Reunion and Professional Experience? Integrating Event Formats to Serve Core Purpose

By Tenneson Woolf

Cori Lindstrom, (Talent Management Specialist, Honeywell; MBA OBHR Class of 2006), and our institute are partnering to create and host a three day event at Aspen Grove, Utah in October 2007 for the MBA OBHR Class of 2006. This week we created together a draft design for a Thursday evening through Saturday afternoon that Cori is taking to his colleagues. Cori is also clarifying specific purpose and need that we can then use to improve the agenda.

It has been interesting to watch clarity surface regarding choices of event format. When Cori and I first talked several months ago, I asked him what he and his group most wanted in coming together. I remember some of his responses: fun, a professional conference that our employers will support, more than just "getting together," a reunion, training.

For me, I relate to the desire for all of these things. I also relate to how in choosing an event format it is possible to be very deliberate with play, socializing, listening, sharing experience, and training that all serve a core purpose -- in this case, something about staying on the leading edge as HR professionals.

This started as a "reunion," then shifted into a "seminar." It might still shift to "summit" or "community of practice." I find myself wondering what each of these labels and others might unitentionally connote. With "reunion," just an excuse to get together? With "seminar," perhaps a more passive style of learning and listening? With "community of practice," a more active and deliberate peer-based participation.

My point isn't to be too nutty about language. However, I recognize a service that OB and HR leaders can offer in our respective settings. Being deliberate about what we call something, and even moreso, gaining clarity with our design teams and with those we invite to events is a very important step in any event and change process.

Here is a bit of the invitation language we are considering:

- In a world of rapid change, development, and movement, how can we as OB and HR professionals stay on the leading edge?

- What would be possible if we as the BYU MBA OBHR Class of 2006 met periodically to deliberately share stories, experiences, questions as a form of learning and serving together?

- “Communities of Practice are groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deep their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis…. Knowledge has become the key to success…. At the same time that the increasing complexity of knowledge requires greater specialization and collaboration, the half-life of knowledge is getting shorter. Without communities focused on critical areas, it is difficult to keep up with the rapid pace of change.
Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott, William M. Snyder
Cultivating Communities of Practice

- “Knowledge is not something that people do together.”
Kenneth J. Gergen
The Saturated Self: Dilemmas of Identity in Corporate Life

The design will evolve over the next few months.

Stay tuned...