In the pursuit of continued revenue and rapid market expansion, many of us have endured common design, change, and talent dilemmas. We will share example scenarios, ‘solutions’, and pitfalls from high-velocity growth clients, with a particular focus on…

• Aligning the Executive Team on the need for change and the new operating model vision
• When company culture becomes a growth-limiting factor
• Translating the business strategy and new operating model into actionable talent implications

Session participants will explore pragmatic, human-centered frameworks and tools, and will have the opportunity to practice applying them through a small group exercise.

Achieving the extraordinary often requires that people work together in new, unfamiliar ways. These new skills and behaviors don’t magically appear; they require focused and intentional practice to develop and master. 

Through a collaborative and interactive format, participants will explore the critical role of creating space for practice when activating a new organization design. Drawing inspiration from other practice-intensive disciplines, the session will demonstrate how structured practice can accelerate activation by building confidence, strengthening collaboration, and fostering innovation. 

Participants will have the opportunity to co-create and exchange knowledge, highlighting the power of relationships in shaping successful organizations.

The whiplash of short-term market chaos, evolving customer demands, fractured supply chains, and volatile operational capabilities pose a serious risk to businesses that fail to adapt.

This experiential session challenges participants to rethink organizational design using a ‘tear down to build up’ approach. Many organizations attempt to create human-centered workplaces but still rely on outdated ‘best practices’ designed for a more predictable and stable world. These practices, while once effective, are no longer sufficient in an era of exponential disruption.

Through interactive exercises and real-world examples, participants will gain actionable insights to dismantle barriers and build more flexible, human-centered organizations for today’s complex environment.

Brad Clark is a Partner of Organization & Talent at Navigate Corporation. He brings over 20 years of experience in Organization Development, helping companies of all shapes, sizes and industries challenge the traditional design principles that just aren’t working in today’s ever-changing markets. In addition to leading Navigate’s Organization & Talent Practice, Brad is a professor at the University of Cincinnati where he teaches Masters of Psychology students on the principles and practices of Organization Development, Design and Change.

Decision-making is a fundamental part of every aspect of organizational life, yet the methods we use are often unexamined. This leads to slow, inefficient processes that hinder progress and rarely produce optimal outcomes.

In this practical workshop, August partner Mike Arauz and Pivot Energy CEO, Tom Hunt illuminate challenges in organizational decision-making and share a simple, intuitive framework that will help your team make better, faster and more inclusive decisions. 

Using examples and outcomes from Pivot Energy’s recent decision-making transformation, Mike and Tom will share examples from their proven toolkit and provide opportunities for you to apply these practices to your own scenarios.

Participants will learn…

• Why RACI doesn’t work, and what to use instead
• The 3 fundamental mindset shifts needed for Empowered Decision Making
• How to choose a Decision Owner
• Who to include in a Stakeholder Map
• How to ditch consensus in favor of “Safe to Try”
• A toolkit of Empowered Decision Making practices to try right away with your teams

Tom Hunt is the CEO of Pivot Energy, where he has overseen the organization’s rapid growth and strategic expansion within the complex, high-impact world of renewable energy. He is a vocal advocate for empowered decision making as a lever for meaningful impact and healthy company cultures. Prior to joining Pivot, he served as Senior VP of Corporate Development at Clean Energy Collective and Senior Policy Advisor at the Colorado Governor’s Energy Office. In these roles he has overseen construction and operations of solar projects, created multiple state markets for community solar, and initiated significant investment in electric vehicle charging stations. He has an undergraduate degree in biochemistry and has earned two graduate degrees in energy economics.

Participants will explore how these relational approaches foster organizations that are connected, adaptive, and truly human-centered. Through case examples, interactive exercises, and collaborative learning, we offer techniques to help organization designers support structures that reflect the complexity and interdependence of their systems. Whether you are designing for startups or large-scale organizations, we hope to empower you to add people at the core.

In this interactive workshop, we will learn with and from each other.

Participants will:

• learn about polarities as energy systems inherent in us, our teams, our organizations, and our broader business ecosystem, and explore how they work for us and against us
• identify key polarities at play in their own / their client organizations.
• practice mapping how the tensions of these polarities are playing out and impacting those organizations
• identify high leverage design choices for optimizing flow
• Leave with tools for seeing, mapping, and leveraging polarities that they can take into their work with their organizations / clients.

AI is not just a disruptor—it’s the catalyst for a wave of continuous transformation. As organizations navigate the complexities of human-machine collaboration, adaptability becomes the defining characteristic of success. But what does it take to become truly adaptive?

In this interactive session, we’ll explore Slalom’s Adaptive Organization Framework, a holistic approach to embedding resilience, continuous learning, and future-focused leadership across your organization. We’ll dive into the Adaptive Quotient (SHIFT AQ), a groundbreaking tool designed to measure and enhance adaptability at both the organizational and individual levels.

Participants will leave with practical insights and tools, including a self-assessment to evaluate their organization’s adaptability and concrete strategies to foster an adaptive culture. Join us to gain the mindset, skillset, and toolkit needed to thrive in a future of unrelenting change.

Tamarah Usher is a recognized leader in technology strategy and AI innovation, with more than 20 years of experience shaping transformative solutions. At Slalom, she leads generative AI initiatives, helping organizations leverage cutting-edge technologies to drive growth and innovation. Tamarah’s expertise lies in bridging foresight and execution, delivering AI-enabled strategies that create measurable impact. Named an AI Innovation Leader by Consulting Magazine in 2024, Tamarah is a forward-thinking strategist known for her ability to guide organizations through the complexities of the AI era. Learn more about Tamarah on LinkedIn.

As OD professionals, we understand the value of both organizational design and workforce planning. In practice, however, it is often seen as two separate disciplines and implemented as such. This session will demonstrate the importance of integrating both through Organization Planning & Analysis (OP&A).

Participants will gain practical tools and learn how to break down work performed, identify root cause, design roles, and aggregate demand to better position modeling and org design.

Kristie Tran is Director – Professional Services, North America at Orgvue. Kristie has dedicated her career to supporting organizations on their unique transformation journeys. She is Prosci change management certified and has a background in management consulting at EY, based in New York, NY, and Calgary, AB. Throughout her career, Kristie has worked with a variety of Fortune 500 companies across different industries, guiding them through mergers and acquisitions and large-scale transformations.

Currently, Kristie leads the Professional Services team in North America at Orgvue. Her team empowers clients with technology to support their transformation needs, focusing on understanding their current governance and processes to enable them with an Org Design and Workforce Planning tool.

Kristie firmly believes that sustaining and growing an organization requires keeping humans at the center of it all.

Organization design is well used in the corporate sector but infrequently undertaken by nonprofit organizations. This session seeks to bridge the gap between organization design’s vast experience in the corporate world and the potential for more application to the nonprofit space.

We will share two case studies to show how we have applied some of the fundamental concepts of organization design to meet the unique needs of nonprofit organizations. Our approach takes an outside-in and inside-out look at the relationship between corporate and nonprofit organizations. In one case, we will look at a 20-year-old nonprofit experiencing hypergrowth and business model innovation (outside-in, corporate to nonprofit) and in the other we will examine the realignment of a philanthropic foundation within a Fortune 100 corporation (inside-out).

We will share specific takeaways and tools from these cases and help participants apply some of them to a third case that we will work on collectively.

Objectives:

1. Understand the similarities and differences between org design in the corporate and non-profit sectors
2. Learn how we applied first principles to adapt corporate organization design tools to social impact organizations
3. Practice adapting your design approach and tools to a social impact case

Social Impact organizations are often human-centric in their external work and internal practices. In translating our tools to a new(ish) and underserved sector for organization design practice, we are working to expand the practice of organization design to serve social impact organizations.

Brandon Curry is the Founder and Managing Advisor of Work Arts, where he advises senior management and their teams to build more effective and engaged organizations. He founded Work Arts after 20 years in industry, where he led teams spanning 5 continents in HR, Talent Management, Organization Development, and Continuous Improvement roles. His knowledge base is informed by diverse global experience delivering performance improvement, increased capability, and high-stakes organizational change initiatives including global M&A and integrations, organization design, divestitures, business segmentations, start-ups, restructuring, and global technology deployment. 

Brandon is a Certified Organization Design Professional (CODP). He earned a Bachelor of Science and Master of Training and Development degrees from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan.