Day 1

8:00 am – Doors open & Registration

8:40 am

Warming Up for Spark!

This interactive opening will help you leave the outside world…well…outside! That’s all we’re prepared to say for now, and you can expect something fun, interactive and unexpected!

9:10 am

The Behavioral Revolution: How to change culture and behavior with 21st century science – Paul Gibbons

Changing behaviors matters – what people say and intend has value, but without alignment of actions with words, results don’t happen. I provide insights from 21st century science (nudges, habit change) and offer leaders tools they can use to drive change – in business, and in society.
* Everyone will receive a copy of Paul’s Secrets of Successful Organizational Change book 

10:10 am

Social Architecture – Luc Galoppin

During this interactive session, we will explore our organization through the glasses of a social architect.

We will address the following challenges:

  • Do we need more hierarchies or less? (spoiler alert: the answer is ‘more’)
  • How do we upgrade the way we lead our organization in order to respond better to the changing world?
  • What is needed for accountability to occur and be sustained?
  • What is the stepping plan to unlock the potential for community in our organization?
  • How can you upgrade your toolbox with these new possibilities?

BREAK!

11:00 am

Create Spaciousness To Enrol People in Your Organizational Change – Ella Gorevalov & Cameron Woloshyn

All successful organizational changes require energy to sustain them. Because the people in an organization are frequently the key energy source, considering how you enroll people is vital when you are leading or considering organizational change.
In our session, we’ll share how we created the Link Apprenticeship Programme for Women Identified Software Developers.
What enabled us to successfully create the program, was repeatedly choosing a wider, more spacious perspective whenever we needed to enroll more people. When we couldn’t expand the perspective, the change faltered. Once we created more spaciousness we could once again increase enrolment and move forward.
We’ll share concrete examples of how we used spaciousness: where it worked and where it didn’t. Our hope is that this technique of increasing spaciousness will help you to succeed with your next organizational change.

12:00 pm

Lunch!

1:20 pm

Percussion & Disruption – Nik Beeson & Rich Batchelor

In the taster session of this 2-hour workshop participants learn how to play three rhythmic patterns used in Afro-Cuban music. Afro-Cuban percussion is a rich and complex tradition which is played both in 4/4 time (typical of almost all western music) and in 12/8 time.  Participants experience how disruptive bringing rhythmic patterns in different time signatures together is.  They then learn and experience how the third very simple rhythmic pattern, called the ‘clave’, is designed to be played in both time signatures and hence serve as a ‘hinge’ or ‘bridge’ across the disruptive forces. Throughout all points in the workshop the real challenges of learning the parts, and the discomfort and effort of trying to navigate rhythmic disruption, are reflected on in terms of organizational disruption. Participants examine and analyze the range of responses to see the complexity of real reactions to disruption, and through reflecting on the role of the clave participants can apply new insight to navigating disruptive change.

BREAK!

3:05 pm

How to Be a Resiliency Ninja – Allison Graham

Stress, obstacles, and adversity are facts of life. It’s as if we’re all playing an invisible game of Whack-A-Mole behind our backs, swatting down one problem just in time for another to erupt. How do you bounce back and succeed no matter what challenges get thrown at you? In this highly relatable and entertaining presentation, Allison Graham will share her formula to become a Resiliency Ninja!

* Everyone will receive a copy of Allison’s book, Married My Mom, Birthed a Dog

3:55 pm

Closing Remarks

While ‘closing remarks’ sounds a bit boring, it won’t be!

Day 2

8:00 am – Doors open & Registration

8:40 am

Start Living Life with Purpose – Adriana Girdler

In today’s fast-paced world, it’s often difficult to determine what we want or know what opportunities to go after that will lead us towards our dreams, desires, and goals. In this presentation, you’ll learn the roadblocks that keep you from the path of success and exercises in how to uncover and understand what you truly want for yourself, both personally and professional.

How do you create a powerful personal vision statement that is inspirational and guides you in making strategic decisions based on it and your values? You do this by uncovering and understanding what you truly want in your personal and professional life. This book will help you uncover your personal desires and translate them into your very own visual vision statement. Be connected to your purpose…Live your vision every day!

*All participants will receive a copy of Adriana’s Visual Vision Doodle Book

9:10 am

Meet the Empathy Toy! – Ryan Burwell

This hands-on and highly engaging session will introduce you to the Empathy Toy from award-winning social enterprise Twenty One Toys. Currently being used by educators, facilitators and corporate trainers in 45 countries, the Empathy Toy is a collaborative blindfolded puzzle that can only be solved when players come to understand each other. There are many different games that can be played with this toy, each concluding with a discussion during which players distil lessons that emerged from their game experience. Balancing fun with self-reflection, players confront their assumptions, emotional reactions, and struggles. Insights can then be then tested and refined in further games, and applied when confronting collaborative challenges in the future.

Twenty One Toys lead facilitator Ryan Burwell will lead you through 1 game with the Empathy Toy, and will provide a short overview of other game possibilities. He will also be available after the session to answer questions and share facilitation ideas with you.

BREAK!

10:10 am

The Agile and Change Mashup – Katy Saulpaugh

The agile and change management communities are often at odds, but they can combine to make beautiful music together.  In this talk I’ll share my personal journey transitioning from the change management to the agile world and what I learned along the way. The outcome of this session will be promoting empathy across both disciplines by outlining concrete ways they can complement each other. For example, adopting the agile mindset can help change practitioners create better feedback loops, while change management techniques can help agilists communicate more effectively.

11:00 am

Winning Body Language to Stand Out, Win Trust and Credibility – Mark Bowden

With billions of people competing on the planet right now, how will YOU ever confidently stand out, and get what you want and need?

In this inspirational and highly entertaining presentation, Mark Bowden shows us how to put our best selves forward through superior communication skills. Learn the techniques that inspire, and build trust and credibility with those around you every time you speak.

Mark takes the audience on an exciting journey to understand how “It’s not often what you say – but how you say it that gets results!” Bowden, renowned trainer to Fortune 500 CEOs and G8 political leaders, demonstrates how perceptions can be completely altered by a simple gesture or action. He then brings to the group simple techniques that create ideal communication in the most crucial situations – invaluable for life and business.

Mark gives you tools to confidently convey a powerful presence through world class communication skills that capitalize on instinctual processes of the brain. By demonstrating his TRUTHPLANE® GesturePlane SystemTM, Mark teaches you the most effective skills to win your listeners over to you and your message.

* Everyone will receive a copy of Mark’s Winning Body Language book.

12:00 pm

Lunch!

1:20 pm

The Experimentation-Driven Approach to Organizational Development – Sami Paju

The traditional deterministic view of organizations has been challenged by complexity theory and organizations as complex adaptive systems. Yet this fundamental shift in perspective has not made its way into the tools and methods that are used in managing organizational change. We tend to rely on planning-centered methods, which are fitting in the domain of the complicated, whereas the complex domain calls for an experimentation-driven approach.
I will present organizations as complex adaptive systems, compare the planning-driven and experimentation-driven approaches, and argue why in organization development the emphasis should be on experimentation as opposed to planning. To take things from theory to practice, I will present a framework to organization change that emphasizes experimentation, followed by hands-on instructions, tools, and methods for running good experiments inside organizations.

BREAK!

3:05 pm

Guerrilla Change: Sparking Teams to Their Greatness – Simon Trevarthen

Change can be tough, but change is necessary. How can you, as a leader, drive change? What’s the best way to overcome resistance (and yes) make it your ally at the same time as delivering market-beating customer service? Learn how to become an inspiring leader who is able to stoke the furnace of change, even in the coldest organizational climate. Find out how to decode resistance, turn teams around and build a movement that unlocks potential. Learn how to navigate obstacles and use camouflage and guerrilla change techniques to harness innovation that’s hiding in plain sight. Through a series of practical exercises, discover how you can strengthen your resilience when leading organizational change

3:55 pm

Closing Remarks

While ‘closing remarks’ sounds a bit boring, it won’t be! Now that you’ve experience 2 days of Spark, what can you takeaway in order to create positive change in your workplace?