Better Together: A Transformative Journey in Workplace Improvement

Symposium Story Arc

The Future of People at Work (FPW) Symposium takes participants on a purposeful journey from connection to commitment, allowing you to experience the power of collaborative improvement firsthand. Rather than simply discussing theories, we'll demonstrate practical approaches to creating better workplaces through immersive experiences, structured collaboration, and meaningful relationship building.

Unlike traditional conferences with keynote speeches and one-way presentations, this symposium gives everyone a voice. With the exception of Gary Peterson's introduction to O.C. Tanner, the entire event uses liberating structures and collaborative formats that ensure each participant can both contribute and learn.

Day 0: Arrival & Connection

Participants begin their journey with an informal welcome gathering for early arrivals, creating natural connections and easing into the symposium experience. This relaxed setting allows relationships to form organically, setting the stage for deeper collaboration over the next two days.

Day 1: Exploration & Discovery

Morning: Setting the Context

We begin with Impromptu Networking to rapidly build connections around the challenges participants bring to the symposium. This immediately creates a sense of shared purpose and establishes that everyone's experiences are valuable.

A User Experience Fishbowl then sets the stage for our "Better Together" theme, as diverse perspectives explore emerging workplace challenges. Unlike traditional presentations, this format creates direct, informal communication that breaks down barriers between speakers and audience.

Gary Peterson introduces O.C. Tanner as a living example of the "Better Together" theme, showcasing how they integrate diverse improvement approaches in a real-world setting. This prepares participants for the immersive tour that follows.

Mid-day: Immersive Workplace Tour

The O.C. Tanner Tour provides a powerful learning experience as participants explore diverse improvement approaches in small groups through multiple distinct stations throughout the facility.

Throughout this experience, participants learn from O.C. Tanner employees about challenges they've faced, solutions they've implemented, and their unique approaches to improvement. The tour incorporates lunch seamlessly, allowing conversations to continue organically.

Afternoon: Collaborative Exploration

Participants join affinity groups (Business Leaders, Team Leaders/Front Line Managers, Healthcare Leaders) to explore challenges and initiatives in their fields through structured dialogue. This collaborative approach ensures respectful listening and equal voice, creating psychological safety for deeper discussions.

The day concludes with 25/10 Crowdsourcing where participants generate and evaluate bold experimental ideas through the prompt: "If you were 10 times bolder, what would you try? What experiments would you run?" This encourages thinking beyond conventional boundaries about what might be possible.

Evening: Community Building

An evening gathering provides space for relationships to deepen as participants reflect on the day's experiences and begin forming lasting connections in a casual environment with food and beverages.

Day 2: Application & Commitment

Morning: Focused Exploration

Day 2 begins with a brief Jump Start session featuring video highlights, volunteer reflections, and review of the previous day's 25/10 results to establish momentum for the day's application focus.

Two structured Collaboration Sessions then deepen the exploration of workplace challenges and potential solutions:

First Collaboration Session: Participants join affinity groups (CI Professionals, Manufacturing Professionals, Service Professionals) to explore challenges and initiatives using a progressive structure that builds from individual reflection to group consensus. This also serves as practice for the afternoon's Purpose-to-Practice activity.

Second Collaboration Session: Affinity groups (Education Professionals, Healthcare Professionals, Technology Professionals) use a self-organized agenda-setting approach with a Kanban-style workflow, allowing participants to focus on topics they find most important and relevant.

Afternoon: Moving to Action

The afternoon's Action Planning session transforms the rich discussions from earlier activities into concrete initiatives with clear structure, accountability, and follow-up mechanisms:

1. Introduction & Framing: Participants learn how their work connects to the existing FPW infrastructure and ongoing initiatives.

   
   

2. Open Space Technology: Self-organization around high-potential initiatives, with participants proposing topics they want to facilitate and teams forming around areas of shared interest

   
   

3. Purpose-to-Practice Development: Initiative teams develop comprehensive foundations for their work using the five essential elements:

   • Purpose: Why this work matters to participants and the community

   • Principles: Rules that must be followed for success

   • Participants: Who must be included to achieve the purpose

   • Structure: How to organize and distribute control

   • Practices: Specific actions and deliverables to be produced

     
     

4. Initiative Report-Outs: Teams present their initiatives, focusing on Purpose, Participants, and Practices, creating public commitments and establishing connections between related efforts.

   
   

Closing: Commitment to Change

The symposium concludes with a Call to Action and Accountability session featuring final reflections, sharing of key commitments, and information about next community events and follow-up mechanisms. These elements create momentum, transforming learning into lasting change and extending the impact well beyond the event itself.

The Transformative Journey

This carefully structured arc transforms participants from curious attendees to committed change agents, moving through phases of:

Connection - Building relationships and establishing trust through multiple networking opportunities and collaborative sessions

Exploration - Experiencing improvement approaches in action at O.C. Tanner and through structured collaborative exercises

Application - Practicing collaborative improvement through affinity groups and initiative teams

Commitment - Establishing specific actions and mechanisms to extend the impact through Purpose-to-Practice and ongoing FPW infrastructure

Throughout this journey, participants don't just learn about working "Better Together" - they experience it directly, developing the relationships, insights, and practical knowledge needed to implement effective approaches in their own environments.

The Symposium in the FPW Movement

The symposium represents a cornerstone event in the Future of People at Work movement. While monthly community gatherings and ongoing working groups form the continuous foundation of our efforts, this annual symposium serves as a catalyst for deeper connection, accelerated learning, and committed action.

This symposium embodies the FPW movement's core principles:

• You are part of the Future of People at Work

• We're better together as people collaborating across boundaries

• Our purpose is to solve problems, improve workplaces, and make work better for everyone

• This is one of the most collaborative gatherings of academics, practitioners, worker-learners, and improvers in the improvement community

• We're building a movement, not just hosting an event

  
  

The symposium design follows our commitment to continuous improvement (PDCA), building on what we learned from our first gathering in Detroit (July 2024) and creating the foundation for future evolution.

Day 1 positions you as an active participant, experiencing and applying diverse improvement approaches at O.C. Tanner. Day 2 elevates your role to thought leader, joining a unique think tank that is creating the movement for the future of people at work.

The symposium design balances structure with emergence, providing clear direction while allowing space for discovery and co-creation. Each element builds on previous experiences, creating momentum toward meaningful, lasting change in how we approach improvement across industries and roles.

Post-Symposium Continuity

The symposium reinforces mechanisms such as:

• Monthly FPW Community Meetings: Continue hosting these as the backbone of ongoing collaboration, with an expanded participant base from new collaborative partnerships

  
  

• Initiative Support: Various forms of support for projects that emerge from the symposium, including regular check-ins, accountability frameworks, and FPW infrastructure resources

  
  

This comprehensive approach ensures that the connections, insights, and commitments formed during the symposium translate into sustained action and impact in creating better workplaces.