Organizational Change Conference Educates Local Leaders

Managing change in an increasingly dynamic and turbulent global marketplace environment can differentiate organizations that are ultimately successful from those that are not. About 75 executives left the Smith School′s Center for Human Capital, Innovation and Technology′s Leading Change at All Levels of the Organization conference with innovative new ideas and visions for their organizations.

During the daylong conference, held in Van Munching Hall on September 30, 2005, participants had the opportunity to network and learn from those who have had significant leadership roles in large scale and dramatic organizational change efforts.

Keynote Speakers Included:

Michael D. Brannigan, President, North American Solutions Group, Xerox Corp.

Michael D. Brannigan (′70 BSOS), president of North American Solutions Group for Xerox Corp., discussed Xerox′s dramatic turnaround through reorganization and how they regained their lost competitiveness. "Our single biggest investment was in leadership," said Brannigan. "Xerox paid for leadership training for all of its middle management."

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Ginger Malone, Chief Nurse Executive, Childrens Hospitals & Clinics of Minnesota

Ginger Malone, chief nurse executive for Childrens Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, spoke on the role of leaders in creating a vision for large scale culture change through the experience her hospital had when initiating a dramatic patience safety initiative.

"We created a culture of safety... trust. It′s about ′what happened,′ and not ′who was involved.′ It′s a different way to lead," said Malone.

Russell Chew, COO, ATO, FAA

Russell Chew, chief operating officer for Air Traffic Organization, talked about leading change through new structures, business processes, reporting relationships and budgetary/financial approaches.

After being with American Airlines for 18 years, Chew moved to the Federal Aviation Administration, where he oversees 38,000 employees. "Challenges are different at the FAA. They restructure every few years, but nothing really changes," he said.

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Associate Professor Paul Tesluk, co-director of the Center for Human Capital, Innovation and Technology, introduces keynote speaker Ginger Malone.

Change is not the domain of only one sector of our economy or one set of industries -- as the breadth of the different types of organizations represented by our speakers and panelists attest. Our panelists have all been members of organizational change transition teams and can speak to the role of transition teams in the change management process and how change agents can work with leaders to enable change success, said Paul Tesluk, co-director of the HCIT Center and associate professor of management.

Added Susan Taylor, co-director of the HCIT Center and Deans Professor of Human Resources, Executives and change management professionals will have a chance to hear first-hand the challenges faced and resolved by other organizations in sectors such as the government, health care, electronics and telecommunications sectors, while implementing large scale change. Practical insights from these conference speakers will enable the participants to understand how organizational transition teams for leading change are staffed, what aspects of change they are effective in handling as well as the difficulties they encounter and methods to overcome them.

The last HCIT conference Leading through Innovation held on January 23, 2004 generated overwhelming interest and support. Around 100 participants attended the conference to listen to distinguished addresses by Clayton Christensen, professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School on The Innovators Solution, and Rand Blazer, CEO of BearingPoint on The CEOs Role in Leading through Innovation. The HCIT Center also organizes other events including research breakfasts which recently featured companies such as Citigroup on leadership development.

Visit http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/hcit for more information.