It's with pleasure that we provide the programme for the OD Forum.  The theme Embedding Innovation has been both exciting and challenging to build a programme around as we've searched for new and varied stories to inspire and engage.  Our consulting work, in particular change management, has highlighted how easy it is to talk about innovation and how hard it is to embed in our organisations.  We have a wide range of speakers and workshops and hope you find much of interest to you and your colleagues

Please see below additional details to help you choose your Forum workshops.

Workshop 1 - Unifying effort for lasting change

Richard Waggott, Director Learning and Development and Kay Howard, Team Leader Leadership Capability, Department of Corrections

Where do you start when you're given the goal to reduce re-offending by 25% by 2017?  What needs to change and what role does innovation have?  Learning and development have played their part in the shift from a ‘follow the rules' culture to one where staff now believe the goal is achievable.

L&D developed numerous frameworks, underpinned by the three strategic requirements to:

• Ensure offenders comply with the requirements of their sentence/order.
• Reduce the likelihood of reoffending.
• Minimise the risk of harm offenders present to others.

In this workshop insights will be shared about what's been put in place that's worked, what hasn't worked and why, and what the next steps are. 

Workshop 2 - Mapping the polarities in innovation

Trish Hall, Director/Consultant, Thought Partners

"The nature of paradox, turning things on their head, flipping ideas upside‐down and knowing how to reconcile and ride the tension of opposites is at the heart of leadership and indeed life." Sir Paul Callaghan

Every organisation has a word for the kind of problems that are tough, intractable and never go away.   They are often called tensions, dilemmas, paradoxes, contradictions or unsolvable problems.  Whatever they're labelled, polarities are always with us and are common interpersonal and organisational issues.  They are many and varied for example, individual and collective; detailed and big picture; action and reflection; competition and cooperation; and logic and creative.

Enjoyed Russ Gaskin's polarities session at last year's Forum and want to deepen your understanding?  Are you new to polarities mapping and want to know more?  Join this practical deep dive to explore polarities in more depth.  We shall be utilising Leslie's keynote presentation to identify and map the polarities.

Workshop 3 - How would you move Aorangi Mt Cook?

Martijn Verhoeven, Chief Executive, eDept

How much do you know about technology-driven transformation?  What will a technology-enabled organisation really look like and how will it work?  What are the hurdles that will need to be overcome? 

This session will challenge assumptions and outline ways to make innovation everyone's responsibility.  Martijn brings the thinking and approach of a successful entrepreneur to this workshop plus the experience of working in the Netherlands and NZ.

Workshop 4 - Will you still love me; will you still need me, when I'm 64?

John Collyns, Executive Director, Retirement Villages Association and Norah Barlow, CEO, Summerset Group

Retirement villages provide an innovative solution for older, active independent people and their development in New Zealand has meant all kinds of new thinking and action in the course of settling in as a feature of our community landscape. The sector has met its share of challenges over the years, from, for example, developing a comprehensive consumer protection regime through to re-housing displaced residences following the Christchurch earthquakes, and it faces the future confidently. Imagine the OD initiatives needed to meet these demands. Part of the success has come from aligning resident and industry needs with those of officials and policy makers and translating what all this means operationally for managers and staff. - so much so that New Zealand's retirement village system is considered internationally to be best practice and a guide for European, Asian and Australian operators and regulators.

Workshop 5 - Transformation from the top

Jake Porterhouse, Business Improvement Leader, NZ Post

We operate in an increasingly mutable world and the challenge of remaining relevant to our customers requires businesses and service providers to be capable of changing at an increasing pace.  This trend is unlikely to change any time soon and whilst the prospect of this sounds exhausting, there is hope.  The 'ways of old' clearly need to be updated if we are to rise to the challenges of the future.  In this workshop we will examine how one company has started to do this.

New Zealand Post Group is transforming itself.  It has no choice - the needs of customers are changing and it needs to change too.  The change is wholesale, the infrastructure, the people, and the culture and  values that guide them, in order to survive into the 21st century.

Change on this scale has to begin at the 'top table' if there is any hope of making it stick.  

How does an executive team effectively lead the vast array of project and people initiatives that make up the components of change? How does an executive team manage strategy execution?

In this workshop we will be introduced to the idea of 'The Sorting Room' and explore the origins and mechanics of the process which the Chief Executive and his team at New Zealand Post have adopted as a way of remaining 'agile' and commercially responsive.  

Workshop 6 - Sowing the seeds of innovation one by one

Dr Dale Nelson, Consultant, Thought Partners

Do some of your people seem stuck?  Is there low motivation to change, and little obvious ability to innovate?  Coaching or mentoring sessions provide the ideal vehicle to assist others to think and act differently i.e. to embed an openness to innovation at an individual level.  This deep dive has been designed to add to your current understanding of how to embed innovation and provide you with the opportunity to test several coaching tools.

Workshop 7 - From audits and injury rates to cultural innovation

Jon Everest and Heidi Borner, Directors, Orange Umbrella

The cost of poor workplace health and safety in New Zealand, while difficult to see, is immense. Decreased productivity, inefficiency, absenteeism, staff turnover, accidents and litigation are like an invisible turbulence that exacts a heavy toll, seldom recognised let alone factored within organisations. At a time when organisations are constantly looking to effect greater efficiencies and cut costs, this is an area with remarkable prospects that until now has been largely ignored.

This case study session gives attendees a chance to work with innovative tools embraced by the electricity industry in New Zealand who are committed to going well beyond the usual box-ticking, compliance-focused and reactive model of health and safety by building staff commitment. Members of the sector are leading the way by measuring and managing the key influencers for safety decisions. They have learned to read the ‘signs' of risk that lie buried in the heart of their organisations, and to work collaboratively with their people to gather valuable safety insights.  The result - focused improvement plans targeted at reducing risks and increasing productivity.

Workshop 8 - Innovation: essential ingredient or just another fad...

Tony Paine, Chief Executive, Victim Support

"Innovate!" has become an almost compulsory mantra for any organisation looking for success, but like all buzzwords the risk of fad and superficiality is high.  This is as true in the social service sector as anywhere else, where resources are constrained and helping people demands excellence but resists quick fixes.  Explore these challenges in the context of a growing national organisation that offers help to people 24/7 at the time of crisis and beyond.

2012 OD Forum Fees

Early Bird Fee $400 per person (available until 31 August)

Individual Fee $450 per person

Group Fee $375 per person (3 or more attendees)

Post Forum Workshop Fees

One workshop $450 per person

Two workshops $800 per person

Please note, that all fees are GST exclusive and an invoice will be sent to you.