DC Area OD Practitioners CoP — Transitions: Navigating Change — Holding Space for Ourselves and Our Clients (04 Jun 2026)

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 23:00:00 GMT

Transitions: Navigating Change — Holding Space for Ourselves and Our Clients

As OD professionals and coaches, we stand beside our clients through times of profound upheaval—organizational restructures, job loss, economic instability, social unrest, and the quiet losses that follow change. We hold space for their despair, growth, and renewal. Yet, how often do we pause to examine our own internal transitions—the ways we metabolize uncertainty, loss, or transformation in our personal and professional lives?

Nature offers a timeless mirror. After storms come stillness. After endings come new beginnings. This session invites practitioners to reconnect with nature’s wisdom as a lens for understanding both the turbulence and opportunities that come with change. Through guided reflection, discussion, and grounding practices, participants will explore how to deepen presence and expand their capacity to accompany others in transition.

By the end of this workshop, participants will:

Differentiate between change and transition.

Reflect on personal and professional experiences of transition to identify current needs and opportunities for growth.
Recognize nature as a model for resilience, cyclical renewal, and wholeness within organizational life.
Strengthen their ability to hold space for clients and teams navigating disruption with empathy and steadiness.
Leave with tools to maintain personal balance and support organizational transformation.

Presenter — Tanara Bowie

Tanara is a trauma-informed and ICF (ACC) and National Board of Health and Wellness certified coach. For 30 years she has applied Gestalt theory to her work with groups and individuals.

Tanara is a former Vice President at The Nebo Company where she facilitated several cohort programs for senior leaders and designed leadership development strategies for healthcare and nonprofit entities. She is a trainer for Mentor Agility’s Veterans Talking to Veterans program in which veterans are trained in a trauma-informed approach to coaching that uses storytelling to aid veterans on a path of healing and resilience. Her coaching clients include military veterans, family caregivers, those navigating identity after loss and in the second half of life. She uses myth, somatics and her extensive study and practice of Gestalt and Jungian principles to help clients navigate shadow stories, loss, and find renewed purpose.

DC Area OD Practitioners CoP — Why Most Organizational Interventions Don't Stick and How To Pick The Ones That Will (03 Sep 2026)

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 23:00:00 GMT

Why Most Organizational Interventions Don't Stick and How To Pick The Ones That Will

You've aligned teams, coached leaders and improved processes - and still the same problems come back. In this session we look at why that happens and why it's often not about effort but about the system underneath the work.

You'll learn a simple way to see what's really driving results including what systems are protecting, how teams work differently and why HR is often asked to fix problems that aren't actually about people. Using real examples including 2024's in-flight aircraft door failure we make these patterns easy to see and apply. We also show how to spot why changes fail or fade and what to consider when deciding what's likely to work before you invest in it. This session is built for people who already know how to improve work and want those improvements to stick.

What you'll take away:

A clear way to spot structural problems. Know when an issue is coming from the system and not the person.
A simple way to see what the system is protecting including understanding tradeoffs like speed, safety and cost and how they shape results and team behavior.
A practical way to choose changes that can hold, and use a clear model and a small set of questions to see where the problems start, why fixes fade and what's most likely to work before you invest in it.

Presenter — Tate Linden

Tate Linden builds tools that help organizations understand why performance problems repeat - and how to fix them in a way that lasts.

He started his career in strategic communications, working for clients like Google, DARPA, and Meals on Wheels America. He specialized in bringing tangible behavior change to resistant audiences, and realized that the same theories he developed for that purpose could be even more powerful when applied within organizations themselves - where systems shape how people respond to pressure.

He created tools to help leaders see where problems are coming from, and to predict which changes can actually hold before investing time and effort. Today, he’s working with organizations and practitioners to apply this model in real-world settings.

CBODN upcoming events

DC Area OD Practitioners CoP — Transitions: Navigating Change — Holding Space for Ourselves and Our Clients (04 Jun 2026)

DC Area OD Practitioners CoP — Why Most Organizational Interventions Don't Stick and How To Pick The Ones That Will (03 Sep 2026)