityGroup/
New Members
The SoL European Sustainability Group continues to grow with the addition of new company members Microsoft and Solvay. May 2006 Meeting in Sweden
SoL ESG co-hosted a meeting in Stockholm and on the island of Rögrund in the Stockholm archipelago with SoL Sweden, Nature Academy Sweden and The Natural Step. The theme for the event was Integrating Innovation and Sustainability. As one participant commented, she enjoyed the inspiring company, and sharing other people's thoughts and experiences. The surroundings, particularly the island itself, were a perfect setting for the theme. Also, the generous time given to reflection was very important, as without reflection nothing new happens.
Our intention for the workshop was to explore a variety of approaches to implementing sustainable practice within organizations. We were interested in how this can be done in an innovative manner that allows for the fulfilment of individual and collective potential. Participants could hear from peers on their approaches, and pick up the most appealing and practical tools and approaches to take with them. We heard from two companies, Lantmännen and Vattenfall, and participants from Shell, Skanska, Gotlands & Jämtlands Municipality, TNS and other organizations also contributed their experience. Sessions included:
- TNS's framework
- Vattenfall's sustainability reporting and initiatives
- World café on our biggest challenges, underlying causes and best practices
- Leadership and managing complexity
- Increasing sensing capacity through connecting to nature
- Peer coaching our intentions and insights.
We also included plenty of time for group and individual reflection especially in the evenings by the fire. The workshop's combination of varied conversations and reflection helped us to gain new ideas and insights and to develop our intent for action. We plan to return to the island in June next year to continue the process! We are just finalising a full report and also have photographs of the beautiful island location and the outputs of many of our sessions. These will be up on our website shortly.
Future Meetings
Our next meeting will be hosted by Solvay in Brussels this autumn. The theme will be stakeholder engagement, and we will post dates and more details shortly. We are also planning a meeting in Bratislava in 2007 hosted by Helena Maliová of oikos Slovakia.
Further information
Please contact pamelapaquin@gmail.com or pennykennington@waitrose.com for more information on any SoL ESG matters.
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Upcoming Founding SoL Courses and Events
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SoL's Managing Director, Sherry Immediato says: While I've noticed a distinct trend in favor of on-the-job learning, we all know how valuable it can be to step away from the intensity of day-to-day demands. In fact, recent research suggests that stress may trigger our survival instincts so strongly that the quality of our thinking and learning is compromised. SoL workshops offer great opportunities for gaining perspective, renewing your focus on what matters most, and reconnecting to your deeper intelligence. We have two programs scheduled in 2006 that provide a solid grounding in the sources and practices of generative leadership and collective wisdom for both individuals and teams.
Foundations for Leadership, co-facilitated by Peter Senge, and Beth Jandernoa - October 3-5, 2006
Presencing: Collective Leadership for Profound Innovation and Change, co-facilitated by Otto Scharmer, Beth Jandernoa and Arawana Hayashi - December 4-8, 2006
Both workshops fill fast, and each offers a special opportunity to develop your capacity and build your network of relationships for inquiry and collaboration.
As an added incentive, register for Presencing before August 31 and SAVE $500 off the regular registration rate! Non-profit and team discounts are always available. In addition, consultant or research members of SoL receive additional tuition discounts if they attend with a client or project partner who is not a SoL member.
We hope that one or both of these workshops will be useful to you or your colleagues as opportunities for learning, connection, and reflection. Referrals from people like you are often the reason that others pursue their own development. Please pass on this e-mail with your recommendation to colleagues who might benefit from one or more of these possibilities.
For more information about these workshops please contact Stacy Bougie, Programs and Logistics Coordinator, at +1.617.300.9560 or stacy@solonline.org.
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Foundations for Leadership, Special nonprofit and team rates available!
October 3-5, 2006, Boston, MA US
Facilitated by Peter Senge and Beth Jandernoa
 This program goes deeply into the domains of personal mastery, collaborative inquiry, and the systems perspective as key competencies for sustaining profound change. Through the interplay of personal and interpersonal work, participants will recognize that leadership concerns the capacity of a human community to shape its destiny and to bring forth realities aligned with people's deepest aspirations. From senior executives to those with no formal authority, leaders at every organizational level will gain deeper insights into leadership as a collective phenomenon. Teams are encouraged to participate and explore together what it takes to create an environment in which leadership is a shared responsibility, naturally embedded in the fabric on an organization or community. This program was the origin of Peter Senge's book The Fifth Discipline.
If you are interested in attending Foundations for Leadership please email Stacy Bougie or call her at +1-617-300-9560.
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Presencing: Collective Leadership for Profound Innovation and Change
December 4-8, 2006 - Cambridge, MA, US
Facilitated by C. Otto Scharmer, Beth Jandernoa and Arawana Hayashi
Special Guests:
Peter Senge, Hal Hamilton, Susan Swietzer and Adam Kahane
Early Bird Registration Discounts End August 31!
 Based on the u-model featured in the book Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future, by Peter Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, and Betty Sue Flowers, this experiential workshop for teams leaders at all levels introduces individual and collective methodologies for sensing and facilitating profound change both within organizations and across societal systems. The workshop is based on findings from interviews with 150 scientists and social and business entrepreneurs in the areas of creativity, high performance, and leadership. Adam Kahane, Joseph Jaworksi and Peter Senge will join this session as guests.
Space is limited! Register now to reserve your seat!
For more information please email Stacy Bougie or call her at +1-617-300-9560.
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Other Local SoL Community Updates and Events
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SoL Finland - SoL Conference 2006!
November 13-14, 2006
Helsinki, Finland
SoL Finland welcomes you to the next SoL Conference, which will be held in November 2006. The place will be Finlandia Hall in Helsinki. Our main theme this year is:
Fire, Passion and Excellence
Fire has been a mystical phenomenon throughout the time. Our distant ancestors marveled at the glow of fire. Simultaneously fire aroused fear and respect. Fire had power. They believed that the creator of fire was a higher force. This belief is reflected in the paintings found on the walls of ancient caves.
Fire meant life for tribes. It kept them warm and protected them from wild animals. It brought light into the darkness. Wandering hunters met also members of other tribes on their hunting trips. At the night fall the tribe leaders gathered their tribes together around a common fire and exchanged their stories on the secrets of fire through tales and dancing. Thus the story of fire spread around the whole world.
At SoL Conference 2006, fire is the symbol for knowledge. Therefore, we gather around a camp fire, as our ancestors did in their time, to share news and ideas.
The camp fires will be lit on the 13 and 14 of November in Finlandia Hall, Helsinki, Finland. Our leading torch carrier is Brasilian Marcial Losada, whose ideas on High Performing Teams are hot topics of conversation around the world.
The leading role is, however, reserved for you. That has been the source of our motivation for organizing various inspiring and glowing camp fires for your benefit - they are workshops, which create pathways of teams, communities, leadership and well-being.
On these paths you will have an opportunity to solve your current and future challenges together with other like-minded participants. You will be equipped with tools for your own job as a manager as well as for the use of your whole organization. We will offer you the suitable tools for starting the fire and during the conference days you will surely further develop them into your own direction.
You find more information about the programme, enrollment and contact details from the following Power Point presentation or our webpage www.solconference.com/eng Learn more about SoL Finland.
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SoL France
Jacques Chaize, president of SoL France, chaired the Launching Conference for Team Academy Paris on June 14. Team Academy Paris will start in September 2006 with an 18 month programme for 20 young people with university diplomas. The programme is dedicated to young people at the end of their studies and before their first job. It gives them the opportunity to develop their leadership and capacities of entrepreneur, by reinforcing their personal resources in action. Team Academy Paris helps employment and prepares at the same time conscious leaders of the challenges of twenty first century. The concept is replicated from the first Team Academy, in Finland since 14 years. Johannes Partanen, its founder and head coach, participated to the event with 10 team-entrepreneurs. More than 60 people joined the Conference and gave their support. Upcoming SoL France Events
September 19, next meeting of the "Cercle des Entreprises," Enterprises circle of SoL France
November, 14 to 16, Seminar "Principles and Practice of organizational learning," working language: French, in Gouvieux-Chantilly, www.solfrance.org/Seminar%20PPOL.htm
More news from SoL France can be found at www.solfrance.org
General Sol France contact : sol.france@libertysurf.fr or sophie.juin@free.fr
Learn more about SoL France
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Updates and Events from SoL Communities in Formation
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SoL Jeans "Gets Down in the Dirt"
The SoL Jeans group Gathered in Denmark May 25 through 28 to Get Down in the Dirt and share our practices, challenges and successes. Twenty-eight of us came together for a four-day workshop that combined both intense large and small group work, with informal spaces for connecting and physical labour on the farm.
The workshop was a co-creation of all participants. Facilitators included Pamela Paquin Hall and Timo Karjalainen, with support from Emmanuel Sciara, Carsten Ohm, Ole Qvist Sorensen and many others. Read more details and view pictures in this report from the SoL Jeans meeting in Denmark.
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SoL Member Opportunities
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Systems Thinking Development Program
SoL Consultant member Rick Karash generously shared the content of his 2-day Systems Thinking course with a group of SoL Consultant and Research members who wanted to deepen their facility with Systems Thinking teaching and application. The group met at SoL's office in Cambridge for six full days between March and June.
The group covered a range of topics, including Systems Thinking basics, such as causal loop diagramming, archetypes, and the effects of accumulation and delays. Participants had the opportunity to practice teaching various segments of the course and receive feedback from peers. There were also opportunities to develop and/or present real cases in a supportive and collegiall atmosphere as well as to discuss other relevant topics. There are discussions underway about offering the course again, as well as having graduates of this course offer a 2-day course to other SoL members and possibly in other venues.
SoL's Managing Director, Sherry Immediato, said "I'm delighted with the sucess of this SoL member offering, and I hope other SoL members will consider offering similar programs."
If you are a SoL member and would like to offer a member program, please contact SoL's Projects and Marketing Assistant, Tatiana Lewis, at tatiana@solonline.org or +1-617-300- 9528.
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Calling all SoL Photographers
As you may be aware, the SoL staff has been sending end-of-year/New Year greetings in recent years, featuring one of SoL's principles. This year, the principle is: Aligning with Nature - It is essential that organizations evolve to be in greater harmony with human nature and with the natural world. We would like to share this principle, a brief message, and an inspiring photograph on behalf of SoL.
We have decided that photographs associated with SoL's principles should include nature (especially this year), and children (if human nature is directly observed in the photo). Our desire is to share hope/possibility and joy with the photo we use. Technically, the photo must be available digitally with at least 300 dpi resolution. We will print it in a 5 by 7 card format. If the response is great enough, we may also provide a temporary electronic show of all submissions for all visitors to SoL's web site.
Submission Guidelines:
- You must be a Connections, Consultant, or Research member of SoL, or an Employee of a SoL member company to be eligible
- You may submit up to four different electronic photographs for consideration
- Resolution on original digital file must be at least 300 dpi (please submit a small copy of the file for consideration)
If you would like to submit a photograph that embodies the Aligning with Nature principle, send your sumission to holiday@solonline.org.
Please keep your email file size to a minimum, i.e. please refrain from submitting files larger than 250K each. We will contact you to obtain a high-resoultion file after we have reviewed all submissions. Contact holiday@solonline.org with questions. The deadline for consideration is September 18, 2006. .........................................................................
Special Offers for SoL Members
Don't miss out! Make sure to check our Special Offers for SoL Members page for the latest offers and discounts. As a member of SoL, you are entitled to special offers and discounts on select event registration fees, magazine subscriptions, and more.
Do you have a special offer for members of SoL? Contact Rachel Dow at rachel@solonline.org.
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SoL Business
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Important Notice to RESEARCH and CONSULTANT MEMBERS OF FOUNDING SoL
2006 SoL COUNCIL ELECTION As in recent years, the 2006 Council Election is being conducted through an Internet-based voting service. On August 9, you should have received an e-mail from ElectionsOnline notifying you with instructions on how to place your votes in the 2006 Council Election. That e-mail provides you with a unique Username and Password by which to access their voting website. Access to profiles for the final slate of candidates in your constituency is also accessible there. The election will run from August 9 through Midnight EDT on Monday, August 28. Please look for this e-mail and plan to place your votes early so that we can establish quorum and finalize the election on time.
Election results will be announced via e-mail on approximately September 1.
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Upcoming SoL Council Meetings
The next face-to-face meeting will take place on September 21 in Detroit. The final face-to-face council meeting for 2006 will take place on November 1 and 2 at SoL's office in Cambridge.
The final council teleconference for 2006 is scheduled for and December 14, 10:30AM - 12:30PM Eastern Time. .........................................................................
SoL Community Programs & Events
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Authentic Leadership Certificate Program
August 28 - December 15, 2006
Includes two Residential Retreats at Garrison Institute.
Sponsored by the Marpa Center of Business and Economics
at Naropa University, Colorado
with Susan Skjei, Mark Gerzon, Arawana Hayashi, David Rome, Mark Wilding & others
Launched in 1999, Naropa's Authentic Leadership program is a transformative leadership course that integrates ancient wisdom with effective, modern approaches to management. The format encourages deep, personal learning in an environment that makes it possible to assimilate ideas and concepts at an accelerated pace. Online instruction makes it possible to share ideas and participate in group learning from anywhere in the world. Through the Authentic Leadership Certificate Program, you can learn to discover unique solutions to challenges and opportunities. You can become a compassionate leader who genuinely motivates others. You can balance who you are with what you do.
For more information or to register: 800.603.3117, 303.245.4800 extend@naropa.edu www.naropa.edu/leadership.
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Deep Democracy: Unleashing the Potential of Groups
August 29 - Sept 1, 2006, Halifax, Nova Scotia
September 5 - 8, 2006, Boston, Massachusetts
with Myrna Lewis and Sera Thompson
How can we work fearlessly and effectively with underlying group dynamics to facilitate quantum growth in the collaborative potential and collective wisdom of our teams? This four-day intensive training will give you the basic skills for an unusual and extremely helpful way of understanding and working with decision-making and the resolution of underlying issues. Deep Democracy is based on the work of revolutionary physicist/psychologist Arnold Mindel and was originally developed in South Africa, to work with businesses in the transition out of apartheid.
Envision Halifax is sponsoring the event. The cost of the course is $850, space is limited to 22 participants. Group discounts are available and the cost is negotiable for non-profit and independents. For more information or to register, visit www.envisionhalifax.ca/learning_labs.shtml
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Earn a MIT Sloan Executive Certificate
Senior executives and technical managers can enroll to earn a comprehensive Executive Certificate from the MIT Sloan School of Management in three important areas of management practice, including Management and Leadership, Strategy and Innovation, and Technology, Operations, and Value Chain Management.
Candidates must complete four executive education programs within four years, as specified for the certificate they select. For more information go to: http://mitsloan.mit.edu/execed/
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Vancouver Dialogues 2006
Friday September 8 to Sunday September 10, 2006
www.dalailamacenter.org/ The Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education is honoured to host the Dalai Lama in Vancouver from Friday, September 8 to Sunday, September 10, 2006.
During his visit, the Dalai Lama will inaugurate the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education and give keynote addresses at the Vancouver Dialogues 2006, the first in a regular series of Dialogues to be hosted by the Center.
Connecting for Change: Corporate and Social Leaders in Dialogue
September 9 & 10, 2006
The Leaders' Dialogues will start with a series of small group conversations on September 9 among prominent national and international business leaders and social innovators. On September 10, the Dalai Lama will engage in dialogue with the leaders.
Moderators of the sessions include:
- Dr. Peter Senge, Senior Lecturer at MIT, a Strategist of the Century as named by the Journal of Business Strategy, founding Chair of the Society for Organizational Learning, a global community of corporations, researchers and consultants committed "to increase our capacity to collectively realize our highest aspirations and productively resolve our differences" and author of several books, including The Fifth Discipline
- Peter Block, author and consultant on ways to create workplaces and communities that work for all and how to bring change into the world through consent and connectedness.
See Speakers / Participants for biographies of participants.
The Leaders' Dialogue is by invitation only, but the results of the Dialogue will be posted on line at www.dalailamacenter.org and portions of this Dialogue will be webcast. .........................................................................
Liminal Group: Leadership Communications:
The Articulate Executive
 Wednesday, September 20, 2006, 8:30AM- 1:00PM
New York University, Rosenthal Pavillion, Kimmel Center
60 Washington Sq. South, 10th fl
Register Now!
Registration fee: $495 (Use the discount code 'SOL' for a 10% discount)
Download the event flier
Articulate your success. Master and hone your skills in presence, presentation and leadership at the 2006 Leadership Communications Conference. Best-selling author Granville Toogood has coached over half the Fortune 500 CEOs. America¹s top leadership coach will help you learn to articulate and present business vision to drive dramatic business results.
Granville Toogood has coached more than 250 Fortune 500 CEOs. In 4 hours on September 20, 2006, you will learn transformative leadership skills from America's top leadership communications coach, such as:
- Create the Perfect Presentation
- Lead a team to success and stay ahead of the pack
- Articulate a vision to drive dramatic business results
- Speak with the confidence and presence of a pro
- Spur sales, inspire employees and win new clients
- Discover your own voice
- Master the art of Q & A
For more information please download the event flier or contact Liminal Group (212) 546-4625, info@liminalgroup.com
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The Fourth Annual AltWheels Transportation Festival
Friday & Saturday, Sept. 22-23, 2006 - Boston City Hall Plaza
Sunday, Sept. 24, 2006 - Larz Anderson Auto Musuem, Brookline
AltWheels is a free, three-day festival for viewing, experiencing and discussing some of the most
innovative means of transportation in the world today; Friday and Saturday on
Boston's City Hall Plaza, and Sunday on the beautiful hillside lawn of the Larz
Anderson Auto Museum. Meet the inventors and experience futuristic concept vehicles.
See what our transportation options will be over the next decade from fuel cell vehicles to taxi rickshaws
to Segway scooters to human-powered transport. A wide variety of refreshments will be available on-site
so plan to make a day (or three) of it.
Peter Senge will give a presentation on September 22.
Learn more at www.altwheels.org/festival.html
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Legacy Retreat for Executives in Transition
October 11-13, 2006
Warren Conference Center
Ashland, Massachusetts, USA
Join Peter Senge, Brian Bacon and 30 to 40 other intensively engaged and deeply reflective leaders for stimulating dialogue around important questions such as: What are the global issues of concern to us personally, and where are the leverage points of influence? What are the critical questions that haunt us, and that we long to explore with peers? What leadership capacites do we need to draw on and strengthen in order to make our best contribution now?
For more information contact Geoff Crinean at legacy@shambhalainstitute.org or call (902) 425-0492 .........................................................................
Business as an Agent of World Benefit Conference
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio
October 23-25, 2006 Plan to attend the first-ever gathering among the Academy of Management (16,000 management scholars in 95 countries), the United Nations Global Compact (2500 member companies in more than 90 countries) and Case Weatherhead School of Management by attending the Business as an Agent of World Benefit: Management Knowledge Leading Positive Change Global Forum, October 23-25, 2006, on the campus of Case Western Reserve University .
The purpose of the forum is to encourage participants to transform the core of business to include solving the world's most pressing issues while increasing the bottom line. The Forum will create a learning lab environment for 400 face-to-face participants and 3000 virtual participants to explore the massive transformation underway in the field of management and the role management education can play in mobilizing significant social change.
The Forum will be highly interactive offering dialogues, intimate high-level conversations and provocative plenary sessions designed to break new ground in transforming the field of management. Business leaders participating in the Forum range from Bob Stiller, Founder and Chairman of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters in the U.S.A to Bertrand Collomb, Chairman of Lafarge in France.
The benefits of attending the Forum are to:
- Learn from the field's top thought leaders on how to use cutting-edge models and techniques to transform your business into a sustainable and profitable operation;
- Share stories with thousands of participants, the media and the world's business schools;
- Help redesign management education to mobilize future business leaders.
Register today to attend the Business as an Agent of World Benefit Forum as a face-to-face or virtual participant.
For more information on the Forum and registration:
Phone : 216-368-2160
Email : bawbforum2006@case.edu
Web : www.bawbglobalforum.org
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16th Annual Pegasus Conference
Leading Beyond the Horizon: Strategies for Bringing Tomorrow into Today's Choices
A SoL sponsored event
November 13-15, 2006 - Waltham, Massachusetts (just outside of Boston)
Register Today!
Special rate for SoL members! Click here to learn more! This year's Pegasus Conference is not to be missed because it will quite simply restore your confidence in your capacity to create the future you desire for yourselves, your organizations, and your children. Our featured presenters will engage both our heads and our hearts with inspiring stories and powerful tools for cultivating collective wisdom and foresight.
Keynote Sessions
- Peter Senge, SoL founding chairperson, author of Presence and the newly revised The Fifth Discipline
- Dawna Markova, SoL research member and renowned author and educator
- Roger Saillant, CEO of Plug Power, a SoL Sustainability Consortium member
- Eamonn Kelly, CEO of the Global Business Network
Forums
- Uncovering the Will to Create the Future We Want: U-Theory in Practice at Nissan, with Tracy Huston, Consultant, Global Executive Training, Nissan, and Sherry Immediato, President and Managing Director, Society for Organizational Learning (SoL)
- Future Search: Using the Wisdom of the Whole System to Create Shared Vision and Committed Action - Applications in an Education Setting, with Rick Lent, Ph.D., and Nancy Aronson, Ph.D.
- Partnering to Create Tomorrow's Leaders, with Sayra Pinto, director of the Twin Cities Latino Coalition; Ed Cronin, Chief of Police, Fitchburg, MA; Daniel Asquino, Ph.D., President, Mt., Wachusett Community College; and other coalition partners
Twenty-seven diverse concurrent and pre-conference workshops feature case studies and skill building opportunities. Lessons and questions from the business, education, nonprofit and healthcare sectors will encompass work ongoing at Shell, Verizon Dominica, Intuit, FDA, and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. Sharpen your skills in a number of focus areas including systems thinking, systems archetypes, simulation, dialogue, storytelling, scenario planning, and many more. Don't be the one who later says, "I wish I had been there!"
Register now to take advantage of the special SoL member rate (priority code STA06SoL). To register please visit the conference website. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact Jen Rich at +1-781-398-9700, or jenr@pegasuscom.com .........................................................................
Sustainable School Development Conference
February 13-17, 2007 - The Netherlands
With Peter Senge, Michael Fullan, and Daniel Kim
The Society for Sustainable Learning will arrange an international conference about sustainable school development in The Netherlands, February 13 -17, 2007. This conference offers you a unique opportunity to work with three of the most important thinkers in education, school leadership and organizational learning. Unique because it's the first time for Peter Senge, Michael Fullan, and Daniel Kim to work together in a conference. In their keynotes and dialogue sessions they will connect to the Dutch and the global educational development.
Besides Fullan, Kim, Senge, and other international guests, Dutch practitioners will contribute from their expertise in the educational field. These workshops will be facilitated by Dutch and international facilitators who have expertise in organizational learning and by practitioners from schools who have worked with organizational learning in the school and the classroom.
Tuesday, February 13, Peter Senge will facilitate a master class focused on successful organizational development. Friday, February 16, Daniel Kim will facilitate a master class systems thinking.
For more information in Dutch, visit www.duurzaamleren.org/
For more information in English, download the conference announcement or contact Guus Geisen at guusgeisen@natuurlijkleren.org
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SoL Community News
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Jay Forrester Inducted into the IFORS Operational Research Hall of Fame
We're pleased to report that Jay Forrester has been inducted into the IFORS Operational Research Hall of Fame. The IFORS (the International Federation of Operational Research Societies) OR Hall of Fame is a select group of the most significant OR pioneers and their successors. From the IFORS site:
"The Hall of Fame gives an opportunity to celebrate the significant contributions made by the OR pioneers and those who have followed in their footsteps. Such contributions may be to methodology, to applications, to the advancement of IFORS or its member societies, to OR in and for developing countries, to teaching and program development, to organization and management of OR, and to the international dissemination of OR knowledge and understanding."
More information can be found at www.ifors.org/hall/
Jay joins a distinguished group including MIT's Philip Morse and John Little, along with John von Neumann, Herbert Simon, George Dantzig, Kenneth Arrow, Patrick Blackett, and other distinguished scholars.
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Peter Senge Makes Human Resources (HR) Magazine List of 100 Most Influential People
We're pleased to announce that Peter Senge was named to HR magazine's list of top 100 most influential people. In a recent survey, the magazine asked its readers to submit theie top ten HR executives, academics, authors, or consultants who have "made big waves for them." After identifiying the top 100 submitted by readers, the magazine ranked them by asking the top 100 themselves to vote on who inspired them most. Peter Senge was ranked number ten. Congratulations Peter! Read the article online
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Marilyn Darling, Signet, and DTE in Business Week
Learning from failure is a hot topic these days. The cover story in the July 10 issue of Business Week continued its recent focus on creating innovative cultures and its underside: recognizing that there will be failures-and learning how to learn from them.
SoL Consultant member Marilyn Darling's company Signet and SoL Organizational member DTE Energy, were featured in an online Business Week article about the After Action Review process. The article focuses on how DTE applied the After Action Review process to reduce the time it takes to restore power after a storm from 230 minutes to 140 minutes (and counting down a 40% improvement to date). You can read the on-line article at: www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_28/b3992011.htm
SoL members can read more about this work in Reflections Volume 5, Issue 2.
Marilyn Darling, David Meador, and Shawn Patterson author "Cultivating a Learning Economy: After Action Reviews Generate Ongoing Value for DTE Energy"
Read the article.
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LOPN, Learning Organisation Practitioners' Network, Singapore
www.lopn.net
LOPN is a growing network of organizational learning practitioners in Singapore.
Modeled on SoL, this voluntary effort opened in September 2002 and is composed of practitioners from public, private, and non-private sectors. The network provides these practitioners the opportunity to share experiences and best practices and helps each practitioner to deepen their practices.
Learn more about LOPN at: www.lopn.net or contact Local SoL Community Member Sheila Damodaran at Sheila_DAMODARAN@spf.gov.sg .
The LOPN newsletter, which includes a listing of upcoming events and is updated every month, is available here: www.lopn.net/NewsFlash.html
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Employment Opportunities
From time to time we will post employment opportunities within the field of Organizational Learning. If you are interested in posting a job, please contact us at info@solonline.org. We reserve the right to post and remove employment opportunities at our discretion.
Director Learning and Development/Recruiting - The Nature Conservancy
Senior Associate - Interaction Institute for Social Change
Senior Associate for Strategic Development - Interaction Institute for Social Change
Appointment in Public Sector Finance or Management - University of Maryland, School of Public Policy .........................................................................
Thank You for Reading the SoL Flash.
Please send comments or questions to Rachel Dow at rachel at solonline.org.
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