Chicago, Illinois in May 2005
From STS Roundtable
STS/RT, Inc. Annual Meeting Chicago, IL, USA May 4-7, 2005
This meeting opened with a Welcome reception on Wednesday evening in which meeting participants had an opportunity to gather informally to renew acquaintances. Thursday morning, after breakfast, the meeting itself opened with welcoming comments from the meeting planners, a review of the three-day agenda, and a reconnection activity. The focus of the first morning of activities was the Roundtable today, and included the Business Update and Stewards’ Report; a discussion by members about mission, purpose, and charter for the Roundtable, as well as its structure, roles, responsibilities, and next steps in its growth and evolution. After lunch, participants looked at STS in Evolution, a powerful presentation and discussion led by Stu Winby, Jim Taylor,and Dick Axelrod. Stu and Jim presented a framework and evolutionary perspective of STS that allowed us to evaluate and develop plans for STS practice and research into the future. Dick Axelrod enriched the discussion with involvement activities so Roundtable members could concurrently build a future perspective of STS. On Thursday evening, Baby Brother Mother Soup, a Chicago-based Improv group joined us for an evening of STS-focused Improv experiences that enhanced and reinforced the day's work.
On Friday, May 6th, we opened by introducing a new collaboration platform for use by members. Next, we learned about the Illinois High Performance Manufacturing Initiative. Dan Swinney, one of the team who presented the work of the Candy Institute to the Roundtable in New Orleans, led a presentation and discussion about this significant new project. The Illinois High Performance Manufacturing Initiative is a joint project of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association (IMA) and the Illinois AFL-CIO with the assistance of the Center for Labor and Community Research (CLCR). Dan is the Executive Director of the CLCR. The initiative’s key objective is making Illinois the best place in the world for high performance manufacturers and their employees. This is a bi-partisan initiative recognizing that leaders from both major parties as well as other independent organizations must work together around a common agenda if “high road” manufacturing and its numerous social and economic benefits are to be viable in “developed” countries. We also spent time working on the framing of our value proposition for the Roundtable, and introduced the Value Promenade – a focused session introduced and facilitated by the Stewards that combined fresh air with fresh thinking about the Value Proposition of the new Roundtable. A peer learning session at the end of the day showcased the research of one of our members: Barry Macy presented the latest findings from his Longitudinal Study of High Performing Workplaces.
Saturday morning was spent in a call to action for our future. It opened with a peer learning session led by Jan Mears (Kraft) and Carolyn Ordowich (STS Associates). This was an interactive session in which they helped us explore some critical questions such as why change efforts ultimately flounder, and what is needed to compel people to change in the absence of “the burning platform”. We opened with acknowledgment that we all know that a clear vision, purpose and practical focused strategies are needed to drive change, and moved into discussion about questions like these: What are the forces that preserve the status quo at the expense of the business even when these are present? Why is it that some leaders rise to the challenge and others, subtly and effectively, do not? What is it about when organizational cultures are preserved at the expense of business results? The meeting closed with final announcements, task assignments for members, hanging threads, and a commitment to meet again in 2005.
