Seeking Your Input on a MAW Reunion

We are considering whether to hold a Minds at Work reunion this September (on Thursday, September 24th, just before the Harvard Coaching Conference). Before we get too attached to anything, we wanted to check with you all to get a sense of your interest and availability.

We hope that every one of you who reads this will write and tell us: 1) which, if any of the three options below, would you come to for a one-day event in Cambridge? Feel free to detail what would make a given option most valuable for you. 2) How much does it matter to you if we hold the reunion around the Harvard Coaching Conference dates? We assume this is a help but if it’s not, that would be very helpful to know since we would prefer to schedule it later in the fall. 3) How likely are you to attend a fall 2015 reunion?

Here’s what we are thinking regarding the focus of the day:

Option A: Community of Practice: if we go in this direction, we would organize the logistics of the event here in Cambridge, but look very much to you to organize the day itself and provide the content. Bob and Lisa would attend and add our voice to the community discussions. This would very much be “your” session. Costs would cover logistics.

For example, there could be a client challenge you would want to present and get consulted on. Or you may have a client success story you want to share. Or perhaps there a particular theme, idea, ITC or developmentally-related tool or concept you’d like to explore. It would be great if someone had an idea of how to test the feasibility of this option with the community.

To be clear, there are two possibilities for involvement here– one to prepare a client case (or something like that), and the other, which is much more ambitious, is to organize the event. If this option appeals to you and you want to be involved, pls be clear which you are volunteering for.

Option B: Deliberately Developmental Organizations (DDO): as many of you know, last year we published an HRB article on DDOs, and we are just a few months away from having an edited manuscript of our forthcoming book on DDOs, An Everyone Culture (Harvard Business Press, 2016). We would take full responsibility for the day, in which we would share what we have learned about DDOs through rich pictures and invite you to experience a taste of what goes on within a DDO.

Option C: What can ITC bring to issues of Race and Privilege: the need for honest conversations about race and privilege is on-going. We consider ourselves learners in this realm, and want to get better at initiating and participating in such conversations. Our current thought is to invite a guest speaker to help us think about race and privilege and then together look at how ITC can be a useful means of exploring some of the adaptive dimensions of the challenge. We would share with you our current exploration of the potential benefits of individuals completing an ITC map to deepen their personal understanding, as well as individuals sharing ITC maps as a way to build interpersonal understanding and trust on these delicate issues.

Again, here are the questions we hope you will respond to: 1) which, if any of the three options, would you come to for a one-day event in Cambridge? Feel free to detail what would make a given option most valuable for you. 2) How much does it matter to you if we hold the reunion around the Harvard Coaching Conference dates? We assume this is a help but if it’s not, that would be very helpful to know since we would prefer to schedule it later in the fall. 3) How likely are you to attend a fall 2015 reunion?

If you have another idea you want to run by the community feel free to do so!

We’d like to get as many interested ITC community members weighing in as possible. So if you know someone who would be interested, pls encourage them to participate in the conversation. Anna can help them sign up for the Forum.

Pls send us your thoughts over the next few weeks, the latest Friday July 17th. We’ll then make a decision by the end of the following week, July 24th. Hopefully, that will provide enough time for people to make travel plans. Looking forward to hearing from you!