The Dannemiller Tyson Associates Blog

Gift #4 Passion

Dannemiller Tyson Associates — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 01:50:06 +0000

Gift #4 – Passion

I was still new to DTA in 1995 when Kathie and Roland Loup went off to do work in India. Of the many stories she told when she returned, I remember only one and, based on what I know now, I believe the story was about passion. The DTA and Indian consulting teams were working together on the design for a large group meeting, and when discussing the three to five questions participants would use to connect with each other and the work they were about to engage in, Kathie was passionate about including this question “What do you yearn for in your work?” in the getting connected assignment. She was particularly passionate about using the word “yearn.” Although I knew what it meant to “yearn” for something, I didn’t quite get the depth of how the word tapes something in us that goes deep to our core until I heard Kathie’s story. Kathie’s experience in India with this question was no different from the experience she’d had when using this question in hundreds of organizations around the world.

Now fast forward five years and I’m in a very small village in Uganda with a friend/colleague and we are leading a session with about 100 women that do not speak English and we use, through a translator, the same question and as Kathie would say – “IT WORKED IT BLOODY WORKED!” What I learned in all of this was how important the words we use are to the work we are trying to enable.

Mary Eggers
Partner, Dannemiller Tyson Associates

Update on the program in India honoring Kathy Dannemiller

Dannemiller Tyson Associates — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:42:41 +0000

Last month I shared with you that The School of Inspired Leadership (SOIL) in India is sponsoring The Kathleen Dannemiller Memorial Train the Trainer Workshop the week of February 23rd in New Delhi. Here is the web link that describes the program and how to register.

http://www.soilindia.net/content/kathleen-dannemiller-memorial-train-trainer-workshop-lsip

Whole-Scale Workshop in New Delhi, India – February 2012

Dannemiller Tyson Associates — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 02:07:27 +0000

The Executive Education and Consulting – School of Inspired Leadership (SOIL) has just established a new program – The Kathleen Dannemiller Memorial, Train the Trainer Workshop to be held February 23-25, 2012 in New Delhi, India.

Kathleen Dannemiller was the inventor of the large scale interactive process now widely known as Whole-Scale® Change – a unique methodology which simultaneously involves hundreds to thousands of people in an organization or community. The February workshop will be jointly facilitated by Anil Sandev the founder of Eicher Consultancy when he and Kathie did work in India, Anil is now founder and CEO of SOIL and Paul D. Tolchinsky a former partner in Dannemiller Tyson Associates and a co-author of the book Whole-Scale Change: Unleashing the Magic in Organizations. Paul is now living and working in Vienna, Austria.

All proceeds of the workshop after expenses will be donated to Chinmaya Organization for Rural Development (CORD), which has been doing inspiring work in empowering women and the community in the villages of Himachal and are replicating the success of its work in Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

Mary Eggers,
Senior Partner
Dannemiller Tyson Associates

Gift #3 – Trust the Process

Dannemiller Tyson Associates — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 16:11:47 +0000

By now many of you know that the east coast of the US had a 5.8 earthquake on August 23^rd; it was centered 87 miles from my home where I was at the time, and it was my first and hopefully last earthquake! Somehow that experience caused me to think about the phrase “trust the process.” Although it is one of “Kathie’s gifts,” I came to know it 15 years before meeting Kathie when I went to my first of many retreats at what is now my spiritual community. There’s a banner on the wall of the main room that reads “trust the process.”

Over the years I had learned to observe the process of my own life and to see its predictability. It never occurred to me though to learn to observe the processes of my work until I met Kathie. I got to know Kathie because I asked her to mentor me; it was a year into the mentoring that she asked me to join Dannemiller Tyson Associates. When I first met her I knew nothing about Whole-Scale^®, which was at the time called Real Time Strategic Change. In one of our early conversations she asked me “what models do you use to guide your work with clients?” I was an internal consultant at the time, and my response was “well there are lots of them, and I’m always experimenting with new ones also.” Kathie replied “well if you keep experimenting, how do you know if they are predictable?” I couldn’t answer that because I never stayed with one process long enough – I was fresh out of graduate school and experimenting was the name of my game.

Some years later Kathie was invited into an oil refinery in Texas because they had a rotten safety record. Apparently everyone knew they were minutes away from death everyday when they came to work, and they were all blaming everyone else for the problem. The meeting was with a microcosm of 30 people from across the organization. Right after the leader kicked the meeting off, Kathie used our process for getting connected around the work to be done, which we call Telling Our Stories. One of the questions that she used was: “What do you yearn to have happen as a result of this work?” The process was done whole-room rather than small groups and Kathie said it took a lot of time, many were emotional about the situation and at the conclusion everyone was aligned around what need to happen next. The rest of the day went smoothly with great results, and when everyone left the person that invited Kathie in said: “Yes, but you didn’t see how they really are with each other – always fighting.” Kathie’s replied “Well you should have told me that you wanted them to fight – I could have gotten them to do that, and I thought you wanted to move them toward safety.” Kathie knew, from using Telling Our Stories and specifically the question of yearning, that she could get a conflicted group to come together. She’d used that question around the world from the US to Poland to India, in organizations of all sizes and shapes for ten years.

Back to the earthquake and how it relates to trusting the process. My world was shaken that day. The vast majority of us on the east cost of the US had never experience an earthquake and never expected to. Of course I had no control over what the earth did and I could trust the processes that I’d learned in my life. Processes like meditation that keep me center, in the present, and therefore away from things I have no control over. It’s the same with my work, after 16 years of using Telling Our Stories I can trust it and predict the results.

What are the process of your life and work that you can trust?

Mary Eggers, Partner, Dannemiller Tyson Associates

Gift #2 – Disturbing the Universe

Dannemiller Tyson Associates — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 22:41:21 +0000

I still remember the first time I heard Kathie tell the “Ford Story,” the story of how she and five other senior consultants in the Ann Arbor area came together and inventing large group processes. What stands out for me at this moment is how she got that call, and she taught us to do the same.

In the early 80’s, there was no internet or e-mail, and the auto industry was dying – Kathie said the bumper stickers in Detroit read ‘the last person out of the city, turn out the lights.” Her father was a union organizer, and she started her story with “I wanted to save my beloved auto industry, a little arrogant of me probably, and I felt passionate about it.” She kept saying that until she got a call from a senior VP at Ford and the rest is history. “Disturbing the Universe” was Kathie’s code term for her form of marketing. I don’t believe she ever thought of marketing in the way we now think of it. The main thing she taught us regarding disturbing the universe is that you put yourself out there, and your job is to say “Yes!”

My choice of writing about this gift now is that it is what’s happening in my life, both my work life and my artistic life (I’m a fine arts artist when not consulting). Like Kathie wanting to save the auto industry, all I’m doing right now is following my own passion and putting it out into the universe, watching it unfold, and saying a BIG Yes! to what comes back. My passion to undertake writing this series on Kathie’s gifts was the start of something that is unfolding in my work in ways I couldn’t have ever imagined.

I know lots of folks, as I’m sure you do, that do the “same old, same old” in terms of marketing and don’t get the results they want. Disturbing the universe is different than marketing. Marketing is about making money; disturbing the universe is about following one’s passion – and no one did that better than Kathie Dannemiller!

There are a handful of quotes that have stayed with me over the long haul; this one speaks, I believe, to passion, and it comes from Ralph Waldo Emerson – “What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.”

What are the passions within you, and how are you using them to disturb the universe? I’d love to hear your thoughts or stories.

Mary Eggers
Partner, Dannemiller Tyson Associates

Whole-Scale Stories – Richmond Savings

Dannemiller Tyson Associates — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 16:57:19 +0000

If you have read our book, Whole-Scale Change: Unleashing the Magic in Organizations, you may recall the story of Richmond Savings. Here is a great example of engaging the whole system to set organizational strategy. This classic video was made by the client shortly after the large group meeting that culminated more than a year of work with this Canadian bank in Vancouver, B.C. For those who want to experience how the Whole-Scale process works, this video is still as inspiring as it was way back in 1994. – Al Blixt

DTA Workshop Coming to Washington, D.C. in October 2011

Dannemiller Tyson Associates — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 07:47:51 +0000

How to Plan and Implement a Successful Change Strategy:
Creating Change People will Believe In and Support
Dannemiller Tyson Associates and the Georgetown University Executive Certificate Programs in Organization Development and Organizational Consulting and Change Leadership invite you to three days of learning to improve your knowledge, skills and confidence as a facilitator of whole system change. The workshop will be held October 18-20, 2011 in Washington, D.C. Whether you are new to the field or a seasoned practitioner, you will come away with new insights, tools and ideas for leading and managing change initiatives for your organization. The early registration rate is just $995 until August 31st. For more about the workshop read on.

Dannemiller Tyson Associates and the Georgetown University Executive Certificate Programs in Organization Development and Organizational Consulting and Change Leadership invite you to three days of learning to improve your knowledge, skills and confidence as a facilitator of whole system change.

What’s in it for YOU?
#1: You Will Learn How to Tackle Real Change Issues
You will learn the theory and practice of Whole-Scale^®Change, a flexible methodology widely recognized* as effective with just about any organizational change issue that requires aligning and engaging people. You will learn how to diagnose, design and implement a change strategy that will help you get your organization from where it is now to where it wants to be.

You need to attend if your organization really needs to:
- Develop a clear vision and strategy.
- Get our leadership team on the same page.
- Align and engage all of our people in achieving our goals.
- Become more agile and innovative as an organization.
- Find better ways to resolve conflict and build trust.
- Merge two organizations into a single team.
- Redesign our organization structure.
- Improve our business processes.
- Eliminate our “silo” mentality.
- Change out organizational culture.

* If you are not familiar with the Whole-Scale^®methodology you can read an evaluation of it compared to other approaches in The Change Handbook by Peg Holman, Tom Devane and Steven Cady. Also, visit our web site at www.dannemillertyson.com.

#2: You Will Learn from Experts with Years of Practical Experience
The faculty members for this workshop will include Al Blixt, Mary Eggers, and Bev Seiford. All of them are Dannemiller Tyson partners who have a deep passion for this work and wide experience in systems change. Over the past fifteen years they have consulted to organizations, large and small, in the U.S. and around the world. Together they have evolved and expanded the Whole-Scale^® approach to respond to new challenges in organizations and communities. They will share their understanding of theory and practice along with actual case examples of engagement road maps and meeting designs. The format of the workshop will employ Whole-Scale^®processes to help the participants work as a team to enhance each other’s learning. During the workshop you will work on an actual client case to design an engagement from start to finish. Participants will receive copies of our two landmark books; Whole-Scale Change: Unleashing the Magic in Organizations and the Whole-Scale Toolkit. These will be invaluable references to guide your own change efforts.

Here are some quotes from past participants in response to the question: What did you get from this workshop?

I got what I was hoping, plus I realized that I’m actually using a lot of the concepts, models and tools of Whole-Scale® change. Finally I learned a lot by observing you [DTA] working together. You are wonderful models of inspiration!
A realization about the importance of self in the work that we do. Great tools and handouts! An opportunity to be a participant as well as a facilitator. A concrete network of people with amazing experiences and ideas. Real-life, real-time answers to questions to leave “appropriately confident” [to do this work].
I got the above, YES, absolutely. I also learned in more ways than I realized I would – besides head (which I’m use to), I learned with my body and spirit.

All About Registration
This workshop is affordably priced at an all-inclusive cost of $1,295 including breakfast, breaks and lunch for three days as well as books and all other workshop materials.

Act now and register by August 31^that the early bird rate of only $995! Group rates and nonprofit discounts available.

REGISTER NOW
Register On-Line: www.dannemillertyson.com
Register by Phone: 1-734-662-1330 x 1
Questions? Call Mary Eggers: 1-734-662-1330 x 3

Loss of Focus Threatens Organizations or Why Growth Is Not A Strategy

Dannemiller Tyson Associates — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 13:38:48 +0000

Nonprofit organizations are increasingly challenged today. In our town, a wonderful social service nonprofit closed its doors recently after many years of growth. Part of the problem was reduced funding from some of its main sources like the United Way; but the larger problem was a loss of focus. The organization made a number of seemingly logical growth moves over the years adding, one at a time, programs that served at-risk youth, the mentally ill, the homeless, seniors, the disabled and a number of other groups. Often this involved a merger with other social service organizations. In each case, the leadership felt that there would be economies of scale that would reduce costs and improve service. In the end, just the opposite happened. The organization was unable to adapt to changing conditions and hundreds of workers were laid off when it closed.

And then something surprising happened. Most of the programs found new homes with organizations that focused on just one of these groups. Some of the workers moved with their clients to the new organizations. The organization ended but the work went on.

For those of us doing strategy work in both the profit and the nonprofit sectors, there is a lesson here. Growth for its own sake is not a strategy. In this case, the organization lost its sense of purpose. It’s mission became unfocused. As a result, it was not sustainable. All planning needs to begin with the questions: 1)” Whom do we serve?” and 2) “How do we intend to create value for those stakeholders?”. To be successful, an organization needs to be very clear about its purpose and to avoid being distracted by opportunities that lie outside that purpose. — Al Blixt

Resistance, Leadership and Emotional Intelligence

Dannemiller Tyson Associates — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 00:23:44 +0000

I was at a party a while back and I began talking with a wonderful woman who had just retired as a nurse administrator at a major healthcare system. We got to talking about the work of leadership and fostering change in organizations. I mentioned that simply getting leaders to be better listeners was often a powerful way to improve their effectiveness.

She recounted the story of her problems with one of her midnight nurses who was always complaining about something. She always dreaded seeing that nurse coming and there were continuing problems. Then she took a workshop about leadership. As the workshop facilitator was describing how leaders create resistance by trying to stifle resistance, my new acquaintance said, “Suddenly, I realized I was the problem. My attitude was preventing me from seeing any value in what this nurse was saying.” She then described how she later sat down with the night nurse and said, “Here is what I think I am doing that is keeping us from working together and here is what I think you are doing.” In the simple act of naming the problem between them, the conversation shifted. The relationship improved and the resistance soon melted away. In our Whole-Scale work, we often ask people to “see the world through the other person’s eyes”. For leaders this is especially important.

If you are a leader or are trying to help one be more effective, a good book to look at is The Emotional Intelligence Quick Book by Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves. It is a short but insightful look into the four domains of emotional intelligence and comes with an on-line test that will help your leader evaluate her/his strengths.

Al Blixt
Partner, Dannemiller Tyson Associates

Introduction to Kathie’s Gifts

Dannemiller Tyson Associates — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 00:17:42 +0000

During one of our periodic cleans of our office in Ann Arbor I found “Kathie’s Gifts” hanging on the wall. It was like seeing a painting on a wall in my home for the first time even though it had been hanging there for years. Fast forward to recently when I welcomed eight new members to our linked-in group; in that process I learned that three of them personally knew Kathie one even knew Chuck Tyson who passed away long before I came to DTA in 1996. This caused me to again think about “Kathie’s Gifts” a list of 28 of Kathie Dannemiller’s favorite mantras, this time I only had to turn to my computer files to find them.

Over time and I’m planning to write about these and share them with you. In thinking about my writing, I went back to something Kathie wrote for her PhD application in 2002: “I am a 72-year-old Organization Development consultant, retired by reason of disability from a rewarding professional life. Since 911, I have been possessed by a driving need to continue making a difference, even though I am no longer able to do “real work” (meaning to do it the way I used to do it). The query I find burning in my heart is the following: How do I substantively change my current body of beliefs about how to bring about change, finding a way to make those beliefs relevant to the larger system I now see in the world?’

Perhaps you share the same query, and perhaps my writing about Kathie’s Gifts will help to stimulate your thinking, I’m sure it will stimulate mine and I invite you to share your thoughts on the writings with the whole group. I’ll be back with the first gift in two weeks.

Mary Eggers
Partner, Dannemiller Tyson Associates