OD Workshop - Connecting to Our Humanity at Work
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Todd Porter
Join us on May 15 from 6-8 PM PT for an interactive webinar led by Todd Porter, a seasoned OD professional.
Every workplace is full of humans, multi-dimensional beings with thoughts, values, feelings, needs, and desires, at a minimum. Our work cultures often accept some of these dimensions and reject, or at least ignore, others. In the absence of an intentional, focused effort to do otherwise, we welcome intellect, give lip service to values, minimize needs and desires, and reject feelings. This creates workplaces and cultures that are inhospitable to human habitation, that are dehumanizing.
What if we made an intentional, effort to accept the full humanity of our coworkers? What if we welcomed not only their intellectual power, but also their values, needs, desires, and emotions? What would change about our workplaces and our societies if they were filled with whole humans who on-purpose welcomed the whole humanity for their friends, neighbors, and coworkers? My contention is that everything would change.
This workshop presents a set of habits that enable this kind of acceptance, habits that help accept one another as we are and be present to what we are experiencing together. We will also have a chance to practice some of those skills and discuss ways to build our capacity to show up in ways that consistently embody these skills.
Participants will leave the session with:
- a model communication process for being present with others,
- having practiced elements of that model with other participants, and
- options for building their capacity to connect with other humans.
About Your Facilitator
Todd Porter (in his own words)
Never get a degree in the same field twice. That's my motto, though I only discovered it in retrospect. What I've really been doing is following my curiosity.
I studied electrical engineering as an undergrad because I was curious about technology and how we might use it to avoid societal collapse when all the oil runs out. I studied music because it does something to my brain that makes it work better for relating, for problem-solving, for living. I was curious about what might happen if I invested my attention in making more music. I studied Positive Organization Development because I was curious about what made people thrive and how we might enable more people to thrive more often by attending to each other. Most recently, I've been studying compassionate communication because I'm curious about what separates us from each other and what we might do differently to bridge that separation.
As I followed that curiosity, I've applied what I've learned in technical roles, management roles, leadership roles. In commercial ventures like Ideal Impact, Inc., in nonprofit ventures like Mosaic Fort Worth, The Charter for Compassion, Narrative 4, United States Christian Leadership Organization, Kairos Collaborative, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In these organizations and others I've designed experiences, designed and applied technology, mobilized people, facilitated learning, and worked to stimulate even more curiosity in myself and those around me.
I started my professional career working to save energy. In the time since, I've started to wonder whether our society will last long enough to run out of oil, or if we might destroy each other first. I'm curious now about how I might contribute all I've learned to helping people around me (and myself) see the full humanity in one another, how we might connect to that humanity, and how we might stoke the embers of life in one another.
It's odd to write a professional bio in the first person, isn't it? So be it. I'm hoping it gives you a better picture of who I am than the dates of what I did and in what context, though those details are in [my LinkedIn profile](https://www.linkedin.com/in/todd-porter/) if you want to see them. Biographies are really just stories and I'm writing this one here because I'd like you to be part of it. Let's follow our curiosity together and see how we might connect to one another.
COST:
$15 Members when pre-paid & pre-registered
$25 Non members when pre-paid & pre-registered
$10 for students/seniors pre-registered
AGENDA:
5:45 - 6:00 pm Join Zoom Meeting
6:00- 8:00 pm Training
Please be aware that our trainings could be recorded or photographed.
Consider joining PNODN - members savings over the course of the year are substantial and we need your voice in the conversation!
