ORGANIZATION DESIGN FORUM
2005 Annual Conference
Call For Presenters
Design Challenges of 21st Century Organizations...Concepts, Tools and
Execution
The Organization Design Forum invites you to join us for our annual
conference to be held April 12 thru April 15, 2005 in San Francisco.
We are seeking presenters of case studies and new research for both plenary
sessions and parallel tracks. We invite you to submit a proposal no later
than
November 19, 2004.
Conference Theme: Design Challenges of 21st Century
Organizations...Concepts, Tools and Execution
The 2005 conference will focus on the challenges of doing organization
design as we face ever greater complexity and scale within and among
organizations, globalization and global structures, increased regulation,
cross-organization designs, and complex networks among partnering organizations across dispar
ate industries and international boundaries. We want to address questions
such as:
Ø What are the essential characteristics of early 21st Century
organizations? How are these organizations different from those of even a few years
ago?
Ø What trends, innovations, and other changes are at the forefront of
and for organizations, e.g. How and where are business models changing (how
companies make money) in different industries, what does globalization really
mean, what is the impact of mergers, acquisitions, and other forms of
consolidation?
Ø What’s changing in the environment--business, socio-economics,
people/worker demographics, politics, regulatory environments, legislation,
technology, etc.-- and what are the implications for business models and
organization design?
Ø What do we know about how to anticipate and predict the direction of
and changes to organizations?
Ø In what ways will organizations continue to evolve and change over the
next five to ten years?
Ø How do Organization Design practitioners work in the face of this
scale, interdependence, and complexity? How and where is organization design work
done within the corporate enterprise? What are the advantages and
disadvantages of different approaches? How do we shift organization design capabilities
to line and business people; how and when do this and how is this different
from its residing within the “Strategic HR “ community/capability?
Ø How will the emerging wireless world affect different industries,
businesses and how they operate? What are its impact and implications for
organization
design, business models, partnerships, vertical integration/dis-integration,
sourcing and resourcing, who competes in which industries?
Ø What approaches are most effective in doing organization design with
large, complex organizations—and sub-organizations? What is the impact of
mega-corporations, what’s their future, and what are the implications for
business models and organisation design for companies with more than 100,000
employees? How big is too big?
Ø What have we as researchers and practitioners learned or discovered
about doing organization design that contributes to the body of knowledge about
this growing area of practice?
Ø How can we ensure a successful design and implementation when things
are changing faster than our ability to implement?
All speakers will be invited to attend the entire conference free of charge!
Conference Structure and Suggested Topics
The conference will include:
- Pre-conference workshops (one-day, skill-building).
l "Creating the Designed Organization"...a practical, seven step approach
for designing organizations
l "Polarity Management"...helping leaders understand how to deal with
unavoidable polarities
- Keynote and plenary speakers
- Presentations and case studies that provide real world examples of
design principle application, tools associated with creating comprehensive
designs and developing sustainability, and cases that illustrate successful
and well-executed implementation of designs that match and enable business
strategy
- Opportunities for small and special interest group discussions
where participants can explore the issues of greatest interest and importance to
them
- Evening events designed for socializing and networking
Our current plans are for about a third of the conference to be plenary
sessions with the remaining time organized to explore the three elements of
challenge: key concepts that inform our work, tools being used ensure effective
designs, and processes for effective implementation and utilization of design
plans.
The key strengths of our conferences are the expertise, knowledge, and
engagement of the people who attend; the timeliness and cutting edge content of
the presentations; the opportunity for participation and dialogue among
presenters and participants; and informal interaction throughout the conference. The
conference is intentionally small to encourage and facilitate in depth and
spirited discussion and sharing of ideas and experiences.
Examples of suggested content:
Ø Plenary sessions: Major overviews and new research on the overall
theme or elements of it, for example:
q Presentations about how organizations are being impacted by major
trends and events such as globalization; consolidation, mergers, and
acquisitions; economic shifts; increased regulation and the relevance to organization
design
q Methodologically robust studies that address one or more aspect of
the theme as related to organization design
q Major case studies or works-in-process that address significant
organization and design challenges
Ø Focus 1: Major CONCEPTS about 21st century organizations and/or
about organization design that are foundational to, inform, or contribute to the
evolution of our work
q Conceptual and theoretical information, based on your own or others’
research, or on experiential learning from which you have developed a model
or theory applicable to some aspect of organization design
q New or speculative ways of thinking about, approaching, or doing
organization design
q Cases that draw on or illustrate the basic conceptual or theoretical
underpinnings of organization design that would build participants’
knowledge
Ø Focus 2: TOOLS, skills, approaches, and methods that have proven
useful in creating successful organization designs
q A description of tools or processes and how they can best be utilized
or applied in doing organization design work
q Cases that highlight the approach or methodologies used to address a
particular design requirement or to obtain a particular design outcome
Ø Focus 3: Strategies and approaches that enable effective
IMPLEMENTATION AND EXECUTION of organization design solutions in complex systems and
organizations
q Processes or methods that have proved successful in achieving a
complete implementation of a design
q Cases that describe how an organization is functioning differently—
and better—as a result of a design process and solution
q Cases that describe how an organization has improved it ability to
execute on its business plan because the design of the organization has been
modified
Submission Information
Selections will be based on the following criteria:
Ø Attraction: The extent to which the proposal is likely to attract
participants to the session, workshop, or presentation.
Ø Theme Relevance: The extent to which the proposal relates to the
theme and learning outcomes of the conference.
Ø Learning Clarity: The extent to which cases and real-life examples
clearly illustrate "lessons learned" such as sound design principles and
approaches. Case studies can be either successes or failures as long as repeatable
"lessons learned" are clear.
Ø Practicality: The extent to which participants are likely to get
practical concepts, principles and practices that can be used in the workplace.
Proposals must be received by Friday November 19, 2004. Speakers will be
selected no later than December 31, 2004. We welcome multiple proposal
submissions. Please use the attached proposal template. _Click here_
(http://www.organizationdesignforum.org/conference/speakerfaqs.doc) for a copy of the
submission template and common questions.
Please submit your proposals electronically as a Microsoft Word file to
Brenda Price at b_r_price@bellsouth.net
If you have questions, feel free to contact Brenda at the above email
address or via telephone at 919-662-8548.
Requirements for Post Conference Publication
Presenters’ slides will be published in hard copy to attendees at the
conference. In addition, after the conference we will publish 750-word summaries
of the conference presentations on our Web site. Presenters who are selected
will be required to submit soft copies of their presentation materials and
to provide written summaries of their sessions in advance of the conference.
Anyone responding to this RFP is assumed to have accepted this requirement and
agrees to produce these documents according to the production schedule.
Presenters will retain the copyright to original work.
For more information about the Organization Design Forum, visit our web
site: _www.organizationdesignforum.org_ (http://www.organizationdesingforum.org/)
We look forward hosting a conference with high value content, a wide range
of topics, and participants from a variety of organizations and countries. We
hope to see you there!
Best Regards,
Rollin Burhans and Tracy Gibbons
ODF 2005 Conference Co-Chairs
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