Org Design in Practice
Stop! Shift the Energy at Work: A New Lens for Organization Design
Donna Pearce, Julia Urbanchuk, Chris Young, & Awilda Borres
Explore a new, provocative, and unique ways to interact, through managing energy, reflection, insight, and learnings to activate creative solutions; to create an energy shift that inspires people to solve challenges. By tapping into the wisdom of human energy, our intention is to make the Shift the Energy at Work approach accessible and bring humanity back to organizations.
What if energy were a core design variable? Organization designers work with structure, governance, roles, decision rights, and workflows. Yet even the best-designed organizations struggle when something less visible—but deeply influential—is not considered: energy. Momentum stalls. Change efforts generate fatigue. New structures fail to deliver on their promises.
Quantum science has declared that everything is energy. Everything on the planet, and the earth itself, all biological and non-biological things are energy. Energy has no beginning or end – it just is. It is the ocean of possibilities in which we are all swimming.
Emerging quantum science makes it increasingly difficult to ignore a central question for our field: Since organizations are living systems, how might attention to energy fundamentally affect how we design them?
This session introduces the Shift the Energy at Work approach and explores its application to organization design and implementation. Grounded in empirical methods and systems thinking, the approach treats organizations not as static structures but as continuously evolving human systems shaped by attention, intention, and interaction.
Designed specifically for organization design practitioners—internal and external—this session will explore:
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- How human and organizational energy shows up in design work, change initiatives, and implementation outcomes
- Why traditional design levers alone are often insufficient to produce sustained change
- How attending to energy can enhance adaptability, coherence, and performance in evolving organizational forms
- Practical ways to integrate an energy lens into organization design, redesign, and implementation efforts
Participants will engage in experiential learning and practical reflection, connecting emerging insights from quantum science with the realities of designing organizations in complex, dynamic environments. When organization designers learn to work consciously with energy, design moves beyond structure and process toward conditions that allow organizations—and the people within them—to thrive. Energy may be invisible, but its impact on design outcomes is not. This session offers a powerful, complementary lens for practitioners seeking more effective and humane ways to transform and evolve.
Donna S. Pearce, MS, is an Organizational Development Leader with over 25 years’ experience collaborating with senior leaders in Fortune 50 firms, mid-size companies, and non-profits. She holds a BA from Antioch University and an MS in Organization Dynamics from the University of Pennsylvania. and is a certified Change Management expert and provides leadership coaching based on the PQ Intelligence model. She specializes in working in the healthcare sector, including strategic transformational and organization design work in several major pharmaceutical companies and leading healthcare institutions. Donna has worked as an internal OD consultant at Wyeth, (now Pfizer,) Merck, and Aramark. Since 2016, she is the Principal & Managing Consultant for PEARCEconsults LLC. Donna launched her career in the Telecommunications sector with Bell Atlantic (now Verizon), where she developed market and product strategies, sales channel strategies, and sales compensation design. She specializes in tapping into the energy of those closest to the work when addressing organizational issues and implementing change.
Julia Urbanchuk is the founder of Star Pattern Consulting and an organization development leader and practitioner. For over 25 years, she has held global executive and consulting roles in organization development and talent management across leading companies in the biopharmaceutical, technology, and consumer products industries. She has worked as an internal consultant at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, eBay, and Celgene; and as a small business owner and external OD consultant to life science, technology, and financial services organizations. Julia specializes in diagnosing organizational challenges and opportunities systemically and has led numerous initiatives involving organization design, cross-company transformational change, talent management, and capability building. Julia holds a BA in communications from Villanova University, an MS in organizational dynamics from the University of Pennsylvania, and she is a Global Fellow of the Wharton School.
Christine J. Young is an organization development executive leader and practitioner with over 25 years of experience in systemic organizational development and transformational change. She is the founder and managing consultant of OrgMomentum Consulting, Inc., a boutique organization development firm based in greater Philadelphia. Her areas of expertise include operating model and organization design, organizational diagnosis, transformational change, culture, strategy, M&A, and leadership team effectiveness. Prior to launching OrgMomentum, Chris worked in global Fortune 500 companies in sales and marketing, R&D, and manufacturing and supply, as well as enterprise-wide efforts. Her career has focused mainly on the pharmaceutical, vaccines, and biotechnology industries, including adjacencies such as clinical laboratory services, animal health, and other life sciences. Additionally, OrgMomentum does work in service and consumer manufacturing sectors. Chris takes pride in working with nonprofits that serve greater society and those in need. Chris holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Delaware in interpersonal and organizational communication and an MBA from Penn State University focused on organizational management.
Awilda Borres, MS, PCC, is an accomplished change architect and leader with a proven track record in designing and executing global transformation efforts in Fortune 50 companies and non-profits. Her career spans leadership roles at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, Comcast, Aramark, and Hershey Foods. Currently, Awilda serves as the change lead for Victaulic’s enterprise-wide PMO, guiding complex programs that align organizational vision with operational excellence.
Awilda holds an MS in Human Resources & Industrial Relations from the University of Rhode Island. She holds advanced coaching and change management certifications, including certified professional coach (PCC)
from International Coaching Federation, Gestalt International Study Center, Prosci, University of Cambridge, and Black Belt (Merck).