Meeting Minutes – Mark Deans, Sequent

Clipper’s Game Outing – Jim Warburton announced that an outing to take in some baseball and socialize with Rotary friends and family is planned for Huntington Park on Sunday August 28th – 4:05PM.  Sign up on the website is forthcoming or see Jim or another member of the Social Committee to sign up.  The tickets are $20, or $17 for Seniors and Kids, and it includes a $10 food/beverage voucher.
 
Chris Curry announced a Celebration of Life party to honor our departed friend and Rotarian, Paul Buchanan. It is being held at Cedarbrook Nursery on Friday, August 12th, 6-9pm. Attendees can bring a side dish to share.
 
David Bentz announced that our Tuesday fellowship will be held this coming Tuesday at Le Chatelain on Bridge St. beginning at 5:30.  Please stop by after work for some fellowship on the patio!
 
Ramona Penland-Coyle presented a Paul Harris Fellow to her friend and co-worker of 16 years, Dr. Bob Derick. Ramona chose to honor his many contributions to charitable activities local and internationally. Dr. Derick has arranged financing for doctors to travel to third world countries to perform surgeries to the disadvantaged in those countries, he has been on a number of mission trips and gives generously to a number of charities.  Ramona reminded us that while Bob is not a Rotarian himself, he lives in our spirit of Service Above Self.

 

Our Guest Speaker was Mark Deans, Practice Lead for Sequent’s Organizational Development Practice. Mark is a member of the Association for Training and Development and  the Association of Change Management Professionals.
 
As explained by Mark, Change Management is involved in initiatives that significantly reshape a company or organization.  Organization Change Management (OCM) is the practice of managing this change across the organization through effective planning, deployment and sustainability.    The need for OCM is evident in the research which shows that 17% of projects fail so badly that they put company’s at risk.  Also, on average, key project investments only deliver 56%, on average, of their predicted value.
 
There are a variety of causes for these failures, which can be avoided through an effective OCM process.  Whether fuzzy business objectives or lack of executive support and leadership, there are pitfalls that Mark talked about avoiding through a methodic OCM approach.  For example, executive leadership must set the tone and vision and hold the organization accountable for the change on a sustained basis.